Rice Kheer - Rice Pudding From India

Rice Kheer is a very popular dessert across India. In
South India, jaggery is widely used as a sweetener.

Jaggery is available in Indian grocery stores. You can cut jaggery into smaller pieces before using it. Sometimes, packets of jaggery pieces are also sold in Indian grocery stores.

This is my entry to the Vegan Ventures, hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Thank you Suganya for hosting Vegan Ventures!


Rice Kheer

1 cup rice
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups soy milk
3/4 cup jaggery
4 cardamom pods, seeds powdered

In a medium, thick-bottomed saucepan, combine rice and
water. Cook on low heat until the rice is done. Now
add soy milk and jaggery. Mix thoroughly and cook on
medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring
in-between, until the mixture becomes thick. Turn off the heat.
Sprinkle with cardamom powder.

You can serve rice kheer garnished with raisins, almonds and cashews which are roasted in Earth Balance Soy Garden Natural Buttery Spread or Earth Balance Margarine Natural Buttery Spread

Vegan Recipe Booklet

Asian stir-fried vegetables, Classic Ratatouille, Creole okra, and Green Beans with Tomatoes and Herbs are some of the recipes I found in the booklet, "The New American Plate -Veggies"

Visit this website and get your recipe booklet, which is filled with vegan recipes.

Tomato Rasam, Soup From India

I love to eat hot rice with rasam, a popular soup from
southern parts of India.

I sometimes like to drink rasam as a soup. I often
eat, rice and rasam - my comfort dish during winter.

When I suffer from cold, I crave for hot tangy rasam and rice.

Sometimes when I don't have fresh tomatoes, I usually make rasam
with store-bought tomato juice.

Tomato Rasam

340 ml Tomato Juice(I use Campbell's Tomato juice)
340 ml water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp grated garlic
1 tsp Madras curry powder
Cilantro for garnishing

In a vessel, heat the vegetable oil, add mustard
seeds. Once the mustard seeds pop, add cumin seeds,
ginger , garlic, crushed red pepper and curry powder.
After one minute, add tomato juice, salt and water.

Turn off the heat once it starts to boil, that is
after 10 -12 minutes. Garnish with cilantro.

Tastes great with hot rice and poppadom.

Upma, Cream of Wheat Breakfast Dish From India

Upma is one of the most popular breakfast items of
South India. Cream-of-wheat is known as sooji, and
rava across India. Cream-of-wheat is also known as
semolina.

There are many varieties of Upma. When vegetables such
as beans, carrots, peas are added to make upma, it
becomes masala upma. In restaurants in India, Upma is
always served with sheera, semolina based sweet dish.
Then this two dishes are together known as chow-chow
baath.

Upma

1 1/2 cups Cream-of-wheat
3 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Urad dal(optional)
1/2 tsp chana dal(optional)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/8 tsp turmeric
2 red chillies or green chillies, broken into pieces
Salt
Cilantro or coconut for garnishing

Dry roast semolina on a low flame for about 10
minutes, or until the color of the semolina changes to
pale gold.

In a wide pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, and when
the mustard seeds pop, add urad dal and chana dal.

Once the color of the dals changes, add red chillies,
and chopped onion. Fry for a few minutes. You can also
add chopped tomatoes or any vegetables. Just make sure
to increase the quantity of water if you are adding
vegetables.

Now add water and once it starts boiling, reduce the
heat. Now add salt and the semolina. Keep stirring so
that there are no lumps in the mixture.

Cook until there is no water in the mixture. Garnish
with cilantro or freshly grated coconut. Instead of red chillies
or green chillies, you can also add jalapeno peppers if
you want the upma to be spicy.

I love to eat upma with a dollop of Earth Balance Soy Garden Natural Buttery Spread and spicy lime pickle.

Vegan Recipes for Vegan Month - November

I came to know that November to be a vegan month while visiting food blogs.

I guess many vegetarians and non-vegetarians will be
exploring vegan cuisine during this month. Don't fret
if you don't have a vegan cookbook. If you have access
to the internet, then within seconds you can find vast
array of vegan recipes.

Visit Meatout Mondays, Fatfree Vegan, International Vegetarian Union and Vegan Lunch Box to find vegan recipes.

Visit Vivevegie to read the benefits of becoming vegan.

Puran Poli, an Indian Sweet For Diwali

Puran poli is a popular festive sweet across India. In
Bangalore, Puran poli is known as "Obbattu" in the
local language, Kannada.

I always made puran poli with toor dal. When I saw
the puran poli made with chana dal in Indira's blog,
I wanted to try it.

Today, I made puran poli following Indira's recipe.
This recipe is very easy to veganize. I used
vegetable oil instead of ghee(clarified butter).

I usually eat puran poli with a dollop of Earth
Balance Soy Garden Natural Buttery Spread or with hot
soy milk.

I'm submitting this to Jihva, Navratri-Dassera/Diwali

Vegan Date Cake

I love dates. And I also like cakes. When I saw Date
cake, one of the most popular recipes in Shilpa's
blog, I wanted to try it.

I really don't remember the number of times I have
baked this delicious cake, from past couple of months.
This is a very easy recipe to veganize. Just use soy
milk ,instead of dairy milk. Like Shilpa,
I also don't soak the dates, as I use seedless dates
to make this cake. Once I used turbinado sugar to make
Date cake. The color of the cake was so beautiful!

I somehow could not manage to get a good picture of
this delicious cake, even though I took numerous
pictures. I wanted to frost this cake as I had tofutti
cream cheese. As I was frosting for the first
time, with loads of excitement, I started frosting
the cake when the cake was still warm. The frosting
looked horrible, but it tasted great!

Don't judge this recipe by seeing the horrible picture
of the cake. Try this recipe, and I'm sure you
will be baking this cake often.

I'm submitting this recipe to (AFAM) A fruit a month hosted by
Chandrika of AkshayaPatra

The Chicago Diner

I had been to the famed Chicago Diner last week with my husband. They have a wonderful array of vegetarian
and vegan dishes. Every dish on their menu can be
veganised.

I had Burritos and the filling was fried seitan. The
cheese which was made with nutritional yeast was
delicious. I was in a state of bliss while eating the
delicious vegan fare - burritos and the mexican rice.

My husband had Black beans and rice. Brimming with
veggies and grilled tofu, this vegan dish was also
delicious.

The Chicago Diner is nearly 25 years old. To read more about this restaurant
visit VegCooking
and Conscious Choice

Jo Kaucher has been cooking vegetarian meals at the Chicago Diner
for over 20 years and is the author of a popular cookbook -Chicago Diner Cookbook.

If you enjoy eating great food, then you should visit this restaurant
when you are in Chicago. The Chicago Diner, 3411 N. Halsted Street, Chicago; 773-935-6696. Lunch, brunch, and dinner: Monday through Friday from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm