Vegetarian Eggless Fritter 9: Shredded Zucchini and Paneer Fritters

This is my take on the classic zucchini and haloumi fritter. The idea sounded fantastic to me, which meant I had to try it using the ingredients I had at home ;)




Serves 4 as an appetizer (approx. 8 patties)

3 medium Zucchinis shredded
½ small onion minced
2 tbs plain flour
2 tbs chick pea flour
1 tbs sesame seeds
½ to ¾ cup of minced paneer
Salt
Curry leaves, shredded
2 small minced green chillies
Oil for shallow frying.

1. Grate the zucchinis, salt them and leave for 10 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, squeeze out as much of the water as possible and discard.
3. To this, add the remaining ingredients.
4. You need to work with this mixture as soon as possible to prevent the mixture from turning soggy.
5. From 5 cm patties and shallow fry until golden brown and cooked.

Vegetarian Eggless Fritter 8: Daal Wada [Lentil Fritter]

Serves 6

2 cups split moong dal, soaked for 1 hour
½ onion finely diced
2-3 chillies, minced
Few curry leaves, finely chopped
Salt, cumin seeds, ajwain, red chilli powder and turmeric to taste (1/2 to 1tsp of each)
Pinch asafoetida
Oil for frying

1. After soaking the moong dahl, grind it in a food processor until smooth.
2. Add remaining ingredients to the mix.
3. Fry as golf ball sized balls in hot oil.
4. Serve hot with chutney of your choice - they taste particularly good with barbecue sauce/sweet imli chutney!

These can also be eaten with Punjabi kadhi (in a dish called Kadhi Pakoda).For this you will need:
2 cups yogurt
½ cup chick pea flour
2-3 Dry red chillies
2-3 tsp kadhi masala (bought from Indian store)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
Pinch asafoetida
2 tsp oil

1. Combine yogurt and chick pea flour in a bowl ensuring that it is smooth and lump-free.
2. In a saucepan, heat some oil.
3. Once heated, add chillies, mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida.
4. Saute for 1 minute before adding yogurt and flour mixture. Keep mixing and add up to 1.5 cups of water.
5. Add kadhi masala.
6. Keep stirring and cooking this for atleast 5-10minutes on a LOW flame until the flour is cooked and the kadhi is a thick soup like consistency.
7. Once cooked, turn off gas and add in the pakoras. Leave for 10-15 minutes to allow them to soak up the kadhi before serving with rice/naan etc.

Classic Cheese and Tomato Toasties

This is a classic no-fuss meal when your pantry and fridge seem void of ingredients. It’s perfect to eat when the weather is a bit cold. Quick to make with simple ingredients, it is a real crowd pleaser with kids as an afternoon snack.

For One sandwich:
2 Slices of bread
1 small tomato sliced
Pinch pepper and salt
2-3 tablespoon cheese
Butter

1. Spread the slices of bread with butter. This prevents the bread from getting soggy due to the tomato and makes it crisp.
2. Arrange sliced tomato, cheese, pepper and salt and bread as a normal sandwich.
3. Cook in a sandwich maker until crispy on the outside and cheese had melted.
4. Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney.

Another variation to this is using leftover spinach, potato or cabbage sabzi in place of the tomatoes + with lots of cheese....taste fantastic!!

टोमाटो चटनी Tomato Chutney

I love this recipe. I have grown up eating this...it's not something that was made everyday, but was the dish to make when there were tomatoes that were ripening too fast and needed to be used. I make this quite often, but the taste never replicates the way my mum makes it! Anyhow, it still tastes fantastic. Although I have called it a chutney, it is more of a sabzi/bhaji/dry curry fit to be eaten with chapatis. The tangyness from the tomatoes and the garlic flavour work so well together. Here's the recipe:


4 Large tomatoes, diced
2 medium onions, finely diced
1 tsp garlic ginger paste
5-6 medium cloves of garlic, sliced
2-3 green chillies, sliced
10-12 curry leaves
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
1-2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 tbs oil
Pinch asafoetida

1.Heat oil in a saucepan. Add mustard seeds and sauté until they start popping.
2.Add curry leaves, chillies, cumin seeds and asafoetida and sauté.
3.Add diced onion, garlic and garlic ginger paste. Sauté until onion becomes translucent – takes about 10 minutes.
4.Add tomatoes and let cook down for another 10-15 minutes until fragrant. You can add a little water at this stage to stop it from drying out.
5.Add salt, sugar and red chilli powder. Let cook for a further 2 minutes before serving - you can serve this as you normally would any type of sabzi - eat it with chapati or theplas as in my previous recipe.

Serves 4

मेथी ठेपला Methi Thepla

Makes 24
Serves 5-6


4 cups whole wheat (atta) flour
1/3rd cup sorghum ( jowar flour/ jwari cha pith)
¼ cup chickpea flour (besan)
2 cups methi l/ fenugreek eaves, cut finely
4 tbs yogurt
2 tbs oil
1 tsp each of Cumin Seeds, Ajwain
1 tsp garlic ginger paste
3-4 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs Sesame seeds
1 tsp jaggery (gul)
1 tsp salt
Half a handul fresh coriander, finely cut
2-3 small green chillies, minced
Spices: 1-2 tsp each of turmeric and chilli powder + pinch asafoetida
Warm water

1. Mix all 3 flours together. Keep some extra atta flour to the side in case you need some later one (e.g. if the mixture becomes too runny).
2. Add remaining ingredients and form a crumble using your finger.
3. Once all combined, used as much water as needed to form a dough (same consistency as normal chapatti dough) – I used about 1.5 cups of warm water.



4. Let rest for 10-20 minutes.
5. Make into 22-24 balls.
6. Roll the thepla out as you would a chapatti, to about 15 cm in diameter, leaving it the slightest bit thicker.
7. Fry the thepla for about 1 minute on each side.
8. Serve warm with yogurt, mirchi thecha and/or tomato chutney as pictured.