Contest 2010 April Winners

Thank you for participating in the April contest. I have received some great recipes this month. I have received 39 entries and believe me it was a hard decision once again to select the winners. I have gone over the recipes several times. Some were great recipes but were missing little things which make them incomplete. Some of you have sent the recipe using kala chana (black gram) and while those recipes were great, I had to disqualify them because this month is based on chickpeas or garbanzo beans. Additionally, some of the entries were also disqualified because of incorrect measurement of ingredients and/or the methods were written poorly. For next month, one entry per viewer please. I cant wait to see what you make.

FIRST PLACE:

• Charu Nagi created a very healthy dish called Warm Chickpeas and veggies salad. The full recipe is listed below.

“I read about the contest, I thought to share the chickpeas salad, which I like the most. Since I couldn’t find any particular method, I came up with my own version of salad watching different clips in t.v. I named it : Warm Chickpeas and veggies salad. This is an easy recipe to prepare. In the clip, they showed making different salad but they added meat or chicken. I used to be non-veg but now I am trying to become vegetarian. So I thought to make salad without any meat in it. So I replace meat with chickpeas and replace cold salad with warm veges. This is because during night I like to eat something warm. And here I came up with this dish which really fulfill my tummy and is very healthy at the same time. Here is the warm version of salad.”

SECOND PLACE:

• Anitha Narayanaswamy also created a great version called Chickpeas Veggi Adai. Her recipe is also listed below.

“Adai is a popular south indian tiffin item. Adai is prepared with chana dhal ( split chickpea with skin removed ) . Since we all know chana dhal are rich in protein but they lack in dietary fiber content  when compared to whole pulses ( like chick peas ). So only difference is chana dhal is split and its skin removed. This is how my inspiration got focused with Adai with chick peas.”

I would also like to congratulate our other top contributors. Thank you so much for participating and I hope to see more for next contest:

• Nayna Kanabar
• Prerna Das
• Chithra Rajagopalan
• Adelina Moraru
• Jayu Bangalore
• Padmini Dilip
• Rosha Hebsur
• Shruthi Udupa
• Pratima Pachipulusu
• Sushma
• Umm Razeen
• Shyamala S Kumar
• Ankita Wakade
• Aarti Abhayakumar
• Pinky Hotwany
• Laxmi Dogra
• Jennifer Rodriguez
• Sridevi Mishra
• Darshana Chauhan
• Noopur Srivastava
• Sowjanya
• Sushma Saggam
• Prajkta Markaneya
• Richa Agarwal
• Alok Gautam
• Kalavathi Bhaskaran
• Archana Singh
• Kalyani Chandar
• Kayalvizhi Porselvi Kalidass
• Shirin Bagwan
• Bharatha Bhushana

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chickpeas (Garbanzo beans, Kabuli chana)/ May use canned chickpeas.
• 2 Medium carrots cut into bite size
• 1/2 broccoli cut into bite size
• 1/2 cup chopped green beans (35 sticks approx.)
• 6-7 Turnip greens (Cut its stem into bite size and cut the greens into long strips)
• 3 tablespoons oil ( I used olive oil)
• 1 tablespoon finely grated or chopped ginger
• 1 chopped green chili or to your taste
• 1/2  teaspoon salt or to your taste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Garnish

• Slices of lemon and Cucumbers
• Green leaves lettuce or any other lettuce of choice.

Method

1. Wash chickpeas and soak in about 2 cups of water overnight.
2. Drain the chickpeas and wash it.
3. In a pressure cooker add chickpeas with 2 cups of water.
4. As pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium low, cook for about 8-10 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and wait for 10 min. Now open cooker and check chickpeas, they should be soft. Drain the chickpeas and put it aside.
6. Heat the oil in a saucepan on medium heat, add cumin seeds.
7. After cumin seeds crack, add 1/2 cup green beans and chopped stems of turnip green. Cook for 1 1/2 min.
8. Next step is to add chopped carrots, broccoli, chopped ginger and chopped green chili, stir for a 1 min.
9. Next add the chickpeas and mix it well with veggies. Cook another min and turn off the heat.
10. Now salt and dried oregano. Mix it well
11. Last but not the least add turnip green strips. Mix it well.
12. Serve and Enjoy.

Serving Suggestions

1. For the best taste serve salad with plain yogurt (add salt and black pepper to taste).
2. May garnished salad with slice of lemon and cucumber.
3. Salad may also serve over green leaves lettuce . ( I took this suggestions from Manjula’s chole chaat)
4. Also may add cheese over salad. ( I do sometimes)
5. This salad could be served as side dish or can be eaten as a main dish.

Tip

• Can also use spinach instead of Turnip greens. ( I do sometimes)

Total Preparation –  apprx 30 min
Below ratio amount will make 6 to 7 medium sized Adai

Ingredients:

For Chickpeas Batter

• Chick peas – 1 cup  (soaked in water for 5 to 6 hrs )
• Rice ( any white rice ) – 1/2 cup ( soaked in water for 1 to 2 hrs )
• Corriander seeds – 1 tbsp
• fennel seeds – 2 tsps
• Whole red chilli – 5 to 6
• salt to taste
• hing powder
• water – 1 cup

For Veggi mixture

• Red bell peper ( Chopped finely )- 1/4 cup
• Orange bell peper( Chopped finely ) – 1/4 cup
• Carrot ( Shredded ) – 1/4 cup
• Cilantro – 1/4 cup
• Curry leaves – 2 tbsp

For Adai

• Laddle for making adai

Method:

1. Grind all ingredients with blender/mixie mentioned under the section chickpeas batter . Use little water for grinding .
2. The batter should not be too thick or too watery, should be in same consistency as to dosa/idly batter.
3. Check the salt for the batter.
4. Mix some water if its too thick.
5. Mix all the veggi into the prepared batter.
6. Heat iron gridle ( Dosa Kallu ) or non-stick tava.
7. Put the batter with medium sized laddle in the hot tava/kallu. The batter should not be in a pouring consistency.
8. Expand the batter in a round motion with the laddle ( similar to dosa expansion ). Adai is smaller in circumference when compared to dosa.
9. Drizzle some oil around the adai
10. Let it cook for 2 min.Flip the adai let the other side cook for 2 min.
11. Adai should be golden brown when it is done.
12. It will take some time to cook on both side.Then only the raw smell of the pulse will be eliminated.
13. Serve hot with corriander cutney / Coconut Chutney.
14. But normally it will go well with avial ( vegetable subzi ) . But is up to us to make the side dish

So Chickpeas adai is ready to eat. Have a healthy tiffin.