Today am here with a Lunch menu idea from Andhra the twist is with No onion or Garlic used. In Jain culture, we do follow no onion no garlic diet since I have already posted a jain thali last month ( with no onion no garlic) I just wanted to try other Indian cuisine options and here I am with my first No onion no garlic meal in the series. I chose to make a hearty meal this weekend and made this Andhra special meal for our lunch. I planned 2 sides, 2 sides to go with rice, One variety rice, one starter and one fried sweet for this menu. With the ingredients available in my kitchen, I started cooking very late by 11.30 A.M and completed cooking by 1.30 P.M I was dragging like a sloth in the kitchen 😀 Oh yeah this was our Sunday meal. Sunday meals are always special as I try to cook at least 5-6 dishes in the thali, my hubby loves to try elaborate thali so I love to cook for him always.
We are a group of Bloggers doing mega marathon blogging this month. I am always happy and glad to participate in the blogging marathon, it is a food adventure which I and my family enjoy. I always try my best to plan my cooking ahead but it never happens, I call it adventurous for a reason as I cook on the same day or the before day of posting it is a real challenge to cook, photograph and post on the same day. I try my best to bring something new for the marathon and on my trying I have learned so many new cuisines. My hubby is so excited than me that am doing the marathon this month. On the other hand, I am getting the exam fever and so scared, wishing that I complete this marathon in a smooth way. I am doing 4 themes for this marathon so sprinkling all 4 themes in my A-Z series for 4 weeks. I didn’t plan to make an Andhra meal, before I had another plan for the letter A but ended up making a mini thali menu again.
Andhra Pradesh Cuisine has rice and rice varieties for the main meal. The state is well known for its red chillies from guntur.I thought of including puliyohare which is an important festive food in Andhra. The puliyohare are made with green chillis in Andhra version.
The veg dishes includes Koora which is a lentil gravy, Saaru which is rasam,Pulusu is a tamarind and lentil stew, Vepudu is any kind of fry for side dish. I had shared an Andhra thali for mega marathon 4 years back for april bm again am starting the mega-marathon with an Andhra Lunch menu it was just a coincidence :). Though Andhra and Telangana may have some recipes similar there is some difference in the ingredients used.
So here My A for Andhra Lunch Menu and A for Alasanda Vada
Moving on to my Lunch menu :
- Alasanda Vada|Lobia beans Vada (Rayalaseema special) -Appetizer
- Plain Rice and Puliyohare – Variety Rice
- Tomato paruppu- Side to go with Rice
- Majjige Pulusu or (Saaru in karnataka)| Buttermilk rasam – side to go with Rice
- Dondakaya Vepudu | Ivy gourd fry- Vegetable side dish
- Kandagadda Vepudu | Yam fry- Root vegetable side dish
- Chandra kaanthalu – A Festive sweet
My personal favorite was chandra kaanthalu this is very different fried sweet I have ever had with yellow moong dal. I enjoyed making them and they tasted so delicious. With only 3 simple ingredients used this sweet was my favorite and I was able add a sweet dish quickly to the menu. I saw this recipe in a Tv show and adapted the measurements according to us.
How I prepared this meal?
- I didn’t soak the lobia/ Black eyed peas beans (for vada) overnight so I did the quick soaking technique. Boiled some water and soaked the beans covered and rested it for about 2-3 hours till I finished my rest of the cooking.I also soaked some Moong dal for chandra kanthalu.
- I have a 4 stove kitchen range so it was a breeze for me still I tend to use only 2 at a time. In a pressure cooker cooked the paruppu/ Lentils and tomatoes and on the other had chopped the Dondakaya / Ivy gourd lengthwise.
- While I was chopping I also dry roasted some podi / powder to go in the puliyohare and a Peanut spice mix for Dondakaya.
- After dry roasting and chopping the veggie, I kept the dry roasted ingredients to cool and started peeling and chopping the yam.
- In the meantime opened the pressure cooker and mashed the dal and tomato.
- Made a tadka for the dal , poured it over and kept it boil for some time and continued Peeling and chopping the yam.
- In a pan made a tadka and threw in the Ivy gourd to saute and cook. Covered it and let it cook.
- In another pan filled it with water to boil and added some turmeric and salt for cooking the yam.
- Once the water started boiling threw in the yam for cooking and started grinding the dry roasted ingredients.
- Tomato paruppu was all boiled and ready, Ivy gourd was cooked so added the dry roasted peanut spice mix and sauteed it well for few mins and turned off the flame.
- Yam was cooked, drained the water and coated it with masala for tawa roasting.
- Churned some buttermilk , added some green chilli paste and prepared tadka .Keep it to boil in a low flame.
- Drained the Moong dal and ground it into a coarse paste. Lobia beans were soaked as well so drained and ground them too.
- Majjige saaru / buttermilk rasam was ready. In a saucepan kept oil to heat.
- At the same time drizzled oil in a tawa and started roasting the yam side by side.
- In a pan added some ghee and cooked the moong dal paste with constant stirring. Added some sugar and again stirred them till formed a lump. Transferred it to a greased plate and shaped them into rectangles, using a cookie cutter cut them into crescent shapes.
- Oil was hot fried the crescent-shaped 2 at a time. Meanwhile Chopped some cabbage , green chillies, ginger to go for the vada. Mixed all the ingredients for vada .
- Once I was done frying the chandra kanthalu I shaped the vadas and started frying them. Seeing me working Hubby offered me help with the dishes (I don’t use dishwasher. ) 😀 and he did the vacuum as well ( am blessed to have him beside me ).. I always love keeping my workspace clean, I try to clean while I cook so the dirty dishes don’t pile up but if I do an elaborate platter it does pile up sometimes . The OCD bug has passed to me from my hubby , he is one hygiene freak 😀 ..
I had some crazy idea of making all the Andhra dishes starting with letter A ( Letter A thali :D) but I didn’t plan well so went with this simple meal. I made sure I have at least one recipe from The Andhra menu to start with A so I chose to make this vada after googling all the possibilities as it was very similar to our very own masal vada but the only difference is making with beans. I always get tempted to add onion and garlic in any dish, this by itself is a challenge. I was skeptical about how the vadas would taste without onion so I replaced the onions with cabbage. They came out super crispy and they are perfect to indulge with spicy gravy.This vada is very popular in Rayalaseema region and is prepared with cow peas / Black eyed peas. This vada is enjoyed with some spicy gravy and traditionally chicken gravy. Some people even shape them Like medu vada , as I grounded the vada coarsely I flattened them up and fried. This vada is prepared for festivals like Sankranti, we at our home too make vada for Sankranti but this vada was a very new version for us. I always have hard time photographing a thali , it is so tough to keep everything in focus , I tried my best. Moving on to the recipe now.
Ingredients
Blacked Eyed Peas- 1 cup
Cabbage – 1/4 cup ( chopped)
Green chillies- 3 Nos
Ginger – 1 inch chopped
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Turmeric pd – a pinch
Salt to taste
Method
- Soak the black-eyed peas overnight or for 3-4 hours. As I said earlier I used the quick soaking method for the beans.
- Drain the water, and grind them coarse without adding water. Don’t get tempted to add water else your vada will have more moisture and will absorb more oil.
- Add chopped green chillies, ginger, cabbage, curry leaves and mix them well. As I was doing No onion No garlic theme I opted for cabbage else the traditional vadas are made with onion in them.
- Also add fennel seeds, Turmeric pd,salt and mix the vada batter well. Turmeric pd is optional if you are a person like me who loves the yellow inside in your vada then you can add them.
- Heat oil in a kadai or saucepan. Check the oil if it is hot by dropping a tiny piece of vada batter and it should sizzle up once you drop it.
- Divide them into equal sized balls, once the oil is hot flatten the ball in between your palm and slide them into the hot oil.You can grind the vada more and try to shape them like medu vada with a hole in the middle. As I had ground the batter a bit coarse I kept it flattened.
- You can fry 2-3 vadas at a time, so do the same for all the batter.Fry the vadas in medium flame as it will be uncooked from inside if you fry them in high.
- Serve the vada with any spicy curry or gravy. We enjoyed the vada as is but it will taste best with a spicy gravy .
- Blacked Eyed Peas- 1 cup
- Cabbage - ¼ cup ( chopped)
- Green chillies- 3 Nos
- Ginger - 1 inch chopped
- Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
- Curry leaves - 1 sprig
- Turmeric pd - a pinch
- Salt to taste
- Oil for frying
- Soak the black-eyed peas overnight or for 3-4 hours.
- Drain the water, and grind them coarse without adding water.
- Add chopped green chillies, ginger, cabbage, curry leaves and mix them well.
- Also add fennel seeds, Turmeric pd,salt and mix the vada batter well.
- Heat oil in a kadai or saucepan.
- Divide them into equal sized balls, once the oil is hot flatten the ball in between your palm and slide them into the hot oil.
- You can fry 2-3 vadas at a time, so do the same for all the batter.
- Serve the vada with any spicy curry or gravy.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 87
