Pasta with homemade tomato sauce

I recently prepared Matar Paneer and I was wondering how pasta would taste with its sauce(gravy). So waiting for Pasta night and tried this combination and to my surprise it tasted really good. My husband loved the taste and I was very happy that I took a shot at this.



It is very simple, the gravy/sauce preparation is as follows,

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
3/4 cup of tomatoes, fine chopped
1/2 tbspn of cashews
1 tbspn of oil
Salt to taste
2 finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder

Method:

In a pan, add 1 tbspn of oil. Add the cashews and fry them till light brown.

Now add the chopped onions, salt and saute them till they are light brown.

Now add the green chilies, tomatoes and mix well. cook till the tomatoes are mashed.

Allow the mixture to cool. Grind it to a thick puree with adding very little water.

In the same pan, add the puree and 1/4 cup of water. Bring it to a boil.

Add coriander powder, cumin powder,chili powder and mix well.

Cook it in Sim flame for 10 minutes.

Now Prepare the Pasta as given by the manufacturer.

Mix Pasta with this sauce and serve hot!

If you want you can cook some vegetables separately and mix it with the sauce so that we get some crunchy effect too.

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Spaghetti for Thanksgiving dinner!

As I told in my yesterday's post, here is the Spaghetti and vegetable balls recipe. Actually, whenever I hear the word Spaghetti I automatically think of meat balls. Assuming that the recipe would taste awesome, I wanted to make a vegetarian version of it. I do remember Cham of Spiceclub making Spaghetti and Soy balls sometime before. The thing is, my husband is not a great fan of soy products. Leaving me no choice but to try vegetable balls.



To be honest, they did taste very good and now have joined my regular dinner list. I am really amazed at myself for trying out stuff. I am a lazy person for whom cooking was a chore. But now, I am inspired by so many to try out different varieties of food.

Let me give you the recipe,

Ingredients:

1 cup spaghetti
1 cup of vegetables, fine chopped (carrots,beans,cabbage,celery etc)
1 cup boiled rice OR 1 egg
3 tbsp chili paste
3 chopped green chillies
1 tbspn chopped garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp corn flour
1 large ginger, finely chopped
Oil to fry
1 medium onion
2 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup spring onions


Method:

Add little water and steam the finely chopped minced vegetables in a pan. Steam it for 2 min and drain the vegetables by squeezing and store the water for making the sauce. This water is like vegetable stock so do not throw them away.

In a bowl add the cooked vegetables, salt, few chopped green chillies,pepper powder,ginger,soy sauce,chili paste,corn flour and mix well.

Now you can either use egg or 1 cup of boiled rice to this mixture to make small dumplings.

In a pan, heat the oil and deep fry these dumplings.

Note: If the dumpling breaks, add some more boiled rice to the mixture.

To make sauce:

In a pan, add oil. Add cumin seeds, chopped garlic and ginger.

Add onion and saute them.

Add green chili, pepper powder, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and chili sauce.

Add the vegetable stock, required amount of salt.

Let it come to a boil.

Now, add the vegetable dumplings and coat them with this sauce.

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti as per the instruction. Serve hot with this vegetable balls and a perfect Thanksgiving Dinner is ready, the vegetarian way!

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Pasta in Chilli Sauce

After coming to the US, Pasta has become a weekly dinner for us. Atleast once in a week I cook Pasta for dinner. This makes it harder for me. If I cook pasta the same way, my big baby here is not eating. He wants variation. Cooking for him is more work than preparing for a math exam. Every meal must be different and atleast I must not have prepared it within that month. Sometimes I run out of recipes. But to be very honest, many a times my fellow foodies blog have helped me show variations in cooking.Kudos to you!



This time it is Pasta with Chilli sauce. This is the same chilli sauce we prepare for Gobi Manchurian (dry). Just added the Pasta and wow! it was spicy. You can reduce the quantity of spice according to your taste. This is yet another very easy and quick to make Pasta recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup pasta (any type)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbspn garlic, minced
1/2 tbspn ginger,finely chopped
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tbspn chilli garlic sauce

Method:

Cook the pasta as given by the manufacturer.

In a pan, add oil. Add cumin seeds.

Now add garlic, ginger. Saute them for few seconds.

Add Onions and saute them.

Add cumin powder and 1 tbspn of water for the spice to cook.

Add pepper powder and chilli garlic sauce. Cook for a minute.

Add the cooked paste and mix well so that each pasta is coated with the sauce.

Makes a great dinner if you are a spice lover.

I am sending this to Presto Pasta Night started by Ruth and this week's host is Nilmandra

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Homemade Vegetable Pizza

Pizza, the Italian food loved by entire world. When I did my college, Pizza hut and Pizza was very new to me. We friends go out whenever possible to get stuffed with Italian Delicacy. As time passed by, I realized that it contributed a lot to my weight gain. I had to stop eating Pizza for some time. Now, again I have started eating Pizza, but this time I watch what I eat.



I have already shared my video on how to make homemade pizza base. That day, I prepared Vegetarian delight and Pineapple delight with the base. Here is the vegetarian delight Pizza recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Pizza Base (Check out the video for ingredients and method to prepare the Pizza base)

1 cup vegetables (tomato, green capsicum, black olives,Onions)

1/4 cup Pineapple (optional)

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup Pizza sauce ( I used Marinara)

Method:

After the Pizza base is ready, spread the marinara sauce equally on the base.

Now place the vegetables and pineapples in any order you want.

Add the shredded cheese.

Bake it at 450 degree F for 12 to 15 min.

Allow it to cool for 2 min and serve hot.

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Pasta with marinara sauce - An Italian Delight!

When we were shopping the other day, we couldn't move beyond the sauces aisle. Just because I had a packet of Pasta at home, I cannot compel my husband to but pasta sauce to go with it. But I did. He tried his level best, but I didn't move from that place. What can he do? If I was a 5 year old, I would have been dragged from that place. But I am ...(Oh! didn't you know the rule? You can't expect a girl to write her age.) and it is difficult to drag me (my weight comes into picture, another number which I would never share). So as usual, ended up buying Marinara sauce.



Pasta with Marinara sauce, a typical Italian recipe. But did it taste Italian? I can't say, but it sure was edible and there was no leftover. Meaning it tasted great! My husband is very picky at what he eats. If he doesn't like, he will not eat it even if I do gimmicks. By the way, I suck at gimmicks.

Here is the recipe of the Pasta with Marinara sauce that I ended up cooking.

Ingredients: (makes for 2)

1/2 packet Pasta, any brand
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1 cup of vegetables chopped lengthwise (Carrots,Capsicum,Zucchini)
1/4 cup cheese (optional)
1 medium size onion chopped lengthwise
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Lettuce to garnish




Method:

Cook the Pasta as per the manufacturer's direction.

In a wide pan, add oil and onions. Saute them till they are light brown.

Add the chopped vegetables,salt and pepper. mix well cook till the vegetables are tender.

Now add the Pasta and mix well.

Add the marinara sauce and mix so that the pasta and vegetables are well coated with the sauce.

Garnish it with Lettuce.

Serve hot.

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How to make Chipotle's Burrito Bol at home

Even last Saturday we went to Chipotle. It has become one of our favorite hang out. Mainly because of the Burrito bol that they serve. I love the combination of black beans and rice. It always makes me lick my finger, in this case fork. I initially thought that you require some kind of mexican ingredient for this recipe to taste good. But, it is not the case. Though the Burrito bol served by Chipotle tastes scrumptious, I prepared a homemade version of it and it came out simply yummy!



I generally order my Burrito Bol with Vegetables,Black beans, Tomato Salsa,Sour cream, lettuce and a Tortilla chips packet. I have tried to prepare this combo at home with Rajma (Red Kidney beans). Long back I tried the Salsa with Rajma and now the Burrito Bol. Both tasted great.

To make this homemade Burrito Bol, all you need is

1 cup of Black beans/Red beans(Rajma) - I used Rajma
1 cup of rice
1/4 cup of corn (I used Frozen Corn)
1 small onion(chopped lengthwise)
1/4 cup Lettuce
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)
1/4 cup of Capsicum
1/4 cup zucchini
1 tbspn of sour cream or Yogurt
1/4 cup cheese (optional)
Salt to taste

To make salsa:
1 medium tomato
1 medium onion
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

How to make this Burrito Bol at home?

Cook the rice separately and mix with cilantro.

In a pan, add oil and add the onions chopped length wise and saute.

Add the capsicum, zucchini and saute.

Add salt and cook for few minutes (till the vegetables are tender).

Pressure cook the beans separately adding required salt.

To make the salsa, chop the onions and tomatoes into small pieces and add salt and pepper.

Now in a bowl, add a cup of rice, add the vegetables, corn, salsa, sour cream or yogurt, Cheese.

Mix well and top it with the lettuce.

Serve hot!

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If I say Italy, You say?

Pasta! What else? Though there is lot other things to embrace in Italy, the main thing most of us foodie remember is Pasta. Preparing any kind of Pasta salad recipe requires creativity and passion. Italian Pasta recipe has its own flavor and fans. As we all know there are different kinds of pasta, I used Rotini Pasta to prepare this salad.



Cooking during weekends is difficult for me. With my husband sitting in the sofa enjoying himself watching a movie or browsing the net, I feel lazy to even get up to drink water. Seeing this my husband volunteered to cook dinner on Saturday. OK. What's going on? Is he really going to cook? Thank god! Yes. I decided to help him for various other reasons and knowing the very fact of how my kitchen will look after he finishes his cooking.

He decided to do Egg Pasta Salad dipped in chilli sauce with some leftover vegetables. Vah! Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:

Pasta - Desired amount as given in the manufacturers direction
1 cup of Onions Sliced lengthwise
1 cup of Zucchini Sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup of tomato
1/4 cup lettuce
1/4 cup of Spinach
1/4 cup of corn (optional)
1/4 of celery
1/2 cup of bell pepper
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tbspn of Chilli sauce
2 eggs



Method:

Cook pasta as given in the manufacturers direction. Keep it aside.

In a pan, add some oil. Then add onions and saute them.

Add tomatoes,and all the other vegetables including corn and cook with little water.

Add salt and pepper.

After say 3min, add the chilli sauce and some more water to the mixture and cook in Sim flame for 5 min.

All the vegetables would have absorbed the flavour and now it is time to mix the cooked pasta.

Switch of the stove and mix the cooked pasta with this mixture.

You can serve at this point if you do not want to add eggs. Check for the seasonings and serve hot.

Meanwhile in another pan, add some oil and break the eggs in the pan. cook them with salt and pepper.

Scramble the eggs and when it is ready add this to the vegetable pasta mixture.

Mix well and serve hot.

If you feel that its very spicy, then squeeze a lemon on top!

This recipe doesn't require any side dish. But, if you want, be your boss.

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Pasta - An Italian Food Made Indian

Pasta is an Italian food made from a dough using flour, water and/or eggs. Pasta was and is the most commonly used food in many of the American homes. Why Americans, even Asians love pasta. Pasta is one of the simplest yet scrumptious food given to the world by Italians. There are nearly 350 different shapes of pasta and you can prepare them in any way you want. To know more about different pasta shapes visit Pasta and its shapes. Pasta is a delicious food by itself, and just by adding few more ingredients increases the richness of this food. To get the answers for many pasta related questions like, how to store pasta?, how to cook pasta perfectly? etc. visit the National Pasta Association.

Now for the Pasta made in an Indian way. Yesterday, I was lazy to prepare dinner. I wanted to complete my dinner preparation within 15mts. With any other food, it would have taken minimum of 30mts. So I decided Pasta is my best choice. But, I did not have any sauce or any other vegetable in my fridge to go with my pasta. My favourite Onions and tomatoes came to my rescue. This Pasta with tomato and onions is the most simplest way of preparing this food.

Ingredients:
1 medium size onion finely chopped
1 large tomato finely chopped
4 flakes of garlic finely chopped
1tsp of coriander powder
1tsp of cumin powder
1tsp of mustard
1tsp of cumin seeds
Salt to taste
1tsp of pepper powder
2tsp of chilli powder
1tsp of oil

Method:
Cook the pasta as directed by the manufacturer.
In a pan, add oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds. When the seeds pops, add onion and saute them. When the onion turns light brown add the tomatoes, garlic and fry for 2 min.
Add the cumin powder,coriander powder, chilli powder, salt and mix well. Add 1 cup of water and cook this mixture in a Sim flame for 10 minutes. Finally add pepper powder and mix.
If the mixture becomes dry add some water to it and cook.
Now in a bowl, mix the cooked pasta and this tomato mixture. Serve hot.

This is mostly like Tomato rice recipe. Instead of Rice we add Pasta. How much more can you ask from food? So easy huh?

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