Quinoa Cooked in Coconut Milk

Quinoa Cooked in Coconut Milk 

This cooked Quinoa was the best cook Quinoa I had tasted. 

Rich & Sweet taste of coconut milk makes the quinoa perfectly soft and enjoyable just by itself. I ate all that bowl just with a drizzle of honey and shredded coconut. Totally Yum! 

Do try it out 😊

Here is the Recipe 👇

Ingredients 

1 part uncooked quinoa (e.g. 1 cup quinoa—any color will do—you will end up with three times as much cooked quinoa)

2 parts coconut milk +e.g. 2 cups water)

Method : 

1.Rinse the quinoa: Pour the quinoa into a bowl and rinse  and wash for at least 30 seconds. Drain well. This step removes bitterness of the quinoa caused by naturally occurring saponins.

2.Combine the rinsed quinoa and coconut milk in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat a bit to maintain a simmer. Cook until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water, about 10 to 20 minutes

Reduce heat.

3.Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let the quinoa steam for 5 minutes. This step gives the quinoa time to pop open into little curlicues, so it’s nice and fluffy. Serve and enjoy! 

You can serve this quinoa with any Asian vegetable or chicken stir fry or curries. 

Or simply enjoy with drizzle of honey and some coconut.

Oats Blueberry cream cheese muffins

Oats Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

Light & spongy,  nutritious and tasty! These yummy muffins are packed with complex carbs, fiber, fruity flavor and protein, perfect for your quick breakfast to go or tea/ coffee time snack.

Prep time 10 minutes, Bake Time 15 to 20 minutes Total time 30 minutes.
Makes around 9 to 10 medium size muffins.

Ingredients:

Oats Flour 1 cup

All purpose flour ¼ cup

Soften cream cheese 2/3cup or 5 oz

Milk ½ cup

Canola oil or avocado oil ¼ cup

Eggs 2 whole

Sugar ½ cup

Baking powder ½ teaspoon

Baking soda  ½ teaspoon

Salt  ½ teaspoon

Blueberries 1 cup

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Sift all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together with a sifter into a bowl and then add Oats flour to it.In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, cream cheese, milk, eggs, and 1/4 cup vegetable oil.
3. Fold dry flour mixture into wet eggs mixture until batter is smooth. Stir in blueberries.   (a great tip which helps blueberry not sink to the bottom of pan is to sprinkle some all purpose flour on blueberries and give it a mix so that flour coats the blueberries) Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups or loaf pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.
5. Enjoy these not too sweet high fiber healthy oats muffin which are perfect for those evening coffee breaks or a quick to go breakfast!

I used both 6 piece muffin mold and small loaf pan.

Soft & Spongy oats blueberry muffins Ready in 30 minutes! 

Enjoy!!

Soft and Light Laadi Pav

Soft & light, that spongy airy Laadi pav, oh I miss them so much!

No matter how fancy the bread loaf seems but nothing can replace the taste of that
Mumbai Pav. Being from mumbai I crave on making pav bhaji, vada pav and misal pav
is staple thursday dinner. I tried alot of these dinner rolls and pavs available in grocery stores
but nothing did justice to all these dishes till I tried this Pav recipe.

Here you go with the Perfect Pav recipe

Perfect Pav recipe

cooking time 2 to 2 1/2 hours
Makes 6 to 8 Pav

Ingredients :

• Plain flour 2 cups 
• Milk and water mixture:  180ml (80 ml milk+ 100 ml water)
• Salt 1 tsp
• Butter 4tsp + some extra for brushing the fresh baked pav
• Yeast 2 tsp instant yeast 
• Sugar 1 tablespoon 

Take a mixing bowl, ( I use the stand mixer ) and add flour and salt, mix.

Warm the water and milk mixture for 20 secs or just till its warm and then add sugar, mix well
and then add yeast, cover and keep it aside for 5 mins till it gets frothy.

Add this frothy yeast mix to flour ad knead, the mix will be sticky and messy now add
the butter and mix till it forms a soft dough.

Transfer this to a large oiled container and cover it an keep it aside for 1 to 2 hour till it
has doubled or tripled in size. ( my trick which helps always that i keep it in warmest spot
of the kitchen or simply place it in oven with slightly preheating it for a minute )

Once its doubled/ raised punch it down and knead it again and make equal 6 to 8 portions.

Now make small balls and place these in a tray lightly greased with oil and sprinkled with
flour with keeping some room in between for these balls to rise double in size , place a moist
muslin cloth on these balls, and keep it aside for another hour in a warm spot

Once they are doubled and rise gently remove the cloth and give them milk wash this helps
the pav to get the beautiful golden brown color. Bake  at 375f for 18 mins.

Remove from oven brush with butter and let them cool off for 10 mins

DIWALI special recipes kuch Namkeen aur kuch Meetha which are made out of SMART ingredients NO MAIDA at allll !!!

        <>#@#<>  HAPPY*DIWALI  <>#@#<>

Hello Everyone , FOODESSENCE is back with Diwali Greetings and DIWALI special recipes kuch Namkeen aur  kuch Meetha  which are amazingly healthy, low calorie and made out of SMART ingredients NO MAIDA  at allll !!!

So I tried and tested these yummy recipes  in my kitchen a little ahead of time so that you guys can have a guilt free Diwali  too

Here we Go>>>Baked Sakkarparra  (Sooji , Oats),Baked Meethi Puri (Whole wheat atta, chick pea flour and oats),Multigrain Mithaii (Museli, Amaranth ),Oats Chiwda (Oats)

SHAKKARPARRA   or SHANKARPALI

Call it Shankarpali or Shakkarparra , this cookie like sweet snack traditionally is made out of refined flour(maida), and is deep fried…  I really love snacking on them but the thought of being a deep fried snack always bothers  me… Then I thought of making them with my own style by Baking them! And I also played around with the ingredients and added oats flour, now they are not only lighter on fats but are high in fiber too and are no less than the yummy traditional shankarpali 

OATS CHIWDA

The way of making Oats chiwda is almost similar to what we make Poha chiwda , the only ingredient I changed here was POHA to OATS. I have used the ready to eat oats, so all we need to do is toss these oats flakes on a hot kadai for 10 minutes or simply bake them for around 10 minutes at 160 C  just until they are crispy and golden brown … I have made a magic masala( seasoning)  to completely transform this chiwda … this masala makes my mouth water everytime :P

Ingredients

Instant Oats 2 cups

Oil/ghee 5 tablespoon

Peanuts ½ cup

Raisins 5 tablespoon

Curry leaves 2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds 1 tablespoon

Cumin seeds 1 tablespoon

Chopped garlic 2 tablespoon

Chopped green chillies 1 tablespoon

Chopped Almonds (optional) 2 tablespoon

Asafetida 1/ 2teaspoon  

Turmeric ½ teaspoon

Magic Masala (Ingredients are below)

Method ::

Dry roast the instant oats for 10 minutes, either in a preheated oven or in a kadai till golden and crispy.

In a large kadai or cooking pan on a low flame, pour oil, once it is heated add the asafetida,peanuts,cumin ,mustard,chillies,garlic,curry leaves,raisins turmeric, add the oats and toss them till the turmeric colors all the oats.

Add the Magic masala to the oats, mix well, let it cool for 5 -10 minutes and then store it in air tight container.

Now its time for the amazing Magic Masala

Combine 1 teaspoon salt,1 teaspoon red chilly powder. 1 teaspoon dhania jeera powder, 1 teaspoon chaat masala, 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder,1 tablespoon powdered sugar.(you can increase the masala quantity according to your taste buds …Trust me this masala is super appetizing!!!

 MULTIGRAIN MITHAII

It is made up of crispy multigrains as the name says, and the mithaas comes from honey and jaggery.

I have used  crispy museli mix which is nutty and fruity and the light and popped Amaranth, some  peanut butter to bind all the goodness together.. Sweet,bit salty and zesty ..

Energy bar in other words…  Yum!!

Ingredients:

Museli Mix (crispy) 2 cups

Amaranth Popped (Rajgeera) 1 cup

Creamy Peanut butter 1 cup

Honey 1/3cup

Vanilla essence / kesar flavor 1 teaspoon

Salt ½ teaspoon

Orange zest  1/2 tablespoon

Method

In a mixing bowl add the museli mix and amaranth.

On a low flame in sauce pan add the peanut butter and honey till they combine well,remove it from the flame, add orange zest, salt, vanilla essence, now pour this mixture into the museli mix and combine well.

In a greased brownie pan pour this mixture and with damp hands gently press the mixture and evenly distribute it,with a knife gently cut the mix into brownie size bars(since the mixture is moist), cover it with freshwrap and keep in refrigerator around 4 to 5 hours to set.

Once they are set , serve them !!

BAKED MEETHI PURI

This is a perfect crispy and salty snack! The meethi has its own appetizing magic and tantalizes the taste buds.

 

Ingredients

Wheat flour 1cup

Oats flour 1cup

Chickpea flour half cup

Fresh Fenugreek leaves 1cup chopped

Cumin powder 1 teaspoon

Red chilly powder 1 teaspoon

Garlic powder 1 teaspoon

Sesame seeds 2 teaspoon

Oil 2 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Water as per required 

Method

In a mixing bowl,add all the flours, throw in the salt,garlic powder, red chilly powder,cumin powder and combine well .

Add the fresh fenugreek and oil, mix well.

Gradually add water to form a dough, the dough should not be too hard or soft.

Roll out the dough and with the help of round cookie cutter,cut out pooris.

Prick them using a fork at regular intervals.

Grease the baking tray with oil and bake the pooris in a pre-heated oven at 200°c (400°f) for 10 minutes, turning them once after 5 minutes.

Store in an air-tight container

GOOD AND HEALTHY REASONS TO TRY THESE RECIPES

IT'S DIWALI!!!

HEALTHY AND SIMPLE

HIGH ON WHOLE GRAIN , NO REFINED FLOUR (MAIDA) AT ALL

NO FRYING , BUT ONLY SIMPLE AND HEALTHY BAKING!!!

HAVE  A  HAPPY  AND  HEALTHY  DIWALI!!!

Warm wishes from FOODESSENCE