SpiceBox and Cooking

Oats Honey Pancake recipe | How to make Oats Honey Pancake | Pancake recipe for Kids Pancakes are kids favorite, specially with honey and chocolate syrup. Grown up also like pancakes. It is a very simple and quick dish which is healthy, full of taste and very quick to make. Usually pancakes are prepared using all purpose flour / maida but I always replace maida / all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

Mushroom Paratha recipe | How to make Mushroom Paratha  Mushroom Paratha is heavy breakfast for busy morning. Mushroom is a healthy vegetable and often cooked as a side dish with chapati or rice. Mushroom paratha is a mushrrom stuffed paratha which is a flat bread and can be served for mornings, luch or dinner. Mushroom is stir fried along with onion to make mushroom stuffing. Because mushroom does not take much time to cook, preparing mushroom stuffing for paratha takes 5 - 7 minutes.

Methi Paratha Recipe | How to make Methi Paratha  Methi Paratha is a quick and healthy breakfast. Methi or Fenugreek is easily available in vegetable markets during winter in India. Methi is a green and added to many other vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes as well.

Tomato Chokha recipe | How to make Tomato Bharta Tomato  Chokha or Tomato Bharta is a dish prepared using roasted tomatoes. Tomato Chokha comes from Bihar and eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. Litti Chokha from Bihar is popular worldwide. Sattu stuffed Litti is served with chokha recipes either it be Tomato Chokha, Potato Chokha (Aloo ka Chokha) or Eggplant Chokha (Baingan ka Chokha).

Aloo Gobi Masala recipe | How to make Aloo Gobi Masala Aloo Gobi Masala, when lot of confusion in kitchen or when something has to be cooked which every one likes to eat,. Aloo Gobi Masala is our go to curry which everyone in the family eats and no complaints. 

Beetroot Chocolate Cake recipe | How to make Beetroot Chocolate Cake Beetroot Chocolate Cake is an easy tea time cake recipe. This cake needs a bit of preparation before mixing and baking. Beetroot is a sweet veggie which adds its flavor in the cake. To get the best flavors of beetroot in beetroot chocolate cake, we should first peel and boil the beetroot. Beetroot is a crunchy veggie which has a little sourness in taste. To balance this it is important to cook beetroot first and later we can grate or puree it to make beetroot chocolate cake.

Baingan Bharta Recipe | How to make Baingan Bharta  Baingan Bharta, a very popular punjabi recipe in which baingan or brinjal is smoked on fire. Baingan Bharta always finds a place among most popular indian dishes around the world.

Egg Korma recipe | How to make Egg Korma | Egg Kurma Egg Korma is a creamy and nutty flavored dish. Originally Korma is a mutton dish but the flavored and thick gravy makes it impossible not to try. Even if your an eggetarian or vegetarian, you can very well have your version of korma along with the favorite vegetable or egg. Here I have prepared this dish with eggs and I have prepared the same Korma gravy for paneer and some other vegetarian dishes.  

Dalia Upma recipe | How to make Dalia Upma | Broken wheat upma Dalia or broken wheat is a very healthy food. It is high in protein and fiber so it is good for them who are trying to loose weight. One cup of cooked dalia has about 150 calories where as one plain paratha has 120 calories. Dalia or broken wheat is a very rich source of iron. It is good as a baby food as well.

Paneer Capsicum Masala Recipe | How to make Paneer Capsicum Masala  Paneer and capsicum is a good combination to make curry and sabzi. Paneer capsicum masala is a semi gravy dish which is prepared in a spicy tomato gravy.

Mushroom Chettinad Recipe | How to make Mushroom Chettinad Chettinad cuisine comes from a region "Chettinad" in Sivaganga district in Tamilnadu. Chettiars , people from Chettinad region have been the traders of salt and spices. Chettinad Cuisine exhibit that very well. Chettinad cuisine has a special chettinad masala used in most curries which is very aromatic and amazingly flavorful. Chettinad Masala powder is specially prepared for the curries. This spice powder is a mix of many spices.

Puran Poli recipe | How to make Puran Poli | Obattu Recipe Puran Poli is a very famous flat bread from Maharashtra cuisine. Puran Poli is a sweet dal stuffed paratha. For stuffing Chana Dal is used and to make paratha, refined flour / maida is used.

Beans Poriyal Recipe | How to make Beans Poriyal Poriyal is a Tamil word for sautéed vegetables. Beans Poriyal is stir fry beans. Beans Poriyal was once new to me as being grown up in North India, never heard about. Lately I came to know about this preparation of beans. Its a simple to do recipe and taste wise it simplicity just takes over. 

Carrot Onion Paratha recipe | How to make Carrot Onion Paratha Weekdays mornings our kitchens are busy in making paratha and packing it for school or offices. Children love to eat paratha in lunchbox at school and it is the most appropriate way to keep their tiny bellies full and keep them energized. Carrot Onion paratha ticks all the checkboxes to be a healthy and nutritious lunchbox food. Apart from busy weekdays morning, weekend mornings will give chance to have hot carrot onion paratha and enjoy it with flavored ginger tea ! In case, you are not a tea person, raita and pickles are always there to boost the taste.

Vermicelli Upma Recipe | How to make Vermicelli Upma/ Semiya Upma Vermicelli or Semiya upma is a very quick breakfast or snack. It is best when served with ginger tea . Vermicelli is the thing which can be used to make sweets like kheer, paysam, halwa and can be consumed as a salty snack like upma also.  Vermicelli Upma

Methi Chole Recipe | How to make Methi Chole Maethi or Fenugreek leaves, small green leaves is a healthy combination with chole or chickpeas. Chole are loved anyway whether it is cooked as a gravy or a semi gravy , made as a dip like hummus or just boiled to make chaat. Chole or chickpea s go very well with greens as palak and methi. Now it is been a long time that I am cooking Methi Chole as a combo and we have it with chapati or rice. 

Mushroom Biryani Recipe | how to make Mushroom Biryani | Khumb Biryani  Mushroom Biryani Recipe : Mushroom is cooked in a mix of spices along with tomato and onion. Layered with cooked rice. Mushroom is a quick cooked vegetable. Also good on a healthy note. It is easy to include mushroom in our daily diet in forms of curries and biryani.  

Lauki Pakora Recipe | How to make Lauki Pakora Lauki Pakoras are quick and easy dish to prepare. Lauki is a healthy food which can be consumed as sabzi, curry, raita, kheer, barfi, paratha and thepla as well. Pakora is another lauki recipe which is very easy to make at home.

Garlic Chutney Recipe | How to make Garlic Chutney Garlic Chutney or Lahsun Chutney , again a very simple no cooking chutney. In North Indian  cuisine chutney is not cooked. It is just a paste of raw veggies/ greens and aromatic spice. Lahsun Chutney or Garlic Chutney is no exception. In Haryana this chutney is prepared almost every alternate in winter. People there like to eat chapati and chutney as a combination and they can skip sabzi or curry and meal can be only Chapati like missi roti or bajra roti along with this garlic chutney. 

Puda Recipe | How to make Puda | Poora Recipe Puda or Poora is sweet flatbread made using whole wheat flour , jaggery powder and fennel seeds (saunf). Puda is mostly prepared as an offering in prayers and is a very traditional form of Indian sweets. Specially in North indian states Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, Puda or Poora is a very commonly made sweet.

Sattu Sharbat Recipe | How to make Sattu Sharbat Sattu Sharbat is summer drink. Sattu means any dal or grain roasted and than powdered. Most common Sattu is black roasted Chana powder. Sometimes Sattu can be a mix of cereal and pulses. Sattu Sharbat is a summer cooler for human body.   Sattu Sharbat

Oats Carrot Raita Recipe | How to make Oats Carrot Raita Raita is a healthy and tasty side to go along with any Indian menu whether it is Rice menu or it is Chapati / paratha menu. Mostly we prepare raita with yogurt combining with veggies. These veggies can be used raw or can be used partly cooked like boiled  or sauté. Oats Carrot Raita is a perfect mix of health and taste. 

Pudina Chutney Recipe | How to make Mint Leave Chutney Pudina Chutney or Mint Leaves Chutney is prepared using mint leaves only and no other part of the plant. There is a reason for that, first Mint stems are hard and need a bit more grinding then leaves and also the stems are very strong in taste. That is why whereas we use green coriander as a whole leaves along the stems, for pudina chutney we only use leaves. 

Chana Dal Sabzi Recipe | How to make Chana Dal Sabzi Chana Dal Sabzi, do not get confused with Lauki Chana Dal curry or any other chana dal preparation. It is a sabzi type preparation using Chana dal. Once it was a new thing for me as I have always thought of all the dals mostly as curry. I had this sabzi in a dhaba where it was a dry preparation with a tadka of regular onion tomato and garlic. 

Besan Halwa Recipe | How to make Besan Halwa Halwa is part of Indian culture. This dessert though supposed to be originated in Persian region. In arabic "halwa" means a dessert. In India, halwa is a dish which is cooked with flour, ghee and sugar. Some flavorings like cardamom or cinnamon can be added.  Making halwa is as easy as eating it 😊 ! Halwa is kind of thick syrup and that is why good to offer even to little babies. Besan ka Halwa is made using gram flour along with ghee and sugar. Besan is widely used in Indian cuisine for preparing sour, salty to sweet dishes.

Kadhi Pakoda Recipe | How to make Pakoda Kadhi Kadhi is a wonderful curry. Spicy, aromatic, tasty, tangy and a wonder in a plate. When Kadhi is cooked and for that, when we heat oil and throw in methi dana (fenugreek seeds), the whole neighborhood knows that today it will be kadhi in meal.