Thai Chicken Watercress soup

The other day at my award ceremony...that's right I got the awards for "The Best in the Field"...anyway at the award ceremony I was seated next to a person whose father and grand mother owned restaurants in Mexico. In the course of talking I mentioned to him that I am always looking for ingredients which are high in Iron and he mention "Watercress" has a ton of Iron...turned out he was not correct.

But anyway when I was looking at watercress's nutrition turns out it has a pretty good amount of Vitamin C...which is what I need right now as my little one was generous enough to share his cold with me. So instead of making my standard chicken soup  I made this yummy coconut based soup with watercress  in it...

Needless to say I had to go shopping first...stopping at Sprouts for Watercress, Thai red curry paste, coconut milk and Onion pockets with Cheese breads for dipping in the soup. It was a great soup.

Thia Chicken WaterCress Soup (Coconut based Chicken soup)

Thai Chicken Watercress soup

Ingredients:

1. 1 chicken breast cooked and shredded or 1 12.5 oz can chicken breast
2. 1 8 oz mushroom sliced
3. 1 chicken bouillion
4. 3 cups water
5.  1 package water cress chopped into 1.5 to 2 inches
6.  1/2 tablespoon olive oil
7.  1 small onion sliced into 1/2 circles
8.  1 can light coconut milk
9. 2 tablespoons Thai red chilli paste or less (according to your spice levels)
10. 1 heaped teaspoon finely chopped garlic
11. 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
12. 1 tablespoon or more fresh squeezed lemon juice

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions and mushrooms for 5 minutes. Add garlic and red chilli paste and fry for 2 more minutes. Add chicken bouillon and coconut milk on low flame bring it to a boil. Add chicken water and watercress and let boil for 5 more minutes. Add the lemon pepper and lemon juice and enjoy hot with bread

Confetti Soup

This soup is super delicious an looks pretty too and one of the healthy soups you would eat. I made this soup to serve with my chicken stuffed bread

Confetti Soup (Broccoli and carrot soup)

Confetti soup

Soup and chicken stuffed bread

 Ingredients:

1. 4 cups broccoli florets
2. 1 cup chopped carrot
3. 1/2 cup chopped onion
4. 2 large or 4 small garlic pods
5. 1 chicken buillion
6. 2 tablespoons each of flour, butter
7. 1 tablespoon olive oil
8. 1/2 teaspoon garlic
9. 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
10. 2 cups milk
11. 1 cup water

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions for 5 minutes. Add the broccoli and carrot and cover and cook for 8 minutes. Add garlic and cover and cook for 2 more minutes. Let cook and grind to a small coarse pieces.

In the same pan heat the butter and fry the flour stirring continuously for 3 minutes on medium low heat. Add heated milk and water to it and mix until there are no more lumps. Add the ground paste and everything else and simmer for 10-15  minutes. Give it a taste test and adjust the salt. Serve with breadsticks 

Methi dal with Chilli Chicken

Dinner time...as usual I was searching for something different to make for dinner. I have made chilli chicken before but it was the wet variety. Today I made it dry and I made methi dal...and it was sooo delicious. My kids ate it without complaining. but I took crappy pictures (one of them, you can see here) so I am not posting it today

Methi Dal (Split peas with Fenugreek leaves)
Ingredients:

1. 1 cup yellow or green split peas/pigeon peas
2. 2 cups fresh fenugreek leaves stripped from the stems
3. 1 big or 2 small cloves of garlic
4. 1/2 tablespoon oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, asafoetida, salt, chilli powder and turmeric
6. 1 small lemon sized tamarind (optional)
7. few dried red chillies
8. few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker, cook the split peas and methi leaves for 4-5 whistles with 2 cups of water and turmeric. Let the steam escape. Soak the tamarind in 3 cups of water and add that water to the dal. If not using tamarind, just add water, salt, chilli powder and boil for 10 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and add the cumin, mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves till they splutter. Add asafoetida and stir and add the tempering to the dal and boil for couple of more minutes. garnish with chopped cilantro if desired and serve with white rice.

Note: If serving with roti , just add 1 cup instead of 3 cups of water after the dal is cooked

Chilli chicken (Indo chinese spicy sour chicken)

Chilli Chicken

Ingredients:

1. 2 chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes
2. Oil for shallow frying
3. 1 medium onion cubed
4. 1 bell pepper (any color you like) cubed
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. 1/2 tablespoon each of soy sauce, white vinegar, sambal chilli paste
7. 2 garlic pods chopped
8. 4-6 green chillies sliced
9. 
   

For marinate:

1. 3/4 teaspoon salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, ginger garlic paste, onion powder, garlic powder
2. 1 egg beaten
3. 1 heaped teaspoon corn starch, all purpose flour

marinate the chicken with ingredients in "1" for 2-4 hours. Add corn starch and all purpose and mix well. Add egg and mix well and set aside for 30 more minutes.

Heat oil in a pan for shallow frying (or if you like...deep frying) and fry the chicken till they turn golden brown. Drain and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and fry the onions for 3-4 minutes. Add slit chillies, bell pepper and garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Add chicken stir well. Reduce the heat add soy sauce, vinegar and chilli paste and mix well. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and green onions and serve