Spicy Vegetable Soup with Noodles

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Spicy Vegetable Soup

by Nayna Kanabar December 28th -2014

Hearty and delicious spicy vegetable soup.

Ingredients:

• 240 g Broccoli Florets cut into small pieces
• 120 g button mushrooms diced
• 4 medium tomatoes diced
• 1 medium potato peeled and diced
• 1 white medium onion finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
• 1 clove garlic peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 3 cups water.
• 40g dry egg noodles
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 green chilli de seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon chilli sauce

Method:

1.In a large saucepan pan heat the oil and sauté the onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes until onion is translucent.2.Add the diced potato, carrots, brocolli and cook for another 5 minutes.3.Add the mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté for 2-3 minutes longer.4.Add the water, the salt, pepper, chilli sauce and simmer the soup for 15 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked.5.Once vegetables are cooked, add the dry noddles and simmer the soup for 3 more minutes.Take off the heat. 6.Transfer the soup to serving bowls and serve with fresh bread.

Details

Prep time:10 mins Cooking Time:26 minutes Total time:36 mins Yield:Serves 4 

Suitable for 5-2 diet

Calories Per Serving	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
201	33	4	8	321	8

Submitting to;

 Lets cook savoury snacks for Christmas event by simplyfood

Giveaway for a cook book Sweet Tarts and pies by Dorling Kindersley.

I would like to thank all my visitors for all their continued support, visits and comments  that all make simplyfood special. With out all the visits and support from my readers I would not get the inspiration to come up with new recipes and post. As a thankyou for all your continued support I would like to host a giveaway for a cook book  Sweet Tarts and pies by Dorling Kindersley.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 11th Jan 201512.00 am
• 1 cook book  Sweet Tarts and pies by Dorling Kindersley.

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
•   Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
•  Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.
•  For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 
•  For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 
• If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

White Chocolate and Berry Biscotti with Buckwheat Flour.

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White Chocolate and Berry Biscotti

by Nayna Kanabar December 21st-2014

Crunchy melt in the mouth white chocolate and berry Biscotti.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups buckwheat flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup mild olive oil
• 1/3 cup water .
• few drops vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white chocolate drops
• 2 medium eggs
• 1/2 cup dried mixed berries, cranberries, goji berries, blackcurrants, physalis, blueberries and strawberries,

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F /175 Degrees C.2. In a bowl sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.3.Add to the flour the sugar, berries and chocolate chip and stir it in.4.Mix together the vanilla,eggs, water and oil and whisk together. 5. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture a little at a time until the flour form a dough.6.Bring together the dough and divide it into two parts, roll each part into a sausage shape approx 6 inches long and three inches wide and place each sausage onto a greased baking tray.7.Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. 8.Place the baked sausage on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick slices.9.Arrange the biscotti on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti again, for 15 minutes, until they are golden brown.10.Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins; Cook time: 60mins;Total time: 80 mins;
Makes 24

The Buckwheat flour and the super mixed berries used in this recipe were sent to me by MyProtein, an on line retailer that sells many health foods, such as flours, berries and a range of health food products. They also sent me some dried roasted coconut. There are many healthy ingredients that you can purchase  from My Protein. The products are packaged in foil packs to keep them fresh and are available to order on line.

Giveaway MyProtein Ingredients

Sourcing good healthy ingredients and using them in your cooking and baking is very important. Your food will taste  good if its cooked with natural healthy unadulterated ingredients.I was recently sent some ingredients to cook with from My Protein, an on line health food store. I loved cooking with the buckwheat flour , super berries and the coconut they sent me. I made some white chocolate and berry biscotti you can see the recipe here.

As always I  love my readers to sample the products that I try out, with this in mind I asked Myprotein if they would provide the same ingredients for a giveaway. I am pleased that they have been generous and have agreed to send one simply food reader  a bag of buckwheat flour, some super berries and some dried coconut so you too can create some healthy and delicious recipes of your own.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 7th Jan  2015 12.00 am
• Prize 1 bag of buckwheat flour £8.99, 1  pack Super berries £9.99,  1 pack Dried Coconut £9.99

 

 How Rafflecopter works:

You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.

 Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.

Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 

Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.

 For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 

For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 

If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friends of glass Event~Edible gifts in glass.

A few weeks back I went to an event by friends of glass and really had a lovely time. Friends of glass are an organisation who are committed to promoting the use of glass in homes. I am so inspired by recipes in glass that I have started collecting a selection of glass bottles and jars to store my food in. Just when my jar obsession was calming down, lo and behold I got another invitation by friends of glass to attend their Christmas event at Cactus Studios -Michel Roux Jr's cookery school, where Saturday Kitchen is filmed. I am not complaining I was rather pleased that I would get to learn some more ideas for Christmas using jars.

On arrival I had a lovely surprise as I met a fellow blogger friends Choclette who blogs at chocolate log blog. As we entered we  were greeted  with the most wonderful  and welcoming Christmas setting of candle light, Christmas tree, innovative decorations in glass bottles, carols playing and glasses of warm mulled cider. Whilst getting to know all the other guests we mingled over shot glasses of red pepper soup with pesto. Followed by warm brie with cranberries all served in pretty glass jars and breadsticks for scooping up the creamy brie.

After the nibbles we watch a cookery demo by chef Bridget Colvin and BBC TV presenter Cherry Healey . They made spiced parsnip soup with pesto and parsnip crisps which we sipped whilst the second demo of pies in the jars was demonstrated. For the vegetarians there was Butternut squash jar pie and for the non-vegetarians Bridget showed a honey & mustard ham rock jar pie.

Whilst the pies were cooking in the oven ready for our dinner we were shown how to create Cointreau  clementines in jars. We enjoyed the lovely hot pies with delicious wine and then it was hands on deck as we each created our own jars of the boozy clementines. We had to pay extra attention to the caramel as it can burn in a jiffy. I was really pleased that my caramel did turn out perfect and there was enough to share with a friend whose caramel  turned just  little too brown.

The evening ended with a lovely arts and crafts demonstration by Amanda who showed us how to let ourcreative juices flow by filling a jar with hot chocolate powder, chocolate buttons, and marsh mallows and all beautifully decorated with ribbons and bows. Of course we all attached a miniature bottle of booze to the jars to make the hot chocolate in the jar just that little bit more special.

The evening was awesome and really fun and interactive. We all left with all our lovely gifts and an additional surprise of a jar chutney by Rubies in the Rubble, who create all their chutneys from unsold fruit that otherwise would go to waste.

I would like to thank friends of glass for a wonderful evening. It was most enjoyable.

You can read about Choclette's experience at friends of glass event here:

Hot chocolate in a jar

Round up~Lets cook with yoghurt

Thankyou to all the participants for the lovely yoghurt recipes this month.Here is around up of all of them.
An InLinkz Link-up

Christmassy Mulled Pom

If you are a teetotaller or just want to refrain from drinking alcohol at the christmas party this wonderful cinnamon spiced scented Mulled pom is seriously delicious. Pom is made from pure pomegranate juice that is a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Fiber, Potassium, Folate and Copper. It is delicious served on its own or mixed with other fruit juices too.

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Cristmassy Mulled Pom

by Nayna Kanabar December -2-2014

Pomegranate and Apple juice with cinnamon and spices

Ingredients:

• 240 ml Pom- pomegranate juice  
• 240 ml apple Juice
• 1 cinnamon stick plus 4 for garnish
• 2 star anise 
• 2 oranges
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

Method:

1. Warm the apple juice for 1 minute and add the orange zest, cinnamon stick and star anise.2. Leave the cinnamon and star anise to infuse in the apple juice.3. Slice the oranges in rings, reserve 4 slices and cut the remaining slices in halves.4.In a jug add the Pom -pomegranate juice and add to it the orange slices, remove the cinnamon sticks and star anise from the apple juice and add it to the jug. 5. Mix the pomegranate juice and apple juice together and give it a good stir.6.Pour the Mulled Pom into serving cups and garnish with orange slices and cinnamon stick. This tastes best served at room temperature.

Details

Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 1 minute Total time: 6 minute Yield:serves 4

I was sent a cocktail making kit and some pom juice to create a recipe by Pom

Pom cocktail kit giveaway.

Christmas is coming and the party season is upon us. To help make your parties more fun simplyfood have teamed up with Pom to send one lucky simplyfood winner a Pom cocktail making kit..

The kit will consist of :

A cocktail shaker
A spirit measure
Two serving glasses
A muddler
2 Stirrers

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents only over 18 years of age .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 16th Dec 2014 12.00 am

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
•  Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
• Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.
• For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 
•  For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 
• If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Announcing event~ Lets cook savory snacks for christmas

Lets cook savory snacks for christmas 

1st Dec 2014 -1st Dec 2014

With the month of December upon us, the Christmas festivities are fast approaching. It's a time for sharing and caring, eating and drinking and having lots of fun.
The theme for this month is cooking savory snacks for christmas
To Participate:

1.Prepare a dish vegetarian only (eggs allowed) please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2.Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can post it..
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
4. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format
Your Name:
Recipe Name
Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

An InLinkz Link-up

Ozeri heat resistant double glass coffee cups.

The Ozeri coffee cups are made with  heat-resistant glass with double bottom . Stylishly shaped and light weight the glasses have a double wall which means that when you pour hot drinks in them they do not get too hot to handle. I love serving soup, hot coffee and also warm herbal drinks in them in the winter and in the summer they are perfect for serving, sorbets and ice slushies.

The glasses are not only suitable for hot drinks, they are perfect for serving ice cold drinks too. The double glass means that it stops the glasses from getting too hot or too cold to handle resulting in safe use both for hot and cold drinks.

The strong glasses with stands high freezing temperatures and are also microwave and dishwasher safe.  The glasses come in a set of four with a capacity of 250ml. They retail at £34.09 and are available to order from Amazon.

I was sent a set of the Ozeri glasses to review, all the views and opinions are my own and unbiased.

Godiva christmas event and giveaway.

I was recently invited to a pre christmas event by Godiva Chocolate. Godiva chocolates are luxury Belgium chocolates  perfected over 80 years and made  with the best quality ingredients. 

We sampled white chocolate strawberry santa hats, piping hot luxury hot chocolate, speculoos hazelnut truffle chocolates, dark chocolate biscuits and milk chocolate carres.

The evening was a chocolate lovers heaven with lots of chocolicious treats to nibble while we mingled with the guests and watched a truffle making demonstration.

I loved all the amazing christmas chocolate collection but amongst the collection, I would like to share with you my top 5 favorite choices that I would like on my wish list this christmas:

The Christmas Chocolate Gift Box

The Chocolate Pouch

The Swarovski Box
The Advent Calendar
The Christmas Carrè Pouch

Images used in this product collage are used with permission from  from Godiva.co.uk

As always I love sharing with my readers any products that I get to sample, so this christmas I have a giveaway for a mini Godiva christmas stocking for one simplyfood reader. Kids and grown-ups alike will be unable to resist a peek into this festive red stocking. Stuffed with 8 limited edition Christmas Collection sujets, including white, milk and dark chocolate expertly moulded into variety of seasonal designs, this is the perfect stocking for sweet-toothed chocolate lovers.
Beautifully decorated with a gold poinsettia, this stocking even features a cute looped red ribbon so you can hang it up when empty in the hope that Santa will refill it for you.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents only who are over 18 years old .Please read the rules 
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 11th Dec 2013 12.00 am

How Rafflecopter works:

1.You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
 2. Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void.
·        Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.
·        For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here.
·        For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries.
·        If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Master class with World Foods at School of Wok and giveaway

I was recently invited to a master class by world foods at the School of Wok to create some dishes using their sauces.

The WORLDFOODS' Cooking Solutions range are a concentrate of flavours and are extremely versatile in any Asian inspired cooking. They are 100% natural and are created using authentic herbs and spices. All the sauces are free from artificial preservatives, colouring, flavouring, gluten or genetically modified ingredients and are totally suitable for vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs.

The product range is vast and includes:

• Thai Green Curry Paste
• Thai Red Curry Paste
• Thai Yellow Curry Paste
• Thai Basil Curry Paste
• Thai Masaman Curry Paste
• Thai Panang Curry Paste
• Thai Tom Yum Paste
• Indonesian Fried Rice Paste
• Indonesian Sambal Oelek
• Malaysian Rendang Curry Paste
• Singaporean Nyonya Laksa Paste
• North African Harissa Paste
• Thai Chilli Paste
• Thai Tamarind Paste
• Northern Thai Spicy Curry Paste(Hung Le curry)
• Lemon Grass Paste
• Ginger Paste
• Garlic Paste
• Galangal Paste

The sauces are very convenient to use, the flavours are well balanced and all that’s required to create tasty and delicious meals is to add some vegetables, meat or rice.

At the master class we were given a demonstration in how to chop vegetables using a proper Chinese cleaver by Jeremy the chef. We all chopped our vegetables to perfection (or almost) and then headed to the kitchen to prepare our vegetarian feast of  Rendang tacos,  Thai Basil  stir fry, Masaman  baked squash with coconut. The non-vegetarians cooked Panang curry duck breast, Thai basil stir fry, Masaman roast poussin . Jeremy demonstrated the perfect cooking techniques after which we created our dishes ready for dinner.

Dinner was washed down with lovely wine for the drinkers and soft drinks for the teetotallers.

 Finally when we thought we could eat no more we were tempted to sample the amazing Lemon grass drizzle cake which was amazing.The whole experience at school of wok was fun, interactive and the meal was superb. I was really surprised how bottled sauces could taste so authentic and homemade. I would like to thank world foods for inviting me to the cookery master class with the amazing Jeremy and sending me home with a wonderful goody bag of sauces so that I could recreate the meal in my own home.

As always I like my readers to be able to sample all the products that I try out, I am pleased to say that World foods have been really kind and have agreed to send two lucky simplyfood readers a world foods hamper each which will consist of:

• Panang Curry Paste
• Rendang Curry Paste
• Masaman Curry Paste
• Lemongrass Paste
• World foods apron
• Recipe notebook USB (with all the recipes we cooked at School of Wok) as well as printed versions.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents over the age of 18 only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 18th  Dec 2014-12.00 am

How Rafflecopter works:

·        You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.

·        Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.

·        Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 

·        Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.

·        For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 

·        For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 

·        If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orange and Apple Breakfast Juice ~Introducing the Optimum 600 Juicer

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Orange and Apple Juice

by Nayna Kanabar October-23-2014

Refreshing breakfast juice- citrus orange with sweetness of apples.

Ingredients:

• 3 jaffa oranges 
• 1 large carrot
• 2 braeburn apples

Method:

1.  Peel the oranges and cut them into quarters.2. Cut the apples and carrots into quarters.3. Feed the fruit into the Optimum 600 juicer.4. Pour the juice into chilled glasses and garnish with slices of apples.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Juicing time: 5 mins Total time: 10 mins Yield: 3 servings

For the last three months I have really been enjoying the Optimum 9400 blender, it is a fantastic blender that is perfect for smoothies, nut butters, grating, grinding , making hot soups and cold icecreams. I am so much in love with it that, I was over the moon when I had the opportunity to try out the Optimum 600 slow juicer from the Optimum range. I have now stopped buying ready made juices from the supermarket as this juicer is so easy to use and  clean.

There are two types of juicers available a cold press and centrifugal juicer, the differences is that a centrifugal juicer chops up the fruit or vegetable with a flat cutting blade at high speed. The high-speed blade shredder does not penetrate the produce deeply enough to extract precious nutrients of the juices and causes oxidation that destroys enzymes and nutrients with in the juice. It also causes the juice to separate.

 The Optimum 600 is a cold press juicer; the advantage of it is that it works at a slower speed so it’s less noisy. It crushes and presses the fruit, releasing its deep-seated nutrients and enzymes, this result in a richer coloured juice containing large amounts of vitamins and minerals and no oxidation and separation.

There are many other advantages of the Optimum 600:

• Can juice whole fruits and vegetables with no food prep required.
• Slow speed – Only 65rpm.
• Designed to last, high-quality SGS approved parts
• Induction Motor designed to last, 10 Years Comprehensive Warranty
• User friendly
• Easy to clean (Self Cleaning function)
• Low Noise, as low as 40dB
• Ingredient flavour preserved, due to the slow speed of only 65rpm
• More nutrients, vitamins, minerals and enzymes
• Less separation & 35% more juice than centrifugal juicers
• Safety sensor
• CE and SGS approved

Assembling the Optimum 600 Juicer was pretty simple. All the components are marked with a small dot and once you have all the parts in the right order you just need to match the dots for them to fit together. I created a video that shows how to assemble the Optimum 600 Juicer which you can see below.

Juicing in the Optimum 600 Juicer is simple too, I made a simple Orange and apple juice, I did peel the orange and cut the apple into quarters although you could have added the apple whole as the feed tube is fairly wide. You can see the video below showing you how easy it is to create the most delicious juice in the Optimum 600.

The Optimum 600 is available to buy at £329.00, It comes with a 1 MONTH TRIAL - MONEY BACK GUARANTEE (includes return postage costs for UK customers) Currently it is available on special offer only £249 for a limited time .
If you like the sound of this awesome juicer, please orders it through here. 

Mushroom and Fennel Curry

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Mushroom and Fennel Curry

by Nayna Kanabar November -23-2014

Spicy Mushroom and fennel curry with baby tomatoes.

Ingredients:

• 240 g /8 oz button mushrooms diced into 1cm pieces
• 1 bulb fennel cleaned and diced into 1cm pieces
• 1 small red onion finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
• 12 baby tomatoes cut into quarters
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon mild  olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 red chilli finely sliced for garnish.

Method:

1. In a  pan add the oil and wait for it to heat up.Once the oil is hot add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter.2. Add the garlic and onions and saute until onions are translucent.3. Add the mushrooms and fennel and saute for 5 more minutes until both are almost cooked.4. Add the salt, chilli powder, turmeric, tomatoes, coriander powder, cumin powder and toss the vegetables to coat with the spices.5. Cook for another 3-4 minutes after which transfer the curry to a serving bowl and garnish with red chilli slices.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 20 mins Yield:serves 4

Submitting to:

In my VEG BOX ~Mushrooms event by citrusspice guest hosted by Mayuris Jikoni