VIRUNDHOMBAL

Coriander leaves and Tomato Pulav - easy, healthy and simple one pot meal within 20 minutes. If you are looking for a simple, but tasty and healthy rice for a lunch prepare this Coriander leaves Pulav. You'll love how easy this rice is. I saw this recipe on a TV cookery show prepared by Chef. Damodaran. I have followed his instructions and prepared this Coriander leaves Pulav and the only change I have included is the cashew nuts to the ground paste.

There are many gravies based on Paneer. Today we are going to see a simple homestyle gravy prepared with paneer and green peas. This gravy will become your new favourite gravy with Paneer.

This instant pickle with raw mangoes is an incredibly simple pickle you can make within 10 minutes. There are many different methods for preparing a mango pickle. But, this instant pickle is easy to prepare, easy to store and enjoy a tasty pickle for your curd rice with simple process. Anyone can make this instant mango pickle. You can serve this mango pickle right away, but it will taste better, if it gets at least 30 minutes to marinate.

Rava upmas are prepared in different styles - cooked with a few vegetables, or cooked with tomatoes or cooked with dals or cooked with a few onions and green chillies. It's a delight for me to cook this classic rava upma with onions and green chillies. Preparing  rava upma is such an easy way to cook tiffin for your breakfast or dinner within 10 minutes. All you really need for this upma is finely chopped onions, green chillies and ginger.

Manathakkali keerai has thin leaves which are best suitable for poriyal. In fact, removing the manathakkali leaves from the stem is very easy too. This manathakkali keerai is same as my other keerai poriyal recipes. For most of my keerai dishes you will see I have included lots of onions, cooked dals and ground coconut paste. These ingredients would help to add more taste. Additionally, these ingredients (cooked dal & coconut paste) tend to remove the bitterness in the manathakkali keerai and also in the vendhayakeerai dishes. These two keerai has a mild bitterness in the leaves. Grinding the coconut paste is just a few minutes work, so don't avoid it. In all our poriyal recipes we add all healthy ingredients like small onions, garlic cloves, cumin and coconut. These all are super foods that are good for your health and you can add to your daily diet.

Ridge gourd Sambar - simple and easy sambar for idly, dosa and pongal. Depending upon the vegetables available in our kitchen, we prepare different types of sambar. We prepare simple sambars with ridge gourd or brinjals for  breakfast because they can be easily cooked without much work. Sambars prepared with moong dals are lighter than those prepared with toor dal. So I always prefer moong dal for tiffin sambar but you can add any dals as you wish. You can also prepare this sambar if you have any unannounced guests in your home. Because preparing sambar is easier than grinding large quantities of chutney.  As you all know, ridge gourd has so many health benefits so try to include this vegetable weekly once. This ridge gourd sambar is perfect for kids, adults and also for elderly people. Naturally ridge gourd has a sweetness in it. To reduce the sweetness I have added green chillies, sambar powder and also red chillies. The green chillies are cooked along with the ridge gourd a

German cabbage or turnip cabbage called as noolkol. This turnips are not as popular as some other vegetable such as cauliflower or carrots, but they are nutritious and make a wonderful addition for kurmas or sabjis. For a long time my husband asked me to prepare side dishes with this turnip and he said, try to remove the strong flavour from the turnips. So after few experiments I found this recipe and it was a big hit. To remove the strong flavour from this turnip I have cooked the chopped turnips along with finely chopped green chillies. Apart from regular coconut masala paste, I have also added a thick coconut milk for more flavours. I had some cooked chick peas, so I added in this kurma. There is no need for any additional spice powders. This turnip kurma was so amazing, prepared by using both traditional coconut paste and the coconut milk. This kurma will be definitely a favourite for all those who want to include healthy vegetables, using only healthy ingredients. If you d

Garlic Thokku (pickle) is the perfect condiment for many dishes like rava upma, dal kichidi, roti and curd rice. A thokku is  a condiment, which is basically a pickle consisting of methods like preparing the fenugreek powder, sauteing the ingredients using gingely oil. It also follows the addition of good amount of red chilly powder, asafoetida powder and a small piece of jaggery.  Today we are going to see thokku using garlic cloves. It's very simple and healthy. The only hard part of  this dish, is peeling the garlic cloves. To keep your work simple, peel the garlic cloves or you can finish it when you watch a movie on the TV. After peeling the garlic cloves, it's just a 15 minutes work and you can enjoy a healthy homemade pickle for 2 to 3 months without any added preservatives. It's always better to prepare homemade pickle with your seasonal ingredients like mangoes, garlics, tomatoes, etc.. Small softneck garlics are best suited for pickles. Gingely oil, red c