Almond Cookies, delicious and flavorful cookies made from just three main ingredients like almond flour, sugar and coconut oil. It's one of the easiest cookies that i have baked so far yet it's super tasty and you can't stop by one.

Recently, i have been looking for some easy homemade cookie recipes for my little one. That's when i remembered about these almond cookies that i had baked a long time ago. So after a bit of browsing through my drafts, found the recipe which was actually saved from some pinterest board(not exactly know the source of the recipe now) and baked instantly. As expected, it turned out good and to my surprise, my little one also enjoyed it as much as i did. 

These cookies taste similar to coconut cookies without any coconut and are buttery without any butter in the recipe and so flavorful without any flavoring agents. The key ingredient in the recipe is the coconut oil that gives all the flavor and taste.

Right before baking !!

Coconut Oil

As i mentioned earlier, coconut oil is the key ingredient for these cookies. Hence make sure to virgin coconut oil for that great flavor. 

For this recipe, coconut oil should be in liquid state and at the same time shouldn't be hot. So if you're living in the cold places where coconut oil always freezes, then melt the oil in the microwave or on the stove top and let it come to lukewarm temperature before using it.

Sugar

For 1 cup of almond flour, i have used just 2tbsp of sugar in this recipe which is perfect for us since i have baked these cookies for my kid and I don't want to over-sugar them. But you can add an extra tbsp of sugar if you want really sweet cookies.

Also, i have used powdered sugar in this recipe. But regular sugar/ light brown sugar can also be used .

Cookie Dough

Cookie Dough should be slightly sticky so that it can be shaped easily. If the dough is too sticky, then add a tbsp of almond flour and mix it well again.

Likewise, if the dough is too dry and unable to shape them, then add a tsp of water, mix it well. Yep, it's such a forgiving dough :-)

Cookie Texture

These cookies are slightly crispy on the day of baking. Afterwards, it's slightly chewy like coconut cookies. However, it tastes delicious either way !

Finally, if you're looking for some healthy cookies to bake for your kids/adults, i would highly recommend to try these cookies. 

Now let's check out on how to make delicious almond cookies.

Almond Flour Cookies | Almond Cookies

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Cookies | Recipe Cuisine: General
Almond flour cookies, almond cookies, cookies without flour, cookies without butter Almond Cookies, a delicious and flavorful cookies made from just three main ingredients like almond flour, sugar and coconut oil.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Almond Flour - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 2 tbsp

Coconut Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Water - 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp

Almond Slices - a few (optional)

Procedure

Preheat the oven @ 350F

In a bowl, add the almond flour, sugar and salt, mix it well together.

Next add the coconut oil & water and start mixing it with the dry ingredients.

It will form a slightly sticky dough. Now, pinch a small amount of dough from the mixture and roll into a ball.

Then flatten it a bit in your palms and place it on the parchment lined baking tray. Do the same for all the dough and then place a sliced almonds(it's totally optional) on each cookie dough and press it gently. 

Bake it on the preheated oven @350F for 15-18 mins. Delicious and flavorful almond cookies are ready.

Related: How to make Peanut Butter Cookies

Notes:

• Depends on the oven, the baking time varies, so keep an eye on the cookies after 15 mins.
• Once the cookies are completely cooled down, store it in air-tight container.

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Avocado Chapati / Avocado Roti, a delicious, healthy and soft roti made from wheat flour and avocado. Making of this roti is as simple as the regular roti however it's so healthy, super soft and pairs great with any Indian curries or it can be used as wraps.

If you have too many ripened avocado at the same time and bored of eating as it as or as guacamole , then i highly recommend giving a try on these yummy roti.

Related : How to make Avocado Quesadilla with leftover Chapati

Avocados are a great source of healthy fat and eating them makes you feel full for a longer time. Including them regularly  in the diets gives a lot of health benefits according to science. So i have been including avocado in our diets frequently in the forms of salad, smoothies and rotis. 

Before moving on to the recipe, let's check out FAQs.

Does the colour of the avocado roti change after cooking?

No ! So far, i have kept this roti at room temperature for about 6 hours and it doesn't change its color.

Does the dough change its color when you keep it for a longer time? 

Yes ! The dough color starts to change after around 20 mins. So i highly recommend to make this dough when you're ready to make roti. However, after cooking, it won't be in dark brown color.

Can i add any other spices to it ?

Yes, of course. You can add chili powder as per your spice level and some garam masala for the flavor. Or you can squeeze a little bit of sriracha sauce while making dough. 

If you add more spices, then you don't even need side dish, a simple raita /yogurt would be enough

Ok, now let move on to the recipe. 

Avocado Chapati | Soft Avocado Roti

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 12 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Avocado Chapati, Soft Avocado Roti, Healthy roti Avocado Chapati / Avocado Roti, a delicious, healthy and soft roti made from wheat flour and avocado.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Wheat flour/Atta - 2 cups
Avocado - 1 
Lemon Juice - 1/2 tsp 
Salt - to taste
Water - as needed

Oil - for cooking the roti

Procedure

First, take an avocado , cut into half, remove the pit and scoop out the flesh into a bowl.

Mash the avocado well with masher/fork, add the lemon juice and salt.

Mix it all well together. Then add the wheat flour and mix it with the avocado mixture.

Next add the needed water and make a soft pliable dough. Divide the dough into golf sized ball. 

Roll into thin disc with rolling pin(if needed using flour for dusting while rolling). Heat the pan, grease it with little oil and then add the rolled dough, cook it on both till brown spots appear.

Tada, healthy and soft avocado roti is ready.

Related : How to make Rumali Roti

Notes:

• Dough colour tends to change after a while, so don't rest the dough for more than 15 mins.
• The proportion of wheat flour to avocado is purely up to your preference. You can add more or less of avocado for the given quantity.
• Instead of oil, butter or ghee can also be used for cooking the roti.

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Pepper Chicken Dry, a delicious and easy to make chicken side dish that goes well with both rotis and rice or as starter too. This recipe tastes great for the chicken with bone and boneless well however i used to make this mostly with boneless chicken.

By looking at the ingredients list you may wonder how it would taste with these minimal ingredients. But i assure you that it's one of the recipes that proves often less is required for making delicious recipe. 

Nowadays, life is so busy with my little one so it's really hard for me to post here as frequent as before even though i cook more than before as of now :-)  Anyhow , i make sure to share  at least one recipe / month and seems like that's what i'm doing for the last 3-4 months. 

Ok, now coming to the recipe, this recipe doesn't need preparation ahead within 20 mins it would be ready and taste simply awesome. Do give a try and let me share your thoughts in the comments section.

Pepper Chicken Dry | Kozhi Milagu Varuval

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
chicken, kozhi milagu varuval, chicken pepper fry, dry pepper chicken Pepper Chicken Dry, a delicious and easy to make chicken side dish that goes well with both rotis and rice or as starter too.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 lb / 200 gms approx(boneless)
Onion(thinly sliced) - 2(small)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs 

Procedure

First clean the chicken and cut into bit size pieces, then add ginger garlic paste and all the spice powder( turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder).

Next add the salt and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice and mix it all together well. Heat a pan with the oil.

Then add the marinated chicken and saute it in the oil for 2-3 mins and then keep the heat in low and cover the pan with lid and let the chicken cook fully.

Once the chicken is well cooked, remove it on the plate and then add the sliced onions in the same pan.

Next add the curry leaves and a pinch of salt . Saute the onions till they are translucent.

Then add the cooked chicken, give a good mix in the onion masala and then finally add the garam masala powder and pepper powder.

Coat the chicken in the pepper powder well and then switch off the flame and finally squeeze the remaining 1/2 tsp of lemon juice. Mix it well.

That's it, Delicious Dry Pepper Chicken is ready to serve. 

Related : Chicken Coconut Curry 

Notes:

• For this recipe, i didn't use whole spices like cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in order to avoid bitting them.
• Make sure to use good amount of curry leaves for the best flavor.
• It's has mild spice so add more or less of chiilli powder/pepper powder according to your taste.
• Don't reduce the amount of onions since it's the key for the taste. 
• 

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Turmeric Milk / Manjal Paal, a delicious milk drink flavored with turmeric powder. In recent times, it's also called "Golden Milk". Interesting name, right ?

It's one of the common night time drinks during winter months when we grew up.  During winter months, as flu season is high, in order to avoid catching the cold, the elders in the family used to make this milk. 

To be honest, this doesn't need a recipe at all :-) . After boiling the milk, turmeric powder and  some sweetener is added to the milk and it's served warm. It's as simple as that. In addition to the turmeric powder , you can also add  a pinch of pepper powder too.This drink is really soothing to your throat and indeed it's delicious.

As i'm back from a 3 month trip to India a couple of days back, the weather here in Canada seems more harsh than usual hence i'm making this turmeric milk at night time to keep me warm and cozy.  That's the reason for this post here now :-)

Before moving on to the recipe, let's check out some FAQs.

What is  Panam Kalkandu ?

Panam Kalkandu is a type of sugar from the palm tree, it helps to soothe the throat. So usually we add this as a sweetener in Turmeric milk. But you can use regular sugar or honey too.

What are the other ingredients that can added in the Turmeric Milk?

In addition to the turmeric powder, you can add the pepper powder too especially when you have cold. It really helps to reduce the symptoms. 

Turmeric Milk | Golden Milk | Manjal Paal

Preparation Time : 0 mins | Cooking Time : 5 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Drink | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Turmeric Milk, Golden Milk, Manjal Paal, Healthy Drink Turmeric Milk / Manjal Paal, a delicious milk drink flavored with turmeric powder.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Milk - 1 cup 

Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp

*Panam Kalkandu - to taste

*Panam kalkandu is a type of sugar from the palm tree, it helps to soothe the throat.

Procedure

First add the milk in a sauce pan and bring into boil. 

Switch off the flame and then add the the turmeric powder and the panam kalkandu(Got the panam kalkandu from the srilankan store and it's called as "kallakaram" there! ). Instead of panam kalkandu, you can use any other sweetener like sugar, honey etc.

That's it, Delicious Turmeric Milk/ Manjal Paal is ready.

Related : How to make Panakam/ Panakaram

Notes: 

• Don't add more turmeric powder than the mentioned quantity, it doesn't taste good.
• Like i said, you can add any other sweetener you like or even without any sweetener also you can make this.
• I highly recommend to have this as warm. 

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Paruppu poli, a delicious and soft flatbread stuffed with sweet filling made from chana dal, jaggery and flavored with cardamom powder. Though poli has many varieties, this paruppu poli is the traditional one that has been made for many festive occasions all over the India. 

I love this paruppu poli more than any other varieties. And whenever i make paruppu pooranam for kozhukattai or susiyam, i reserve some to make this delicious poli on the next day ! 

Outer layer for the poli

In this recipe, i have used equal amount of maida and wheat flour for the outer dough. It gives soft yet not chewable poli. If maida is only used for the outer dough, it needs a lot of oil for soft texture instead of chewable texture.

So in order to reduce the oil and still achieve the softer texture, i have used the both flours. But it's really up to you and make it with whatever the flour you prefer. 

Cooking the poli

To cook the poli, i highly recommend to use ghee. It gives such a aromatic flavor to the poli. This is one of the recipes that taste is directly proportional to the amount of the ghee used ! More  ghee, more delicious! So be generous in drizzling the ghee :-)

Storing the poli.

Once the poli is completely cooled, you can store this in air tight container and it stays well for a 2 days at room temperature! For longer storage, put it in refrigerator. While serving, gently warm it in the hot tava ! It's as good as freshly made. 

How to make Paruppu Poli | Poli Recipe

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 8 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Paruppu Poli,Poli recipe,Homemade Paruppu Poli Paruppu poli, a delicious and soft flatbread stuffed with sweet filling made from chana dal, jaggery and flavored with cardamom powder.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Madia - 1/4 cup

Wheat flour/Aata - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Water - as needed

Chana dal pooranam - 1/2 cup

Procedure

First let's prepare the dough, take the all purpose flour/ madia and wheat flour / aata in a bowl along with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder. Mix it all well together.

Next add the oil and mix it with the flour well, so that it's well incorporated into the flour. Then add the water little by little and make a soft pilable dough.

Apply some oil on the top and rest for two hours. In the mean time, prepare the stuffing/chana dal pooranam and keep it ready. 

After 2 hours, divide the dough into small pieces(a little small size as of the inner stuffing). Roll them into small balls. Take a dough and flatten it with hand as small circle.

Place a stuffing on it and gather the dough from the sides and cover the stuffing as shown below. Keep the sealed side down and flatten the dough with your fingers. 

Next you can use your hand to stretch the dough or like me you can use the rolling pin and roll into small circle.

Heat the tava/pan , apply a little bit of ghee and add the rolled poli and drizzle some more ghee on the sides and top of the poli & cook until it has brown spots on both sides.

That's it. Tasty and soft paruppu poli is ready.

Related : How to make Sweet Boondi

Notes:

• Adding turmeric powder gives that authentic yellow color to the poli.
• You can store this in refrigerator for upto 5 days.

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