Beetroot Halwa

A delicious Indian dessert with a pleasing color, Beetroot Halwa is a wonderful and tasty treat, be it for a party or for a simple Sunday meal.

Beetroot is one of the veggies I hate to eat but still try to include in the meals only because of it's innumerable health benefits. To be honest, I also hate the way it ruins the nice creamy color of my cutting board while cutting/grating and the way it sprays it's color on the pure white coating of my kitchen stove top. My mum makes an aromatic and very tasty sambar with beets but it never tasted the same even when I follow her recipe. So I had to make this Halwa to consume Beets once a while since it contains a lot of nutrients like potassium, magnesium, iron, vitamins A, B6 and C, folic acid, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants and soluble fibre.

When you are on a weight management diet, you tend to concentrate on the "Low calorie" foods but unintentionally you start to swing towards Low-fat and Low-sugar foods. It is good for your health if you manage to get all the nutrients with Low fat and low sugar diet by including different kinds of veggies and fruits. If not, it may work for a short time diet plan, but for a long time plan, your body will be deprived of so many nutrients. You will definitely lose a lot of weight, but not in a healthy way. For that moment, you may feel light, lean and weight-less but that will affect your health in the long run. So, you need to be very careful about what you choose to eat or cook. It will take a lot of effort and a lot more time to lose weight.

Beets are one of those veggies which can provide your body with a lot of nutrients you need everyday and Halwa is the recipe I chose to include it in my diet. As usual, I have not loaded the halwa with sugar or Ghee but a little amount once a week would not hurt your diet. If you are not on a weight loss regime, feel free to increase the quantity of sugar and ghee as you please.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	180		Calories
Fat	5		%
Carbohydrates	4		%
Dietary Fiber	11		%
Sodium	3.5		%
Vitamin A	2		%
Vitamin C	4		%
Calcium	16		%
Iron	2		%
Protein	4		Grams
Sugar	13		Grams

Ingredients
Beetroots	2 large
Milk	2 cups
Sugar	2 tablespoons
Ghee	1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Nuts of your choice and raisins	a handful

• Grate Beetroot. Heat a pan, add grated Beet and milk. Cook under simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add sugar and give it a mix. Cook under medium flame till most of the milk is evaporated.
• Also add Ghee and Cardamom powder and mix well. Cook for 5 more minutes till the aroma starts to fill up.

• Heat ghee in a pan and add nuts and raisins. Fry till the cashew nuts turn slightly brown.
• Add them to the halwa and give a stir. Serve hot or chilled or with some vanilla Ice cream.

• There are many variations to this recipe and one of them being adding Khova. You can also add more nuts.
• If you are lactose intolerant, you can cook the beets in water.
• You can also add slightly roasted Poppy seeds if you dont like the soft halwa.

Neer Dosa

Thin, light, soft and extremely tasty, Neer Dosa is one of the popular Dosa varieties of Karnataka. The texture of Neer Dosa is delicate and is simply delightful to have as a Breakfast or at any time of the day.

It has been almost 7 months since we moved to Norway. From past 2 months, I have been missing my mum and her food very badly. My granny is from Mangalore and my mum learnt many Mangalorean dishes from her. One of them being Neer Dosa and my mum makes the best Neer Dosa I've ever tasted. :D I have tasted Neer Dosa from quite a lot of Restaurants and Hotels and also at my work place, but none of them was better than my Mum's dosa. =P~ Anyway, I had this craving for my mum's Neer Dosa and there was no other way to eat it other than making it myself.

Neer Dosa is pretty simple to make. Though the recipe does not call for fermentation overnight, it is a fail-safe way to make sure the batter is perfect. If the rice is not soaked well, the dosa cracks and does not cook well. If the batter is too runny, then Dosa sticks to the pan. If the batter is too thick, then it gives you thick Dosas and not the thin, soft ones. I love Neer dosa soft but naveen likes it a little crunchy. So I cook them in simmer till they turn slightly brown and crispy. Neer Dosa is usually served with a non-veg curry in Non-vegetarian homes. We, vegetarians serve Neer Dosa with Melted jaggery or Thick coconut chutney and sometimes with banana or Mango rasayana.

U know you have succeeded in making perfect Neer dosa when your Neer Dosa has tiny holes all over and soft yet well cooked. When you stack Neer Dosa, make sure you don't put one on top of the other since they stick to each other and it is impossible to separate them. They taste best when they are hot and fresh but they even make good lunch box dish since they taste almost as good as the ones that were hot.
*Please don't mind the quality of the pics. Morning's are usually rush since Naveen leaves very early and I had to take the pics of making the batter in a hurry.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	78		Calories
Fat	2		%
Carbohydrates	7		%
Dietary Fiber	1		%
Sodium	1		%
Vitamin A	0		%
Vitamin C	0		%
Calcium	1		%
Iron	6		%
Protein	1.8		Grams
Sugar	0		Grams

Ingredients
Raw Rice (preferably Sona Masuri)	1 & 1/2 cups
Grated Coconut	1/2 cup
Salt	to taste
Water	as required
Oil	to grease the pan

• Wash and soak overnight or at least 6 hours.
• Drain the water and grind the rice along with grated coconut to a fine paste. Add water as required while grinding. To check if the paste is smooth, you can rub the batter between fingers. If the paste is course, then grind till it's smooth.

• Add water to make the batter to buttermilk consistency. The consistency of the batter is perfect if it does not stick to the back of the ladle. Then add salt and mix well.
• Heat a Dosa pan/Tava, grease it with oil or ghee. Pour a ladleful of batter on the pan. There is no need to spread the batter with the back of the ladle. Cook in medium flame. Once the sides start to leave the pan, fold in half and serve hot.

• If you make a large batch of batter, do not add salt to the batter which you are going to refrigerate. That will keep the batter unspoiled for almost a week.