Courses: Starter/Appetizer

Gazpacho – Spanish Mixed Vegetable Cold Soup

Fresh, chilled mixed vegetable gazpacho – Spanish style summer soup
08/15/2016 10:14:26 PM vindhyadesai

Gazpacho is a cool soup made using finely chopped vegetables. Simple flavours are added like vinegar, black pepper and garlic. Use garlic sparingly, a small piece gives a great hum of flavour to the soup. It is great served at room temperature or slightly chilled. This is freshness at its best! Gazpacho originates from Spain with many variations that have evolved. Greek Gazpacho is also quite famous with added Mediterranean flavours like feta cheese, olives.
This is a healthy soup, with tomatoes and cucumber as the base. Some like it completely pureed and some like it chunky but the best way at least for me, is the soup blitzed till it is slightly pulsed but still has some texture. Save a few finely chopped veggies to add on top of your soup, that way you know what exactly you are tasting. Enjoy this super cool soup, read more about Gazpacho! This is Dish 3 part of the World Cuisine Series here on Food Of Interest. ... “Gazpacho – Spanish Mixed Vegetable Cold Soup”

Panzanella – Italian Bread Salad

Refreshing and flavoursome Italian bread salad
08/14/2016 4:06:58 PM vindhyadesai

Whenever we think of Italian food only pizzas and pasta cross our minds. Fresh Italian food is so much more than that. They give importance to fresh ingredients, local produce, Italian plum tomatoes for instance are the most flavoursome tomatoes I have ever eaten. We might not be able to procure ingredients from various places all the time but fresh vegetables that we get locally and seasonally are always the best. This salad is very simple, very tasty yet looks quite exotic. Fresh vegetables with a refreshing vinaigrette poured over bread cubes makes it quite filling yet light. This Italian salad is Dish 2 part of the World Cuisine Series all this week on Food Of Interest! ... “Panzanella – Italian Bread Salad”

Onion Pakoda | Eerulli Bajji | Kanda Bhaji | Onion Pakora | Onion Fritters

Crisp pakodas to enjoy on a rainy evening
07/10/2016 8:03:31 PM vindhyadesai

On a rainy monsoon evening everyone feels like eating something crisp and spicy. Onion pakodas will be in the top 5 things to make on such an evening. It is easy to rustle up this snack and I love eating a couple of them once in a while. Add subtle spices like ajwain (om) or jeera, it will aid in digestion. Ensure not to fry them on very high heat, fry them on medium heat to cook them all the way till the middle. Enjoy these crisp, karara, onion pakoda/ kanda bhaji(Marathi)/ onion fritters/ eerulli bajji(Kannada) with your cuppa. These snacks are famous world over and they even sell these cold in supermarkets. But homemade fresh hot pakodas are the best! ... “Onion Pakoda | Eerulli Bajji | Kanda Bhaji | Onion Pakora | Onion Fritters”

Cream of tomato soup

A bowlful of piping hot cream of tomato soup served with croutons
04/09/2016 10:09:10 PM vindhyadesai

A bowl of piping hot tomato soup has to be one of the most popular dishes on a cold winter night. I make this very often and we gulp it down with croutons or grilled cheese (grin). Make this for an early evening supper/dinner or serve it along with a starter during lunch. This one is surely a crowd favourite and is bound to go down well amongst kids. There are so many variations of tomato soup. It comes in the form of powder, canned tomato soup, fresh soup sold in containers, tomato soup cubes, tomato soup in cartons and many more. Why not make fresh tomato soup at home. Easy available ingredients and very simple to make. I have tried many variations of tomato soup. I like this variation from ‘thepioneerwoman’ especially the cheese croutons. ... “Cream of tomato soup”