The one thing that this lockdown had me missing was restaurant-style sabzi. You know on a lazy day when you just don't give a damn anymore and decide it's futile to take any efforts and just order food from the restaurant itself, well as a safety precaution, we didn't order anything lately. It's been 3 months that we ate anything from outside. So this was a nice treat!
Ingredients:(Serves 6-8 people)
8 tbsp Oil
7 Onions (Finely chopped)
6 Tomatoes (Finely chopped/ Puree)
Veggies (use any of your choice)
8-10 Mushrooms
Half a head of Broccoli
1/2 cup Cauliflower
1 Carrot
100g Pumpkin
8-10 French beans
1 Capsicum
1 chopped boiled Potato
2 tbsp Methi or 1tsp Kasuri Methi
Sugar to taste
2 tbsp Cream
Water as required
2 tsp Ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
Fresh Dhaniya
Kadhai masala
Kadhai Masala :
1tbsp Coriander powder/ Coriander seeds
2tsp sesame seeds
2 pods Elaichi/Cardamom
1-inch Dalchini/Cinnamon
2 Kashmiri Red Chillies or 1tsp red chilly powder
4 Cashewnuts
Dry roast the masala in a pan till aromatic. Cooldown completely and blend in a mixie
Method :
Chop the veggies into similar lengths so that they cook evenly.
Add oil in a big kadhai and finely chopped onion. Cook the onions on medium flame till they caramelise completely.
Once the onions caramelise, add tomato puree and cook till the tomatoes start leaving their oil. At the same time add ginger garlic paste, this way the paste leaves out all the rawness from it.
Next, add veggies in the order that they cook. I added mushroom followed by pumpkin and carrots. Then I added Cauliflower and broccoli, followed by Methi or french beans. After this add the kadhai masala, (if you're feeling lazy and don't want to make the kadhai masala, just use Pav Bhaji Masala instead) and let the veggies roast a little. This way the flavour of the kadhai will be transferred to the veggies and you'll get an authentic kadhai flavour.
If you wish, you can also blend the tomato and onion paste to give a restaurant-style feel to the dish.
Lastly, add the capsicum and roast for 1 more minute.
Add water and cook the veggies till they are properly tender. You can add as much water as you like. If you're eating this with chapati, keep it on the thicker side. Or you can also water down the gravy instead.
Add cream and a little colour if you wish. Or you could use beetroot as one of the veggies that will add a natural deep pinkish colour.
Decorate with freshly chopped coriander, and serve with rice or chapati.
If you wish to make naan, you can follow my recipe for it over here