I am thrilled to introduce you to the judges of May DMBLGIT. They are all talented photographers, food bloggers and friends of mine. I can’t think of a better group of people to judge this contest!
Here we go..

Prerna Singh is a professional food photographer, recipe developer and the face behind the wildly popular Indian food blog Indian Simmer. She spent most of her childhood in a few small towns in central India – a time she fondly remembers for Rotis straight off the clay oven and mom’s cooking with produce plucked right from the farms. She went to business school in India to get an MBA and worked in the advertising industry for a few years. Seven years back she moved to the US and now lives with her husband and a naughty three year old daughter who keeps her on her toes. She loves traveling, exploring new cuisines and then trying them in her kitchen to later share them with the world.

She started her food blog in early 2010 as way to share the recipes she developed and was soon drawn to food photography as a medium to present her recipes. Since then her blog and recipes have been featured on some reputed food sites like Food Network, Refinery 29 and The Huffington Post. Indian Simmer was nominated as a Best Food Blog  finalist by Savuer magazine in 2011 as well as 2013 and her blog was also announced Best Of Web. Her first cookbook The Everything Indian Slow cooker Cookbook was recently launched in several countries including US, UK and India.

Michael Natkin is the author of the popular and award-winning vegetarian blog herbivoracious.com. His cookbook, Herbivoracious: A Flavor Revolution with 150 Vibrant and Original Vegetarian Recipes, was a 2013 James Beard Award finalist. He is known among foodies, vegetarians, and fellow bloggers for a modern, international style of meatless cooking. Michael never preaches; he simply believes that if you are going to eat even one meatless meal a week, it should be beautiful, delicious and satisfying. He’s also the CTO of ChefSteps.com, where he is working with much of the original creative team from Modernist Cuisine to create a free online cooking courses and community that will have you cooking better than you ever thought possible.

Nicole S. Young, a.k.a. “Nicolesy,” is a professional photographer and the author of several books and eBooks published through Peachpit Press and Craft & Vision. She specializes in food and stock images, but can also be spotted from time to time traveling the world to get in a good dose of travel and landscape photography.

You can find out more about Nicole on her website, http://nicolesy.com, as well as through social media sites such as Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Kankana Saxena is a food enthusiast enjoying life in sunny California with her loving husband. Living life with a dream, making it enjoyable and savoring every moment of life is her mantra. She shares a glimpse of that in her blog ‘Playful Cooking’. It’s my humble journal where I share my culinary journey, travel stories and passion for photography. She grew up in a family where everybody loves food, everybody knows how to cook and when all gather together, there is always a lot to eat. Marrying a foodie made life more delicious.

Kankana’s passion for photography grew along the line. She enjoys every bit of it and believes that one can set the mood, tell a story and create a connection with good photography. She am a self-taught photographer trying to learn something new everyday.

If you haven’t entered DMBLGIT May 2013, hurry and enter now! Details here.

You can view all DMBLGIT May 2013 entries in this Picasa gallery

Do YOU want to host a future DMBLGIT?! Email Andrew for details!  arb(AT)andys-scribblings.co.uk

DMBLGIT was started by Andrew of Spittoon Extra several years ago, and this hugely popular food photography contest has been successfully doing its rounds on some wonderful blogs.

Submission rules
- One food or drink photo per person
- The photo must have been posted on your blog during the month of April 2013
- Photo must be text free
- The photo must be taken by you
- Photo must be 500 pixels wide

How to enter
- Email me your photo submission as an attachment to veggiebelly@gmail.com
- In your email, please include the following:

• Your name
• Your blogs name and URL
• Title/caption for your photo
• URL of the post where the photo appears
• What camera and lens you used

- Write DMBLGIT in the subject line of the email
- Send me your entry before May 20th 2013

By submitting a photo, you agree to your picture being redisplayed and altered in size on the hosts page and on the SpittooExtra DMBLGIT page.

Scoring
A panel of wonderful judges (look out for a future post introducing them!) will decide 6 winners based on the following criteria:

• One winner in the Aesthetics category
• One winner in the Edibility category
• One winner in the Originality category
• Three overall winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd places)

Apart from this, one photo that stands out, but wasn’t selected as a winning one by the judges will be chosen by me, the host.

Winners will be announced on May 31st

You can view all DMBLGIT May 2013 entries in this Picasa gallery

Do YOU want to host a future DMBLGIT?! Email Andrew for details!  arb(AT)andys-scribblings.co.uk

Every home cook must have a good rasam recipe under their belt. This light, tangy and spicy south Indian dish is usually served as a main dish with rice and potato curry. But my favorite way of serving it is in cups, like a soup, along with some crisp potato chips. Perfectly warming for a cold day!

There are probably as many rasam recipes as there are cooks. Everyone does it differently. And you can flavor the rasam with a number of things, not just garlic. For variation try Chef In You’s lemon rasam, or Mahanandi’s coriander rasam, or my grandmother’s killer pineapple rasam.

Garlic Rasam Recipe

serves about 4

Ingredients for Rasam Masala
6-8 garlic cloves with skin on
8 curry leaves
1 red chili
3/4 tablespoon black pepper corns
1 tablespoon cumin seeds

 Method
1.Using the back of a wooden spoon, crush each garlic clove and set aside.
2.Coarsley grind everything else, except garlic. Mix the ground masala with garlic (skin an all) and set aside.

Ingredients for Rasam
a small gooseberry sized ball of tamarind (about 1 tablespoon)
2 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon oil or ghee
1 red chili, broken
a few curry leaves
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon urad dal
a pinch of asafetida
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

 Method
1. Mix and dissolve the tamarind in 2 cups of water. Then strain and extract the water.
2. Place tomatoes in a bowl, and either using your hands or a potato masher, mash and squish the tomatoes till a coarse pulp forms.
3. Place the tamarind water, add tomatoes in a saucepan, and boil for 5 minutes.
4. While its boiling, heat oil in another saucepan and add the chili, curry leaf, mustard seeds, urad dal and asafetida. Stir till fragrant and the mustard seeds pop.
5. Add in the rasam masala. Stir 15 seconds.
6. Add tamarind tomato water, salt, plus 2 cups water.
7. Cook on medium-high. As soon as the rasam starts to foam and just before it comes to a boil, turn it off.
8. If you want a clear rasam, you can strain it at this point, but straining is optional.
9. Garnish with cilantro and serve with steamed rice or in cups, as soup.

I’m very bad. I get midnight cravings for bread upma – a spiced, stir fried bread dish. Its very easy to make and there is always bread lying around that needs to be used up. So I can tip toe into the kitchen at midnight and quickly whip up this snack without waking up the husband (because I dont want to share my bread upma!).

Use white or brown bread. And if its slightly stale, thats fine too. This recipe is a great way to use up left over bread. If you find the upma is too dry (older breads will be drier), just sprinkle some water and toss to soften it.

Bread Upma Recipe

serves about 4 as a snack 

Ingredients
10 slices of bread, white or brown
4 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 cup minced onion (1 small onion)
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger, optional
1 green chili, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon, or according to taste red chili powder
1 tomato deseeded and chopped
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro for garnish

Method
1. Cut off the crust of the bread. Discard the crust or save for making bread crumbs. This is optional, you can leave the crust on if you like. Cut the bread into cubes.

2. Heat oil in a large wok. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the onion, ginger and green chili. Saute on medium heat till the onion is translucent.

3. Then add the turmeric and red chili powders. Stir for a few seconds.

4. Add in the bread cubes, tomato, lime juice and salt.

5. Stir gently till everything is evenly combined and the bread has absorbed all the spices and turned yellow. About 4 minutes,

6. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

For me, Poha (or pohe or powa) is a childhood favorite. Although a breakfast dish in the Indian state of Maharashtra, we used to have poha as an evening snack after school. Whether you make this poha recipe for breakfast, as a main dish or as a snack, its quick, filling, and tasty.

Batata poha is made with potatoes. Kanda poha is made with onions. This recipe is sort of two-in-one. You can add the potatoes if you like, if not, just stick with the onions. You can also toss in some frozen peas, edamame or mixed frozen vegetables.

Quick Poha Recipe

serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 cups thick (mota) poha
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
3 tablespoons peanuts
1/2 cup minced onion (about 1 medium onion)
6 curry leaves
1 green chili, minced
1/2 cup boiled, peeled, cubed potato or frozen green peas. Both are optional.
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro for garnish

Method
1. Place the poha in a colander and wash it under cold water. Set aside to drain. Do this just before cooking – the poha shouldn’t sit for more than 10 minutes (or it will get mushy).

2.Heat the oil in a wok and add black mustard seeds. When they pop, add the peanuts and cook on medium heat till the peanuts turn lightly golden.

3.Then add the onion, curry leaf and green chili. Sauté on medium heat till the onion is translucent.

4. Then add the cubed potatoes or green peas, if using. Stir well.

5. Sprinkle turmeric and salt. Stir and cook for a few seconds.

6. Add the drained poha and lime juice. Cook on low heat for about 3 minutes.

7. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Can you cook pasta? Do you know how to chop garlic? Yes? Then you’re in business! This peanut noodles recipe is easy and fool proof! You can make it ahead of time and it will keep well in the fridge for up to two days. Plus, it tastes great warm or cold. This easy peanut noodles recipe is perfect for a quick dinner, packed lunch or picnic.

Broccoli is easy to chop, and cooks very quickly, so its perfect in this easy, fuss free recipe. But If you want to add other vegetables to this noodle dish, here are some suggestions. Just make sure the total amount of vegetables is about 3 cups.

- Shredded raw cabbage
- Shredded carrots
- Chopped cucumber
- Red peppers cut into strips
- Bean sprouts
- Wilted kale
- Baby corn
- Fried tofu cubes

Easy Peanut Noodles Recipe

serves about 3

Ingredients
2 cups broccoli florets
8 oz linguine or spaghetti

for the sauce
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil. Substitute with canola oil.
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
Crushed red chili flakes, as much as you like

2 tablespoons chopped green onion or cilantro or parsley for garnish

Method
1. In a large pot, bring plenty of salted water to a boil.

2. While water is coming to a boil, work on the sauce. Place all sauce ingredients (peanut butter through red chili flakes) in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of water, and whisk everything together till a sauce forms. Set aside.

3. When the water boils, add the broccoli florets and continue boiling till the broccoli is bright green and crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, remove the broccoli from the water and place in a wok.

4. Bring the same water back to a boil. Then add pasta to the water and cook according to package instructions. Make sure you dont over cook the pasta. Drain well.

5. Add the drained pasta to the wok with broccoli.

6. Pour the peanut sauce all over the pasta and toss well. Taste the pasta, if it needs more salt, add soy sauce half a tablespoon at a time, tossing and tasting as you go.

7. Garnish with chopped green onions, cilantro or parsley. Serve warm or cold.

The very talented Nags of Edible Garden blog brings us this easy pumpkin kootu recipe today. A kootu is a side dish of vegetables cooked with lentils. And I cant think of anyone better than Nags to guest post about this traditional South Indian recipe. Her blog is full of everyday, fuss-free Indian recipes. Take it away Nags!

Hello everyone, I am Nags, the writer, cook, and photographer behind Edible Garden. I’ve been blogging for almost 6 years now but haven’t done very many guest posts (this is my 2nd, actually) so please raise a glass with me to Sala’s courage and trust!

It’s been over 7 years since I moved away from home and started cooking to feed myself, but I have only cooked with pumpkin about 2-3 times in this entire period. I can’t quite figure out why this is because pumpkin is a gorgeous vegetable by all means. It’s a lovely orange-yellow, cooks quickly, lends a mild sweetness to the dish, and is generally well-behaved and easy-going. Well, I can only hope I can make up for my rudeness by cooking with it more, so here’s a simple pumpkin kootu recipe to kickstart what I hope is a great relationship between me and the lovely pumpkin.

But before I go into the recipe, I must say what an honour it is to take up a small part of Veggie Belly. I’ve been in awe of Sala’s recipes and pictures since the day I set my eyes on this website. She has a lovely eye for details, props, colours and food photography. She’s also so very generous. I won a cookbook in a contest in Veggie Belly once but Sala sent me this entire package filled with goodies all the way from the US to Singapore.

Pumpkin Kootu Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 cups pumpkin (or kabocha or butternut squash), cut into small cubes.
1 cup yellow moong dal
¼ tsp turmeric powder
Salt
Curry leaves
Grind Together to a Paste
½ cup grated coconut
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 clove of garlic
2 shallots, optional
For Tempering
2 tsp oil
¼ tsp black mustard seeds
¼ tsp hing, optional

Method

1. Add the pumpkin, dal, turmeric powder, salt and 4 cups water to a sauce pan and cook on low heat, covered, until the dal is soft and the pumpkin is very soft.
2. Add the ground paste to the dal and stir well. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more water but not too much. I usually wash the blender jar and add that water in which should be sufficient. Throw in the curry leaves. Cook the kootu for about 3 mins. Remove from heat.
3. Heat oil for tempering in a skillet. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the hing, if using. Add this to the prepared kootu. Adjust salt if required
4. Serve with steamed white rice and any dry vegetable curry
5. A variation of this kootu is to use channa dal instead of moong dal and green chillies instead of red chilli powder. Check out this Chow Chow Kootu, for instance.

Hello everyone! Sorry I’ve been missing for a while! Offline, non-blog stuff took over. But I’m back now and have  an irresistible line up of vegetarian recipes for you this year!

I’m in Kerala, India right now, on an Ayurvedic retreat. Its something I do once every two years or so, and there is no better place for this all natural detox, than the beautiful state of Kerala! My daily schedule here includes yoga twice a day, meditation, chanting, two Ayurvedic massages, and cooking class.

Above is the main building of Kalari Kovilakom, the Ayurvedic center I’m staying at. A beautiful, serene place with lotus ponds, a temple, and the nicest staff. The food here is fantastic and all vegetarian. Its all personalized and cooked according to each person’s Ayurvedic dosha (constitution). And the chef Nishant is ever so willing to share his simple, healthy recipes. 

The dining room..

Whem I’m not doing yoga, meditation, getting massaged or hanging out in the Ayurvedic kitchen, I sit outside my room and catch up on reading. There is no tea or coffee here. Instead everyone gets herbal tea. This one is kapha tea, made with boiling water and powdered cinnamon, cardamom and long pepper.

I love sitting by the pond in the evenings..

..and feeding the fish!

This is the center’s Ayurvedic kitchen. They use traditional cooking vessels made of brass, wood and stone. And im telling you, it makes a huge difference in the taste!

These are the ingredients for this easy tomato soup. (All the vegetables here come from an organic farm..)

Here is is how chef Nishant makes his simple, healthy, ayurvedic tomato soup. I was blown away by the simplicity of it! And there isn’t a drop of oil in it!

Chop tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger, carrots and cilantro root. Yes, the root. Cilantro root has a great flavor, so dont throw it away when you buy a bunch! Its perfect in this soup. And the carrot adds some sweetness to the soup, which is a nice counter point to the tangy tomatoes

Throw all the vegetables and some water into a pot with salt.

Boil till the tomatoes are soft. Then blend the soup.

Strain the soup. Return it to the pot and bring to a boil. Adjust salt if needed. Thats it!

This delicious, super easy, no-oil tomato soup is ready to serve! Needless to say, garnish with cilantro!

Here are some healthy, equally tasty variations to this soup. Keep everything the same, and just switch out the carrots and tomatoes:

Carrot soup – 3 chopped medium carrots, plus half a tomato

Spinach soup – 3 cups fresh spinach

Beet soup – 3 small beets peeled and chopped, plus 1 tomato

Quick, Healthy Tomato Soup Recipe

serves about 2

Ingredients

3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup grated carrot

1/2 medium red onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger

4 cilantro roots, chopped. Substitute with leaves and stems.

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan, along with salt and enough water to cover the vegetables, about 3 cups.

2. Bring to a boil, and continue to boil till the tomatoes are soft.

3. Let it cool a little, and blend into a liquid. Pass the soup through a strainer, pushing out all the liquid, using a wooden spoon.

4. Return the soup to the saucepan. If its too thick, add some water. Bring back to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn off heat, adjust salt if needed, and serve hot, garnished with chopped cilantro.

Here is a vegetarian recipe for thanksgiving that is both easy to make AND a show stopper! With this baked acorn squash stuffed with brown rice mushroom pilaf, you won’t even miss the turkey. And you can easily make this dish the day before and just warm it in the microwave – so it’s a stress free thanksgiving main dish!

If you are making this dish ahead of time. Keep the baked squash and the pilaf separate. Heat them separately in the microwave and then spoon the pilaf into the squash just before serving.

Keep in mind that different brown rices need different amounts of water. And they may also have different cooking times. The 1 cup water and 50 minute cooking time I’ve given you is a guideline. So check the package instructions on your brown rice.

Mushrooms will let out water, so its important to cook them on high heat. I find that crimins dont let out as much water and recommend you use criminis if you can.

I love halloumi cheese and will find an excuse to put it in anything! But this recipe is stellar even without it, so leave out the halloumi if you wish. But if you do use the halloumi, keep in mind it’s a salty cheese – so add less salt to the rice to compensate.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Brown Rice Mushroom Pilaf

serves 2

Ingredients
For the squash
1 acorn squash
For the Pilaf
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
½ a cinnamon stick
2 cloves, optional
5  oz (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms – either white button, crimini or portobello.
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of thyme
1/2 cup brown basmati or long grain brown rice
Salt
¼ scant cup cubed halloumi cheese, optional
1 tablespoon dried cranberries or raisin, optional

Method
Pre heat oven to 400f

1. Cut the squash in half. Using a spoon, scrape out the membrane and seeds. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet, cut side down, for about 30 minutes or till the squash is fork tender.
2. When the squash is done, cut off the tips to that the squash sits up steadily.
3. While squash is baking, work on the mushroom pilaf – heat butter in a large, deep skillet. Add cinnamon and cloves and let sizzle for 30 seconds.
4. Toss in the mushrooms and cook undisturbed on medium-high heat, till the mushrooms brown.
5. Then reduce heat to medium, add garlic, thyme, rice and salt. Stir for about 2 minutes.
6. Pour 1 cups water and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer till the rice is done, about 50 minutes.
7. When the rice is cooked (but shouldn’t be mushy), turn off the heat and let it sit covered for 10 minutes. Then fluff with a fork. Fish out and discard the cinnamon stick and cloves.
8. Stir in halloumi cubes if using.
9. Spoon the pilaf into the squash cavities.
10. Sprinkle with dried cranberries or raisins, if using.

Baby potatoes + butter + curry powder = YUM, right?! Heres whats even better – this recipe is my guest post for the incredibly talented Prerna of Indian Simmer blog! Go over to her blog to see my recipe for these butter roasted masala potatoes. And make sure you hang around there and check out her mouth watering Indian recipes and gorgeous photography.

Prerna is a good friend, and I can tell you from first hand experience that her food is drool worthy! I still think of the rajma and paneer she fed me several months ago! For even more delicousness from Prerna, check out her brand new book, The Everything Indian Slow Cooker Cookbook