Green Bean Crepes with Tofu and Vegetables

I was surprised at the popularity of these crepes. There was no fuss at the dinner table and seconds and thirds were on demand. Regardless to say that this meal exceeded my expectations with all its goodness.

Originally I had made a tomato sauce to top the crepes with, but since the crepes turned out rather crispy I decided against it. I served them with the filling as is and a caesar salad on the side.

As always there is enormous possibility with the filling, I opted for spinach, mushroom, tomato, tofu and cheese. Since my husband is not a fan of tofu, I replaced tofu with bean sprouts and sun dried tomato pesto for him....isn't he lucky to have such a thoughtful wife *ahem*!!

The crepe is made with split green mung beans. The Southern part of India has a crepe(dosai) made with green mung beans filled with potatoes and served with cocnut chutney and Sambhar (spicy lentils ). Very tempting and delicious...

Please note that this is not the original dosai recipe and differs a great deal.

Makes 8 crepes

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup split green mung beans

Water to soak the beans

Salt

250 grams fresh spinach

100gms fresh mushrooms

4 tomatoes

1-2cups grated cheese (any or a mixture of mozarella, cheddar, parmesan or any popular cheese in your house)

150 gms tofu

Salt

Pepper

Cooking oil (I used Rice Bran Oil)

1) Wash the mung beans under running cold water. Soak them in plenty of water for atleast 3-4 hours.

2) Drain the water, add salt and blend the beans with a hand blender. Do not add water as the beans have soaked up water during soaking so there is plenty of water. The batter will be thick and granular. Coarse batter is what we want.

3)Wash the spinach and chop finely. Cook the spinach till wilted, around 2-4 minutes.

4) Wash Mushrooms and slice or leave them whole. Pan fry the mushrooms in 1 tsp oil.

5) Wash and dice tomatoes finely.

6) Pat dry the tofu and pan fry it with 1tpsp oil on all sides. Once fried remove from heat and cut into bite size chunks.

7)Heat a non stick skillet on medium heat. Once hot slide it off heat add 2 tbsp batter and spread it out with the back of the spoon. Once the batter is spread slide the skillet back on heat and drizzle oil around the edges and on center. Once the crepe turns a little golden flip it over and cook on the other side. Turn back over and spread the filling out on half of the crepe: cheese, spinach, mushroom, tofu, tomato, salt, pepper and a little more cheese. By now the crepe should be deep golden, if not let it cook a few more seconds. Fold the crepe in half and slide on a plate.

8) Serve with a salad or on its own.

Summer Vegetable Barley Soup

Hard to believe that something so quick and easy to prepare can be so good for you.

This all in one meal has the approval of every member of my family.

Any vegetable would be a welcome addition here, I used whatever was on hand or rather in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable stock

1 cup barley

1/2 zucchini

1/2 carrot

1 tomato

1 potato

1 onion

1/4 head of a cabbage

1 cup peas

2 minced garlic cloves

1 tsp olive oil & 2 tbsp olive oil

8 Japanese fried tofu pouches (used for inari sushi)

Chopped green coriander leaves

Salt and Pepper

1) Wash all the vegetables and chop them up.

2) Wash the barley in cold water.

3) Chop the tofu pouches in bite size pieces and spread on a baking tray. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and bake in a 350F preheated oven for about 20 to 30 minutes till crispy and golden. You will need to turn them a few times. Alternatively the tofu pouches can be deep fried.

4) Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Add minced garlic, saute till fragrant.

5) Add stock to the pot . Once the stock starts to boil add barley, onion, potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, carrot, tomato.

6) Add salt to taste. Cover and let cook till the potatoes and barley are soft.

7) Add peas and simmer for 5 minutes.

8) Remove from heat.

9)Ladle the soup in individual bowls, top with fried tofu, green coriander leaves and freshly ground black pepper.

Thin Crust Pizza

Pizza is a staple in our home. The whole family looks forward to the Pizza night on Fridays, everyone for different reasons though. My 4 and 8 year olds love to create their own pizzas and I am highly impressed to see the toppings on the pizza for my elder son are adding up (last night he added mushrooms, capsicums and tomatoes). The younger one follows though he still craves a margarita so he has compromised on eating half healthy pizza and half plain cheese pizza. The husband just loves garlic, jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes and roasted vegetables (the possibilities are endless). And me, well, I am always on the lookout to make the pizza more healthy. Not only do I try to get healthy toppings I also like to play around with the sauce and the Pizza dough.

Have fun creating your own pizzas but remember not to get carried away..too many toppings weigh the pizza down and make it soggy from the center.

1 recipe Pizza Dough

1 recipe Tomato Sauce

200gms japanese mushrooms

1/2 green, red and yellow capsicums each

1/2 Onion

1 tomato

250 gms fresh mozarella (fresh mozarella has no salt)

salt (Do not use salt if you are using a salty cheese)

fresh basil

oregano

grated garlic

red chilli flakes

Preheat oven to 250°C. Place the Pizza stone in the middle rack if you are using it.

1) Wash all the vegetables.

2) Slice the Capsicums, onion, tomato and basil

3) Grate the Mozarella.

4) Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll out thinly using flour sparingly.

5) Place the rolled out dough on a peel if your are baking the pizza on a stone or on a pizza tray that you will be baking the pizza on.

6) Build the pizza starting with the sauce, cheese, garlic, mushrooms, capsicum, onion, tomato.

7) Sprinkle salt, basil or oregano or both and chilli flakes if you are using them.

8) Slide the pizza on the pizza stone or the pizza tray in the center of the oven for about 8-10 minutes. This will depend on the oven.

9) Once bubbly and golden from top, remove from oven and let the pizza rest for a minute or two before the slicing the pizza.

The following Pizza is one of the favorites with my family, topped with fresh chopped spinach and sun dried tomatoes.

Basic Pizza Dough

Basic Pizza Dough

1 cup Bread Flour

1 cup Wholewheat Flour

2 tbsp Cornmeal or Semolina(optional)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Oil

1 tsp good quality yeast

Warm no fat milk

1) Mix the flours together, add salt.

2) Mix the yeast, sugar and 3 tbsp warm milk. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until frothy.

3) Add the yeast mixture to the flour alongwith the oil.

4) Knead the dough by adding little milk at a time, till the dough forms a ball.

5) Transfer the dough to a oiled bowl and let it rest covered for atleast 4 hours.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a basic tomato sauce that I use often. This is a all purpose sauce and works well with most dishes.

I season the sauce according to the type of cuisine I am planning to use it with.

For Italian I tend go for oregano and basil whereas for Indian some ginger and coriander are a welcome addition.

I am planning to use this sauce for the pizzas we are planning to make this week.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

16 large ripe plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled and seeded

1 carrot

fresh basil leaves (about 15)

Salt and pepper

1)Wash the tomatoes thoroughly, slit the skin of each tomato. Blanch the tomatoes by placing them in simmering water, cook until the skin of the tomatoes is wrinkled about a minute at the most. Remove the tomatoes from heat, drain and let cool in a colander.

2) Once cool, dice the tomatoes.

3) Dice the carrot finely.

4) Cut the basil into strips by first stacking them one over other and then rolling them lengthwise and then cutting across.

5) On medium, heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, saute till garlic is fragrant, do not brown.

6) Add carrots and tomatoes, cook until liquid is released for about 5 minutes.

7) Add Salt, Pepper and basil.

8)Cover and cook till sauce is condensed, for about an hour.

The sauce can be refrigerated for a week.

Tangy Thai Green Mango Salad

This recipe uses both raw and ripe mangoes and is a very good meal in itself for a light lunch or a good accompaniment for a summer barbeque.

I have served it whenever I can lay hands on mangoes and it has been a hit everytime.

I like to use the sweet variety of green mangoes for this recipe, the sour ones don't work here.

This Mango Salad is traditionally served with Crabs, and I am pleased to report that my vegetarian version has been a hit with hard core traditionalists.

To retain the crispiness of green mangoes the dish should be assembled just before serving, prepare the mangoes and dressing and leave in the refrigerator till required.

Because mangoes vary in sizes please do adjust the seasonings in the dressing. The dressing should be sweet and sour with a spicy garlicy flavour..

Also dont pour all the dressing, use your judgement.

2 crisp raw green mangoes (Sweet)

1 stalk lemongrass

1 ripe yellow mango

1 red chilli or more if you prefer spicy

3 garlic cloves

juice of 1 lime

Fresh Mint leaves (Although at times I have used dried mint leaves)

salt

sugar

1/2 cup or more peanuts

1) Peel the green mangoes and coarsely shred them.

2) Slice the lemongrass thinly and mix with the shredded mango.

3) Peel and cut the ripe mango in chunks and put it in a blender.

4) Add garlic cloves, chilli, lime juice, sugar and salt to the mango in the blender and blend well.

5) Pour the salad dressing on top of the shredded mangoes and lemongrass just before serving.

6) Top the salad with peanuts and mint leaves.

Soothing Green Mango & Mint Drink

Please excuse me if I get carried away with too many mango posts.

I should hardly be blamed for I live in Thailand and at this time of the year everytime one looks around all they see is mangoes! Sweet green mangoes, Sour green mangoes, Ripe yellow mangoes...so many varieties of mangoes..I love them!!

The following recipe is for a drink that is very cooling especially in the summers.

I am happy that my children prefer it over the fizzy bottled stuff.

2 Green Sour Mangoes

1/2 to 1 cup of fresh mint leaves

Salt or Black rock salt powder (according to taste)

Sugar (according to taste)

1 tsp roasted cumin seed powder

4 cups Cold Water or more

Ice Cubes

1) Boil Mangoes till tender.

2) Once cooled, peel them and scrape out all the pulp.

3) Blend the Mango pulp, mint leaves, Sugar and Salt and pass the mixture though a strainer.

4) Dilute the mango mixture with cold water, add cumin powder and adjust salt and sugar.

5) Pour into glasses and top with ice cubes before serving.

Note: You can always freeze the blended mango mixture in small pouches and dilute as required!