Baby Greens and Artichoke Dip

This warm, cheesy dip is one of the amazing dips for this season! This is loaded with baby greens - baby spinach, kale, and chard. The fresh winter greens are full of flavors and are nutritious. This dip is great for a fun and delicious family snack as well for any party. This is an amazing one for gameday!

This recipe uses jarred artichokes in oil. Canned artichokes can be used too. If using fresh artichokes, process them and then use in the recipe. If you can't find baby greens, use regular spinach instead and that would be exactly delicious too!  Also, I have used my vegan parmesan. Feel free to use regular parmesan if you wish. Also, sprinkle a little extra on top too. Since parmesan will a bit salty, add salt accordingly.

If you are wondering what to serve this dip, here are the quick and easy ones to pair with. These are amazing with sliced baguettess, tortilla chips, pita chips, and salt crackers. This can be easily whipped up even in the last minute to entertain guests. The leftovers (if any!) can be used for making quesedillas or grilled cheese too!

I am sharing this for Bakeathon 2021 and this is the final post for the same event. We shared baked recipes all through the month of December. This is the perfect season to bake and share with everyone. I also linking this to Foodie Monday Blog Hop, where we are sharing recipes with winter greens. This is the season for fresh spinach, kale, and chard and a perfect dip for the theme as well as the season. A warm dip is very comforting!

I am also linking this to Thursday Favorite Things, Wonderful Wednesday, What's For Dinner, and Full Plate Thutsday

Here are a couple of creamy/cheesy dips that you'd love to have!

Piquant Veggie Bagel Spread

Cheese Corn Dip

Dill Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 8

Cream cheese - 1/2 cup, room temperature

Sour cream - 2 tbsp

Vegannaise/mayo - 2 tbsp

Chili flakes - 1/2 tsp

Parmesan- 2 tbsp

Black pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt -1/8 tsp

Artichoke hearts - 1/2 cup, chopped

Baby greens (baby chard, kale, spinach) - 2.5 cups, chopped

Garlic - 1 tsp, chopped fine

Oil-1 tbsp

Serving suggestions/accompaniments

Salt crackers

Sliced baguette

Pita chips

Tortilla chips

Method

Heat oil on medium flame. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the chopped greens, cook for 2-3 minutes till the spnach is cooked crisp. Set aside to cool.

Add cream cheese, sour cream, vegannaise, chopped artichoke hearts, salt, pepper, chili flakes, parmesan, and the sauteed greens mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add the shredded mozzarella cheese, combine well.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Transfer the cheese greens mixture to a oven safe bowl (2 cup size). Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and cheese melting.

Serve with sliced baguette, salt crackers, pita and/or tortilla chips.

Zero Oil Veggie & Millet Noodle Soup

Advance New Year Wishes to everyone! Start the New Year with healthy recipes just like this soup! 

This is a very healthy soup perfect for the weather. The brothy soup filled with veggies and some millet noodles makes a wholesome and nutritious soup. Did I tell you that this is zero oil soup? Yes, no oil to butter! zero fat soup! This soup is vegan too!

Garlic, ginger, green onions, cilantro, pepper, and lime )of course salt too) add immense flavor to this simple soup. This soup can rejuvenate you! A perfect detox soup! Whether you are sick, or getting better, or fit, this soup is perfect for any meal.

This soup is made with millet noodles. If you can't find millet noodles, replace with thin rice noodles. Millet and rice noodles cook very quickly. So the procedure is same. If you do not have any of these, replace with thin flour noodles and adjust cooking time accordingly. This soup will be very delicious!

This nutritious soup can be prepared easily. All it take is at the maximum 15 minutes cooking time and 15 prep time, that is cutting veggies. Cabbage, bell pepper, and carrots are easy to chop and provide excellent nutrition. Bring a pot of water to boil and start chopping. This could save a few minutes of time while making this soup.

The heat comes from the black pepper and chopped Thai green chiles. While serving add a few slices of Thai chiles and some ginger slices for extra flavor boost! Serve with optional lime wedges to adjust taste. Black Tea Noodles is a similar broth based noodles but flavored with hot tea, and another favorite one of ours! If you like creamier soup, try this Vegan Curried Cabbage Soup and Thai Coconut Curry Noodles made with coconut milk and flour noodles. In the virtual culinary journey across the globe, I have shared vegetarian and vegan recioes for many noodles that are soupy or stir-fried versions. Check my A-Z Noodles From Around The World for yummy recipes!

My Partner Seema of MildlyIndian gave me two secret ingredients - "Millet and Lime" for our Shhhh secret cooking challenge. In this group, we partner up with a buddy and give two secret ingredients to each other for a chosen theme for the month. This month's theme is healthy recipes! We share our photograph of the food made using this ingredient ot the rest of the group to guess. It is very interesting and if you like to join, click here for details. 

Seema, my partner has an amazing blog with wonderful recipes. In turn, I gave her spices and carrots as secret ingredients and she whipped up this delicious Curried Carrot and Celery Soup using garam masala and carrots. Her Vaghereli Rotli and Karela Ka Bharta are tastier! 

So, back to my secret ingredients.  I had a pack of kodo millet vermicelli and with just soaking in hot water, it gets ready, I added them in the soup as the last addition. With one minute simmer, it was perfect! 

I am also linking to Souper Sundays by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen, Wonderful Wednesday, Thursday Favorite Things, Full Plate Thursday, and What's for Dinner.

Update: This was featured on Full Plate Thursday 570.

Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Ingredients

Serves 4

Water - 5 cups

Garlic - 1 tsp

Ginger- 1 tsp

Carrots - 3/4 cup, grated

Bell pepper - 2/3 cup, sliced

Cabbage - 1 cup, sliced

Green peas - 1/2 cup, fresh or frozen

Salt - 1.5 tsp

Green chili - 2, finely chopped

Lime juice - 1 tbsp

Green onion - 2, sliced

Cilantro - 2 tbsp, finely chopped

Kodo millet noodles - 2/3 cup

Method

Add the green beans,ginger, garlic, green chili, white parts of green onions to two cups of  water and boil for 2 minutes.

Add the cabbage, bell pepper, carrots, peas, remaining water, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 2-4 minutes until the veggies are crisp tender.

Add the millet noodles and simmer for a minute. Gently mix the noodles around when adding so that they do not clump.

The millet would soak up and cook pretty soon.

Add the lime juice, green onions, and cilantro.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with extra cilantro, green onions, sliced ginger and Thai chile. Serve with a lime wedge too!

Whole wheat banana bread

This is a very healthy and tasty banana bread made with whole wheat flour. The added chocolate chips and walnuts make it extra delicious. This recipe is eggless! These are amazing as slices or as muffins too! These are amazing for breakfast or for a quick snack.

This post may contain affiliate link and the opinions expressed are my own. I may have received samples to work with recipes.

Bananas and walnuts are an amazing combo! The crunchy and nutty bite of walnuts is always divine! Try substituting any nuts if your choice. If you have nut allergies, it can be skipped too. Choose vegan chocolate chips to make vegan banana bread.

I made this loaf with Taylor & Colledge Vanilla bean paste. This imparts amazing tones of vanilla perfect for delicious baked goods. I have used T&C vanilla bean paste in this amazing Eggless Pear Almond Mini Loaves and Apple Cider Milk Tea With Boba and Caramel Apple. Also in this Vanilla Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies. Every time I use this paste, I have a perfect satisfaction of the resulting baked goods.

Let me share an amazing and simple tip. When you use nuts or chocolate chips in breads or cakes, dust with a little flour and then fold into the batter. This will prevent the chips from sinking to the bottom and the result is evenly distributed nuts/chips.

This is a recipe with whole wheat bread. In all my experiments, I found this to be the most perfect,moist, and delicious loaf! This is addictive and I am warning you that it is hard to control gobbling it up! I have used GM Whole wheat flour for this bread. I have tried with atta used for regular chapathi. In that case you may need two more tablespoons of oil and apple sauce. It just depends on the flour type/brand.

I am linking this toBakeathon, Full Plate Thursday, and Thursday Favorite Things.

Update: Jan 8, 2022. This was featured on Full Plate Thursday 570.

Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1.5 cups

Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Mashed banana -1 cup
Aquafaba -3 tbsp
Soy milk - 1/4 up
Flaxseed powder - 1 tbsp
Taylor & Colledge Vanilla bean paste - 1.5 tsp
Oil - 1/3 cup
Apple sauce - 1/3 cup
Walnuts-2/3 cup, chopped
Chocolate chips -2/3 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Add soy milk or any plant based milk to flaxseed powder and set aside for 5 minutes to gel.

Mash the bananas and set aside. To get a cup of mashed banana, you may require about 3 ripe/overripe  bananas.

Add the whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda toa bowl, mix, and set aside.

Add the brown sugar, Taylor&Colledge vanilla bean paste, aquafaba, apple sauce to the mashed banana. Mix thororughly.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture. Combine quickly to make lump free batter.

Dust the nuts and chocolate chips with a little flour (half to one teaspoon). Add the nuts and chocolate chips reserving 2 tablespoons of each. Fold well.

Pour to a lined 9X5-in pan. Sprinkle the reserved chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake for 56-57 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, cool in a cooling rack completely. Slice and serve.

Vegan Coconut Gingerbread Muffins

These vegan muffins with coconut and gingerbread flavors are the ultimate breakfast for the holidays! The flavors of gingerbread in this muffins adds a touch of warmth and the coconut and pecans give a crunchy bite making every bite heavenly! By the way, these are made with wholewheat and very healthy too!

Serve them with ginger chai or masala chai for a perfect combo! This is the amazing holiday breakfast. The flavors of the chai and muffins will complement and it is just hard to describe the feeling! In simple words, it is an amazing experience! This can be served with coffee or milk too!

 I have used Milican Pecans and these are the best pecans. The pecans add a delicious crunch and that makes every bite extra delicious. I love the flavor of these than any other brand. Click here to buy Milican Pecans.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. Thanks, Stacey for hosting!

I am also linking this to Bakeathon 2021, Share The Wealth, and Happiness is Homemade.

It's almost end of the year and it's been fun baking muffin along with friend in our #MuffinMonday group. See you all in the new year with new muffin recipes! By the way here are the links to muffin recipes shared this year.

Cornmeal Cheese Bomb Muffins

Double Chocolate Whole Wheat Muffins

Papaya Orange Muffins

Sourdough Discard Whole Wheat Sundried TomatoBasil Muffins

Lemon Strawberry Muffins

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Muffins

Mango Lassi Muffins

Vegan Jackfruit Muffins

Whole Wheat Apple Butter and Apple Cider Tea Muffins

Pumpkin, Pecan, Cinnamon Chip Muffins

Samosa Muffins

Ingredients

Makes 10 muffins

Prep time - 10 minutes

Bake time - 17 minutes

Cooling time - 10 minutes

Whole wheat flour - 1.5 cups

Flaxseed powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Baking powder -1 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Ginger powder - 1 tsp

Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp

Nutmeg powder - 1/8 tsp

ground cloves - 1/8 tsp

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Coconut sugar - 1/2 cup

Maple syrup - 1/4 cup

Molasses - 3 tbsp

Oil - 1/4 cup

Aquafaba - 3 tbsp

Shredded coconut - 1/4 cup, unsweetened

Chopped pecan - 1/4 cup

Method

Add the four, salt, spices, baking powder and baking soda to a bowl, and mix.

Mix the flaxseed powder with coconut milk to gel and set aside for 5 minutes.

Add the wet ingredients to bowl, and mix.

Add this to the flour mixture and mix quickly to make a muffin batter.

Fold in the pecans and coconut.

Scoop into lined muffin tray.

Bake for 17 -18 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

Serve with ginger/masala chai! Or with coffee/milk!

• Best Sourdough Morning Glory Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Cheddar and Chive Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Lemon Curd Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pecan Pie Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Snickerdoodle Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Vegan Coconut Gingerbread Muffins from Magical Ingredients