Saffron Trail

healthy vegetarian cooking

Lists, Notes from Nandita

Top 10 Recipes of 2015

Best recipes from 2015, top posts on Instagram and a little recap of the year for my readers – Wishing you a terrific 2016! <3

2015 was an amazing year for SaffronTrail.com, a year I got my blogging mojo back.

126 posts, all cooked, written, photographed and posted by yours truly! I feel an amazing satisfaction just looking back at that number.

March 2016, I shall be completing 10 years as a food blogger (!!) and I’m promising myself that the blog is only going to get more awesome, with all the love and attention it’s going to get from me.

That’s a bird’s eye view of the blast of a time I had on Instagram, where I’ve got loads of love from food lovers. Psst…Saffrontrail on Insta hit 10,000 followers a week ago.

There was the epic lunch cooked by George Calombaris, the move to Cucumbertown, my association with Ping Network and getting back on the video bandwagon, my talk on blogging at two prestigious blogging conferences (Indiblogger & Blogadda), being invited to cover The Economist Summit , and so much more!

I’m giving myself a good pat on the back for managing to keep the blog going despite having a hectic year working with brands and clients!

Ahem, come on! We all need to be proud of ourselves once in a while 🙂

So here are the top 10 posts on SaffronTrail from 2015:

1. Mysore Rasam – Who would have thought that this simple rasam recipe, my childhood favourite, would have so many people drooling and rushing into their kitchens to make it for themselves and their family! Rice + ghee + Mysore Rasam = Contented burp!

Recipe for Mysore Rasam – Karnataka Cuisine

I'm of the opinion that piping hot Mysore Rasam &amp; rice can solve most of life's problems. You've come to the right place. Get the recipe here.
www.saffrontrail.com

2. Pesto Trapanese – An authentic Sicilian Pesto recipe made using tomatoes, almonds and garlic, I’ve never seen it in the menu of an Italian restaurant and it’s SO good! My readers loved this recipe for an unusual pesto that you can make even when you don’t have a ton of basil on hand!

Penne with Pesto Trapanese – A Sicilian Recipe

While basil pesto is the most well known pesto, every region in Italy makes pesto with freshly available local produce. According to Lidia Bastianich, the Italian cuisine expert, the word pesto comes from the verb 'pestare', which means 'to mash'. This means you can pretty much mash up any fresh ingredients to make a pesto, and toss it along with pasta, vegetables or chicken and you have a dish ready right there
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3. Aloo Paratha – Getting back to basics with this ultimate paratha, loved by one and all (well, almost!) and the secret ingredient that keeps the parathas soft for hours! Well, you gotta click through and read the post to find out more 🙂 There’s also a video in there for those who want to see how it’s made.

Recipe for Aloo Parathas – Potato stuffed Indian Flatbread

Alu paratha or potato stuffed Indian flatbread is possibly the most popular stuffed paratha. I have never met anyone who did not like a hot alu paratha straight off the tava, served with a cube of butter that melts in the heat of the paratha to make a small pool of fatty goodness to top the carb ind
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4. Besan Cheela with Paneer Bhurji – A breakfast that is a fine balance of delicious and healthy, and that’s the SaffronTrail benchmark after all! No wonder, you guys lapped it up!

Besan Cheela stuffed with Paneer Bhurji

If you are from the South of Vindhyas, cheela / chila is not a much heard of term. It is a staple North Indian breakfast dish. To put it in simple terms, it is like an instant dosa made using besan. However unlike adai, which is a lentil based dosa preparation, cheelas are much thinner and crepe lik
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5. Flaxseed Molagapodi – Turns out, South Indians are not the only ones who love molaga podi with idlis and dosa. Add a superfood like Flaxseeds to the mix and you’ll never go back to insipid store bought molagapodi again!

Flaxseed Molaga Podi | Spiced Flaxseed Lentil powder

Flaxseed Molaga Podi | Spiced Flaxseed Lentil powder
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6. The Brownie post – Everybody Loves Brownies! The compilation for National Brownie Day was a huge hit. Yeah, I get it that Saffron Trail is a healthy eating blog, but what’s life without the occasional indulgences. In this post, there’s a brownie to suit every palate.

Bake a Brownie – 7 Delicious Brownies on #NationalBrownieDay

BROWNIE Close your eyes and say this word – Brownie. There's something about this word that just so happy, edible and deliciously edible at that, right? I don't know if I have said this on the blog before. But it's a joke I like to repeat again and again. I mean, what's the use of a good line if
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7. Dhabewali Dal – When it comes to Indian cuisine, Punjabi food wins, all the time! As much as that makes me feel bad for the other wonderful cuisines of our country, I keep thinking about what makes Punjabi food so.damn.popular! Is it because they were the most visible on restaurant menus across the country (albeit, not in their most authentic form), so people could get to taste them? Or is it because of the simple hearty flavours, as found in this Dhabewali Dal?

Recipe for Dhabewali Dal – Punjabi mixed lentils

To be honest, I've never eaten in a 'real' dhaba. But yes, I can claim to have eaten in a few mock dhabas, starting with Pritam da Dhaba at Dadar (Mumbai) in my childhood with Amma and Appa. It was one of the few restaurants we would eat out at. I remember staring at the side counter of their open
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8. Baingan Bharta – Who knew that an eggplant hating me would  have this curry on my top favourites list? It also turns out to be a reader favourite, and one of my most pinned recipes on Pinterest. Smoky, spicy and perfect for a winter lunch with some parathas and sliced onions, hmm…heaven a plate indeed!

Recipe for Baingan Bharta – Punjabi roasted eggplant curry

A Punjabi style roasted eggplant curry to be had with parathas or rotis
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9. Lemon Coriander Soup – As a 70s kid, growing up in Bombay, the highlight of our growing up years was Indo-Chinese cuisine. Noodles, the spicy-sour gravy dishes, the manchurians with suspect fillings and the ‘triple schezwan’ fried rice. Oh yes, given a chance, I could still put my food snobbery aside (lol, no such thing here) and binge on a ‘veg manchurian with fried rice’ order 😀  Lemon coriander soup is a slightly more refined recipe in the Indo-Chinese scheme of things, another topper of 2015.

Recipe for Lemon Coriander Soup | Indo-Chinese Recipes

A simple recipe for a restaurant-like Lemon Coriander Soup, light and full of flavour! Get the recipe here.
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10. Pineapple Gojju – Very popular in Karnataka, a Gojju is India’s answer to the curry with the best balance of spicy, sour and sweet. This Pineapple Gojju recipe had people getting nostalgic, surprised and curious. It will make you reach out for a pineapple from the fruit aisle of the super market, just to try it out once and then many times henceforth.

Recipe for Pineapple Gojju – A sweet sour spicy pineapple curry from Karnataka

Pineapple Gojju is a delicious sweet, sour, spicy curry from Karnataka, made using pineapples, best had with steamed rice. Get the authentic recipe from Karnataka here!
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So that’s the top recipes round up for 2015. Hope you enjoyed reading it and inspired to try out something from this list.

I did a quick poll on Twitter and Instagram on what my readers would like to see on the blog in 2016 – and the top votes went for Global Vegetarian, Healthy Recipes and Healthy Baking. If you have any other category requests, do leave me a comment, so I can evaluate and incorporate it in my annual blog calendar.

You guys have an awesome New Year’s Eve. Wishing you and your loved ones the best of everything in 2016.

Here’s to eating well, staying healthy and making the most of life’s moments!

Lots of love and happiness❤️,

Nandita

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