Recipe submitted by Sangeetha Jagan This recipe makes 6 polis. Ingredients: For outer covering: 1/2 Cup All purpose flour 1/4 Cup Dry Ground almond powder pinch of Salt 3 Tbsp Oil 1 Tsp Ghee pinch of Lemon yellow food color (optional) 1/8 Cup Water For walnut khoya filling: 2 Cups Milk ( I used low [...]

Appalu are one Authentic dish in Andhra Cuisine which are famous for their soft texture and color and of course not overly sweet. This is an item the whole family can relish and forces you to make again… I bet!.

Apple custard is a nice desert with the red strawberry sauce to give a holiday touch. The uncooked apples and roasted almonds give it a nice texture.

This bread is called Ari Pathal (Rice bread). This is my moms recipe (from Kerala) . It is normally served for breakfast or for snack, it can be eaten as it is or with potato masala curry or with chutney.

This super-easy casserole is a perfect healthy dish to feed an army. If you’ve got kids who need to get some veggies in them, a nice crunchy topping can go a long way. It would also be a perfect veggie option for a big Thanksgiving or Christmas or Celebration-type dinner, when there’s lots of mouths. Or make it all for yourself and have leftovers for lunch! Mmmmmm, leftovers.

This is a simple and spicy recipe for a quick meal. On lazy evenings, just put together various vegetables mixed with spices and bake them on satay sticks. A colorful and tasty meal will be ready in 30 minutes. It can be served as an entree dish for parties or get-togethers.

Basil Flavored Vegetable and Rice Casserole is simple but packed with lots of flavor.

This Bean Sprouts Salad Spring Roll recipe is Vietnamese cuisine inspired salad. I give credit to my very dear friend Anaya for this recipe and she in turn gives credit to her friend and food network. No matter what changes we make, this spring roll is tasty, healthy, very filling, very colorful, and easy to make. It has always been a very big hit whenever I have taken to potluck. Hope you all enjoy it. This versatile spring roll can be eaten with mint sauce or cilantro. I have used mint dressing in this recipe. I especially like this since it is not fried, tasty and a healthy salad which I like to skip a meal and eat this instead.

This delicious salad is an alluring combination of roasted beets, mandarin oranges, leafy greens with creamy mango dressing. The mixture of sweet and tart flavors with a tangy mango dressing turns this salad recipe into something special.

Back home in India, we used to relish the pickled chilies or mirchi ka achar, where good quality of mirchi or chilies are chosen with great care, and then stuffed with pickle spices , drenched in hot mustard oil and infused with the flavor of fennel, cumin, mustard etc. The other way to enjoy it as an appetizer, where the jalapeno or korean chilies are coated with seasoned chickpeas flour and then deep-fried in hot oil, and on an overcast monsoon day you can relish these hot mirchi bhajjis with a cup of coffee…some of the simple pleasures in life. No discussion of chilies can be ever completed without mentioning the celebrated mirchi ka salan from the cuisines of Hyderabad. The lip smacking dish successfully wins every heart whether you love or hate the chilies.

Biscuit Cream Pudding was a dessert that my mother used to make. It’s sinful because its loaded with high fat cream, but is absolutely yummy. Biscuit Cream Pudding has layers of biscuit alternated with layers of sweetened whipped cream. Biscuit cream pudding is not a dessert you can make often but it is a dish you should try at least once.

Black Eyed Peas with Green Peas is a high fiber protein packed dish that can be served as a breakfast item or as a side dish.

Recipe submitted by Nithu Bala Ingredients: 1 Cup All Purpose Flour 1/4 Cup Butter 1/2 Cup Sugar 1/2 tsp Instant Coffee Powder (Optional) 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp Baking Powder 1 tbsp Cocoa 3/4 tsp Vanilla Essence 1 1/2 tsp Honey 3-4 tbsp Milk For the Filling : 1/4cup Butter 1/3 cup Icing Sugar [...]

Butternut Squash & Almond Baked Crumble is a comforting, warming supper and stands well on its own, without the need for any side dish. It is rich and creamy tasting and is full of goodness.

This is one the simple and yummy halwa that is easy to make and tastes great. The richness of the halwa comes from the almonds added to it. Also this halwa is almost healthy as it inculdes a large amount of veggie in it. It has less fat than the traditional badam halwa but tastes almost similar to it.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi in Coconut Curry Sauce is an Indian-Italian inspired fusion recipe. Italian cuisine is my favorite and this is an Indian twist to a classic Italian soft dumpling – gnocchi. Hope you enjoy!

Butternut Squash Risotto is simple, delicious and easy to prepare recipe that can be served at any time. It can be served with any side of green vegetables.

I love phirnis, but this time I wanted to make them with a twist using fresh pineapple chunks. I had some leftover fresh pineapple chunks and also home made caramel syrup, so I decided to combine both together to create this beautiful looking phirni, which is a rich and wonderful dessert. If you are a bit lazy or don’t prefer to make your own caramel syrup, you can definitely get a store bought one. This fruity rice phirni tastes amazing when they served chilled, but you can also enjoy them warm. Adding cream is completely optional.

Cauliflower Couscous is a simple, easy to make recipe that is a delicious alternative to regular couscous. It has amazing color, texture and also tastes great.

This is a yummy and healthy cauliflower crusted pizza, made with fresh ingredients and also egg-less. Pizza sauce and Indian cheese was made from scratch using fresh ingredients.

Cauliflower Spinach Bake is healthy nutrition-rich side dish that is easy and quick to make.

Appetizers are typically finger foods that are easy to pick up and eat while waiting for the main course. So I decided to come up with an appetizer that has all the flavors of a traditional chaat and at the same time has the convenience of being able to be made ahead of time and is also a finger food. After some thinking, I came up with these yummy Chaat Bites – a crowd pleaser for sure!

Cheese is produced and consumed throughout the world in various forms. Shakkar para or Namak para are very popular snacks served in India during Diwali season. Combing cheese with Namak Para has resulted into what I call “Cheese Para”. The cheese adds a little zing to the Namak Para taking it to a whole new level.

This Sweet Spicy Soup is a perfect accompaniment for a garden party starter or a refreshing drink on a summer day.

This is a completely innovative Fusion Burger dish with a blend of Indian and eastern flavors.

Chocolate Chili Pepper Mousse is a delectable dessert that is served cold. The chili is a perfect complement to the chocolate and provides a perfect little kick without overpowering the dish. If you like spices and chocolate, this is a must try.

Recipe submitted by Priya Ravi This recipe is a delicious chocolate flavored coconut ice cream with crunchy toppings. I made this for my daughter who actually doesnt like coconut milk because she hates the strong aroma from the milk. I used coco powder to bring chocolate flavor and it truly did wonders. Though she recognized [...]

This recipe is the old sweet dish Gulab Jamun but with a new twist: Chocolate Gulab Jamuns. The bitter dark chocolate insides is a perfect balance to the sweetness of gulab jamuns outside. Also I made these with milk powder which was new for me, and they turned out to be very soft and spongy. All were surprised and asked me for the recipe. So here it is!

My recipe is Chocolate Squares which is inspired by a recipe from the book Baker’s Fiesta by Sangeeta Khanna. I saw this recipe a long time ago and decided it would be perfect for this month’s contest. I hope you will like it too.

This is one of my Mom’s recipes. This is a very easy recipe to make. My brothers and I used to make this when we were little elementary schoolers. If I were to rename this cookie I would call it a quick cookie or something like that. It would take around 3 minutes to prepare this and 15 minutes to bake. And another nice thing about this cookie is that its an egg-less cookie. This cookie is for those of you who wants something quick & egg-less.