Herbed Brown Rice with Veggies in Spicy Tomato Yogurt Sauce

When we were in college Bangalore used to be very different. And that was barely 10 years ago! Those were the good old days before multiplexes and malls f#*@ed up our beautiful city. All hangouts used to be cozy, uncrowded and comfortable. We knew the true meaning of chilling out. Yes, the choices were comparatively limited, but we still loved them. When we wanted to watch movies we went to Rex, Galaxy and other such nice, old, single theaters. When we wanted to shop we visited the Commercial Street side lanes. When we wanted to window shop we dropped in to Shoppers Stop or Lifestyle. And when we wanted to grab a nice lunch Casa Picola was THE place to go to.

There was this one dish at Casas that I really loved. It involved large chunks of capsicum, mushroom and cottage cheese in a yogurt based tomato sauce served with some kind of rice and garlic bread on the side (I hadn't turned vegan yet). It was one delectable meal! It's been years since I last tasted it and I always wondered what went into that sauce.

Last year I was at my now absolute favorite hang out Infinitea with a few friends and we decided to take lunch instead of the usual herbal tea and Momos (best Momos eva!). That's when I discovered this dish which was very similar to my old Casas favorite.  I was more than thrilled to discover that their sauce did not contain yogurt and that they could easily replace the cottage cheese with some extra veggies (I usually ditch the mushrooms too and get broccoli and extra bell peppers instead).

I'd been meaning to try a similar dish at home for the longest time and tonight finally happened to be the night that I did. Well it didn't taste the same of course but it did turn out delicious and I was extremely pleased with the result :)

Herbed Brown Rice with Veggies in a Spicy Tomato Yogurt Sauce

For the Rice:

1 C Long Grained Brown Rice

3 C Water

1 t Vinegar

2 T Oil

2-3 t Mixed Dried Herbs (basil, thyme, chives etc...)

Sea Salt

Pepper

Put the first five ingredients and a wee bit of salt in a microwave safe glass dish and cook on high for about 18-20 minutes. Let it stand for a few minutes. Fluff with a fork. Sprinkle more salt as desired and crush pepper with a pepper mill directly over the rice. Mix gently with fork and keep aside covered.

Veggies:

2 Carrots

7-8 Baby Corns

1 small Capsicum (Green Bell Pepper)

Chop the veggies. Sprinkle a tiny pinch of sugar over them and mix. Cook in a microwave safe glass dish on high for 5-7 minutes, mixing in between.

Sauce:

6-7 Tomatoes

7-10 cloves of Garlic

1 inch piece Ginger

3-4 Dry Red Chillies

Salt

Grind everything in a blender adding some water if required.

How to proceed:

Pour blended liquid over the veggies in the glass dish. Mix well and cook on high for 3 let it sit for 1 minute. Stir and cook again for 2 minutes.

Add 1/2 C Soy Yogurt (optional) and stir well.

Serve hot. Enjoy! :)