Baked Spinach Koftas for Tried and Tasted & my FIRST award

As we all know Tried and Tasted for this month is being hosted by Vaishali of Holy Cow and the blog featuring is Susan's Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. To be honest I was not very familiar with her blog but as i started browsing i was simply amazed with the wonderful collection of vegan recipes she has from all around the world.  As said in my earlier post i have lots of spinach stocked in my pantry and hence, i was finding ways to use it other than making the regular curries out of it. I found this wonderful recipe of Baked Spinach Koftas on Susan's blog which i completely fell in love with. I followed susan's recipe but did make few changes. These are so healthy and fulfilling that i had them for dinner and also for next day's breakfast :) I covered the extra filling and kept in fridge overnight, just remove it 30 minutes before you want to bake them. If baked version is so delicious i cant wait to try the deep fried version :)

Sending these to Tried and Tasted Fatfree Vegan Kitchen event guest hosted by Vaishali of Holy Cow, mastermind of Zlamushka and to SWC-Cooking with greens event guest hosted by Sowmya, started by Laxmi

 

Now the most important part...I got my first blog AWARD....yippeeee...I couldnt believe when Lena and Padma both passed "I Love your Blog" award to me. Thank you so much gals :) To be frank I never really thought I would get any awards and this was such a nice surprise :) I must say that this would really not have been possible without the love and support of all my blog pals, I have learnt so much in my last 2 months of blogging experience. We do ROCK gals :)

This award comes with bunch of rules:

• Add the logo of the award to your blog.
• Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
• Nominate atleast 7 other blogs (Only if you like).
• Add links to those blogs on your blog.
• Leave a message for your nominees on their blog.

I would like to pass this award to - Asha, Priya, Ramya, Padma, Lena, Pooja, Ushanandini, Priyameena, Pavithra, Pooja, Aruna, Soma, Muskaan and Sadhna of A2ZVegetarianCuisine

, Yasmeen, Pratibha, Nags, Gita, Lisa, Jeena, EC, Deeba, Aparna, Renuka, Mahimaa, Suparna, Madhuram, Sowmya, and Vrinda Please accept the award gals and happy blogging !!!

Well now for the recipe for baked spinach koftas :) From the below recipe i got around 25 medium sized koftas.

Ingredients:

250 gms tofu

2 cups spinach

1/2 cup boiled and mashed potatoes

2-3 green chillies

2 bunches of spring onions

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp chickpea flour or besan

1 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Procedure:

• Blanch the spinach in hot water till it becomes tender.
• Grind together tofu, blanched spinach and green chillies in mixer until crumbly. DONOT add water and make a paste out of it.
• Add the boiled and mashed potatoes in the tofu-spinach mixture and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil , add in cumin seeds and ginger paste, as seeds starts to splutter add in chopped spring onions and cook for about 2 mins
• Now add in garam masala, salt, sugar, lime juice and potato-spinach-tofu mixture and mix well. Cook for about 5 mins.
• Remove from heat and add the chickpea flour and mix well. 
• Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Make small round balls of the mixture and bake it for 10 minutes, flip around and again bake it for 10 mins until light brown.
• Serve with hot and spicy chutney or sauce.

Corn Palak (Sweet Corn with Spinach)

HMMM It was thursday afternoon when it all started....while surfing i saw this yummy picture of palak paneer on one of the food sites, though I am not a BIG fan of palak but i do like it in gravy dishes. I wanted to go home and make palak paneer that moment itself...you know how cravings are....so i patiently waited till the clock ticked 6 and immediately ran out of office to buy some fresh spinach leaves. Being very fussy as I am I really dont like the taste of frozen vegetables, i always prefer fresh ones. Unfortunately fresh spinach's are not available everywhere here.....people usually use the frozen cubes. As i was walking towards the supermarket I was praying that i get some fresh spinach today. I didnt have much hope as I was already late...shops get closed by 6 here and very few shops are open till 7 or 8, even if you find them open most of the fresh leafy veggies are already gone.  As i reached the counter i saw there was only one BIG bunch of baby spinach leaves left and I immediately grabbed it...i felt as if i found a treasure :) an aged guy standing next to me gave me a look as if I am crazy, I gave him a big smile..m sure i must have :))....in all my excitement i didnt even notice that the bunch which i had bought was very very BIG, i guess lots of spinach recipes coming up in my future posts :) 

Hmmm one down and one more to go....paneer....again i didnt want to use the frozen paneer....they are not fresh and the one which we get here are hard as a rock, whereas I prefer homemade paneer are soft with melt in mouth texture. Well making paneer was absolutely out of question as it will require lot of time and i didnt really have so much patience...so not giving up i made this dish using sweet corns. The dish came out very well, i simply followed my mom's tips on spices and the result was creamy and delicious curry. Perfect for nan, roti and parathas. I simply adore this recipe because of its simplicity and taste :)) It just took me under 30 mins to prepare this yummy dish :)

Sending corn palak to SWC- Cooking with greens event guest hosted by Sowmya of Creative Saga, mastermind of Laksmi. This dish is also off to WYF : Quick Meals hosted by EC.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh spinach leaves

2 medium onions squared

2 medium tomatoes squared

1 cup sweet corn (i used canned)

3 medium green chiilies

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp oil

1 tsp fresh cream for garnishing

Procedure:

• Blanch the spinach in hot water for about 8 - 10 mins, until the leaves become soft.
• Grind together onions, tomato, green chillies with very little water to make a smooth paste.
• Heat the oil in a pan, add in ginger paste, saute for few seconds, now add in the onion-tomato paste, salt, sugar and turmeric powder.
• Cook the gravy for about 5 to 7 mins until the raw taste of onion disappears.
• Now add in the sweet corn kernels and simmer for about 3 to 4 mins.
• Grind the blanched spinach into smooth paste.
• Just before serving, add the spinach paste in the gravy and simmer for about 2 mins.
• Adust the salt and sugar according to taste.
• Garnish with fresh cream or malai and serve hot with nan, roti or parathas.