We have come to the end of a month long blogging marathon and this is the last recipe of the day. It’s adapted a little from All recipes site. 

The recipe is very simple – cook the mushrooms and onions, make a roux with flour and milk, and cook everything together. Usually cream is used for this recipe, but I decided to go lighter and used milk instead. I also didn’t want a really thick soup, so decreased the amount of flour a bit and increased the liquids. I usually add cooked white beans or black beans to my soups to up the filling factor. Here it would have helped with increasing the protein also, but I had to skip it since I didn’t have any that day. 

Read on for the recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups chopped white mushrooms 
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 cups vegetable broth or water
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Heat 2 teaspoon butter in a pan. Sauté onions until it’s a little pink. Add the mushrooms and cook until it changes color. 
2. Add one cup of vegetable broth or water and let the mushrooms cook completely. Take off the heat and once cool, purée in a blender, keeping a little aside for adding on top at the time of serving. 
3. Heat the rest of the butter in a pan. Add the flour and mix it for a few seconds. Add the milk, seasonings and the puréed mushroom mix. Cook everything stirring frequently to avoid lumps. Add one cup of water or broth (or more) if the soup is too thick. 
4. Take off the heat and serve with a piece of bread. 

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I usually buy vegetables for about a week to ten days. Most of the times by the weekend,  I am almost always out of vegetables. Good thing is that I am always stocked up in pulses, eggs and onions. So this is one of the dishes I end up making on weekends, mostly Fridays. 

This is a traditional recipe, with changes made according to each house’s preference. This pairs especially well with aapam, but also goes well with chapati, parathas or idiappam. The base for this dish is sautéed onions with coriander powder, chili powder and garam masala. Coconut milk and eggs will complete the dish from there. Tomato is an optional addition here, but I always add it. 

The base gravy can be used for almost any vegetables. Potato and peas, mixed veggies, cooked chana, potato and mushroom are all good substitutes for the eggs here. You can  cover and cook the veggies before adding the coconut milk or even after that. 

I buy canned milk here in US, which makes this dish extremely easy to make. The traditional way, of course, is to extract the milk from the coconut. Feel free to use the method that works for you. 

Now read on for the recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs, hard boiled
• 3 tablespoons of oil 
• 1″ piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3-4 green chillies, slit into two pieces each
• 3 large onions, sliced 
• 1/2 of a medium tomato, optional
• 1 Tablespoon coriander powder 
• 1 teaspoon chili powder 
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder 
• Salt as needed
• 1 (14oz) can of coconut milk 

Hard boil 6 eggs. I do this in Instant pot. Add 1 glass of water to the pot, keep the eggs on top of the trivet. Cook in Manual mode for 6 minutes and release pressure immediately.  Shell them, make slits and keep aside. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and saute 1″ chopped ginger, three big sliced onions and 3-4 green chillies.

Once the onions turn pink, add half of a medium tomato and follow it up by 1 Tablespoon coriander powder, 1 teaspoon each of chilli powder and garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and salt as needed. Since the coconut milk will bring some sweetness, you can add a little more chili powder if you want to.

Mix everything, cover and let it cook completely. Add half a cup of water and add  the eggs. Add 1 can of coconut milk and bring it to a boil (I didn’t take a picture of this step). Taste test and add more garam masala or salt if needed. Take of the heat and serve with aapam or chapati.

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 80

Dish: Oatmeal Strawberry banana smoothie bowl
I am a big fan of overnight oats and chia pudding recipes. It’s as simple as mixing things in a bowl at night and waking up in the morning to a delicious meal. I make it very frequently and each time I try a different version of it. But now a days, a constant element in my recipes is peanut butter. I noticed that my hunger pangs are curbed a lot more when there is some peanut  butter in my oats or smoothie bowls. 

Smoothie bowls are also a staple at home, especially for my son’s dinner. Here is a recipe that’s a combination of a smoothie bowl and overnight oats. It’s as simple as adding overnight oats to a smoothie.  The recipe is rich in protein with oats and peanut butter. It’s a tasty as well as a filling recipe. 

Read on for the recipe. 

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup milk
• 5-6 strawberries
• 1 medium banana, sliced
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Toppings of your choice

Method:

1. Soak and refrigerate oatmeal in milk overnight or for at least 3 hours.
2. Blend this with strawberries, banana, peanut butter and honey.
3. Serve in a bowl with toppings of your choice. Here I have used homemade granola from Pavani, raisins, strawberries and cashews and some more honey for drizzling on top.

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