Turnip green rice topped with cashews and cheese

The best part I like about cooking rice with greens is that, the outcome is a wonderful two in one dish saving time and giving a wholesome complete meal with double the nutrition in half the prep time. You can call it a comfort meal cooked up in just minutes with some precooked left over rice and a bag of frozen precut greens. 

I cook a variety of rice dishes with various greens like spinach, cilantro, podina (mint) each having its own flavor. Here I used turnip greens that are low calorie and rich in fiber, vitamin C and folic acid.

Turnip greens are mild in taste like spinach with a faint yet pleasant bitterness. This Freshly fried up rice in sauteed turnip greens spiced with typical Indian spices and topped with toasted cashews and parmesan cheese will make a nice and warm dinner that can be relished simply with some plain yoghurt or raita of choice.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups Precooked rice
bag of frozen or fresh cut turnip greens

1 small onion chopped (optional)

1 tbsp garlic paste

salt to taste

2 tbsp grated parmesan

for tempering:

3 tbs oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp fennel fowder

1 tsp garam masala

1 dried red chilly halfed

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds. when seeds start to splutter add the garlic paste, rest of the tempering ingredients followed by onions. Saute till golden brown and add the greens. If necessary sprinkle a few drops of water and saute until the greens are cooked well. Now stir in cooked rice and mix well and fry a little until the rice brown very slightly on the edges. 

Take of the flame and top with toasted cashews and grated parmesam  cheese and the green rice is ready to serve.

Serving suggestions: Serve with a dollop of creamy plain yoghurt or raita of choice.

This recipe along with the following rice dishes is making its way to Srilekha's event on EFM Variety rice series                        

- Bisebele bath

- Paneer fried rice

- Tricolor fried rice

- Lemon rice

Rice Rava Upma with chana daal and scallion garnish

Hope you all had a great weekend friends! After a short break due to several things that had come up on the way, I am back with recipes. Yeah... I have been longing to comeback and hardly had a chance to go over some of your interesting recipes I had been missing all this while.  
After a hectic couple of weeks, I am here with one of the dishes waiting in my drafts to hit the screen . So here's the simple and yummy variation to the most common South Indian breakfast tiffin "Upma". We all make upma various ways and with different base and accompanying ingredients. Bombay rava, wheat rava, poha, vermicelli being some of the base ingredients we use, the rice rava upma that I  often make is my DHs favorite of all these. It has that unique taste of its own with its more grainy and coarser texture compared to the regular bombay rava. So here we go-

What we need:

2 cups Rice rava
4 cups water
1/2 cup chana daal soaked in water for abt half hr
2 dried red chillies
1 fresh green pepper
1 tabs chopped fresh ginger
chopped spring onions (scallions) for garnish
for tempering:
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad daal

Heres how to make rice rava: wash the rice a couple of times with water, drain and air dry it in a single layer on a clean cloth or paper towels until all the rice is dried out. Coarsely grind the rice using a grinder and sift off the fine flour. The rava that remains after removing the fine flour (which can be stored separately and used in other recipes)  is used here. Rava prepared this way can be strored in an airtight container for a month or more.

Method:
Heat oil in a large pan and add the tempering ingredients. When the seeds start to splutter add the dried red chillies followed by green chilies and ginger. Saute for a few secs and stir in the soaked and drained chana daal. Mix and saute for a couple of mins. Now add water to it and desired amount of salt and cook with the lid closed until the water starts to boil. Stir in the rava and mix well.  Close the lid and let cook for another 8-10 mins on medium flame until all the water is taken up and the rava is cooked well. Stir occasionally while it is cooking.  Turn off the flame and garnish with chopped scallions and rice rava upma is ready to serve.

Serving suggestions: Serve hot with pickel or chutney of choice. I personally prefer ginger pickel with this.

Now I would like to thank the kind gestures and awards shared the by blogger friends 
@ Tasty trix for creative blogger award
Indrani @ Appyayan for the fabulous blog, Inspiration award, Yum Yum blog and I love your blog awards
Thank you! It is very inspiring to recieve these from such wonderful bloggers. I would like to pass these to all my blogger friends.

Boodida gummidikaya koora/ Ash gourd curry

With all the pumpkins and gourds around in season, I thought of posting an Andhra style curry with the Ashgourd also called "Boodida gummadi" in telugu. It is used in various dishes such as daals, sambhar, and even candies (called petha) in Indian cuisine. This simple and quick recipe here involves cooking ashgourd in tamarind sauce with grated coconut and is a yummy and light accompaniment with hot rice or rotis.

Ingredients:

Ashgourd quarter peeled and cut to small cubes

juice from a a small lemon sized ball of tamarind

2 chopped green pepper

1 tbsp grated jaggery

3 tbsp grated fresh or dry coconut

pinch of hing (asafoetida)
salt to taste

for tempering:

3 tsp oil

1 tbsp chana daal

1 tbsp urad daal

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp mustard

2 dried red pepper

1 tsp turmeric

few curry leaves

Method:

In a large pan heat oil for seasoning. Add  all the seasoning ingredients in order mentioned, ending with turmeric so it doesnt blacken. When seeds start to splutter add the curry leaves and chopped green pepper. Sprikle the seasoning with a pinch of hing. Now stir in the cut ashgourd pieces mix and cook with a cup of water.

When the gourd is slightly tender add the tamarind juice and cook until it looses the raw smell and starts to reduce and thicken.  now add the grated jaggery, adjust the salt and mix well. Stir in the grated coconut and take off the flame. The yummy hot and sour ashgourd curry is ready to serve. Enjoy!

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with steaming rice dish or rotis