Buddha bowl with roasted vegetables, quinoa, chickpeas

by

Vegan, gluten free buddha bowl recipe with roasted vegetables, quinoa and chickpeas

Vegan Buddha bowl with roasted vegetables, quinoa and chickpeas

Buddha bowls are so good. They can be customized in so many different ways. They are not difficult to prep, which makes me wonder why I don’t make them more often. And since 2017 is the year of Buddha bowl, its only fair now when half the year is over, I share my first buddha bowl recipe today. I am sharing the recipe for this vegan and gluten free buddha bowl with roasted vegetables, quinoa and chickpeas and a cashew cream sauce.

I have always wondered, how the Buddha bowl got its name. This article on Epicurious  is a great read to know more about the history behind buddha bowls.

The article in Epicurious explains the origins in the following excerpt:

Buddha woke up before dawn every morning and carried his bowl through the roads or paths wherever he was staying. Local people would place food in the bowl as a donation, and at the end he would eat whatever he had been given,” explains Zigmond. “So that was the original Buddha Bowl: a big bowl of whatever food villagers had available and could afford to share. It was probably pretty healthy, since Buddha lived before the age of cheap processed food, but it was also probably pretty simple, maybe rice and a simple curry.

Since most buddha bowls are bowls overflowing with vibrant food, some also say the reason why its called a Buddha bowl, since it resembles Buddha’s belly. Whatever the origin, buddha bowls are nourishing meals with little bites of everything, arranged in a pretty and artful way- making them an instant instagram success.

Read More →

Blueberry Mojito (Video Recipe)

by

A quick and easy video recipe for blueberry mojito – a twist on the classic cocktail.

Blueberry mojito- a quick and easy cocktail recipe, perfect for summer entertaining

It’s the weekend, and I have a cocktail recipe for you. A Blueberry Mojito recipe. I have posted about it earlier (about 5 years back), but that one was from a Mojito mix. Today I want to share the from scratch version.

I love a good mojito. Pina coladas and mojitos are generally my drink of choice. If not that then I like vodka, with a little orange juice, dash of sprite, some green chilli, lemon and salt- my version of a screwdriver. But mostly my poison is a Mojito. I find them refreshing. I tried this blueberry mojito for the first time when I was in Morenci and had my Friday coffee group over for brunch. It was a hit. Even my friend who isnt big on mint, liked it. This is the perfect summer cocktail- blueberries, mint, lemon- its got it all. And it’s super easy.

I also make these blueberry mint ice cubes, that are this pretty color and add so much fun to the cocktail. They take ten seconds to put together, and take the presentation up a notch.

This is the second video, my friend, Anubhav , helped me shoot. You can check the first one – panna cotta with roasted peaches and toasted oat crumble here. Hope you like our effort, let me know what you think in the comments.

Here’s the video and the recipe. Hope you get to try these blueberry mojitos. Have a happy weekend!

Blueberry Mojito from Shumaila Chauhan on Vimeo.

Read More →

Homemade Dinner rolls/ Pav Buns

by

Soft and fluffy dinner rolls made using the Tangzhong method. These dinner rolls make great pav buns too, and are eggless.

The best homemade dinner rolls/ pav buns

There is nothing like hot fresh dinner rolls from the oven and today I am sharing a recipe for homemade dinner rolls/ pav buns that uses the Tangzhong method.

I had read about the Tangzhong method and always wanted to try it. Its a bread making technique that originated in Japan (and popularized by a Chinese cookbook author), where the flour is first mixed with water, cooked to make a roux, cooled and then added to your bread dough ingredients. The result is a soft and fluffy bread that remains soft for longer than the one made the regular way.

The chemistry behind the tangzhong method is interesting and one that Jenni from Pastrychefonline.com explains very well. She explains in the post that the bread is moist because of the water content in it. By cooking the flour with the water you help the starch molecules hold on to the water, and at the same time keep a portion of the flour in your dough from strengthening their gluten bonds, giving the resultant bread a slightly tender crumb. That doesn’t mean that your bread will lack structure. Since only 5-10% of the total flour used in the recipe is used in Tangzhong, you get the structure from the rest 95%, and yet get a tender and moist bread.

The best homemade dinner rolls/ pav buns

The other day when I was trying to look for pav buns/dinner rolls recipe and saw that Gayathri from Gayathricookspot.com used the tangzhong for her pav buns, I knew I wanted to make it. I have a good whole wheat dinner roll recipe on the blog, but you know how much I love trying new recipes, so decided to give this pav bun/dinner rolls recipe a try. Even though I always try to make my breads more whole wheat, this time I decided to not substitute any of the flour with whole wheat. I was making pav bhaji and wanted it to be exactly street style, where the pavs are never whole wheat, but the less healthy maida/all purpose.

The dinner rolls came out so perfectly soft and fluffy. The tangzhong method also yields bread thats remains softer for longer, unlike most homemade breads that become hard in a day or two. Unfortunately or fortunately, there was nothing left of the dinner rolls for me to test that theory. My dad who had been out of town and only arrived at dinner time to eat the pav bhaji, didn’t realise till I told him that the pav is also homemade. He thought they were store bought pav buns.

In case you are wondering how I served the pav buns, here it is. Click on the picture for the recipe for pav bhaji.

The best homemade dinner rolls/ pav buns

Read More →