Falafel with Hummus

Falafel is very popular in the Middle East as a fast food. Falafel is a ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a meze. Generally accepted to have first been made in Egypt, where the dish is widely known as Ta'amiya, falafel has become a dish eaten throughout the Middle East. Falafel is also often considered a national dish of Israel. The Egyptian Christians claim to have first made the dish as a replacement for meat during Lent. (Source: Wikipedia)

BBQ Chicken Burgers

I have been a little busy last week stitching a dress for my little one’s fancy dress competition and he won a consolation prize for that yesterday :)... Now to today’s recipe, I found it on Jessica’s wonderful blog How Sweet It is and that weekend itself I made these burgers… it is really easy to make and you can even make the patties a day or two ahead and keep refrigerated until you are ready to make burgers… do try this delicious homemade BBQ chicken burgers...

Passion Fruit Buttermilk Pound Cake

When I was a kid I  first tasted  it simply mixed with sugar and loved it J … that childhood love affair continued years later and I tried it in different forms like; juice, squash, wine, truffles, puddings and finally in baking, tried it in brownies, bars and now in cakes! Loved Passion Fruit in all it's avatars! Back home Appa has a passion fruit plant in his back yard and he collects the pulp, freezes it and gives it to me saying make juice for his grandkid J….  But poor grandson never gets juice from the pulp that his Appacha lovingly sends him…. because his mom uses it in her exotic cooking :D …  I have adapted this basic cake recipe from Deeba’s blog whose recipes I trust blindly and my experiment with this Passion Fruit Buttermilk Pound Cake was a huge success as this cake tasted delicious the next day!

Green Papaya Salad / Kappalanga (Omakka) Salad

I have never tried raw papaya salads before and when I saw this recipe I thought of giving it a try. It was really good with a mix of different flavors of slightly tangy, sweet and hot with crunchy vegetables and peanuts. I didn’t have Seitan (a vegetarian wheat meat), so omitted it. Try this simple but really good healthy salad with raw papaya. I only made half the amount and it was sufficient for both of us…

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Flax Cookies

This must surely rate amongst the tastiest & healthiest cookies that I have baked recently. You can make different variations by mixing dry fruits or nuts of your choice. I have already tried cranberries, raisins, and a mix of raisins and almonds.... every time it came our perfectly and delicious and filling too…Like Miryam wrote on her blog these are cookies that don’t taste like healthy cookies :)…  you can even replace some of the flour with cocoa powder… haven’t tried that though… try these cookies I am sure you will love these healthy cookies!

(Featured on Foodbuzz Top 9)

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Flax Cookies

(Recipe Source: Eat Good 4 Life)
Yield: 28 – 30 small cookies

Ingredients:
¾ cup whole wheat flour (can replace with ¼ cup cocoa powder)
¼ cup ground flaxseed
½ cup oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup canola oil
⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dry cranberries (You can do a mixture of dry fruits, nuts, or just use 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips. I already tried with ¾ cup raisins and ¼ cup chopped almonds)
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl whisk oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add flour, flax, oats, baking soda, chocolate chips and cranberries and combine with a rubber spatula.
• Drop rounded scoops onto a lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
• Cool in the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. 
• Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Vegetable Stew

Today’s recipe is a vegetable stew that goes very well with Palappam, Vella appam, Idiyappam or even with bread! It can be easily converted into a non veg stew by adding egg, red meat or chicken…. I cannot say this is the traditional way of making stew in Kerala. Traditionally fennel (perum jeerakam) is not added in the stew…. I got this recipe got from my mother in law when I was a newlywed bride…. Mummy used to make stew like this and I followed the same method…. But in my home Amma’s stew was different and was whiter in color…..even amma also mentioned once that her stew is far different from mummy’s…but I never got a chance to write down the recipe from Amma:( :(

Meatball Curry / Meat Kofta Curry

Saw this delicious curry at Sarah’s Vazhayila blog… made this a couple of time now and we all loved it… the only difference I did was I slightly fried the meat balls in a little oil in my Appakara / Kuzhi paniyarams chatty ….. The original recipe did not ask for frying the meat balls…. I just fried due to the fear of breaking the meat balls while cooking…..This delicious meatball curry goes very well with Palappam, Idiyappam, Chapathi, Puttu or even with bread!