Tomato soup is a great starter. It whets the appetite before a hot-delicious meal. I made this recently when my friend Karen was over and she absolutely loved it. Karen, this recipe is for you!

Ingredients

Method

1. (Optional) Sautee all the ingredients in butter for 2 minutes
2. Pressure cook everything (for 3 whistles) in a cup of water
3. Once the ingredients are boiled, grind them all in a blender
4. Strain it
5. Boil this mixture more (add water based on the consistency you want) more and then add a spoon of sugar
6. (Optional) Sprinkle some roasted cumin poweder on top

Enjoy!

Ever since we visited the middle east last year, we’ve been Hummus addicts. Instead of trying to find the best hummus around town (mostly unsuccessful) we decided to make our own. It turned out to be very good and extremely satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dry chickpeas soaked in water overnight  (alternatively, you can get a can of chickpeas, but the dry chickpeas are better).
• 1 cloves of garlic (optional)
• 1/3rd cub tahini (available at most local middle eastern and/or major grocery stores)
• 1/4th tea spoon salt
• 1/4th tea spoon paprika
• pinch of  black pepper powder
• 1/4th tea spoon lemon juice (optional)
• Za’ataar (optional)
• 1 tea spoon of olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the chickpeas until they are soft.
2. Save a few boiled beans on the side.
3. Crush the garlic cloves in a blender.
4. Add a few chickpeas and crush them.
5. Add the tahini and the rest of the chickpeas, black pepper powder, paprika, salt,  olive oil and lemon juice.
6. Blend until desired consistency is received. If required, add a little bit of water and blend.
7. Transfer the contents from the blender to a serving bowl and garnish with the beans that were set aside and some olive oil and paprika and/or za’ataar.

Serve with warm pita bread!

As a kid, my parents took me on many road trips that involved driving from Gujarat to Rajasthan. It was customary to make a stop at Kesariyaji to have the famous “mirchi-vadas” (literally green chilli dipped in a batter and deep fried). While telling Rahul about this and he started craving them. I finally got around to making some for him last week.

Ingredients:

• 4 large long green chillies
• 3 medium sized boiled potatos
• 1/2 tea spoon mustard seeds
• a pinch of turmeric powder
• 1 tea spoon aamchur powder (dry mango powder)
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 1 table spoon of cilantro to sprinkle
• 2 cups besan (gram flour)
• Pinch of baking soda
• Oil for frying

Method:

There are three stages to make the mirchi-wada:

Stage 1: Tempering the mashed potato

1. Mash the potatoes
2. In a pan heat some oil and add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.
3. Now add turmeric powder and mashed potatoes and sprinkle the aamchur powder, salt and cilantro.
4. Stir well until all the ingredients are mixed and cooked properly (approximately 2 minutes)

The mashed potatoes

Stage 2: Making the batter ( gram flour paste )

1. Mix gram flour, baking soda, a pinch of salt and a cup of water in a bowl and keep it aside. The consistency of this dough should be slightly less than that of pancake batter so that it forms a uniform coating on the chillies.
2. Keep this batter aside

Stage 3: Frying the chillies

1. Slit the chillies length-wise (If they are too large, you can cut the chillies in parts)
2. Fill the chillies with the stuffing from stage 1
3. Dip it in the batter from stage 2
4. Deep fry these chillies

The stuffed chillies

The final product!
Enjoy!