Lunch / Dinner Menu 7 – South Indian Vegetarian Lunch Menu – Recipes

This week I was in the mood for something fancy, like a restaurant type food but want to keep it simple as didn’t have much time to do elaborate cooking as Sid had few classes. Well with Indian food there is nothing such as simple , you have to put in some kind of prep work to have a decent food unless to decide to stick to yogurt and rice. So decide to go with a simple rice cooker pulao/biryani and gravy to go with it. The first thing that striked to me was Kuska biryani which is the simplest of all biryanis which you can pop it in the rice cooker or even finish it off with a pressure cooker. A simple saute of onion curry and with either canned coconut milk or coconut powder you can yield beautiful dish under 30 minutes. To go with this mild biryani, I picked the spicy punchy Chettinad Paneer Masala which complements well with Kuska. I usually have have pre-homemade chettinad masala lying in my refrigerator, with quick suate of onion tomato gravy, this masala should be ready in a jiffy. All you have to do is to cut some veggies and light pre-work. Onion raita is just a bonus which I usually like to have when there is any kind of biryani, who doesn’t? Ok there you go we have a plan for this week’s menu….

Lunch Idea / Vegetarian Lunch Menu / Lunch Dinner Menu 7 – South Indian Vegetarian Lunch Menu / Easy Lunch Ideas / Simple lunch Ideas / Lunch Recipes / Saturday Vegetarian lunch Ideas / Weekend Lunch Menu / Kuska Biryani / Khushka Rice / Chettinad Paneer Curry / Paneer Masala

I would recommend you make the chettinad masala ahead of time, either the previous night or whenever you get a chance and store in your refrigerator in an air-tight container. That way you can quickly add this to any curry to make it Chettinad style! Boil enough milk the previous night and get the yogurt done for next morning. You may also peel those kutty/ small onions the previous night and store in the refrigerator. Then all you need is coconut milk- go with store bought cans or stick to coconut powder if you are little lazy to make fresh coconut milk. That morning chop the onion and tomatoes. Make some ginger garlic paste and keep fresh herbs ready.

Here is our lunch today- Kuska Biryani , Chettinad Paneer Masala & Onion Raita

Please check these recipes by clicking on the link given below.

Kuska Biryani 

Chettinad Paneer Masala

Onion Raita – from Malar Gandhi’s Kitchen Tantra

Lets start the gravy for kuska on one side by sauteing onions, garlic and some tomateos along with all the whole garam masalas. Once its done just add coconut milk and rice and pop it int he rice cooker. You may soak the basmati rice for 10 minutes which will make your rice grain look long, slender and fluffier.  On the other side get the gravy started, saute the onion and tomato, add in the chettinad masala and finally add cubed paneer pieces and garnish. All that is left is the yogurt raita, just mix some onion, green chili, curd, salt & pepper along with a dash of lemon.

Have a great weekend!

Notes:

If you have any leftover paneer curry- they make an excellent stuffing for paneer dosa! Try and let me know.

Always keep ready made coconut powder (Maggi brand is good) which will come in handy to make coconut milk. Just mix a few tablespoon in hot water and you have thick coconut milk ready in seconds.

If you run out of paneer just use any any veggie that you have, quickly saute them in oil and add to the gravy. Frozen veggies come in handy too.