VIRUNDHOMBAL

Arisi Upma is prepared with raw rice, idly rice and toor dal. All the ingredients are powdered in mixer jar and then upma is prepared with this rava. After preparing the rava,  this upma takes just 15 minutes from start to finish.

Ladies finger (Okra) is usually prepared as poriyal, pachadi or roasts. Today we are going to see how to prepare aviyal with ladies finger. When it comes to side dish for our lunch, aviyal is a great side dish which can be prepared easily. Ladies finger is a wonderful source of vitamins and other nutrients that must be included frequently in our regular diet. My Grandma taught me this Ladies finger aviyal. For mixed vegetables aviyal and aviyal with any other vegetables, we won't add onions and no sauteing is required. But for this Ladies finger aviyal we have to add thinly sliced onions and saute both the onions and ladies finger in the coconut oil before cooking them. For the ground coconut paste we have to add both the red chillies and green chillies. This aviyal is a good combination for sambar, pulikuzhambu  and karakuzhambu. Once you have finished sauteing the ladies fingers, it doesn't take long to cook and you can finish the dish within 15 minutes. Check out my ...

Easy dal is a healthy side dish for roti within 20 minutes. This healthy dal includes moong dal, a few vegetables, mashed garlic cloves and lots of cumin. It's a comfortable dish for your dinner with roti. This dal is healthier than store bought ready mix packs and easier too.

A lemon rice is a perfect lunch box dish. It is really a pleasure to prepare rice varieties and to taste and pack it in the lunch boxes. Moreover, lemon rice is one of the easiest rice to prepare for your busy weekdays. Let us see some important tips for perfect lemon rice. 1. For perfect lemon rice always choose a juiciest lemon. If you are using older lemon, then it will have less juice and won't taste good for this rice. 2. Whether you cook the rice in a pressure cooker or in a vessel, the rice should not be sticking to each other. As I mentioned in my other posts, ponni raw rice tastes good for these kind of rice varieties. 3. Do not add too much of the  ingredients for tempering. It will be difficult while eating. With correct tempering the rice will taste good and also it looks beautiful. Try packing this rice once it cools down. Check out my other similar rice recipes Tamarind rice Coconut rice Tomato rice Carrot rice

Puzhungal arisi (boiled rice) kozhukattais are one of the most popular evening snacks in Tirunelveli. We can prepare this kozhukattai either by grinding the rice or by using good quality rice flour. Kozhukattais prepared by grinding the rice are softer than the kozhukattais made with rice flour. If you plan to make kozhukattais with rice flour, use hot water for kneading the dough so your kozhukattais will be soft and easy to cook. If possible, choose fresh curry leaves and fresh coconuts for this kozhukattai. For most of the kozhukattais we use fresh coconuts which adds an exotic taste to it. If you use coconuts which have water content fry them along with the sauted ingredients and then add the ground rice batter. If it has less water content, you can add the coconuts in the end. Making kozhukattai is one of the interesting part in this dish. You can make medium balls or after preparing oblong shaped balls a slight press is made in the centre to prepare kozhukattai. Now let...

Carrot poriyal is also similar to my other thuvaram/poriyal varieties. It includes simple ingredients like coconut, small onions, green chillies, cumins and other tempering ingredients. For this poriyal, you can add cooked green peas or black eyed peas. I always recommend to cook the vegetables with little water and then sauted with the mustard and urid dal and ground coconut mixture is added for flavours. The ground coconut paste adds lot of flavours to any poriyal or thuvaram rather than garnishing with few grated coconuts. This carrot poriyal is a good side dish for sambar, puli illa kuzhambu, lemon rice and coconut rice. Checkout my other poriyal/thuvaram recipes Snake gourd poriyal Beetroot and green peas poriyal Cabbage carrot beans thuvaram Bitter gourd thuvaram Keerai thuvaram  Ladies finger (Okra) poriyal

Small onion/Chinna vengaya thuvaiyal is prepared with raw small onions, a few garlic cloves, red chillies and tamarind.  This chutney is a best accompaniment for black urid dal dosa, ragi idly or horse gram dosa. Raw onions offer many incredible benefits. To reduce the sharp and pungent smell from small onions we use tamarind for this chutney. You can mix the chutney with a tbsp of gingely oil and enjoy this chutney with your favourite dosas. Checkout my other chutney recipes Onion garlic coconut chutney Tomato chutney Coconut chutney with green chillies Coconut chutney with red chillies