instant chickpea idli and roti hot pockets

 Today I felt motivated to cook.  Not that I haven't cooked in the past few days, but I was neither motivated to do it nor to blog about it.  This morning the kids were off from school, so I had a leisurely morning.  I wanted idli, but I wanted them now and I wanted to use chickpea flour.  I took some inspiration from Usha at Veg Inspirations and some recipe bits from Lord Krishna's Cuisine and whipped up an Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli.  I also spiked them with some nutritious powdered, dehydrated dandelion greens and some dried, powdered arame seaweed.  I make dehydrated greens and I use them in cookies, cupcakes, muffins, pancakes, etc. to get some veggie nutrients into the kids' diets.  I powder the dried land and sea greens in a spice blender and keep them on hand.  I figured that they would go just as well in the idli.  These idli were low fat and high protein from the addition of nonfat kefir and the chickpea flour.  I garnished them with some toasted coconut, sesame seeds and mustard seeds.  A perfect breakfast with a beet/carrot/mango smoothie. 

A few days ago I saw some vegan pepperoni in the supermarket (Yves brand).  I thought I would use it on the matzah pizza.  I prefer to stick to unprocessed fresh foods, but I just couldn't resist this as a treat.  They are high in protein and have lots of vitamins and minerals added, so, as processed foods go, this seems OK.  Instead of pizza, I wanted to experiment with something that could go on the road.  I rolled out two very thin rounds of dough, layered in a half slice of lite provolone and a few slices of the pepperoni on one and put the other on top and pressed the edges.  Cooked like a roti.  Not bad, although more cheese would have been more tasty.  Definitely something to put in a lunchbox. 
The recipe below for the idli is not quite perfect, and I always estimate the amounts.  So here it is:

Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli

1/2 c oat flout
1/2 c garbanzo flour
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 chili pepper chopped fine
1t ginger grated fine
a generous grinding of black pepper to taste
1/4 t salt or to taste
1 - 2 t of dried ground dandelion greens
1/2 t ground arame or other sea vegetable
1/4 t turmeric
pinch of hing (asafetida)
kefir, buttermilk, or thinned yoghurt (about 1 cup)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add kefir, buttermilk, or yoghurt a bit at a time, mixing until the consistency of the batter is good for idli (like a thick muffin batter).  Make the idli in the usual way; takes about 20 minutes.

Coconut Garnish

heat a bit of butter in a pot and toast some mustard seeds, coconut, and sesame seeds.  Use to garnish cooked idli, or sprinkle on top of the uncooked idli and steam into the idli.