Recipes

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Saadi Khichdi and Kadhi

    Kichdi, Kadhi, and Kanda Bataka nu Shaak is the timeless Gujarati classic in most households. The iconic silver thaali meal is what most of us crave for when we are back at Mom’s house. I grew up being a kadhi girl but slowly over time I converted to the dark side of being a dal girl. I figured for the first of the #bhaktabasics series I should teach you all how to make both sides of the coin so you can all decide for yourselves. So have at it folks, are you dal people or kadhi people? Ingredients: Saadi Khichdi Ingredients: 3 c. water 1 c. of long grain rice…

  • Desserts,  Recipes

    Lemon Raspberry Cream Cups

    My fiancé got me The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking for my birthday and my cousins and siblings went through and marked all their favorite desserts. My cousin put two flags on this recipe, however I noticed that there wasn’t an eggless option for the lemon curd so I made a vegan version from @itdoesnttastelikechicken. It tasted AMAZING and I am so happy to have been introduced to this dessert. So the original dessert features a horn mold to get a cone shape from the puff pastry. After a sincere attempt and an EPIC FAIL I decided to pivot and turn the puff pastry into cups using…

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Quick and Easy Papdi No Lot (Steamed Rice Flour)

    Growing up in Minnesota, I didn’t have a lot of access to Indian grocers. I remember driving 8 hours to a grocery store in Chicago every few months to get the supplies we needed for meals. Papdi is something that is eaten very often with a meal. This dough is rolled out into a tortilla basically and then it is dried on sheets in the sun until it is very hard like plastic. You eat it by microwaving it, roasting it on an open flame, or frying it! They puff up and become very crunchy, its a great snack, kind of like a chip. We would wait until August and…

  • Recipes

    Garlic Naan

    For me, no Indian restaurant meal is ever complete without warm, butter garlic naan. I love mine piping hot with lots of garlic and enough butter to fill the Pacific Ocean! This amazing recipe is from Host the Toast! She has made this recipe so perfect I could never improve it. I have now made this recipe a gazillion times and have all the measurements memorized. We used to be frozen naan loyalists but this little bit of effort in planning goes a long way! This recipe is super kid friendly, I even managed to get my little cousin in the kitchen with me to make these. These garlic naans…

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Paneer Makhni (Paneer Butter Masala)

    Where are the Paneer People at?! This dish is inspired by Swasthi’s Recipes, her recipes got me started on making more paneer dishes and I used her ingredients list and added a few additions of my own and changed the rations to suit my families tastes more. You get this wonderful buttery taste in the gravy, and it pairs well with rice or naan for an easy weeknight meal. You could fill this in a burrito with onions and raita, or fill it in a pita pocket for a fun modern twist on a classic. I hope you’ll try this meal for your next meal prep adventure! Ingredients: 600 g.…

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Gujarati Dal

    Every Gujarati household I know has a generational war in one thing: kadhi or dal. My mom is a kadhi girl herself but has been beautifully cursed to make the best dal on Earth. All of the women in my family are kadhi people and all the men are dal people but this dal definitely has converted a few folks over the years. It is wonderfully spicy, sweet and tangy all at the same time! This recipe is different from a lot of other Gujarati families from all over the world but I would definitely encourage anyone to give it a try and see if its just as magical of…

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Spicy Pizza Dough

    Almost everyone I know loves pizza, what better time to learn how to make it than quarantine?! This crust is spicy and crunchy, it hits all the right notes when it comes to pizza. It is a yeasted dough which I know makes some folks nervous. However, this dough utilizes instant yeast which lets you avoid that first proofing stage. The base of this recipe is from @SugarSpunRun I have made a bunch of adjustments and the below recipe is for 3 pizzas with a thinner crust or 2 with a thicker base. Nearly all of the spices are optional but these are just the ones I felt like adding.…

  • Breakfast,  Recipes

    Bataka Poha

    Bataka Poha is a classic breakfast item that is known in many regions of India. Poha are flattened rice flakes that are used in many common breakfast items like poha no chevdo, poha pettis, paapad poha and other items. This is so comforting when it’s piping hot with some khakhra and a big mug of chai. For some reason I look forward to eating this mostly at weddings when everyone does not want to be up that morning and the Pithi/Haldi call time is at some ungodly hour (9 a.m. haha!). You see a bowl of Bataka Poha, Fafda, and chai and you know that everything is going to be…

  • Entrée,  Recipes

    Palak Paneer (Spinach and Indian Cottage Cheese Curry)

    So I will be honest, before I made this dish I had never tried palak paneer before. My dad and cousin are also not fans AT ALL. Until one day my parents came home with a whopping 4 pounds of baby spinach for no reason whatsoever. In a panic I decided to try and learn how to make this dish. After adding in my own twists to the gravy this recipe was born. My family loves this dish (including the picky eaters) and now we have added it into our quarantine rotation! It is a COVID miracle! This dish is a great way to get more leafy greens into your…

  • Recipes,  Side Dishes

    Raita

    During these summer days our family has been going through yogurt like nobody’s business. We have been making chhas, srikhand, and all sorts of other cool treats. This is typically a side dish for dal that or other main entrées. This raita is made Bhakta-style with a little bit of chili paste, this isn’t something that is typical in a lot of Gujarati homes. Also Bhakta style raita is typically much thicker than the version that you typically see in restaurants. When my cousins were toddlers they used to just eat this raita with plain rice! Ingredients: 1 c. of plain yogurt 1 c. sour cream 1 English cucumber, shredded…