By Minu M M
Rains bring calm
and much needed relief from the heat, it replenishes the lakes and rivers, plants
and trees begin to smile again. To make my kids experience my childhood fun I
don’t miss on making paperboats for them - and yes, I make them jump in the
water puddles too. When it comes to food, summers make us look for various
options to quench our thirst while rainy season makes us crave for - hot ginger tea (with kishore kumar hits in
the background)filter coffee, samosas, pakoras, vada pav, buttas, chaats
comfort food like khichdi, warm soups and some savoury snacks.
Our traditional dishes
like Idli, Vada and Dosas are all times favourites. Then there is Kashaya which
is made using spices is popular in Karnataka is great for our health and keeps
us warm from within. People from North Karnataka love to eat mirchi, kandha
bhaji with khadak tea when it rains. Considering the lockdown and infections,
it is great to cook our favourite food at home, and with easy access to recipes
on the internet we have all become experts at cooking new dishes. Haven’t we?
Soups
Soups are soothing
and nourishing, usually consumed during the rainy season. It keeps us warm; it
is easy to digest and soups are super healthy too. There are many soups we can
make at home without adding any artificial ingredients.
Bottlegourd Soup
Bottlegourd,
lauki or sorekai is the most underrated vegetable I think, but it is so tasty
and healthy when cooked well. This soup is made by roasting bottlegourd cubes,
onion, ginger and garlic, some salt and pepper, you can add turmeric powder
too, gives great flavour. You can make other soups using the same combination
by changing the main vegetable or adding combination of vegetables.
Khichdi
Khichdi with a
dollop of ghee is a great comfort food during the rainy season; it is so
soothing and easy to digest. Khichdi is not just a sick person’s food but a
comfort food too. It is so easy to cook as it is a one pot dish and you can
make so many combinations using rice and dal, add your choice of vegetables,
change the spices, and change the consistency, and so on to experiment with
khichdi. In the picture above you can see the “Split Green gram Khichdi”. Instead
of dal, I have added split green gram, it gives great flavour to the khichdi.
After you have cooked the khichdi, don’t forget to give some ghee and garlic tempering
for that perfect restaurant flavour. Serve it hot with some pickle and papad.
Sabudana Vada
Sabudana vada is
a popular snack in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Sabudana is great for health,
khichdi is very popular too. In case you want to make it lighter and skip deep
frying them, then follow your sabudana vada recipe which has potatoes, groundnuts
and spices, but cook the vadas in Appe pan instead. Tasty vadas in appe pan
using few spoons of oil. Cook smaller vadas for perfect cooking on both sides.
Crispy and hot vadas will be ready to go with your evening tea.
Wholewheat Banana Appes
These banana and
wholewheat appes are my kids’ favourite snack, you can have it for breakfast
too. All you need to do is mash some very ripe bananas, add jaggery to it, mix
and then add wheat flour, some salt, pinch of baking powder (just before
pouring the batter), mix using milk, you can add some cocoa powder too for
chocolate appes. Place the appe pan, add some ghee, place a banana slice and
pour the batter on it. Add some nuts and honey. Serve hot.
Enjoy these
easy-peasy recipes to satiate your monsoon craving. Write back to us on lokdarshan@gmail.com to share your
recipes and your kitchen story!