Crispy Cauliflower

I remember one of my friends offering me these crispy cauliflowers long time ago and it tasted delicious. I had not given it a thought for some time since it was deep fried and a little high on calories for me.

From the day I started knowing about weight loss diet, I have learnt that the food can be tastier when it is healthier. True, deep fried food are way attractive to resist, but baked and oil-less food such as Crispy cauliflowers are guilt free and as tasty as deep fried.

I tried this dish in the beginning of my baking days and this is the simplest of almost all baking dishes. It is very tasty and very crispy.

Nutritional Information  (Approx)			(per serving)
Energy	25		Calories
Fat	1		%
Carbohydrate	2		%
Dietary Fiber	10		%
Sodium	1		%
Vitamin A	0		%
Vitamin C	77		%
Calcium	2		%
Iron	2		%
Protein	1.98		Grams
Sugar	2.4		Grams

Ingredients
Cauliflower florets as many as you wish to crisp
Salt	to taste
Wheat flour/Corn flour	1/2 cup
Turmeric powder	a pinch
Garam masala powder	1/2 tsp
Chilli powder	1/2 tsp
Ginger powder or ginger powder (Optional)	1/2 tsp
Oil	1 tsp
Water

Clean/wash the cauliflower florets with some salt water and keep aside.

In a cup, mix flour, salt, Turmeric powder, Garam masala powder, Chilli powder and Ginger powder.

Add water and make a paste.

Preheat the oven for 4-5 minutes.

Line your baking dish with a baking sheet or Aluminium foil and coat it with oil.

Dip each cauliflower floret in the paste. 

Arrange the florets on the dish and bake them in oven for atleast 20 minutes at 200 degrees. 

Make sure to turn the florets in the middle of the baking time to get even browning.

Serve it with or without a dip.

Cream of Mushroom soup

Cream, butter and flour are usually used to thicken the dishes like soups, stews and gravies. The dishes thickened with cream and butter are quite heavy and high in calories.

Cream of mushroom soup usually prepared with lots of thick cream has too many calories. I wanted to prepare cream of mushroom soup without the cream and I chose to use flour instead of cream.

I was in a hurry to cook dinner while preparing this soup, so excuse me for some of the blurry pics.

My family has loved this soup every time it was prepared. Hope you all like it too. :)

Nutritional Information  (Approx)			(per serving)
Energy	100		Calories
Fat	7		%
Carbohydrate	3		%
Dietary Fiber	8		%
Sodium	6		%
Vitamin A	0		%
Vitamin C	0		%
Calcium	0		%
Iron	0		%
Protein	1		Grams
Sugar	1		Grams

Ingredients
Olive oil/butter	1 tsp
Mushrooms chopped	2 cups
Onion chopped	1
Garlic cloves	3
Salt	to taste
Pepper powder	1/2 tsp
Wheat flour/corn flour	2 tsps
Water	4 cups
Coriander leaves	to garnish

Heat oil/butter in a pan and fry onion till it looks transparent.

Add mushrooms to the frying pan and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Once the mushrooms look a little brown, take the pan off the heat.

Let the mixture cool for a while.

Grind/blend the mixture into a coarse paste.

Dry fry the flour in a different pan for 2-3 minutes.

Add water to the flour to make it a paste.

In a pot add the blended mixture and flour paste and give it a stir.

Add salt and bring the mixture to boil.

Add pepper powder and boil in simmer for 2-3 more minutes.


Serve hot with a garnish of some coriander leaves.

• You can also garnich the soup with some fresh cream.
• If you like the soup a little bit spicy, you can add some green chillies with onion