Sweet Potato Pesto Cutlets

The new year is here. And my only wish is that it is a good year for each and everyone of us. We began 2010 with friends at a hill station and hoped that the year would have a lot of travel. I must admit, I felt a little cheated in this regard. Not only did we not travel all that much, the few trips that I did have planned, I had to cancel for different reasons. Yet, even on that front, I did travel to my favourite cities in India: Bangalore, Madras and Hyderabad. And eventually moved to settle down in my second most favourite city in the whole world. So, while I do feel a little cheated, on the whole, the year turned out just fine.

Coming to this post. How do you like to spend your weekends? My ideal weekend would be one where I wake up at leisure and find breakfast ready whenever I do. I like to laze around more during the day and just have different meals magically appear at different times of the day. But we all know that is not how most weekends of mine turn out (or any for that matter).

On days when we wake up closer to lunch time, I try to make a full south Indian meal for the first meal and then like to make something "snacky" for later in the day. The decision about dinner is usually left for later. Here's one such snack idea. It is perfect as a snack and can even double up as a meal.

2 Sweet Potatoes, boiled and peeled

1 Potato, boiled and peeled 

2 slices Bread, crumbled

1/4 cup Soya Granules, prepared according to the instructions on the pack

2 tbsp Parsley Peanut Pesto
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder
Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Mash the sweet potatoes and the potato together. Add the crumbled bread slices and the soya granules and mix well. Add the other ingredients. Make small balls of the mixture and flatten each to form a cutlet.

Heat a frying pan and place the cutlets in the pan. Add a few drops of oil around the cutlets. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side. Turn over and cook the other side for a couple of minutes, adding a little oil if necessary.

Drain on absorbent paper and serve with some tomato or chilli sauce.

This was the first time I cooked with yellow sweet potatoes. We enjoyed the cutlets and I'm sure I'll be making these babies again.

Happy and Healthy 2011 all of you!

Macaroni with Parsley-Peanut Pesto

There was a time I hadn't heard of pesto. Then came the time when I'd heard about it, but knew nothing about it. Then came the time when I first ate it. And then came the present. The time when I've heard about it, I know about it, I've eaten it, I make it and I experiment with different flavours. I've come a long way from asking a friend to bring me pine nuts from the US to using the humble peanut in my pesto.


At one time, I'd substitute pine nuts only with cashews. But I've become a bit more adventurous of late. Any nut and any kind of herb (needn't be a herb) and I've got a pesto going. To make it suitable for a lunch box, I added some mushrooms and some milk.


1 cup Macaroni, Cooked/Boiled with a little oil and salt

1 tbsp Olive Oil
2-3 tbsp Milk
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced




For the Parsley Pesto:


1/2 cup Parsley Leaves
1 cube Low Fat Cheese
2 tbsp Roasted Peanuts
2 pods Garlic
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes


Salt and Pepper to taste


Grind together all the ingredients for the pesto.


Drain the pasta and keep aside.


Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Saute the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. Add the pesto sauce and fry for a few minutes. Add the milk to get a sauce like consistency. Add the pasta and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.


A meal that comes together in minutes. There's not much chopping involved. And since I use a food processor to grind the pesto, there's no pounding to be done either. This is a perfect recipe for times when you want a nice meal and don't want to slave over the stove too much.

I hope all of you had a good Christmas. Happy Holidays!

Basil Walnut Pesto

I have experimented with several types of pesto. A few years ago, I hadn't tasted it. Now, it features quite regularly on our menu. While at one time I thought of it as a mere pasta sauce, I now use it as a salad dressing, as a spread for garlic toast, as a dip. What I love about pesto is how the flavour changes with each ingredient. This walnut pesto is a favourite with small bites of garlic bread.

1 cup Basil Leaves

1/3 cup Walnuts, toasted

4-5 pods Garlic

5 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Grind together all the ingredients to a coarse paste. You may pound them in a pestle if you wish. Add the olive oil a little by little to facilitate the grinding.

Store in an airtight container. You could use this in many ways. As a pasta sauce or salad dressing. Check out little bites of toast at my namesake's blog. While you're at it, do check out the blogs of other marathon runners as well: DK , Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani

Spirali in Basil Pesto

Pesto is one of those things that I love today but didn't quite know about while growing up. The very first time I heard about it was about 5 years ago. A colleague, who had grown up in the US, told me about it one day while recounting her first cooking experience. So, after trying it out at several restaurants, I decided to make it at home. I made a coriander pesto sometime last year. And whenever I could lay my hands on basil, I made basil pesto. I asked a friend to bring me pine nuts from the U.S. And she did. For the very first time I made basil pesto with pine nuts. I didn't pound the nuts in a mortar, but used my food processor instead.

1 cup Spirali Pasta, Cooked/Boiled with a little oil and salt

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Milk

For the Basil Pesto:

1/2 cup Basil Leaves
1 cube Low Fat Cheese
2 tbsp Pine Nuts
2 pods Garlic
3 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Grind together all the ingredients for the pesto.

Drain the pasta and keep aside.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Fry the pesto sauce in it for a few minutes. Add the milk to get a sauce like consistency. Add the pasta and mix well.

This is one of the simplest dishes I have come across and I make it as often as I can. I'm sending this super simple dish to Mathy who is hosting this month's JFI. The ingredient is one of my favourites: garlic.

Pasta Salad with Coriander Pesto

I'd mentioned in a post that we'd started eating salads for lunch and I didn't post the other simple recipes for salad since then. So here's something that has been pending for 2 months now while I have been posting about cakes and kheer and pizza!

I had made pesto sauce with basil several times after the chef at Earth, the Italian lounge S and I can't have enough of, taught me how to make it. I don't use pine nuts, but use cashews instead. While walking down the aisles of Morning Stores, a specialty store in GK I, I noticed coriander pesto in their sauce section. That gave me an idea. I came home and a few days later I made this lovely salad for lunch.






1 cup Pasta, boiled
1 cup Capsicum, cut into strips
1/2 cup Baby Corn, cut into long pieces
1/4 cup Broccoli, cut into florets and steamed


For the Coriander Pesto:

1 cup Coriander leaves

1 cube Low Fat Cheese

2 tbsp Cashews

2 pods Garlic

3 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Grind together all the ingredients for the pesto. Toss the vegetables and pasta in the sauce.

This sauce makes a lovely spread for crackers and toast as well and in my opinion would make a great dip. The coriander flavour is lovely and I will be making this sauce more often as a pasta sauce as well.