If you’re after a sharing platter worthy of your Instagram grid, this is the salad for you. I use my Homemade Masala Paneer recipe to give the salad a central focus; it’s crispy, spicy and creamy all at once.

Watch the full recipe video: Crispy Paneer & Grilled Nectarine Salad

The nectarines offset the richness of the paneer and peppery greens like rocket and watercress provide a luscious bed for the salad to lay atop.

What is Masala Paneer?

Masala Paneer is a fresh, unripened cheese from India. It’s similar to farmer’s cheese, also known as Indian cottage cheese. The core ingredients of paneer are cow’s milk and a coagulant like lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid or sour curd (yoghurt).

Having said this, paneer is significantly different in texture and taste to the western concept of cottage cheese.

My simple recipe for Homemade Masala Paneer features a basic paneer combined with black pepper, ginger, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, fresh coriander and salt. It’s then pressed to form a block.

Cube it, slice it, scramble it or create something entirely new with it. I love to use this flavoursome paneer in Parathas. Feel free to experiment with seasonings to create your own special Masala Paneer.

This is such an excellent summer dish. For a festive feel at Christmas time, replace the nectarines with sliced figs. A year-round crowd pleaser!

How to serve this Crispy Paneer & Grilled Nectarine Salad

I like to do it in stages. I start with the leafy greens, then add apple slices, tomatoes, olives, red onions and grilled nectarines (glazed with honey). Next, I add the warm, panko-crusted Masala Paneer.

The final touches are boondi (crisp chickpea flour sprinkles) and tamarind dressing. Choose the largest platter you have and dig in immediately.

This Crispy Paneer & Grilled Nectarine Salad is great as a standalone dish. Or pair it with other Indian nibbles. I love to eat this with my favourite Indian barbecue dishes. For example, these Meatless Seekh Kebabs or Achaari Mushroom Kebabs are perfect partners.

My essentials for this recipe

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. These are all products I have purchased of my own accord and ones that I use myself. None of the products mentioned have been gifted to me. By using an affiliate link, I receive a small commission at no expense to you. This commission helps to support this blog. Thanks in advance if you choose to make a purchase through these links!

How to make Crispy Paneer & Nectarine Salad

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Crispy Paneer & Grilled Nectarine Salad

Crispy Paneer & Grilled Nectarine Salad is a fresh vegetarian meal or side. The baked Masala Paneer is amazing with juicy grilled nectarines, leafy greens and pearls of fried boondi.

Course Appetizer, Lunch, Main Course, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Keyword apples, barbecue, cheese, nectarine, paneer, salad

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Sanjana

Ingredients

• 100 g mixed green salad leaves (pea shoots, watercress, rocket, etc)
• 40 g cherry or baby plum tomatoes (I used multi-coloured)
• 1 small red onion finely sliced
• 40 g mixed olives
• 1 Pink Lady apple
• 2 semi-ripe nectarines
• 1 tbsp honey or agave (warm)
• 2 tbsp boondi (friend chickpea flour pearls) I used shop bought (optional)
• 1/4 tsp chaat masala

For the crispy paneer:

• 200 g masala paneer (recipe linked below)
• 100g g panko breadcrumbs
• 100 g chickpea flour
• 3 tbsp vegan mayo or unsweetened yoghurt
• 80 ml water

For the tamarind & date dressing:

• 25 g tamarind and date chutney (recipe linked below)
• 20 ml extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

For the coated paneer:

• Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF.
• Stir together the chickpea flour (besan), salt, ground turmeric, vegan mayo (or plain yoghurt) and water. Whisk well to form a smooth batter.
• Cut the cold, pressed masala paneer into pieces. You can be as uneven and as rustic as you like with this. I like some cut into cubes, some in fingers and one large piece people can cut at the table. It makes for interesting eating.
• Place the panko breadcrumbs on a large plate. Dip the paneer into the wet mixture and then into the panko breadcrumbs. Be sure to coat the paneer evenly. If you like, you can repeat the wet mix and breadcrumb dip to create a thicker layer of breadcrumbs. Coat all the paneer in this way.
• Arrange the paneer on an oven-safe tray lined with baking parchment. Spray liberally with oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. Turn the paneer half way through cooking time and spray the reverse with oil. The paneer is ready when it's crispy and golden all over.

For the grilled nectarines:

• While the paneer is in the oven, halve the nectarines around the stone and twist to open. Remove the stones and brush them with warm honey or agave nectar.
• Flace the nectarine halves face down on a preheated griddle pan. Press them down gently to ensure good contact with the griddle pan bars. Cook over a moderate heat for 2-3 minutes. Don't move them around at this point.
• Turn the nectarine halves over and cook on the other side for a further 2 minutes. You can brush them with more agave or honey if you like.

For the dressing:

• Whisk together the tamarind and date chutney and olive oil. Add a splash of water if necessary.

To build the salad:

• Arrange your favourite mix of salad leaves on a large platter.
• Top with cherry tomatoes (some halved, some whole), red onion slices, olives, the warm grilled nectarines, crispy baked paneer (warm), slices of apple, boondi, tamarind dressing and a sprinkle of chaat masala.
• Take the platter to the table immediately and let everyone help themselves.

Video

Notes

• The masala paneer used in this recipe can be made up to 48 hours in advance. Store in the fridge until ready to breadcrumb and bake. I recommend breadcrumbing only up to 24 hours in advance. Bake the paneer just before serving.
• Shop-bought paneer can be used in a pinch. Be sure it’s a soft variety.
• Plain paneer can be used in lieu of masala paneer but of course, it won’t be as delicious. The joy of this salad is the contrast of spicy, sweet and tangy flavours.

Get my Homemade Masala Paneer Recipe

Homemade Masala Paneer

The Homemade Masala Paneer. Soft and squidgy homemade masala paneer for curries, paratha fillings, chilli paneer, samosas and more. This simple recipe includes tips for making fresh masala paneer that tastes like it just came from the dairywala.

Check out this recipe

How to Make the Tamarind & Date Chutney I use in this recipe

Tamarind & Date Chutney

Learn how to make sweet and sour tamarind and date chutney from scratch! No Indian chaat is complete without a drizzle of this mouth-puckering fruity chutney.

Check out this recipe

Pin this recipe for later!

If you like this, you’ll love my recipe for my Palak Patta Chaat

Love Sanjana

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I’ve always strived to be a great cook like my grandfathers. My parents tell me their Gujarati and East African classics like Mombasa-Style Daal Kachori, Jalebi Paratha, gathia were inspiring. Their tips and tricks are recalled in the conversations of our extended family with a joy that I cannot even describe. I wish they’d have been here long enough for me to watch them at work.

Someone who had the pleasure of spending many hours in the kitchen with my Bapuji (paternal grandfather) was my wonderful aunt in Mombasa, Kenya. She’s an incredibly-talented cook with an edible garden I could only dream of. Packed with mangoes, coconuts, bananas, tree tomatoes and herbs, she’s an expert at cooking everything from Gujarati classics, to East African staples. When I visited their family home last year, I was treated to it all and my word was it dreamy.

One of the dishes she cooked up was this Mombasa Kachri Bateta – a light potato stew with sour green mangoes, topped with coconut fresh from the garden and fried cassava crisps. The coconut is a kind of dry chutney rammed with flavour from grated green mango, chilli, turmeric, salt and sugar. That’s it. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – the simplicity with which East African food is cooked blows my mind and my taste buds. It’s unbelievable how a few simple ingredients put together in a clever way makes everything Taste. So. Damn. Good.

Grated raw green mango is EVERYTHING to this dish. It adds a gentle, fruity sourness lemons just can’t deliver. If you can’t get raw green mango, try adding lime but I seriously would encourage you to hunt the mangoes down. Ensure they’re super hard and very green and keep the skin on when you grate it, because life’s too short.

The toppers for Kachri Bateta are endless – from fried cassava or potato crisps, to thick gathia, jinni sev, fresh coriander, sliced chillies and of course, the dry mango chutney. Gathia and jinni sev are fried chickpea flour nibbles – think Bombay Mix but better. You can buy them in most big supermarkets.

This dish is so easy and a delicious taste of Mombasa. The only difficult part is waiting for the potatoes to cook in the sour, spicy mango and tomato broth.

Mombasa Kachri Bateta
Serves 4

Ingredients

For the potato stew:
750g potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp crushed garlic
75g raw mango, grated
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
2 tsp salt
½ tsp red chilli powder
1.5L water

For the coconut chutney:
100g fresh coconut, grated
100g raw green mango, grated
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp turmeric
1 small chilli, chopped

To serve:
Cassava crisps or potato crisps
Gathia or jinni sev
Chopped coriander
Sliced chillies

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a minute or two, stirring all the time.

2. Next, add the mango, potatoes, salt, chilli powder and water. Allow to cook on a medium heat for around 30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked and the water has reduced by half. The starch in the potatoes will thicken it perfectly.

3. To make the chutney, mix all the ingredients together. Cover and keep in the fridge. This is best served cold on top of the stew.

4. Serve the stew in bowls, topped with the coconut chutney, crisps, gathia, sev, coriander and chillies.

Love Sanjana

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Comfort food doesn’t get any better than a bowl of piping hot, creamy, spicy lentils topped with crispy onions, fried green chillies and crunchy fried spinach.

Urad, or black gram lentils are a staple in Indian homes and are used for making a variety of dishes from simple daals to elaborate Masala Dosa. They’re packed with protein and have a heartier texture than mung beans. Because of their tougher texture, they need to be cooked thoroughly to extract as much of their creamy starchiness as possible. I find the easiest way to do this is to soak the urad daal overnight and cook them using a pressure cooker – something you’ll find in every Indian home, rather than it being just an alien contraption collecting dust in the back of your Nan’s cupboard. After that, I slow cook for 6-8 hours for the creamiest, most off the hook daal you’ve ever tasted.

I love dinners like these. A shot from the other day. Spinach, sweet potato and peas in coconut milk, daal makhani, samosas, Indian churros, lime and coriander sour cream chutney and a mega stack of soft chapattis.

Growing up, I was reared on Gujarati Urad Daal rather than the richer Punjabi version of black gram lentils more popular on restaurant menus around the globe. We were taught that eating urad daal every Saturday (the holy day of Hanuman, the ever-powerful monkey god), we’d become so strong we’d be able to lift mountains. To no surprise, my wrestling-obsessed brother would wolf it down it with plenty of hope and hot, buttery chapattis.

The key difference between Gujarati and Punjabi urad daal is that the Gujarati version has no garam masala, kidney beans or cream. This isn’t to say it’s not delicious but more practical to eat often. However, if I’m honest, the ingredients my native Gujarati version lacked are the things I love so much about the classic Punjabi recipe here. Once you’ve made this version at home, Daal Makhani you get down your local Indian restaurant or takeaway won’t suffice, trust me.

My favourite way to eat Daal Makhani is with Garlic and Coriander Naan, Salted Lassi and nothing more. My recipe may not make you strong enough to uproot mountains like Hanuman dada, but it sure as hell will make you crave a weekly fix every Saturday… or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Daal Makhani
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

220g urad (black gram lentils), washed and soaked in cold water overnight
200g kidney beans, washed (I use tinned)
1 tbsp oil
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
5 tbsp ginger, grated (loads, don’t be shy)
2 large, thin green chillies, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds, ground
200g passata
900ml hot water
Pinch bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp brown sugar or jaggery
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp salt
100ml double cream
50g butter

Method

1. Heat the butter in a pressure cooker, add the cumin seeds, garlic, ginger, chillies, tomato puree and passata. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the hot water and bring to the boil. Stir in the soaked urad and baking powder (this helps them cook quickly and evenly).

2. Put the lid on the pressure cooker and cook on a medium heat for 35 minutes or until the lentils are soft.

3. Stir in the ground coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon, sugar, salt and double cream and stir.

3. Blend very briefly with a stick blender, leaving the majority of the urad whole. This is just to make it thick and creamy. Add the kidney beans. Pour in to a slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours, stirring often. At the very end, add the garam masala and a dollop of butter.

3. Serve with fried onions, fried spinach, fried green chillies and a splash of cream (optional).

Note: Urad daal has a tendency to thicken as it cools so you may need to loosen it up with some hot water before serving.

Love Sanjana

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There are some ingredients in Indian cooking which attract gasps and sighs whenever they’re mentioned. Take ghee for example; no, it’s not good for you – but is a tablespoon of ghee in a curry for four really much worse than a dollop of butter on a jacket potato for lunch, or pouring cream over a freshly-baked crumble for dessert?

Taboo ingredients like ghee receive bad press even in Indian households, and with good reason. Although I do have one rule: both biryani and paratha are not complete without ghee. Just don’t eat them every day.

Gettin’ jaggery with it

Jaggery (gor/unrefined cane sugar) is another one of these ingredients. Just like putting too many sugars in your tea, using jaggery in everyday cooking isn’t advisable. However when those hunger pangs hit, the deep, caramel flavour of this sugar is just.so.satisfying and an exciting treat once in a while.

If you can’t find jaggery in the shops, you can substitute it with palm sugar or dark brown sugar. However, if possible, try to bag yourself a block of jaggery – it lasts for ages when wrapped up tightly in cling film.

Have I justified my use of jaggery in this recipe by making a salad dressing out of it? I’m going to say yes, and so will you once you’ve tried this combination of flavours for yourself.

Let me describe it to you. Ribbons of slightly sweet, slightly sour mango and crunchy yellow courgette, a scattering of red onions, fresh coriander and red chillies make up the body of the salad. Next comes the warm sweet and sour jaggery-lime dressing, spiked with black kalonji seeds for a deep, peppery flavour. Toss it all together for a crisp, juicy salad with an Indian twist.

Mango and Courgette Salad with Jaggery-Lime Dressing
Serves 2 as a side

Ingredients:

1 green mango, peeled
1 large yellow courgette
½ red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 red chilli or 1/2 scotch bonnet, chopped

For the jaggery dressing:

80g jaggery, grated
Juice of 1 lime
½ tsp kalonji seeds (nigella)
Pinch sea salt

Method:

1. Using a vegetable peeler, shave ribbons from both the mango and the courgette. Add the finely chopped onion, fresh coriander and chilli. Toss together.

2. In a small saucepan, lightly toast the kalonji seeds until aromatic. Next, add the grated jaggery, lime juice and salt. Whisk with a fork until smooth and heated through. Allow to cool slightly.

3. Dress the salad just before serving.

Serve with Tandoori Paneer Kebabs and naan. Even if you’re not vegetarian, I promise this will make a unique and exciting side to other barbecued/grilled main dishes.

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I’ve always been one to get excited when a great big parcel gets delivered to the house. Itching to get my paws on the contents, I rip at packages, chipping nail varnish and not batting an eyelid over it – very strange behaviour.

It had been decided, I was to make a deliciously spicy Curried Coconut Noodle Soup, packed with vegetables from baby corn to exotic mushrooms and light rice noodles. A shower of crunchy beanspouts scattered on top finishes the dish off perfectly.

Enjoy this light and spicy dish for lunch, dinner or if you’re a spice addict like me – devour it for breakfast.

Want brand new recipes before anyone else? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for fresh recipes straight from the kitchen, ask me cooking questions, see what I’m munching my way through during the week or just tweet to say hello.

I have not been paid for creating this recipe or writing this post. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by the brand or any other factors.

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Join me in a moment of nostalgia with my recipe for a classic Gujarati Mung Bean Soup. This is nothing like my playful recipe for Spinach and Mung Bean Soup – it’s an untweaked and deliciously traditional soup loved by the Gujarati peoples. Can you believe I didn’t stray from the recipe?
 

Did you know?

Many Indians consider the mung bean to bring luck and so it is used in rituals and offered to the Gods along with grains of raw rice.

Like most Gujarati recipes, every family has its own secret version of this mung bean soup, with probably the only similarity across all variations being that it’s always, always served with rice. The rice is boiled separately from the mung bean soup and usually mixed in just before serving.
Check out my tips on how to cook perfect basmati rice.

I topped mine with sweet, golden onions and fresh coriander. You can also stir in a spoonful of creamy natural yogurt for a mild tang.

If you’re feeling lazy and are craving a satisfying, filling, ‘all-I-need-is-a-bowl-and-spoon-dinner’, this recipe is your new best friend.

Get the pressure cooker out and make this during the week.

Gujarati Mung Bhaat- Mung Bean and Rice Soup
(Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 tbsp ghee (or oil)
240g raw mung beans, washed
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 clove
-inch piece cassia bark
¼ tsp asafoetida
2-4 curry leaves
1 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
750ml hot water
½ tsp turmeric
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 tsp green chillies, minced
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Around 500ml hot water to bring to a soup consistency
Chopped coriander to garnish
1 onion, sliced into strips
2 tbsp oil or ghee to fry the onions

Method

1. Heat the ghee or oil in your pressure cooker. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop. Add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, clove and cassia. Saute for a couple of seconds.

2. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for a few minutes. Pour in 750ml water, and then add the bicarbonate of soda, garlic, ginger, chillies and turmeric. Bring to the boil.

3. Stir in the raw mung beans, put the lid on the pressure cooker and allow to cook on a medium heat for around 10-12 minutes (mine took 6-7 whistles but this may vary depending on your cooker).

4. Once the pressure cooker has cooled and the steam has escaped, open the lid. Your mung beans should be fairly dry and completely cooked. If not, add some more water and continue to cook until tender.

5. Add around 500ml hot water to bring it back up to soup consistency, salt, sugar and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning according to your taste. Boil for a further 5 minutes, adding more water depending on the consistency you desire.

6. Mix the soup into some cooked basmati rice. For details on how to cook basmati rice, visit my Perfect, fluffy Basmati rice post.

7. Heat 2 tbsp ghee or oil in a pan and sauté your onions on a medium heat until golden brown. Whilst it’s still very hot, spoon it over the top of your rice and mung bean soup.

8. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve.

Mung bean mad? Check out my recipes for Dry Gujarati Mung Bean Curry and Decadent Spinach and Mung Bean Soup.

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First, come with me on a strawberry picking adventure…

Chilled soups: They linger like loiterers, typed upon dog-eared menus in questionable restaurants.

Surely this cannot be true?

When I first saw a similar recipe in Kurma Dasa’s Great Vegetarian Dishes, I thought to myself, ‘how is a chilled soup any different to umm… Fruit juice?!’ I hear echoes of you asking me the same question.

So, this distinction is imperative to our exploration of chilled fruit soups- which, by the way, are refreshing and delicious. It’s not that I’m biased or anything. Our fruit soup is sweet, but not fruit juice sweet, smoothie sweet or even preserve sweet. That would be sacrilege. It is slightly sweet, made silky smooth with cornflour, and finished on a slightly savoury note with a pat of creamy salted butter whisked in for a quick gloss. Not a drop of juice in sight.

Still not convinced? Try it yourself and find out. Do it for me, poor Sanjana who went strawberry picking in the sweltering heat to provide you with a Chilled Sunshine Berry Soup to quench your parched tongues. I love guilt-tripping for all good reasons.

Mouth watering yet?

Also, while technically this isn’t a barbecued dish (why would it be?) it is the perfect starter or light dessert to any Summer BBQ. FYI, I love loopholes like I love guilt-tripping.

Chilled Sunshine Berry Soup
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients

1kg mixed berries (I used 500g strawberries, 250g pitted cherries and 250g blackberries)- reserve a handful of each kind of berry to serve
75g granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
1 litre cold water
50g butter

Method

1. Place the berries in a large pan, reserving a handful of each kind of berry to serve.

2. Add the sugar and cook on a medium heat, stirring constantly. Press the berries with the back of a wooden spoon to crush them slightly. It will take around 15-20 minutes for them to cook thoroughly.

3. Place a sieve over a large pan and strain the berry mixture through it, pressing through as much pulp as possible.

4. Mix the cornflour with the cold water and add it to the strained berry mixture.

5. Place back on the heat and whisk until slightly thickened. Whisk in 50g of butter until melted.

6. Allow to cool to room temperature and refrigerate until chilled and ready to serve.

7. Serve in a deep bowl, adding the reserved berries for some texture and that feeling of virtuousness when you eat fruit and truly enjoy it…

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Summer may not have graced the UK yet, but it has made a secret appearance in my kitchen. Yesterday I was given a huge box of Alphonso mangoes which are now filling my house with a beautifully sweet and fruity aroma. So with mangoes abundant, what was I to cook? I was scouring my favourite blogs on a mission to seek out an innovative recipe using perfectly ripe mangoes. I was thrilled when I found a South Indian recipe for Mampazha Pulissery by Namitha from Collaborative Curry. Not only did the fruity recipe sound delicious, but the pictures were so striking that I had to rush to the kitchen and feed my curiosity more or less immediately.

I admit that I’m a bit of a recipe mutineer, and I almost never follow instructions to the letter *slaps wrist*. As mouth-watering as Namitha’s recipe sounded, I had to incorporate aspects of the traditional Gujarati way of making Kadhi into the recipe. Kadhi is the Gujarati name for the almost-sacred buttermilk soup loved by every Gujarati I have ever met. It is similar to the South Indian soup Mor Kuzhambu, although the tempering process and ingredients usually differ significantly. You can find my recipe for Peas and Paneer Kadhi here. Kadhi is a versatile soup that is a great accompaniment to curries, chapattis and rice. Instead of making vegetable curries separately, I sometimes like to add a colourful array of vegetables to the Kadhi itself; the usual suspects are peas, sweetcorn, carrots, potatoes and onions. When served with rice, this can be a meal in itself. Gujaratis love plain, unadulterated Kadhi with Matar-Bhaat, which is a rice dish made by steaming rice with fresh green peas. I hope to bring you my recipe for Matar-Bhaat soon, along with a curry that pairs amazingly with Kadhi.

Kadhi is another one of those Gujarati dishes which screams to taste hot, sweet and sour, just like the recipe for Gujarati Toor Daal. Remember to use semi-sour yogurt, sugar (or jaggery- raw cane sugar) and chillies. I haven’t added any garlic to this recipe, like I usually do in traditional Kadhi because I didn’t want too many strong flavours overpowering the delicate fruitiness of the mangoes. Therefore, this recipe is suitable for those who have a strictly no-onions and no-garlic diet. I think the ginger and green chillies give the Kadhi the flavour-kick it needs without masking the taste of mango. I have added my mango pulp at the end in order to keep the mango flavour fresh and noticeable.

Ingredients

1 cup ripe mango, pureed
2 cups yogurt
1 ½ tbsp chickpea flour
5-6 cups cold water
2 medium hot green chillies, minced (or to taste)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
½ tsp turmeric
¼ cup coriander, chopped
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste (according to how sweet your mangoes are- remember that Gujarati Kadhi is supposed to be hot, sweet and sour)

To Temper

1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves (optional)
3-4 cloves
¼ tsp asafoetida

Method

1. Combine the yogurt, chickpea flour, water, chillies and ginger. Blend in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Set aside.

2. In a large pan, heat the ghee, cumin seeds, curry leaves, cloves and asafoetida. When aromatic, add the yogurt mixture and stir constantly until it comes to a gentle boil on a medium/low heat. This is to ensure that the mixture does not curdle.

3. When the mixture is gently simmering, add the turmeric, salt, mango puree and sugar. Adjust the consistency with water if you like, and simmer for a further 4-5 minutes. Taste to check for hot, sweet and sour.

4. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped coriander.

Serve with hot basmati rice, chapattis and your favourite dry curry. In my next post I’ll share my favourite dry curry recipe with you! It pairs wonderfully with this mango Kadhi.

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Who says healthy food has to be boring food? Go on, trick your mind into thinking you’re eating a bowl full of liquid heaven!

 

Luxurious Spinach and Mung Bean Soup

 

Ingredients
(Serves 3-4 as a starter)

 

1/3 cup mung beans, washed, soaked and boiled with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda until tender, then drained
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 green chilli
1 tbsp tomato puree
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander seed powder
2 ½ cups water
¼ cup chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste
Juice of ½ a large lemon (around 4 tbsp)
¼ cup double cream (omit for a vegan recipe)

Method

 

1. Heat the sunflower and mustard oil in a large pan and add the mustard seeds (wait for them to pop), then add the cumin seeds and asafoetida.

 

2. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and fry until aromatic. Add the tomato puree, turmeric, coriander seed powder and water. Bring to the boil.

 

3. Add the mung beans, spinach, salt and lemon juice and allow to boil for three to four minutes. Add the chopped coriander.

 

4. Blend until roughly pureed (I used an immersion blender but you can use whatever blender you have).

 

5. Return to the pan and bring to a low simmer and add the cream. Remove from the heat and check the seasoning. Garnish with more chopped coriander if you like.

 

NOTE: If you have a pressure cooker then you can simply add the raw mung beans to the spicy broth mixture (minus the fresh coriander leaves- add that after it's cooked) at step three, pressure cook and blend once cooled.

 

 

 

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This recipe was requested by Katrina via Ask Sanjana and it is my pleasure to share with you all, my old skool recipe for Gujarati daal. The beauty of Gujarati daal is that it is thinner and therefore lighter than your usual daal, yet also packed full of flavour. It is super important that the daal is hot, sweet and sour (almost in the same way that Thai food is… which perhaps explains my borderline-obsessive love of the Thai cuisine). As you make this daal, please bear the hot, sweet and sour rule in mind and add chilli, sugar and lemon accordingly and as required. I’ve done my best in recording my measurements of these ingredients here as Katrina mentioned that measurements were a little hazy when she used other recipes. I assure you that if you just remember the hot, sweet and sour rule you will serve perfect Gujarati ‘daarbhaat’ (daal and rice- rice recipe here) every time!

Ingredients
(serves 4)

1 ½ cups oily split pigeon peas (toor or tuver daal)
6 cups water

2 green chillies, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp turmeric
At least 2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
At least 2 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
Salt to taste

To Temper

1 ½ tbsp ghee (or oil if you’re vegan)
½ tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida
6 curry leaves
Around 10 peanuts
Around 10 cashew nuts
2 star anise
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon

Method

1. Pressure cook the split pigeon peas with 6 cups of water until liquid. Sieve the mixture into a large bowl.

2. Mix in the chillies, ginger, tomato puree, turmeric, sugar, lemon juice and salt.

3. Heat the ghee or oil in a wide pan and add the mustard seeds (wait for them to pop!) Add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, peanuts, cashew nuts, star anise, cloves and cinnamon.

4. Add the daal mixture and boil for ten to fifteen minutes, Taste (remember to find a perfect balance of hot, sweet and sour); if you need to add any more chilli, sugar or lemon then do so according to your taste.

5. Serve with a delicious bowl full of hot basmati rice!

The post Simple Gujarati Daal appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.