Baked Stuffed Zucchini

This wonderful dish is at once light, delicious and awfully simple to make. It can be light based on what you choose to stuff the zucchini with - If you are thinking mozzarella, cream cheese,  meat, or some other high calorie stuffing, think again - We had this dish at a local restaurant and even as we were eating it, I had resolved to make it. This falls under the gourmet category and certainly has the WOW factor when it comes to impressing your family, friends or a very special person in your life. So go ahead and give it a try - takes all of 30 minutes to make and the end result is most "appointing" - used as an antonym to disappointing :)

Ingredients

• 2- 3 medium sized fresh Zucchinis
• 1/3 cup of greek yogurt (I recommend Fage)
• 3 tbps of mascarpone ( entirely optional) Can be substituted with more greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp of Miscuglio (a fine blend of italian herbs and spices)
• Tomato Sauce - We made ours with diced tomatoes, garlic and some red chilies and italian herbs
• 2/3 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese for topping before baking
• Olive oil for brushing
• Bread crumbs for sprinkling

Method

1. Set oven to 400
2. On the slicer side of the grater, make long thin strips of the Zucchini 
3. Arrange on a baking pan and gently brush with olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes
4. In the meanwhile, prepare your baking dish
5. Add the tomato sauce to the bottom of the dish and keep
6. In a bowl, mix the yogurt and the mascarpone together along with the Muscuglio. 
7. Remove Zucchini from oven and let cool for a few minutes (else the yogurt will get liquify in the heat)
8. Once cooled,  add a tsp of he yogurt mix to one end of the strip and roll the zucchini as shown in the pictures
9. Once all of them are made
10. Place gingerly on the tomato sauce in baking dish
11. Top with the smallest amount of break crumbs
12. Add the grated cheese over the rolls
13. Bake again at 400 for about 15 minutes 

Serve HOT :)

Garden Veggie Burger

I was not kidding when I wrote on FB that this dish is versatile and international in its appeal - it is called by different names depending on where  - One ma's cutlet is another man's patty and one man's vadai is another's falafel and patty to one is burger to yet another and so on - it can morph into the name you choose for it since all it is a luscious, delicious vegetable preparation that can be eaten by itself or with a bun/pita. The best part is it is loaded with  quinoa flakes thus making it a highly nutritious and protein enriched all in one burger.  So you can reasonable avoid all other carbs and eat it solely.

This was an idea conceived literally 20-25 minutes before it became what it is in the pictures below - Opened the fridge door, saw a couple of zucchinis which were aging but still intact, and some fresh heads of broccoli - I knew exactly what I wanted to make and how.

Finely grate the veggies in question - take a cup of besan or chick pea flour, 2 cups of quinoa flakes and 1 tbsp of freshly homemade sambar powder of spices of your choice - the only other thing I added was garlic flakes.

NO WATER needed - The juice from the veggies is enough to mix into a thick batter
Spray your pan, make lemon sized balls of veggie mix and pat down to flatten
Broil for 15-18 minutes
or Use your Kuzhi paniyaram dish to make them like Falafels.

This is my protein rich recipe for this month's Avant Garde Cookies first post.


Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized broccoli heads finely grated
• 2 medium zucchinis finely grated with skin on
• 2+cups of Quinoa flakes
• 1 cup of besan (chickpea flour)
• (spice it the way you like best - garlic, green chili, ground black pepper or ginger)
• I used 1 tbsp of Sambar powder - (this contains cumin, coriander, dry cayenne chilies, split peas, sesame, fenugreek, turmeric and a couple of other ingredients (recipe to follow soon) 
• 1tsp garlic flakes
• a fist full of peanuts, ground (entirely optional)
• salt
• NO WATER

Method

1. Add the dry besan, sambar powder, salt and garlic flakes in a large bowl and mix them
2. Add the grated veggies and mix in with the dry flour and spices
3. Considering how much water zucchini and broccoli can let out, the mix may be a little liquidy
4. Now add 1 cup of quinoa and stir in
5. Add the second cup and check consistency after stirring in -
6. If it is still too sticky, add more flakes 
7. Spray a baking pan and make lemon-sized balls of the batter
8. place and flatten to patty style
9. Broil for about 15-18 minutes depending on your oven
10. I turned them over at about 14 minutes
11. If you have the dippy donut pan, you can spray them lightly and use that as well for making this  - will look more like falafels. 
12. Enjoy with buns, pitas or just like that.