Cool, Summery Chickpea Salad

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, tomorrow is my vegan cooking demo at Soul Kadhi. Right now I've come to Soul Kadhi to do a quick discussion about the event but their generator decided to act up and spew ash during the peak lunch time and that has kept Nirmala very occupied for over an hour. So while I wait, I thought I'd start a blog post (and finish it after I get home).

Poor Nirmala hasn't had a moment's respite. She came to speak to me in the middle but something came up again and she had to go attend to it. It's nice that her mom is around to help out everyday but despite that, Nirmala is constantly on her feet. I have no idea how she manages to run three restaurants full time on the same premises and stay sane!

A lot of my friends who have tasted my cooking/baking and even a few people who follow my blog have asked me why I haven't started a vegan café or restaurant yet. I really want to, hubby and I even keep talking about it, but I keep procrastinating and the main reason is that I don't know if I'll be able to handle all the stress that goes into running a food establishment.

I like my work related life to be slow paced. When I create my jewellery, I need to be relaxed and in the zone to come up with beautiful designs which carry positive energy. Similarly, I feel that some of my tastiest and most creative dishes are made when I am taking it easy. I'm afraid of what my cooking will taste like if I am constantly under pressure.

So if I do take steps to make my dream of a vegan café come true, I know for a fact that all the administration work will have to be done by someone else! My restaurant will be part of the slow food movement. That means, people need to come there with the intention to relax and enjoy the meal at a slow pace. People in a big huff to be served their food will not be allowed. :oP

Amusingly, my recipe today does not belong to the slow food movement. It can be put together in a breeze and wolfed down in the blink of an eye. hehe

Cool, Summery Chickpea Salad

I've used small, Indian Chickpeas aka Gulabi Gram in this salad but even the larger Garbanzo Beans aka Kabuli Channa will taste yummy in this recipe. For that matter, any kind of bean will work, doesn't even have to be Chickpeas.

I like eating this salad plain or as a side dish with chapathies.



1 C Indian Chickpeas (Gulabi Gram)
3 Large Tomatoes
1 Small European Cucumber (regular Cucumber is fine too)
3 Small Carrots
1 heaping tsp Peanut Butter (I used the Chia Peanut Butter that my friend Somera> sent me)
1-2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar (it's okay to use lime juice, tamarind water or any other vinegar instead)
1/2 tsp Liquid Jaggery (or other sweetener)
1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
Salt

Soak the chickpeas overnight.
Drain, rinse and pressure cook in fresh water for 3-4 whistles.
Cool, drain (cooking water can be saved and used to cook something else) and keep aside.
Finely dice the tomatoes and cucumber.
Grate the carrots.
Toss all the ingredients together and mix well (using your fingers if required to spread the peanut butter well).
Cover and chill for a short while.
Enjoy! :)

Rice Mylk Majjige - Spicy South Indian Buttermylk for Virtual Vegan Potluck 3.0

It's Virtual Vegan Potluck time once again! Wheee.

If you have been following the VVP blog route, you have arrived here from Veggie4ayear. You can click on the "Go Back" button below to go back to her VVP blog post which is the first in the Beverages category.



I took part in the VVP for the first time last November. I made Hot Spiced Chai with Cashew/Sesame Mylk which was voted as the Award Winning Recipe in the Beverage Course and got featured on the VVP blog last month. I even got a cool VVP Tee. :)

This VVP, I'm back with another Beverage offering, complete with a step-by-step HowDo tutorial. Spicy South Indian Buttermylk made of Rice Mylk.



Buttermilk/Moor/Majjige is a quintessential South Indian beverage. It's made out of yoghurt that's been blended with water, flavoured with lime and spices and seasoned. As I mentioned in my Peanut Curds post, the first thing a South Indian does when they turn vegan is to look for a vegan yoghurt alternative to make Curd Rice. More often than not, vegan Buttermylk is the very next thing curds get turned into.

Cold Majjige is one of the most delicious things to sip on a hot summer's day. It's spicy and soothing all at the same time. It is chock full of beneficial bacteria which are extremely soothing for your tummy and help to beat the ushna (body heat) that is generated because of all the mangoes you've been indulging in during the summer months. :)

I really like the gingery, mustard-y goodness, but it can also be prepared in a more simple and non-spicy way by just blending the curds with water, ice (optional), salt and lime. It's pretty tasty that way too.

You can start with any packaged or home made plant based yoghurt - soy, peanut, cashew, oat, rice... It just has to be absolutely plain - unflavoured and unsweetened. I've made this one with Rice Mylk that I turned into curds by adding a few cups of rejuvelac and letting it ferment overnight. Since Rice Mylk is already watery to begin with, I feel it suits the Buttermylk recipe well. And the starch in the rice makes the end result extra soothing.

Now on to the step-by-step HowDo recipe for Rice Mylk Majjige. Enjoy! :)



To continue on the VVP path, you can click on the "goforward" button below to be taken to Gazing In's VVP post, which is also a Beverage.



Or if you want to go to the beginning of the whole list of 169(!!!) blogs which are participating this time in the Virtual Vegan Potluck, you can find them on the host site Vegan Bloggers Unite.

Thank you Annie, Somer, Lidia, Jason and everyone else behind VVP for making this awesome event possible! :)

The Great Vegan Fix - cooking demo and lunch event at Soul Kadhi, Bangalore on Sat, 18th May 2013

My Hazelnut Chocolate Cake blog post in March was full of updates about all the awesome things happening in my vegan life. One of the things I'd mentioned was an upcoming vegan cooking demo at a local restaurant. I'd promised to tell you more about it as soon as all the details fell into place. They finally have and here's the story...

It had been a long and pleasantly tiring day. We were all winding down at the end of the first VGF, basking in the overwhelming success and fretting about how we hadn't gotten our hands on certain sinful delicacies which had sold out way too fast. That was when Aditi Shankar walked in and asked for me. She told me she had found me through my blog and wanted to speak to me about another vegan event which involved promoting vegan food.

I thought she meant an event like VGF, a fair of sorts, and having just finished one after weeks of planning and preparing, I didn't have the capacity to start thinking of another one right away. So Aditi and I decided to connect on Facebook the following week and I promised her I'd be happy to discuss further with her then.

As it turned out, this event happened to be a vegan cooking demo and lunch at a restaurant called Soul Kadhi. The concept is similar to the demo-lunches I helped organise at Vivanta by Taj last year, but with one significant difference, it's all about promoting Indian vegan food.



Soul Kadhi is a North Indian cuisine restaurant located on a cozy street just off Richmond Road, in the heart of Bangalore. It is owned and operated by Nirmala Balakrishnan, who also runs two other eateries on the same premises. Though it is not a completely vegetarian joint, they do serve a variety of vegetarian dishes. Unlike typical North Indian restaurants, they don't overly douse their food with fats and oils. Instead, they strive to serve good, simple, comfort food with a homemade feel. In fact, Nirmala says that ever since she opened the restaurant, she's not felt the need to cook at home. Her whole family eats the food served at the restaurant. :)

Now Nirmala wants to introduce vegan and veganisable options into the menu and that is where I come in. I met with Aditi and Nirmala in March and we came up with some interesting ideas for the event menu. When asked why Soul Kadhi wants to have this vegan event, Nirmala said, "Vegan food has become this trendy/fashionable concept and it is a general impression that to be vegan, one must eat fancy dishes with exotic ingredients. But what people don't realise is that in India, we just happen to eat vegan food at home on a daily basis. So the idea here is to show people that not only are they already eating vegan food as a part of their regular diet, they can also veganise everyday foods which might contain animal derived ingredients."

Everyday staples like rice, roti, dal, sambar, idli, dosa, etc... are already vegan by default. Most vegans already know how easy it is it be a vegan in India and how it takes barely any changes in day to day cooking/eating for a person to follow a cruelty-free diet. But I was *really* happy to hear a non vegan person understanding and explaining all this. It truly does show that veganism has come a long way in India and is growing each day.

We fixed an appointment for a cooking/tasting session in early April. I first spent some time in the Soul Kadhi kitchen, teaching Chef Ajay and his staff how to make basic dairy better-natives like peanut mylk/curds, cashew mylk/cream. The next day, we worked together for a couple of hours to create the tamarind tofu tikka, malai kofta, kadhi pakora, gajar ka halwa and basundi.

Chef Ajay is really nice and down to earth. He was very open to learning about vegan food and since he's an experienced chef, I ended up picking up some valuable cooking pointers from him as well. It was such a pleasure working with him!

All of us had a scrumptious food tasting session that afternoon. :)

Tamarind Tofu Tikka


Cucumber Raita


Kadhi Pakora


Malai Kofta


Gajar Ka Halwa


Basundi


Everything was delicious but the kadhi was hands down the *best* dish! Nirmala exclaimed to the chef that this vegan kadhi made of peanut curds was even better than his regular kadhi (which is supposed to be really good to begin with). :)

Event details:

Location: Soul Kadhi, #3, Laurel Lane, Richmond Town, Bangalore - 560025
Date: Saturday, 18th May 2013
Time: 12 noon
Price: Rs. 500 per person (inclusive of taxes)

At 12 noon, I will give a short introduction to vegan food. Then the chefs and I will begin the cooking demo and show you how to make the dishes pictured above. It will take about an hour to hour and half.

This will be followed by a sit down lunch where all the demo-ed dishes will be served, along with steamed rice and tandoori rotis. The lunch is not limited to single portions.

Registrations for the event begin after 12th May. You can reach Nirmala at +91 96866 01021 and book your place.

You can additionally RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.

This will be a nice event for veteran vegans to spend a relaxing afternoon indulging in some delicious fare. It will be even more useful to new vegans who want to learn some interesting vegan recipes and those people who are considering a vegan lifestyle or are curious about what completely plant-based food tastes like.

I'd love to see some of my fellow Bangalore Vegans at Soul Kadhi on the 18th. More importantly, if you have friends or family members who you've been talking to about switching to a vegan diet, this is an excellent opportunity for you to make them experience vegan food at a restaurant first hand.

Depending on the response to this event, Soul Kadhi plans to organise more vegan cooking events in the future. They also intend to introduce these and other vegan dishes into their regular menu based on the feedback of the participants.

Looking forward to seeing you there! :)