1. If ever you have some leftover side vegetable dishes with you, pulse them in a blender, mash them really well. Knead them along with whole wheat flour with minimum water to enjoy crisp and tasty paranthas.
2. When reheating leftover rice, we often roast them with ample oil to get the same grainy texture. But instead, you can just pour the rice in the heating pan, sprinkle some water over it and cook it covered on low flame for 1-2 min. Repeat the process again stirring the rice frequently. You can also drizzle some ghee on top and cover it for 2 min. You will get the same fluffy grainy rice at the end.
3. If foul smell starts coming from your refrigerator, cut a lemon in half and keep in fridge. I always keep a halved lemon in my fridge and it never stinks. Dont forget to replace that often with a new one and use the previous one, off course 🙂
4. You can use an oil spray for roasting paranthas instead of regular spoonful of oil each side. Paranthas will be equally gud and very less oil will be used.
5. When you cook Okra/ Lady finger, add a spoonful of curd/yoghurt while its half cooked. This will remove the stickiness of the dish. You can also add half tsp of besan/gram flour along with the curd for enhanced taste.
6. Kids often dislike carrot, broccoli and brussel sprouts etc. Grate whatever vegetables like this you have and knead adding some spices to the flour. The paranthas are really tasty and kids will love this colourful paranthas.
7. If you are working fulltime on weekdays, you can prepare curry paste in advance every weekend for rest of the week. Make regular tadka with frying ginger garlic first then adding onion, green chillies and adding pureed tomatoes at last.
After frying blend everything together. Add salt, turmeric, red chili powder and coriander powder. Your paste is ready. While making any curry dish during weekend just take 2-3 tbsp of this paste, add vegetable and water ( or curd, milk etc ) and it will be cooked quickly with no hassle.
8. If making rabri or basundi, add 2 crushed pices of white bread to make it low fat and equally thick. This way you can reduce the amount f full fat milk being used to thicken it fast saving fuel as well.
9. Make it a ritual to have sprouts atleast once in a week. For including them in kids diet, pressure cook them to one whistle to make them tender enough. Fry onion, tomatoes and add sprouts with some spices. Present the sprouts chaat with chunky cucumber, tomato raita. Healthy weekend breakfast is ready for fussy kids
10. Use any leftover chutney while making idlis like coriander chutney, tomato chutney, dates chutney and you can have a whole new variety of idlis everytime.
wow ! very useful and helpful tips! Thanks for sharing dear!
wow Nupur, love your tips, very useful ones, especially the leftover curry blending and mixing with paratha one and varieties of idli one 🙂
Nice tips here… liked this set of tips… useful stuff 🙂 Keep posting!