Dark chocolate peanut butter ice cream is my daughter Rani’s creation who loves loves peanut butter and anything dark chocolate. If you like dark chocolate and Reese’s peanut butter cups then this ice cream is for you. When I was making my dark chocolate cardamom ice cream, Rani came up to me and asked if she could make an ice cream with peanut butter – I told to her to go for it. Rani’s ice cream creation has peanut butter melted with dark chocolate, honey and cream. As if it doesn’t have enough peanut butter, Rani added more melted peanut butter and swirled it into the ice cream. For a decadent peanut butter ice cream – give dark chocolate peanut butter ice cream a try!
Last week I went shopping for produce at Costco and came across these gorgeous looking wild mushrooms called chanterelles. Usually I find wild mushrooms to be pricey at the grocery stores and even at the Famer’s Market, but at Costco for a large carton of about 4-5 cups of chanterelle mushrooms it was just more affordable and they looked so fresh too. I picked up a carton and decided to make wild mushroom risotto that same night. Gorgeous golden colored chanterelles look and taste amazing in a creamy risotto. Continue reading Chanterelle Wild Mushroom Risotto→
I can’t say enough great things about my friend Shalini and her culinary skills. She has to be the most creative cook I know. Any time I am at a party where Shalini is invited I always look forward to tasting her interesting new veggie dishes. Dinner at our mutual friends Swati and Tarak’s place was one of those occasions when Shalini once again brought a couple of her creative and delicious vegetarian dishes – a broad bean salad and a spicy roasted butternut squash. Both were exceptional. I will post the recipe for her spicy butternut squash soon, here I am sharing Shalini’s delicious broad bean salad recipe which is easy to make and requires minimal effort. Continue reading Broad Bean Salad→
I picked up this recipe from watching an episode of Ree Drummond’s Food Network show Pioneer Woman which was focused on quick AND healthy 16-minute meals. Of the three meals she made, two were vegetarian! One of the vegetarian dishes was a hummus wrap with roasted peppers, artichoke hearts and feta cheese with a tossed green salad – Yum 😋. The other vegetarian dish was a cauliflower sauté with Asian flavorings. The dish I chose to make right away was the cauliflower sauté. This dish has loads of cauliflower and easy to find store-bought Asian sauces. I modified the original recipe by adding bell peppers and tofu to amp up the vegan protein and served this outstanding cauliflower sauté with royal rice made with coconut milk, garlic and onions. Give it a try. Continue reading Cauliflower Sauté with Peppers and Tofu→
An issue of Food and Wine magazine arrived in the mail and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was completely dedicated to the cuisine of Mexico. In this issue the two recipes that got me intrigued were vegetarian dishes that combined Mexican and Indian flavors. One of the recipes was for a dish called royal rice and the other one was for Indian pakoras made with chickpea flour, Mexican herbs, and Mexican lager beer. The rice dish is really interesting because it is a blend of Indian and Mexican flavors all mashed up into one main dish that can be had with yogurt raita or as a side with fish or chicken. Continue reading Royal Rice. A fusion of Mexican and Indian flavors.→
This black bean salad with white balsamic vinaigrette tastes fresh, flavorful and filling. Vegetables like yellow squash and celery, and black beans all add substance to the salad while the arugula and green onions lighten it up. Tossing veggies like squash with a sweet white balsamic vinaigrette really enhances the flavor of squash that to me tasted like raw mangoes after it was marinated in the dressing. Give it a try. Continue reading Black Bean Salad with Yellow Squash, Celery & Arugula→
I love white balsamic vinegar. It’s fruity, sweet and syrupy with a vinegar tang. White Baslamic vinegar tastes so good that sometimes I will have a teaspoon of it just by itself or drizzle it over vanilla ice-cream. This delicious vinegar is made from must which is freshly crushed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit, in this case usually from white grapes such as Trebbiano grapes. This is then combined with regular white wine vinegar. The processing of the white grapes for white balsamic is designed to avoid coloration happening, rather than regular balsamic where the must is caramelized, causing the darker colour that it has. This step is omitted in making white balsamic vinegar. Instead, the must is cooked slowly under pressure to avoid that happening, and instead of being aged in charred barrels as regular balsamic is, white balsamic vinegar is aged in uncharred wooden barrels. Many times white balsamic vinegar is flavored with fruits such as white peaches, white nectarines, pears and raspberries, and their fruity fragrances comes through in the vinegar. If you come across white balsamic vinegar definitely get a bottle – it is worth the indulgence!! Now for this salad dressing, I just took my basic simple vinaigrette recipe and substituted it with white balsamic vinegar. I also added a clove of garlic to give the dressing a little edge, Give it a try! Continue reading White Balsamic Vinaigrette→
When I visited my sister Banu in Philadelphia a while back I saw her use this amazing selection of dried herbs for a vegetarian chili she was making. The herb bottles were beautifully labeled and the herbs dried to perfection. My other sister Shobha and I looked at these beautiful herbs in awe; they looked like Banu had bought them from a specialty food shop, only to find out that Banu dried them all herself at home. Continue reading Homegrown Dried Herbs 🌿→
When I made this beet salad the only takers were Hitesh and me (I made it which means I had to try it). Rani our salad kid tried it too, and I have to say we absolutely loved it! The sweetness of beets with a garlicky flavor combined with sour vinaigrette and topped with creamy goat cheese – yummy this salad was – and thats’ coming from a person whose least favorite veggie is beets. What makes this beet salad taste so good is the addition of garlic when roasting the veggies and the vinaigrette to marinate the veggies. Marinating the roasted beets in the vinaigrette mellows out the beet flavor while also adding a nice tang to the beets. Marinated beets can be served as a side dish or simply add baby spinach to make a leafy green Roasted Beets and Baby Spinach Salad. Seriously folks, except for Hitesh our entire family hates beets – actually hate is a strong word – we don’t like beets. So for all of us to clean this beet salad out completely and not leave anything behind, you know it was delicious! Give it a try! Continue reading Roasted Beets and Baby Spinach Salad→
