HEALTHY COOKING

Caribbean style vegetable stew

November 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Caribbean food, essentially, is a kaleidoscope of delicious flavors that met to become something new and amazing. If you’ve never immersed yourself in the wonders of this region, you have to start with this recipe. This Caribbean style vegetable stew is AHMAZZING! I’d say its got the touch of Southern Indian and Bengali touch from the mustard, and the locals bring in the fried plantain element to this with toasted coconut. It’s a riot of flavors. Get cooking!

Caribbean food has global influences, combined with indigenous ingredients and techniques. It’s played a paramount role in defining the evolution of the modern Caribbean cuisine we know and love today. From soups and stews to desserts, many of the region’s signature staples surprisingly trace their beginnings back to the European and Asian countries where they originated. These global influences, combined with indigenous Caribbean ingredients and techniques, have played a paramount role in defining the evolution of the modern Caribbean cuisine we know and love today. …

Dill Edamame Fried Rice

August 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This South Indian style Dill Edamame fried rice recipe is the absolute BEST. It’s quick and easy to make, customizable with any of your favorite mix-ins, and so irresistibly delicious.

Me and rice go way back.

I’m digging back into my mom’s classic recipe today to share one of my all-time favorite recipes with you again. And I really do mean all-time.

Because fried rice and I go wayyyy back. 😍

Like specifically, back to my picky-eating days that lasted — oh — until college, when I was totally “that girl” who refused to even look at anything which was not a little fancy. Guys, I was crazy about the different kind of fried rice. Mom would make a variety of rice for lunch with some fryums and I would gobble it up without complaining. I mean, back then, I just assumed that all fried rice was perfectly stir-fried and full of big flavors and irresistibly delicious! Little did I know about the painfully bland, boring, and tasteless stuff that I would encounter at places, once I ventured out of the nest. This dill fried rice is bomb, go try it out….

Sweet Potato stuffed Cheese Patties

July 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

These Sweet Potato Cheese Patties- Potato Paneer recipe is the best way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. This cheese stuffed potato patties pancakes recipe is well loved and very versatile. Serve it as an appetizer, a light lunch over greens or stuffed in a bun for a delicious burger, it’s a hit all ways. I am thrilled to announce that I am a 2019 Reynolds Kitchen Ambassador.

There’s just something about these beautiful potato patties with cheese that makes these completely irresistible. These sweet potato cheese patties are quick and easy to make and have the simplest ingredients.

Sometimes the best recipes are the simplest and YES, it’s totally worth it to make mashed potatoes just to have these potato patties!…

Sheet pan Baked Salmon and Beans with peanut butter miso dressing

June 26, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

The convenience and simplicity of this sheet pan meal is extra awesome. Baked Salmon with Beans is a complete meal on one pan full of flavor. Sheet pan Salmon and Beans with Peanut butter and miso is perfect.The best part, easy clean up. Change up the veggies throughout the year.

Baked Salmon with Beans in Peanut Butter and Miso Dressing |foodfashionparty| #salmon

Sheet pan meals are one of the easiest and satisfies all. This dazzling Peanut Butter Miso Baked Salmon and Beans Dinner Recipe is so easy to make, it just might become one of your go-to meals this summer. It’s a great way to use up your fresh garden tomatoes too….

Chinese “Chickpea” Salad

May 20, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Healthy, plant based, gluten free Chinese Chickpea Salad will change your salad game forever. The crunch from the chickpeas, the sweetness from the oranges and the sweet and spicy dressing, umami of flavors.

When your little boy says, this is a “life changing salad”, you know you are on to something.

It’s no secret that we love chickpea, it’s a great protien for vegetarians. It’s so versatile, taking on the flavors of the dressing or sauce they are paired with. I love my healthy food, but it has to taste good and not feel like I am on some diet. This salad makes an appearance every week. We love our Asian flavors and salads… hence the creation of this amazingly flavorful Asian/ Chinese Chickpea Salad.

This simple, plant-based salad is fresh, hearty, has great crunch and the best flavor!…

Creamy Veggie Sauce Pasta with Chicken/Zucchini Golden Beet Sauce Chicken Pasta

April 1, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Zucchini and Yellow Beet Creamy Veggie Sauce Pasta with Chicken. Zucchini so soft,some floral notes and some sweetness to it, yellow beet is sweet and crispy– nothing overpowering! The combo in a sauce is SO GOOD. This pasta is loaded with fresh vegetables and herbs, this hearty, meatless sauce is a perfect way for gardeners to make delicious use of their harvest. Add chicken for the extra protien and it is winning recipe.

Happy April!! Happy Spring!

This simple pasta primavera aka creamy veggie sauce pasta uses a combination of the earliest vegetables available in spring — beets, peas and zucchini, spring onions, asparagus— making it a true celebration of the season. The sauce works best with any pasta of your choice, preferably homemade or a good purchased brand. Make sure not to overcook it; you need the chewy bite to stand up to the gently cooked vegetables….

OPA SQUASH DUMPLINGS IN SPICY CURRY-Kofta Curry

February 6, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Vegetable Kofta Curry is a very popular dish in India. This is my easy take on a classic which comes together in one pot. This opa squash and chickpea dumplings is simmered in a smooth sauce to make a delicious and delectable curry. Weeknight meal made easier.

Weeknight meals can be interesting, but not the most appealing looking at times. But, it was real. More often than not, the meals we get to share with family and friends do not take on the convivial, alluring nature we see promoted across blogs and boutique media. It’s easy to set a beautifully-styled farm table and encourage meaningful, open-hearted dialogue and then CONVENIENTLY disregard that meaningful, open-hearted dialogue is, by nature of our human-ness, a mess most of the time. The mess doesn’t sell.

It happens in a rush. Everyone’s got lots to do and you feel the need for extra couple of hours in a day….then comes the spicy yummy meal craving. One pot meals at his time does come in handy.

Here’s one I absolutely love….

Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry

January 26, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Don’t be intimidated by kohlrabi/noolkol! This root vegetable is easily adaptable to many flavors and keeps it’s crunch. Delicious and Nutritious. This Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry is a vegetarian lovers meat dish.

I’m always curious about other people’s comfort food. The stuff you eat when you’re sick or sad. I feel like it tells you so much about that person, where they came from, what they turn to feel better.

And when I ask people so many secrets spill out, gooey mushy nostalgic childhood food, some’s grandmother’s mutton, someone else who goes to a tiny box-line restaurant in old Shivajinagar for the flavors of that chicken that’s unbeatable, some else, who makes an elaborate meal from scratch to lose themselves in the method and to forget….

Bengali Pumpkin Aloo Posto – Stir fry Pumpkin and potatoes with poppy seeds

January 2, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This Aloo Posto is a classic example of how just a few ingredients can yield a creamy spiced potato dish. A staple in Bengali households and one of my all time favorite recipes.

I love January and it’s everyday-ness. I’m glad for a regular pulse again. The holidays are great but it’s the stillness that I crave at the end of it all. We spent the holidays binge watching “How I met your mother” and a small skii trip to Aspen. We ate home made comfort food and listened to Paul Anka, on my teen’s new record player to fill the house with something… normal….

Festive Froyo Bark/ Frozen Yogurt Bark

December 10, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

Snack time just got exciting with this recipe for energy boosting Frozen Yogurt Bark; FAGE greek yogurt sweetened with honey and topped with chocolate chips, poms, pistachios and sugar free sprinkles!

After a three week vacation that was filled with food, laughter, fun and more food, I have been craving healthier, guilt free treats for snacks.

I have been making yogurt sweetened with maple syrup and topped with granola for years. This is a pleasant change that I made a year or so ago and it was well loved. Hey, in between all the cookies and treats, why not sneak in some healthy treats too?…