Fatima's Fabulous Kitchen

I don't eat to live. I live to eat.

Indian

Paneer Tikka Salad

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mango-cashew dressing ingredients

I don’t have a whole lot of salad recipes on here, so here is one that is incredibly simple to make!

This Paneer Tikka Salad is great for lunch or even as a side dish, and the great thing about it is you can make the paneer tikka in the oven, air-fryer, pan, or grill.

I cut the paneer into cubes and combine into a classic tandoori marinade consisting of tandoori masala, amchur, turmeric, chili powder, yogurt, lemon juice, and ginger-garlic paste. (Feel free to add some pieces of bell pepper and onion to the mix.)

I keep the salad simple with some lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and onion.

This time I paired the salad with a sweeter salad dressing made with mango, cashews, serrano, cilantro, and lime juice. But a homemade ranch dressing is also a great option!

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Paneer Tikka Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 14 oz block of paneer
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 1 Tbsp tandoori masala (store-bought or homemade)
  • 1 tsp chili powder or paprika
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp amchur powder
  • 1 tsp kasuri methi
  • salt (to taste)
  • 1/3 cup yogurt
  • 2 squeezes lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp oil
  • 1 head romaine lettuce
  • 1 medium-sized carrot
  • 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (chopped)
  • 1/2 small onion
  • your favorite salad dressing (see instructions for details)

Instructions

  1. Cut the paneer into cubes. Feel free to make them as big or small as you'd like.

  2. Combine the paneer with ginger-garlic paste, tandoori masala, turmeric, chili powder, methi, amchur, yogurt, lemon juice, oil, and salt.

  3. To cook the paneer you can either pan-fry, bake, air-fry, or grill. To bake, spread the paneer on a baking sheet at 400F until the cubes appear slightly charred. Flip to cook on both sides.

  4. For the salad, chop the lettuce, shred the carrots into matchsticks, cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and dice the onions. Assemble with the paneer tikka.

  5. Top with your favorite salad dressing. I made a mango-cashew dressing with a mango, serrano, handful of cilantro, 1/4 cup of roasted cashews, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Ranch dressing is also a great option!

Sambar

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Sambar is one of my favorite daals to eat. I think what makes it so great is that it has a wonderful sweet and sour taste due to the outstanding combination of jaggery (Indian cane sugar) and tamarind.

Another thing that makes sambar distinct from other lentil dishes is that it contains several different vegetables. There is no hard and fast rule of what vegetables you can or can’t use, though some are pretty traditional (i.e – drumstick vegetable). I definitely like to have peas and carrots in my sambar along with shallots, okra, eggplant, and bell pepper.

There are different variations of sambar. I’m showing a masoor daal version today, but you will also find sambar made with toor daal.

There are basically three steps to making sambar – 1. Cook the lentils 2. Cook the veggies 3. Put it all together and finish with the baghar (tempering) step.

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Masoor Daal Sambar

Ingredients

Daal

  • 1/2 cup toor daal (you can also substitute with masoor daal, which is my favorite)
  • 1 tomato
  • 5 curry leaves
  • 1 pinch asoefitida
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 1.5 cups of water

Sambar Veggies (Total = 3 cups chopped, use whatever veggies you like)

  • 3 Tbsp oil
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 pinch asoefitida (hing)
  • 2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 2 shallots
  • 1/2 cup eggplant
  • 1/2 bell pepper
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1/4 cup peas
  • 4-5 okra fingers
  • 1/4 cup drumstick vegetable optional
  • 1/4 cup water
  • salt to taste
  • 2 Tbsp sambar spice mix (storebought or homemade)
  • 2 Tbsp jaggery or brown sugar (or to taste)
  • 1/4-1/3 cup tamarind pulp or concentrate (or to taste)

Bhaghar

  • 1.5 Tbsp oil
  • 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
  • 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
  • 6-7 curry leaves
  • 3-4 dried chilies

Instructions

Daal (lentils)

  1. Wash your daal really well and add to a pot with about 2 cups of water. Add your curry leaves, turmeric, chili powder, aseofitida, ginger-garlic paste, and curry leaves.

  2. Bring the pot to a simmer and allow the daal to cook. Once the lentil is completely cooked through, turn off the heat.

  3. Using an immersion blender or regular blender, blend until relatively smooth. (You can keep it a little chunky if you like).

Sambar Veggies

  1. Prep the vegetables that you would like in your sambar. Cut them into thick pieces or to your liking. I listed above the vegetables that I like to use.

  2. In a pot or pan, heat some oil on medium-high heat. Add your cumin and mustard seeds.

  3. Once the cumin and mustard seeds start popping, add your shallots. Sautee them and add your ginger-garlic paste.

  4. Cook the rest of the vegetables in the order of how long it takes for them to cook. Add the sambar spice mix along with the salt.

  5. Add a little bit of water and allow the veggies to cook down. Make sure they don't get mushy.

Putting it together

  1. Add the daal that you cooked earlier to the pot of vegetables.

  2. Stir in the tamarind and jaggery. *Note – the amount of tamarind you use will depend on how diluted your tamarind is with water. Always start with a small amount and taste and adjust as you go.

  3. Feel free to add more water if sambar is too thick.

  4. In another small pan, do the baghar step. Add a little bit of oil to a pan along with the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and curry leaves. Once the mustard and cumin seeds start to pop – remove from heat and add to sambar. Stir and serve.

Dosa

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I decided to update my dosa recipe from 2018.  Well I say it’s my recipe but it’s really my mom’s recipe. She is known for making good dosas so here it is!

A couple things you should know! –

  • There are so many different ways to make dosa – the kind of lentils used and the rice:lentil ratio may vary depending on the kind of dosa texture you are trying to achieve (i.e – crispy vs. soft)
  • Dosa takes time to make! The actual time spent in the kitchen isn’t a lot, but you have to soak the ingredients first overnight and then allow the batter to ferment for another 24 hours (at least).
  • Soak the idli rice in a separate bowl and the lentils (the urad daal and channa daal combined) in a separate bowl. (I’m not actually entire sure why this is or if it in fact is necessary, but my mom swears by it!)
  • When grinding everything up, do it in batches! Use the water that you soaked the lentils in to help grind the lentils and rice.
  • To ensure that the dosa batter ferments, make sure to cover the batter and place it in a warm area.
  • Add salt to the dosa batter right before you start cooking them on the stove. The reason being is salt could potentially interfere with the fermentation process.
  • You can store the batter after it ferments for up to a week in the fridge!
  • Feel free to serve the dosa with your favorite fillings – potato curry, cheese, onions, etc.
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Ingredients

  • 2 cups idli rice
  • 1 cup urad daal
  • 1/4 cup channa daal
  • 1/4 cup poha
  • 1 tsp methi seeds (fenugreek)
  • 2 cups water (reserved from soaking lentils)
  • 21/2 cups additional water (to add to fermented batter)
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Begin by washing your rice and lentils really well until the water runs clear.

  2. Soak the idli rice, poha, and methi seeds in one bowl of water and the lentils (urad daal and channa daal) in another bowl of water for about 8-12 hours.

  3. The next day, the lentils and rice should have swelled up. Drain the water from the rice. Then drain the water from the lentils, but reserve it! We will use the water that we soaked the lentils in to help grind everything in the blender.

  4. Using a high speed blender, grind the lentils and rice in batches. Add a little bit of the reserved water at a time. I used in total about 2 cups of water.

  5. Empty the batter from the blender into a large pot or bowl. Stir for a few minutes. The texture of the batter at this step should be slightly grainy.

  6. Now cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap. Keep it in a warm area in your kitchen. Let the batter ferment for about 24 hours.

  7. The next day, check your batter. It should look cracked at the top and when you go to stir it, it should have air bubbles. (Think of bread dough when it rises).

  8. Stir in the salt and some water (I added 2 1/2 cups of regular tap water). The batter should be similar to crepe batter in consistency.

  9. Heat up a flat pan or tawa on medium-low heat.

  10. Using a ladle or the back of a steel cup, pour in the batter. Now starting in the center, move the ladle or cup around in circular motion. (This step takes practice, so if it's your first time and you don't get a thin dosa, don't sweat it!)

  11. As the dosa crisps up, pour a little bit of oil on the edges of the dosa with a teaspoon.

  12. Feel free to add in masala or a potato curry to the dosa at this step. Gently run your spatula underneath the dosa to remove it from the pan.

  13. Serve hot with your favorite chutneys and sambar.