Microwave Bhindi / Okra Recipe – Chicky Kadambari

Most of my regular blog readers are well aware of the fact that I like to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen! So I’m constantly on the lookout for recipes that can be made with the least amount of ‘time input’. I recently discovered that using a microwave oven can considerably cut down the cooking time for our day-to-day vegetable dishes.

The above is a picture of ‘bhindi‘ (okra / lady’s fingers / gumbo) that I cooked in my microwave. Well okay… not ALL the cooking was done in the microwave. I don’t like to use oil inside the micro oven because I’m pretty sure that cleaning all that grease from inside it will be a very tedious process. So the dish was made partly in microwave and partly using conventional gas cooking. Here’s how I made it…

INGREDIENTS:

250 grams ‘bhindi‘ chopped in pieces (serves 2)
1 large onion chopped in big pieces
1 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chillie powder

METHOD:

• Put the chopped ‘bhindi‘ in a micro-proof container with a lid, and micro on P100 for 4 minutes.

• Alongside, heat the mustard oil in a fry pan (on traditional gas burner), add the cumin seeds, let them brown and then add the chopped onions and saute till golden pink.

• Take the cooked ‘bhindi‘ out from the microwave and add to the fry pan. This is what it looks like at this stage.

  

• Add salt and turmeric powder, mix well, cover and let it cook on low flame for a minute.

• Remove cover, add the red chillie powder and coriander powder, and stir fry on high heat till it gets a slightly roasted appearance.

• Serve hot.

With traditional gas cooking, it takes about 12-15 minutes to make this recipe. The ‘bhindi‘ loses its fresh green color and there is always the risk of it becoming too soggy, which I totally hate. But with microwave cooking, the cooking time is cut to about less than 6 minutes, and the dish looks green and tastes fresh & crispy!

About the author:

Chicky Kadambari, a.k.a. Kaddu, a self-proclaimed member of the A.F.A.E.A. (Alien Federation Aiding Earth’s Ascension), is the author of the blog – ‘miss_teerious‘. She endears herself to her readers with her quick wit and simple logic, in her lucid, straight-forward write-ups, peppered with humorous anecdotes from her own life. “Witty. Humorous. Thought provoking. Oozing positivity. A little sweet & a little spicy.” That is her own *signature note*. When she’s not blogging, she’s either busy being a homemaker, or doing some freelance writing & web-designing.