Baked pasta with roasted vegetables

I love Italian food. What I absolutely love about this pasta is it's delicious roasted flavor combined with marinara and combination of 2 cheeses!! The combination makes wonder. You just have to try it out to believe. 


I used Penne and all the vegetables I had including onion, red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms.


Cook the pasta less than al dente- I cooked it for 6 minutes, because it's going to finish it's cooking later in to the oven. Salt the water in which you are cooking the pasta. 


Chop all the veggies and spread them on a baking pan which is lined with an aluminium foil. Season the veggies with salt and pepper and some olive oil. Mix well and arrange in a single layer. 


Set the oven to 400F and roast the veggies for about 15 minutes.

In a bowl mix the cooked pasta, all the roasted veggies and marinara sauce. Fold in the cheeses. I used smoked mozzarella for it's smoky flavor and Parmesan for the beautiful crust. 

Spread the mixture in a baking pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until the cheese melts and forms a nice golden crust on top.

Asparagus Soup- A slow cooker/crock-pot wonder

This is the first time I used slow cooker for making this healthful soup. And now that I have used it once I am kind of addicted to use it over and over. Slow cooker is such a convenient invention, that it gives you ease of preparing your food while you are away the whole day/ sleeping the whole night. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Preparing the soup is such a simple task, all you have to do is gather the ingredients.

chop them.

and throw them in to the slow cooker, with vegetable stock/vegetable broth. I used vegetable stock. Also add salt and pepper to taste. Keep in mind that the vegetable stock also contains salt.

Set the cooker to low for about 7-9 hours, or high for about 5-6 hours. I set it on high for 5 hours, just until the potatoes are tender.

Let the mixture cool for an hour and then use the blender/mixer to blend it in to a soup like consistency.

Return the mixture to the slow cooker add the milk or half an half. Using milk or half and half is totally optional. As per my experience, using it is a wise decision, as it will make the soup creamy and thick. Set on a low for about 45 minutes, and then set the cooker on warm until you are ready to eat.

Ladle the soup in to a bowl. I garnished the soup with a dollop of cream cheese, shaved red pepper and asparagus spears that I kept aside.

Enjoy!!!

Coming up: Baked pasta with roasted vegetables

Tasty Triangles and Savory Ribbons!!

Only one dough makes these two tasty snacks!! It's a great time saver for parties. You will be able to do more in less time. The dough is made up of all purpose flour, Ajwain seeds, salt, which makes savory ribbons,and the same dough with a few more ingredients added makes tasty triangles. Both the items are good for a picnic, you can just make them beforehand and just store them in the airtight container and you are ready to go....:)

Savory Ribbons:-

Ingredients you are going to need-:

• All purpose flour- 1 cup
• Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp
• ajwain seeds- 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• water- to kneed the dough
• oil- 2 tbsp(heated)
• oil- for frying.

Preparation:-

• Mix the flour, salt, ajwain seeds, cumin seeds, and heated oil together.

• With your hands, mix the dough so that the oil gets into the dough very well.
• Add the water as much needed to kneed the dough.
• Make the dough t0 the medium consistency.

• With the rolling pin, roll the dough to make it into a thin round.
• With the help of the round cutter, cut the round, in to strips. Cut them so that they will be 2-3 inches long.

• Cut them again into half if needed.

• Deep fry them in the oil.

Tasty Triangles:-

As I mentioned above one dough makes both snacks. Only ingredient we are going to add while making these triangles is the cornflour mixed with 1 tsp of oil/ clarified butter/ ghee.

Preparation-:

• Follow all the steps in the ribbons recipe up to rolling the dough and making it round.
• After you make a round shape, spread the cornflour mixed with 1 tsp of butter/ oil.

• Fold the round in to a half and again in to a half, so as to make a triangle.Apply cornflour at every fold.

• Press the triangle slightly with the rolling pin, so that all the layers get close to each other.

• Heat the oil and let the triangles swim in to the hot tub!

• Try to separate the layers while they are swimming in the hot tub.

• Nice layers will be formed, and you will see the color changing that's when you know that they are ready for you.

• Let them swim for a while.

And they are ready!

These yummy snacks are great themselves or they taste even better with the mint chutney/ tamarind chutney!!

Coming up: Asparagus Soup-A slow cooker wonder!!

Crispy Rice Fingers

Fried snack is always fun!! These crispy rice fingers are absolutely delicious, crunchy snack , goes very well with Indian chai..:) Kids love this finger food. It's a great snack item for the party, especially because it doesn't have to be hot while serving. You can prepare it a day or even a week before the party, and store it in an airtight container and you are ready to go...:)

Here is what you will need-:

• Rice flour- 1 cup

• Ajwain seeds - 1 tbsp
• Milk - as much as you need to kneed the dough.
• Salt- as per your taste.
• Oil- Heated oil, 1 tbsp.
• Oil- For frying.

This is how you prepare it-:

• Mix the flour ,ajwain seeds, salt together. Mix it well.

• Add 1 tbsp of heated oil into the mixture.

• Add the milk as much as you need to kneed the dough. Make sure that the dough is neither too tight nor too soft. It should be of medium consistency.

• Rest the dough for half an hour before you give them a shape.
• Take a little portion of the dough in to your hands and roll the dough to make them like the shape of your fingers.

• Deep fry them in the oil.

And the rice fingers are ready!!

You can change the shape and make them round or shape them like a drop of water. (refer to the picture below).

Courtesy: Wikipedia.

When you shape them like the picture above, it's called kadboli. Kadboli is a savory snack prepared in Maharashtra, India. Traditionally kadboli's are made up of a flour mixture of chana, urad dal,rice,moong and cumin seeds.

Enjoy!!

Coming up: Tasty triangles and savory ribbons!!!