Day 2: The Thakkar Kitchen

With mum and dad around, fresh healthy meals prepared daily are a norm. Mum takes care of lunch, and usually, I prepare dinner. My dad is very fond of my cooking, and he has this curious look on his face when he asks me what's on the menu for dinner. He gets excited when I tell him I'm trying something new...especially if its something non-traditional.

My sister is an equally good cook as mum and I. She loves to bake, and her cakes are to die for! So the Thakkar Kitchen, as we like to call it, is always an aromatic inviting place!

One of the things I love to do is taking new ingredients (that are not typically used in Indian cooking) and making Indian dishes out of them. I was on a cooking spree in November - we tried out so many new dishes. I used to upload an Instagram picture to FB whenever I made something new, and so many friends have asked me for recipes. I usually google for recipes, but always modify them to suit our taste. Sometimes, I combine two or three recipes together. Whatever I do, the result is always great...which gives me the confidence to keep trying!

Here's some of the stuff I cooked recently:

Dabeli - Ahmedabad street food. A healthier version with no butter and also without onion/garlic to suit my parents' preferences.

Aloo Tikki Chaat - mimicking the famous "Bhalla" from Agra. We made this on Thanksgiving day and it was delish!

Chunky Guac - with black beans, roasted sweet corn, lemon zest, cilantro, black pepper and salt - served with some kind of healthy chips - we do quinoa/black bean, or gluten free multi-grain with flax seeds.

Lettuce wrap filling - Another favorite in our house, mimicking the veggie lettuce wraps from P.F.Changs!

Couscous Upma - I don't like traditional upma much, but I absolutely dig this one!

Chaat Baskets - I can never get enough of chaat. This one is my tried and tested recipe of all the ingredients that I love in my chaat. My mom loves it so much, she always makes me prepare more so we can have it for 2 days straight!

Paneer Tikka Masala Pizza - I don't like Pizza at all....and living in the US, I'm sometimes forced to have it (parties, group lunches, etc). I have never tried making pizza at home until now....so I took whole wheat pizza dough, and made a paneer tikka masala gravy to go on top, along with Amul cheese and Cilantro - and this is one pizza I could eat anyday! My dad said this is the best pizza he's ever had :)!

Spicy Masala Baby Potatoes - These were so so yummy!

If you need recipes for any of these dishes, please leave a comment and I will email it to you!