Roasted Curried Butternut Walnut Soup with Spicy Cheese Straws

uickly browsing through my recipe categories, you will realize that I am not much of a soup person. There are very few kinds, actually only a couple, that I would even allow myself to taste and that too made at specific places or by specific people. This soup is one of them. My first encounter with butternut squash was aboard a Caribbean cruise liner out in the middle of that vast blue spread of the Atlantic. It was an acquired taste. Hubby tells me I made a sorry face when I first tasted it but the expression soon changed with the second and third sips. Very seldom happens to me. I either like something or I don't. Things don't normally 'grow' on me, but this was different. Having remembered seeing butternut squash on the shelves of the grocery stores, yes of course I decided I would try it at home. 

Since then this soup has been either a part of the entire dinner for us on several occasions. I normally accompany it with some salad and bread toasts or these cheese straws using puff pastry sheets - the supermarket wonder. Of course the cheese sticks are a winner combo so I picked them for the post here. A savory, spicy, cheesy crunch is all you need to clean your palate when enjoying this hearty soup. A few touches that I prefer with this soup is I like the version with the squash roasted better. Also I add some Indian masalas and some walnuts for that spicy nutty taste. Regardless of the twists and the masalas, each time I make this soup, the fond memories of the cruise vacation still pass my mind and I feel myself seated on the deck looking at the vast blue nothingness with the breeze in my hair sipping slowly from a hot bowl.

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Saag Paneer Calzone/Spinach Paneer Curry Calzone (whole wheat)

love Italian food! Love eating it and love cooking it. Love the different layers, flavors complex yet simple, exotic yet rustic just like Indian food. You can sense the rich culture and the legacy from the food .
Our (indians) love for indo-chinese is well known but another cuisine that has come in from across the shores and become a part of the cuisine... is Italian. With its pastas and pizza and other goodies and use of herbs, five star restaurants as well as hole-in-the-wall stores near every street now have some kind of “pizza” on their menu! It keeps the essense of pizza that is a thick bread smothered in tomato ketchup topped with melty cheese, but almost always has a local (desi) touch to it whether it be use of paneer or chicken! Lots of fusion recipes have been born, you can easily find panner pizza even butter chicken pizza in any pizza hut franchise in india - I have few on my blog too. This time around I took my classic saag paneer recipe and tucked inside a calzone and the result was a beautiful marrige of two of my favorite cuisines - a fusion food heaven!
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Curried/Masala Couscous salad

 do love cooking elaborate meals and I do know (most days) I am not lazy at all when it comes to that ~ But then there are days when I don't even feel like lifting my little finger (not happening with an hyper-active toddler). All I would love to do is to snuggle under my blanket and settle down with a good book or just randomly blog hop or just sit on the couch and watch TV. Fixing a meal on such days is such a pain. I am sure most all of you are going in your head 'yeah me too'. This filling and comforting salad is so apt for such a time. The other day, kiddo and I were all by ourselves, daddy was in a two day business conference. We made this super easy delicious couscous salad for lunch and kiddo totally loved it, the result that pleases me the most.

This one is packed with nutrition and is very filling. I love couscous and always have some in my pantry. One of the easiest and very versatile ingredients to work with. I have made it several different ways but this time around I added a some indian spices and the salad ended up being a fabulous fusion meal.

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Curried Chickpea Pita Sandwich

reek cuisine caught my attention only recently, about a little over a year ago. Growing up Greek and Mediterranean cuisines we mostly alien to us but coming to the US I started hearing a lot about it. When hubby and I tried it at one of our local restaurants, I was blown over. What really got my attention was the fabulous use of spices that made me feel right at home.

Since then I have tried a few variations of Greek food especially by way of fusion with Indian cooking. This dish is in the same genre. It is so well liked by hubby and I alike, that I mostly keep pita pockets handy so I can quickly put together a quick fix lunch or dinner especially at those times when you are craving spicy Indian flavors but you would rather not go through making an elaborate meal.

When you take a bite into it, you get the fresh taste of the tangy yogurt mint chutney combined with the fresh lettuce and the veggies. As you chew on that, the spicy chickpea taste takes over like an explosion of flavors in your mouth. The bread helps bind it all together into a cohesive meal. The spiciness of the curried chickpeas combined with the clean fresh flavors of the yogurt and veggies gives this sandwich a very unique and fabulous flavor profile that you would want to go back to again and again... like we do.

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