Cheesy Potato Crescent Rolls

Whoever came up with the idea of instant mashed potatoes is a genius! And to think I had never used it until recently, in fact, as recently as hurricane Irene! That is when my husband's cousin introduced me to this wonderful thing :) While stocking up on the emergencies, it seemed like a good idea to get a couple of boxes of potato flakes - we were hunting for non-perishable food. Since the hurricane passed by without too much damage where we live, I was left with a whole box of potato flakes and no idea what to do with them! But once I started using them, I came up with all sorts of recipes to put them in! Last night's post - Vegetable Puffs - was one such recipe.

Today's post is an even bigger hit with whoever has tasted it - except of course hubby dearest, who, believe it or not, hates cheese! I know, I think he is an alien too!

Anyways, to come back to the main topic, today's recipe is cheesy potato rolls. These are blissfully quick and easy to make. The perfect snack when kiddo comes home from school. Also a quick fix for sudden guests and impromptu play dates. I have also made a sweet version of these rolls, but that is for another day and another post...

Preparation & Cooking: 15 minutes             Makes: 8

Ingredients:

Pillsbury Crescent Rolls - 1 tube (I used the original one, you could use any kind)
Instant Mashed Potato Flakes - 4 tablespoons
Peas - 2 tablespoons (I used frozen peas)
Mrs.Dash's Table Blend - 1 teaspoon
Basil Leaves - 2 teaspoons, chopped (optional)
Cream Cheese - 1 tablespoon
Butter - 1 teaspoon
Milk - 1 tablespoon
Sour Cream - 1 teaspoon
Mint-Coriander Chutney - 4 tablespoons
Salt - to taste
Cooking Spray/Oil - for greasing the baking sheet

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190.5 degrees Celsius). Grease a baking sheet or cover it with some aluminum foil.
• Microwave the mashed potato flakes, peas, Mrs.Dash's Table Blend, salt, butter and milk for 2 minutes.

• Take it out and mix it well, adding the cream cheese, sour cream and chopped basil leaves.

• Roll out the crescent roll wedges and apply some mint-coriander chutney on each of them.

• Place a small amount of the potato filling on each of the dough wedges.

Roll them up and place them on the prepared baking sheets.

• Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. 

• Once they turn golden brown, take them out of the oven.

Quick and yummy potato rolls are ready to be served.

Handy Tip:

If you don't have Mrs.Dash's Table Blend, you could use any mix of dried spices like pepper, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley etc.

You could skip the mint-coriander chutney while making for kids if spice is not tolerated.

Moong Tomato Soup

After a wonderful week of eating out and enjoying, have decided to seriously try and lose all the excess pounds before summer officially begins. This isn't New Year's eve, but have made a resolution nonetheless! I am going to workout regularly and exercise control over my diet. Nothing too drastic in the food department though - that would be asking for too much from a foodie like me! So, as a part of the new healthy eating phase, have decided not to eat rice for dinner. In fact, I would like to stick to just soups and salads as far as possible - let's see how far that works out! Am hoping since its out there in black and white, will try harder to stick to it!!

Hence the recipe for tonight - moong tomato soup. I do love the creamy tomato soups with heavy cream and butter, but that would definitely throw my resolution out of the window. So, I was looking for other options when I came across this tomato soup recipe at Tarla Dalal's website. I liked the idea of using moong dal for the soup's creaminess. But that's about all I took from that recipe and completely modified it to suit my taste. I added brown sugar because I read somewhere that it helps cut the excessive acidity from the tomatoes. So here goes...

Preparation & Cooking: 25 minutes           Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - ½ cup

Diced Tomatoes - 1 14.5 oz can

Grape tomatoes - 1 dry pint

Onion - 1 chopped fine

Garlic - 2 cloves, minced

Celery Stalks - 3

Carrots - 2, shredded

Mint Leaves - a handful

Roasted Cumin Powder - ¼ teaspoon

Turmeric Powder - a pinch

Brown Sugar - ¼ teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Pepper powder - to taste

Vegetable stock - 4 cups

Olive Oil - 2 tablespoons

Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1 teaspoon

Method:

• Rinse the moong dal, soak it in water and set it aside.
• Heat the ghee and oil together in a pressure cooker and saute the chopped onion, garlic, celery and shredded carrots in it.

• Once they begin to soften (about a couple of minutes), add the cumin powder, turmeric powder, salt, diced tomatoes, grape tomatoes, mint leaves, brown sugar, moong dal and vegetable stock. I leave the grape tomatoes and mint leaves whole for now, as they will get mashed in a blender later. 

• Pressure cook this mixture until the moong dal turns soft and mushy. Once this cools, use a blender to puree it to the required consistency. I like a slightly grainy texture, but you may make it very smooth as well.
• If you think it is too thick, add a little water/stock at this stage and bring it to a boil. On the other hand, if the soup is too watery, add some bread crumbs and bring it to a boil to thicken it.
• Ladle the soup into serving bowls and season it with freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve hot with croutons or as is.

Handy Tip: I pureed the left over soup into a smooth paste. Tomorrow, I'll  add some cooked pasta to it and send it for school lunch for my kiddo.

Creamy Cucumber Avocado Raita

I am an exception among Tamilians! I don't like curd rice! I just about tolerate it. In fact the only thing that can induce me to have "thair sadam" is a pickle. But I do appreciate the importance of yogurt consumption as a part of my dietary requirement, so I dress it up as much as possible! As a result, I make raita's very often. Today my refrigerator yielded a cucumber and an avocado - my favorite combination for raita. So, cucumber avocado raita for dinner it was!

I normally use plain non-fat yogurt, but yogurt was a little on the short side today, and having returned from a mini-break of sorts, I was in no mood to run down to the grocery store for some yogurt. A little digging around in the refrigerator turned up a small 6 oz carton of plain Greek yogurt. Worked out perfectly fine! 

I used a food processor, so just needed 5 minutes to prepare. Using a grater to grate the cucumber and mashing the avocado and whisking the yogurt by hand would add on to the preparation time.

Preparation: 5 minutes                   Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 1

Avocado - 1 (scoop out the pulp with a spoon)

Plain Yogurt - ½ cup (I used non-fat yogurt)

Plain Greek Yogurt - a 6 oz carton (once again the non-fat kind)

Mint Coriander Chutney - 2 teaspoons

Roasted Cumin (Jeera) Powder - ½ teaspoon

Red Chilli Powder - a pinch

Asafoetida (Hing) - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Sugar - a pinch

Method:

• Using the shredding attachment in the food processor, grate the cucumber.
• Now fix the regular chopping blade and add in the rest of the ingredients.

• Pulse it a few times till the mixture attains a semi-smooth consistency. The avocado should be nicely mashed and the yogurt should not be lumpy.

Serve it chilled.

Sending this across to

hosted by Surbhi of  My Cook Book

Left Over Veggie Wrap

Most days my lunch comprises of maggi, dosa or whatever is left over from the previous day. Today belonged to the latter category. I had a bowl of cauliflower potato curry in the refrigerator, but nothing to accompany it. I also had some Vietnamese rice paper in the pantry (bought with the aim to make these yummyVietnamese Garden Rolls - but that is for another day and another post!). So, decided to put the two together and make a quick lunch. I liked it so much that I decided not to make chapattis for myself for dinner. Instead made another variation of the same wrap. Try it, am sure you'll agree it makes a wonderful lunch for those hurried and hassled days!

Preparation: 2-3 minutes            Serves:1

Ingredients:

Vietnamese Rice Paper - 1 sheet
Water - to soak the rice paper
Left over veggies - 2-3 tablespoons
Lettuce - 2 -3 leaves
Turkish Salad - 2 tablespoons (I had the Sabra brand handy)

Method:

• Heat the left over veggies in the microwave for about a minute. In the meantime, soak the rice paper in a plate filled with enough water to immerse the paper completely, for about a minute.

• Drain out the softened rice paper and spread the Turkish salad on it. Take care not to rip the rice paper as it will be extremely soft.

• Now lay out the lettuce leaves on this and add the veggies on top.

• Roll up the rice paper to form a neatly sealed wrap.

That's it! It was a nice light lunch along with a glass of chilled ginger ale.

For dinner, I replaced my potato cauliflower curry with a mixed vegetable sabzi and the Turkish salad with cream cheese with onion and chives. Tasted absolutely delicious. In fact my little one wanted to try this funny looking wrap and loved it! Feel free to experiment with different spreads and vegetable combos.

                                                                      
Sending this across to Let's Make Sandwiches event hosted by  Nayna of simply.food

Cannelloni Beans - Desi Style

I usually keep a tin of cannelloni or white kidney beans handy as I like to add them in my soups. But for tonight's dinner, I decided to cook them in typical Indian flavors. The blend of dry spices along with onion, ginger and tomato gave this bean a wonderful aromatic taste. I use the microwave quite a bit in my day to day cooking to quicken the process and multi-task, as I don't have to baby sit most food in the microwave. Feel free to use the stove top if you so desire.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes           Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Cannelloni/White Kidney Bean - 1 can
Onion - 1 small, chopped roughly into chunky pieces
Tomatoes - 3
Ginger - 1 small bit
Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Coriander Seeds  - 1 teaspoon

Fennel seeds - ½ teaspoon

Cinnamon Powder - ½ teaspoon

Cardamom Powder - a pinch

Red Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon

Sour Cream - 1 teaspoon

Salt - To taste

Oil - 2 tablespoons

Method:

1. Make a few slits on the tomatoes using a knife and microwave them immersed in water for about 4 minutes.





2. After they cool enough to handle, peel off the skin.







3. Microwave the onions and ginger along with a little salt and a tablespoon of oil for about 2 minutes.





4. Roast the spices on a low flame until they turn reddish brown and give out a nice aroma.
   





5. Now, blend the tomatoes, onion-ginger mix and the dry spices together in a mixer to form a smooth puree.


6. In a pan, heat the remaining oil and add the pureed mixture and the sour cream. 





7. Bring  it to a boil and add the cannelloni beans. Add water at this stage if you find the gravy to be too thick. Gradually bring it to a boil and take it off the flame.

Quick & delicious cannelloni beans are ready to accompany your rice or chapatti.

Herbalicious Black Bean Soup

My family loves soups. Especially in the cold winter months, a bowl of warm soup is just what the heart desires, or should I say what the tummy desires! I love experimenting while cooking, and one of the safest bets to experiment is soups – after all what is soup but a hotch - potch of different ingredients left to cook and simmer. Basically, once you put all the stuff in the pot, it pretty much cooks itself!

Whenever I hear “black bean soup”, I usually associate it with Mexican or Cuban food. Well, this is my take on the black bean soup.

Preparation & Cooking:  45 minutes                       Serves:  4-5

Ingredients:

Black beans – 1 can (15 oz. approx.)

Fire roasted diced tomatoes – 1 can (14 oz.)

Onion – 1 small (chopped)

Garlic – 2 cloves

Fresh mint leaves – a few sprigs

Fresh cilantro leaves – a handful

Fresh parsley leaves – to garnish

Roasted cumin powder – 1 teaspoon

Red chilli powder – ½ teaspoon

Turmeric – a pinch

Chipotle all-purpose seasoning - 1 teaspoon

Vegetable stock – 6 cups

Salt – to taste

Oil – 1 tablespoon

 

Method:

1.       Sauté the onions in 1 tablespoon oil until they turn translucent. Add finely chopped/grated garlic to it. I use a microplane grater/zester directly over the cooking pot.

2.       Add the cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt and keep stirring until they mix well. Constant stirring will prevent the spices from burning.

3.       Now add the tomatoes and black beans and give it a good stir.

4.       Add the vegetable stock at this stage, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer on a low flame for about 25 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

5.       In the meantime, puree the mint and cilantro together with a little water.

6.       After about 25 minutes, add this puree along with the chipotle seasoning mix to the soup and let it cook for 10 more minutes.

7.       Now, I prefer my soup to be chunky, so I just use a potato masher directly in the pot to mash some of the beans and tomatoes to thicken the soup. But if you prefer your soups to be smooth, you could blend part or all of it (depending on the consistency that you desire) in a blender/food processor.

8.       Just before serving, ladle the soup into the serving bowl and garnish it with freshly chopped parsley.  

At the end of a cold day, a bowl of hot, spicy soup with some cheesy garlic bread is all I need!

Sending this across to  No Croutons Required - February 2012 challenge  hosted by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes