Simple Vegan Dinner in 30 minutes

My mother had a small patch of vegetable garden in our front yard. She mostly grew vegetables that grew on creepers.
I am not sure why she did this.
I grew up climbing our roof to get vegetables like ridge gourd, long squash, ivy gourd, and some beans and peas varieties too.
I moved out of our home seeking jobs and a new life but my love for different types of gourds has stayed with me.

I am also very fond of making chapatis/Indian style bread using flours other than whole wheat.
I use sorghum, pearl millet and red rice flour for making bread.
I prefer these over whole wheat most times as I find chapatis made from these flour a little more rich in fiber. It is a personal choice.
Flavour is another attraction for me. I love the rustic flavor of these bread.
And I do enjoy my whole wheat chapatis once in a while. Just that.

Another thing I am not too fond of is fried and dry vegetables. I like my curries a little watery. I cannot have fried vegetable or even a vegetable in a thick curry sauce. If my family makes one, I add water and make it something like the one in this picture.

Sunday evenings are mostly lazy and dull evenings where you realize you have not accomplished all that you wanted to during the weekend. And it is almost the end of one more glorious weekend. Sigh, and more sighs.

Ordering food is not an option because I prefer home cooked food unless it is some kind of an emergency.

I also wanted to cheer myself up, my spirits were sagging from not having done much work. I decided to my 'pick-me-up' cum comfort food of sorghum and pearl millet chapatis/rotis with a side of vegetable.

Chopped
one small eggplant
medium-sized potato
small bitter gourd
one ridge gourd and
one medium-sized tomato
some cloves of peeled garlic.

Heat some vegetable oil in a pan and fry the garlic.
Add the potatoes and the bitter gourd. Once these vegetables are half cooked, add eggplant and the ridge gourd to the mix give it a good stir add some salt and red chili powder. Add water till the vegetables are covered and cook it on a medium flame with lid closed.
It takes about 10 minutes for the vegetables to come together nicely.

For the rotis, just make a dough with one cup each of sorghum and pearl millet flour.
Knead it to get a smooth texture.
Rolling this dough is tough. It needs to be made using your palms and moistening it with water.
I use the rolling pin. Whatever works for you stick to it.

Once you have your bread ready, bake it on a hot iron pan. Some people top it with ghee, but I avoided as I wanted to avoid dairy.

It took me 30 minutes to get my dinner ready because I made my bread while waiting on the vegetable to cook. I baked only two chapatis for my dinner and stored rest of the dough in the fridge.

Ranga Rajah


Image courtesy:
melissas.com
indiamart.com