Tofu Tahini Sauce

Tofu
Tahini
Lemon
Basil
Salt
Garlic

Blend.

Cookies

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/sparkling-ginger-chip-cookies-recipe.html
- Used all fresh ginger instead of fresh + ground.
- Used whatever chocolate we had. Added some extra.
- Awesome and very light !

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001408.html - triple chocolate espresso bean cookies.
- Unmodified.
- Very Addictive.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/carrot-oatmeal-cookies-recipe.html
- replaced carrot with mango, coconut oik with olive oil.
- Not exactly a resounding success; should stick to recipe maybe...

Asparagus Brown Rice + Tahini Sauce

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/ten-minute-tasty-asparagus-and-brown-rice-recipe.html
We made a simplified version of this last week - it was awesome. For the record, we skipped the chickpeas, fresh lemon, almonds - basically whatever we didn't have :)

Aloo Methi

Today we figured out the great new innovation of using Fresh Spinach + Frozen Methi instead of just Frozen methi - this has a great taste, and you can add a lot more greens :D

- Panchforan + haldi
- Fry Aloo
- Add leaves and fry
- salt
- cover after the water dries out.
- cook till done.

Mango Salad

Mango, avocado, red onion, cilantro, spinach, olive oil, sesame oil, lemon juice, salt, sugar.
Enjoy.

Watermelon salad

We have made this watermelon salad 4 times in the last week :) And it is pretty robust to changes in proportions of anything - we usually use salad leaf instead of cucumber, and skip the chives and tarragon.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tomato-and-Watermelon-Salad-352389

Yogurt Pasta Salad

Today after much soul-searching about dinner, Arpi came up with the plan to have a cold yogurt pasta salad. Seemed fit for a record hot day :)

First we cooked whole-wheat penne pasta for a long time. The chewiness of whole-wheat is no big deal in a salad. After cooking, rinsed it in cold water to cool it off.

Then separately Arpi made the dressing - yogurt + mint + cilantro + salt, blended using the hand blender. Later we added balsamic vinegar and olive oil at the table. These could have gone into the dressing too.

And then, I served it as a bed of lettuce under a bed of pasta, covered with the dressing, and topped with plenty of chopped spring onions + basil (optional).

Coooool ... :)

Grape Gazpacho

Having bought grapes today at the Indian Store, we had this great idea of Cold Grape Soup. Yahoo Search showed this to be a rare concept :) But loosely inspired by this blog we went ahead and made a grape gazpacho, which has worked out really well.

Soak 3 slices of bread in water.
Take 1/2 cup of almonds (as little skin as possible) + 1 medium-sized clove of garlic - grind in food processor.
Add that to the blender with the soaked bread + some water. Blend.
Add some olive oil, coarse salt, sherry vinegar. Blend.
Add grapes in stages, blending and tasting in each step. If the soup becomes too flat because of excess grapes, add some vinegar to compensate.
Chill and serve with grapes as garnish.
Enjoy.

Gazpacho

We really liked Gazpacho in our trip to Spain, so we got a recipe book from the library. We have made it a couple of times, and it's been working out great. The parts in quotes were in the original recipe, but we modify liberally based on what's available, and it works out quite robustly.

Soak 2 cups "day-old country-bread" (sourdough works well) for 5-10 minutes, and drain. Put that plus the following list in the blender :

2 medium-sized garlic cloves.
1 pinch of cumin seeds.
Coarse salt.
3 pounds "ripest, most favorful" tomatoes
2 small "Kirby (pickling)" cucumbers
"1 large Italian (frying) pepper"
1 medium sized red bell pepper.
3 tbsp chopped red onion
1/2 cup E.V. Olive oil
1/2 cup "chilled, bottled, spring" water, or more as needed.
2 tbsp sherry vinegar.

Blend a lot till it is really smooth. Adjust the vinegar to taste. Chill and enjoy. :)

Simple Toor Dal

Boil toor dal.

Heat oil.
Put jeera.
Then rai and hing.
Then fry onion (chopped long) for a while.
Add haldi & green chili in between.
When done, add grated ginger, tomato, dal, salt, sugar.
Simmer a bit.
Garnish with Cilantro.

Voila !

gnocchi with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes and garlic and olive oil and greens

As it sez.
Rocks.