Vegetable Lasagna

So, I tried my own version of Vegetable Lasagna as my husband is not much a fan of foreign food. Lasagna has different layers of stuffing and a lot of cheese. Here in this recipe I have kept the calories in count.

Ingredients:

Stuffing 1: Spinach and corn

Spinach: 10 leaves nicely cleaned and partly blanched
Corn kernels: 1 ½ handful
Mixed herbs: 1 tbsp.
Chilli Flakes: ½ tbsp.
Oil/ Butter: 1 tbsp.
Salt: According to taste

Stuffing 2: White sauce with mixed vegetables
Capsicum: 1 finely chopped
Carrot; 1 small, finely chopped
Onion: 1 finely chopped
Beans: 5. Finely chopped
Any other kind of vegetable finely chopped (mushrooms, broccoli, bell peppers, parsley etc.)
Butter: 2 tbsp.
All-purpose flour: 2 tbsp.
Milk: Half cup
Salt and pepper: According to taste

Tomato Sauce:
Tomatoes: 2-3 big blanched and peeled
Garlic: 2-3 finely chopped
Oil/ Butter: 1 tbsp.
Salt and pepper: According to taste
Red chilli sauce: 2 tbsp.

Lasagna Sheets: 6 (I usually take 1 extra apart from the 6)
Oil/ Butter
Cheese: 2- 3 cubes

Procedure:

Take a flat bottomed pan and add water in it and heat it up until the water starts boiling. Now add a little salt and oil in the water and put the lasagna sheets in it (I bought readymade wheat lasagna sheets, you can also make these at home, I will post a tutorial of the same some other time). While the sheets are boiling, lets start with the corn and spinach stuffing. Take a pan and heat some oil in it, add the corn kernels and both the chilli flakes and mixed herbs and stir for a while. Now, add the blanched spinach leaves (you can chop them also) and cover the pan for about 5-7 minutes and keep aside.

Take all the chopped veggies together and sauté them for 3-4 minutes in oil, salt and pepper and keep aside. Take another pan and add butter in it. To this add the all-purpose flour and stir for a while and then add Milk and start mixing it again. You can use a whisker so that no lumps form. Mix it well until a thick mixture is formed. Add salt and pepper, you can also add cheese to make it more heavy. To this sauce mix all the sautéed veggies and keep aside.

Don’t forget to take out the lasagna sheets of the boiling water. Be careful with them as they tend to get stuck to each other. Take out one at a time and apply good amount of oil to it or you can add them directly to cold water. For the tomato sauce, take a pan and heat some oil in it. Add the garlic and the puree of the blanched tomatoes, after 3 minutes add the red chilli sauce and then the salt and pepper. Keep it on low flame for a while and then turn the flame off.

Now for the plating, start off with a nice utensil which goes with whatever thing you are using to bake it in. I have a gas tandoor, so I took a fancy tandoor friendly cake pan. Keep two sheets of lasagna and coat them with a little butter. Now add the spinach and corn stuffing, a little tomato sauce and some grated cheese and cover it again with a layer of 2 lasagna sheets and brush them with butter. Now, spread the white sauce mixture on it and also some tomato sauce and cheese. To this, add once again a layer of the sheets and repeat spreading the mixture as you like it. On the top, spread some tomato sauce that we made and some grated cheese with a little parsley. Keep this in the oven or a tandoor and let it bake. I kept it in my gas tandoor and it took about 15 minutes until the cheese got melted and the sides turned a little red. Serve hot.

Oh the aroma was amazing! My husband couldn’t control and we started to eat it as soon as it came out of the tandoor.

Vegetable Sizzler

This healthy season, let us try our hands on this lip smacking easy to make vegetable sizzler.

Ingredients:

Stir Fry Veggies:

Red bell pepper: Half cut into juliennes
Yellow bell pepper: Half cut into juliennes
Green Capsicum: 1 cut into juliennes
Beans: 10-12 cut into half inches
Peas: Half a handful
Sweet Corn: Half a handful
Onion: 1 cut into juliennes
Carrots: 1 Blanched
Broccoli: About 50 gms blanched
Baby Corn: 3-4 Blanched
Butter: 2 tbsp

Tomato Sauce:

Tomato: 2 Big and Blanched
Red Chilli Sauce: About 2 tbsps
Black Pepper: 1/4^th tbsp.
Salt: According to taste

Tikki:

Boiled Potato: 2
Bread Crumbs: 1
Salt: According to taste
Black pepper: 1/4^th
Cheese: 1 Cube grated

Fried Rice:

Carrot: Half cut into juliennes
Beans: A few cut into half inches
Green capsicum: Half chopped
Onion: 1 Chopped
Par boiled Rice: Half a cup
Garlic: 3 chopped finely
Soya Sauce: 1 tbsp
Vinegar: 2 tbsp
Salt: According to taste

Potato Wedges:

Potato: 1 mid-sized cut into fries or wedges
Corn flour- 1 tbsp.
Salt: According to taste
Mixed herbs: ½ tbsp.
Chilli Flakes: Half tbsp.

Oil accordingly
Cabbage leaves or lettuce for the plating
Butter cubes for the sizzle

Procedure:

Take the iron plate of the sizzler set up and keep it on the low flame on your gas stove and let it heat up.

                       

Let us start with the Fried rice first. Heat a little oil in a pan and put in the chopped garlic first. Now add the chopped Carrots, beans, onion and green capsicum and stir fry for a minute. Now add the par boiled rice in the pan and also add the soya sauce, vinegar and salt in it and mix them well and keep it aside.

For the Tikki, mix the boiled potato, bread crumbs, black pepper and salt and make 2 medium sized tikkis. Heat some oil in the pan and shallow fry the tikkis in them. Take them out on a tissue paper and grate some cheese on them while they are hot and keep aside.

For the potato wedges, take the raw potato wedges/fries in a mixing bowl and add the salt, black pepper, chilli flakes, mixed herbs, corn flour and 2 – 5 drops of water and mix/marinate them for 5 mins. Meanwhile, take the pan of the shallow fried tikkis, heat it up and fry the marinated potato in it. Take them out on a tissue paper and keep aside.

For the tomato sauce, take the blanched tomatoes and peel them. Grind them and make a puree. Take a pan and heat a little oil in it. Put the puree in the pan and mix black pepper and salt and let it come to a boil. Add the red chilli sauce in it and let it boil again. The sauce is ready.

For the stir fry vegetables, usually these veggies are served piping hot and crispy. Take a pan and add some butter and a little oil in it and let it get really hot till there are fumes (we mix the oil so that the butter does not burn). Now when the butter is hot, add all the vegetables in it (All the ones blanched and raw) and stir fry them with some salt and black pepper on high flame till they become crispy.

Plating:

For the plating, take the leaves of fresh cabbage or lettuce and place them on the hot iron sizzler plate (be careful because the iron plate will be very hot). Now start with the rice and plate them on one side of the sizzler plate. Now on the other side keep the stir fried veggies. Put the tikkis in the middle of the rice and vegetables. Also add the potato wedges alongside. Add the tomato sauce on the whole platting. Now for the sizzle, add a few pieces of butter in between the iron plate and the lettuce or cabbage leaves. The cold butter will start melting and the hot iron plate will make it sizzle.

                               

Your vegetable sizzler is ready. Serve as and then.

Tip: You may reheat all the things you’ve made before the final plating to keep them hot.