Fridge Clean Outs - Episode 1

Every Sunday, I buy the weekly stock of vegetables and fruits for the coming week, mostly staples but peppered with some ambitious selections - in the hope of experimenting with them back home through out the week. Most often, as I finish using up my staples towards the end of the week, I am left with quite a few of these outliers wilting somewhere in the back of my fridge. And on days when I can no longer ignore their silent angry glares,  I gather my wits to dish something quick and edible out of them. And today was one such day when I did my weekly round of "Fridge Clean Outs".

I found a couple of limp radishes and a graying beetroot. I also managed to pull out a withering wedge of cabbage. After a long day at work, I didn't have the energy to make something elaborate and wanted to make something quick. As I set about chopping and grating them, I made up an impromptu plan and got to work. The beetroot got converted into a beet raita, the radish into a muli paratha (radish flatbread) and the cabbage into a dry side dish. 

The end result was a hearthy meal, cooked and gobbled up in less than an hour....and with no leftovers. I tossed in some aging strawberries for dessert and called it a night!

While I really didn't follow any recipe while making these 3 dishes, some broad steps I used to cook all of them in about 30 min.

Beet Raita - Grate the beet or better still, blitz it in your mixer. Mix half a cup thick dahi ( plain yogurt), add salt, pepper and cumin powder. Ready in less than 5 min. 

Muli Paratha - Grate the raddish and mix it with wheat flour ( I made 3 so took about 3 tb spoons). Add some salt, chilli powder, garam masala, cumin powder and ajwain. Knead it with some water and oil to make a soft dough and make the parathas (flatbreads). I made this the last so that I could eat it hot.   Took about 15 min. 

Cabbage Sabzi - I chopped the cabbage ( I must confess I am pretty good at chopping vegetables quickly), and in a pan with 2 tsp oil, added some mustard seeds, and once it spluttered, added in turmeric powder. I then tossed in the cabbage, added salt, some water and cooked /steamed it for about 10 min. Once the cabbage was cooked through, added chilli powder and cooked for another 2 min. Topped it with  chopped coriander. Took about 15 min to cook it alongside the parathas.