Tri-Colored Spiral Parathas

This is a very good way of getting veggies into kids. This involves mixing 3 different doughs. I have used spinach and carrot. You can also use peas, beans, beets, etc. pureed, mixed into the wheat flour while mixing the dough for making parathas. I have not used oil while mixing the dough and I just used very few drops of oil while roasting it on the tava. It is a low calorie food and very nutritious.

I was pureeing veggies for my kid and then I thought why shouldn't I mix it with the dough to make the chapathi more colorful. Recently, I was reading about swiss cake rolls in a cookbook and when I saw the cross section, I thought this will make a good colorful paratha and I tried it. I liked the way it looked and of course the way it tasted. Its hard to get spinach into kids. But this way, I am sure anybody will like it. Its a feast both for the eye as well as the tummy.


Ingredients:

Orange Dough:
Cooked and pureed carrots: 4 tbsp
Wheat Flour: 1 cup
Salt: to taste

Green Dough:
Cooked and pureed Spinach: 4 tbsp
Wheat Flour: 1 cup
Salt: to taste

White Dough:
All purpose flour: 1 cup
Salt: to taste


Method:

1. For each dough, mix the ingredients given with water if needed. Puree's will have water. So be careful when adding more water.

2. Roll each dough into a circle/rectangle. Rectangle will have no waste.

3. Place the green circle/rectangle at the bottom. Put the white circle/rectangle on the top of it and then put the orange circle/rectangle . Press the circle/rectangle a little bit.


4. Now roll this sandwiched circle/rectangle as shown.

5. Cut this log into the required number of pieces.

5. Take each piece and flatten it and roll it into a circle.

6.Put it on the tava and cook it.

Note: Initially if you roll each dough into a circle, then when u roll the doughs, except for the central part, the sides will have less dough in them. That is why I said you should roll it into squares or rectangles.

I made the following parathas by cutting the sandwiched circle/rectangle along the circumference/edge. Or should I say, I drew a concentric circle and removed the outer part. I took the outer part and I cut along the small side and rolled it tight and then cut it crosswise and rolled it. This way you get a lot more spirals of the 3 colors. The last picture has the cooked paratha with more spirals with Eggplant and moong wadi subji.

This is my entry for VCC Q2-2006 , JFI-Flour and Independence Day Food Parade .

Lemon Noodles

A very easy meal to prepare, which is very tasty and lite and low in fat. This is one of those meals that you can whip up in less than 10 minutes. I should also say its very inexpensive. A packet of noodles is 99cents at my local chinese store.



Ingredients:

1/2 packet of the fine Rice Noodles bought from the Chinese Store ( for those who are leary about the ingredients, this one says just rice and water) These can be bought at the Chinese section of the American grocery store. It just costs a $.
Lemon Juice-----1 tsp
Mustard seeds---1 tsp
Urad Dal-------- 3 tsp
Chana Dal------- 3 tsp
Turmeric--------1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves----1 sprig
Salted Cashews 1 big handful --I am nut crazy so I add more nuts. You can reduce it or not add it if u are not big on it.
Cilantro for garnish
Green Chillies----Minced finely or paste
Salt--------------To taste
Coconut----------A few tbsp

Method:

For the Noodles:

1.Soak half a packet of noodles in boiling hot water for 5 minutes. Or you can also do it in the microwave or stove the traditional way.

For the Tadka:

1. Put a few tsps of oil in kadai/vessel and after it becomes hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, turmeric, curry leaves, and the green chillies.

2. After the dals turn a little brown, add the salted cashews. You can add unsalted cashews also. I usually use the fried salted ones which are readily available in the grocery stores.

3. Add salt and lemon juice and coconut.

4. Mix with the cooked cooled noodles. Garnish with Cilantro.