Paneer Veg Lasagna

This yummy lasagna was our dinner a couple of days ago. My book club ladies are all quite the bakers! So in the midst of reading books, we are constantly on a bake off and swapping recipes. During one of our WhatsApp chatting sessions, my beautiful friend Maria passed me this great tried and tested Veggie Lasagna recipe. This recipe was originally from allrecipes.com, but I totally Indianised it! 

There was way too much cheese in the recipe, so I used up some paneer and veggies and whipped up this cheesy Paneer Veg Lasagna.

So go get your lasagna noodles and start layering! Add whatever veggies you like and don’t forget to sauce it up!

Paneer Veg Lasagna

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Lasagna Noodles – 9 sheets (I used San Remo Instant Lasagna)

Spinach Leaves – 1 bunch (finely chopped)

Capsicum – 1 big size (finely chopped)

Carrots – 1/2 cup (grated)

Paneer – 200 gms (crumbled)

Mozzarella Cheese – 1+ 1/4 cup (grated)

Egg – 1 (optional)

Chilli flakes – 2 teaspoons

Salt and ground pepper – to taste

Pasta Sauce – 3 cups (I used Prego Traditional pasta sauce)

Parmesan Cheese – 1/4 Cup (grated)

Directions:

• Rub little olive oil on the inside of a 9” baking pan/casserole dish. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
• Cook the spinach in a pan of water for 8-10 minutes and drain.
• In a bowl, lightly beat the egg and add 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella cheese, spinach, capsicum, carrots and paneer. Add the salt, pepper and chilli flakes and mix well.
• In the greased casserole dish, first spoon a layer of the pasta sauce and spread to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with 3 strips of lasagne noodle. On top of this, spread a layer of the paneer mixture followed by a layer of pasta sauce.
• Repeat the above layering steps for two more times using up the 9 lasagne noodles and end with a layer of pasta sauce. Be sure to coat the lasagne noodles with enough pasta sauce to help cook the noodles.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese on top. Cover the casserole with aluminium foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then remove the aluminium foil and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes until lasagne is bubbling and lightly browned on the top.
• Remove from oven and let it stand for 5 minutes. Cut into 4 or 6 portions and serve warm.

Veggie Cheese Balls

 This is a great choice as a appetizer when your hosting a party. I made these cheese balls a few months back when we had a game night at our place. Deep fried cheese is always a hit among guests. The panner and cheese makes this a yummy appetizer, so I often make this just when we have guests over. 

The usual cheese ball recipe sounded too plain for me. So I added some spaghetti and grated veggies to give a nice texture to the otherwise rich cheese balls. The breadcrumb coating is so crispy which complements the smoothness of the cheese filling.

When we have guests over for dinner, I usually prepare the cheese balls with the bread crumb coating in the morning, store in an air-tight container and freeze it. And when the guests arrive, I just take out the prepared balls and deep fry them and serve it hot. This way it is hassle free and piping hot.

Veggie Cheese Balls:

Makes: 25 small balls

Ingredients:
Spaghetti  Pasta – 100gms (cooked and strained)
Cheese – ¼ cup (grated)
Paneer – ½ cup (crumbled)
Beans – ¼ cup (finely chopped)
Carrots – ¼ cup (grated)
Green chillies – 5 (finely chopped)
Ginger garlic paste – 1 teaspoon
Milk – 1 ½ cups
Corn flour – 2 tablespoon
Maida – 2 tablespoon + more for coating
Breadcrumbs – 1 ½ cups
Salt – 2 teaspoon (or as needed)
Oil – for frying

Directions:

• Heat some oil in a pan.  Add the green chilies, beans, carrots and ginger garlic paste, and fry for a few minutes.
• Then add the crumbled paneer, grated cheese and salt to the vegetables, and fry. To this, add the cooked spaghetti and mix everything together.
• Mix the corn flour with the milk and add to the pasta and vegetable mixture. Cook until the mixture becomes thick.
• Add 2 tblsp of maida to the mixture and mix until well incorporated. Remove from flame and let it cool down.
• After the mixture cools down, roll into small bite sized balls.
• In a bowl mix water and maida to form a very thin paste. In another bowl take the breadcrumbs.
• Take the vegetable cheese ball and dip it into the maida paste and then coat it with the breadcrumbs.
• Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the balls until golden brown. Serve hot.

 

Carrot Cupcakes

Hi all, Hope all of you enjoyed the long Easter weekend. I had fun. We went to the beach on Good Friday with a couple of Hubby’s colleagues.

I was itching to bake something, but I didn’t have time to go shopping. So I wanted to baked something with ingredients in my fridge. Turns out all I had were some carrots. So I browsed through my recipes and found one from Annie’s Eats. It was a simple carrot cupcake recipe. And I thought it went along perfectly with the Easter weekend situation. So off I went to go grate my carrots!

The recipe called for 4 eggs. But the friends that we were going to meet were vegitarians. I knew that they don’t mind cakes with eggs. But since I have lots of leftover flaxseeds from my Eggless Chocolate Cookies. So I thought this would be a good excuse to try out those flaxseeds as egg replacement in these cupcakes.

I halved the recipe and made the cupcakes with 2 large carrots. I grated them with my normal kitchen grater. And reduced the amount of cinnamon in the recipe, cause hubby doesn’t like cinnamon in baked goods. Good thing I did this, otherwise it would have over whelmed then cupcakes. The cake itself doesn’t have any flavouring except the carrots and the little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg added.

I had some creame cheese left over from my previous cupcakes experiment. And I used that up for the frosting. The cupcakes with the frosting was so moist and lovely. It was a different track from the regular vanilla and chocolate cupcakes that I bake. I like the idea of adding half flour and half carrots to my cupcakes making them somewhat healthy in a way ;)

Carrot Cupcakes
Ingredients:

Yield: about 20-22 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

•          2½ cups (12.5 oz) all-purpose flour
•          1¼ tsp. baking powder
•          1 tsp. baking soda
•          ½  tsp. ground cinnamon
•          ½ tsp. grated nutmeg
•          ½ tsp. salt
•          1 lb. (6-7 medium) carrots, peeled
•          1½ cups (10.5 oz) granulated sugar
•          ½ cup packed light brown sugar
•          4 large eggs 
•         (Replacement for 2 eggs - I used 3 tbsp flaxseeds mixed with 6 tbsp of  warm water)
•          1½ cups canola, safflower or vegetable oil

For the frosting:

•          12 oz. cream cheese (not softened)
•          7½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
•          1 tbsp. vanilla extract
•          3¾ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  
• In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt; and set aside.
• With a grater, grate the carrots.
• Add the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Beat the sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds.  
• With the machine running, add the oil in a steady stream until well blended.
• Continue to process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 more seconds.
• Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.  
• Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.
• Scoop evenly into the prepared cupcake liners.
• Bake for about 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  
• Let cool in the pan at least 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.