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.
