Easy Eggless Pad Thai Noodles with Vegetables

Pad literally means Stir fried. Noodles are the easiest thing to dish up on a busy week day or night.
I made this to impress my m-i-l and onlya fter laying it out on the table did I get to know that she doesnt eat noodles. Pasta is ok but Spaghetti is not. Well, I got to try out a new recipe so there. Pad thai is usually served with crushed peanuts as a garnish. But I decided to incorporate the peanut flavour in the sauce itself by using peanut butter. Since this is the vegetarian version no question of using fish oil or eggs. Also replaced the rice noodles which is used in the classic dish with its whole wheat cousin. The whole wheat version does make the dish heavier. Mung bean sprouts are an important element in the dish but I havent used it since I was out of it.

Easy Eggless Pad Thai Noodles with Stir Fried Vegetables

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 mins   Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

1/2 box of Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles
3 tbsp Peanut Butter
4 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp White Vinegar
1 tsp Lemon juice
2-3 tsp Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce
2 tsp or more Red Chilli powder
2 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Black pepper powder
6 tsp Oil
1 Medium Onion julliened
1/2 cup Capsicum cut thin
1/2 cup Carrots cut thin
1/2 cup Mung Bean sprouts (I dint have it today)
Any other vegetables of choice
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Boil a pot of water, add some salt and drop in the noodles. Cook them according to the package instructions to al-dente. 
2. Drain the noodles and keep aside. 
3. In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, lemon juice, garlic powder, red chilli powder, black pepper powder.
4. Heat the oil in a skillet, add in onions and saute till transluscent.
5. Tip in the capsicum, carrots and other veggies and stir fry.
6. Stir in the sauce mix and saute for a few more minutes. Adjust the salt.
7. Fork in the cooked noodles and give it a good mix. 
8. Serve warm.

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

The day before we have to leave for any trip, I have this last minute urge to make and take along a snack. I have made cookies in the past and some savoury bakes. I tend to make the non fried variety so that we can have guilt free indulgence. I, for one get very hungry when I step into a car for any journey greater than an hour.
Our trip to Chicago over the 4th of July weekend had a very hectic prep time because of work pressure during the week. Packing just came down to picking up a stack of ironed clothes off the cupboard and shoving it into the suitcase. I mention this especially because I am a light packer, never carrying any extras. There was a lot of prep work where food was concerned since we prefer to pack lunches for the day outings. So we packed a mini kitchen into two big bags complete with ground pulav masala!
Getting back to what I wanted to post about. Amidst all the crazy kitchen activity I made Khara Biscuit to take along for the ride. I made it with whole wheat pastry flour.

Khara biscuit conjures up memories of Butter Sponge visits when we were kids. Many of our Sundays would start with Sweet bun, Khara bun combo for breakfast and on some extra special occasions it would be accompanied by the Benne Biscuit, Khara Biscuit combo. Yummy!! For me the yard stick in judging a bakery's goods is the Benne Biscuit, Khara biscuit they make as compared to Butter Sponge Bakery in Gandhi Bazar. My attempt here was very close and even though they turned out extremely good, I cannot claim to have recreated the magic. The biscuits turned out delicious and were a huge hit. Its simple to make and easy to stow.

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

Servings: 20 biscuits
Prep Time: 1 hr        Cook Time: 20 - 25 mins

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup Butter (softened on the counter)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Ginger paste
2 Green Chillies finely chopped
1 tsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
1/2 tsp Curry leaves finely chopped
1 tsp Salt (or to taste)
1 tsp Sugar
1/4 cup Yoghurt

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.
2. To this add the ginger paste, green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and mix well. 
3. Add the butter to this and mix to form a stiff dough. Do not overmix. 
4. If the mix turns out crumbly add yoghurt very little at a time to get a stiff dough consistency. 
5. Put the dough into a ziplock bag and refridgerate it for 30 mins to ensure that the butter does not stop melting while rolling the dough. 
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
7. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out to a 1 inch thick circle. 
8. Cut out round shaped biscuits and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 
9. Prick the biscuit with a fork to prevent it from puffing up. These are after all biscuits. 
10. Continue to do this for the rest of the dough making sure to leave atleast 1 inch between each cookie.
11. Bake for 20 mins or till the biscuit feels a little firm. 
12. Remove from the oven and cool in tray for 5 mins and further on a wire rack. 
13. The biscuit firms a little more while cooling. 
14. This biscuit stores well in an air tight container in the fridge for 5 days. .