Category: side

Sesame-Garlic Baby Bok-Choy

Ankitha Gadag original recipe for an easy week-night side dish!

Welcome back to Ankitha Gadag Recipes, home of authentic, exotic recipes curated by yours truly – Ankitha Gadag. For all you first timers to the blog, thank you for visiting. I hope you find a recipe that will help you fall in love with food as much as I have! Today’s recipe is an Asian inspired dish, that would work best as a side to a delicious Thai/Chinese/Japanese entree. I personally paired it with Pad-Ka-Prow (recipe coming soon!) a street-side northern Thai dish, and the flavors blended perfectly.

This was actually my first attempt at cooking bok-choy. It is one of those vegetables that is really difficult to mess up. It soaks up all the flavors of the marinade wonderfully. Plus, with only 3 ingredients making this recipe, it is SO EASY to make! It’s great for a week night dinner after a long day, when you don’t want to spend more than 10 minutes whipping up dinner.

Alright, without further ado…

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 baby bok-choy (cut in half, length-wise)
  • soy sauce (2 tbsp)
  • rice wine vinegar (2 tbsp)
  • sesame seed oil (2 tbsp)
  • garlic (1-2 cloves)

ankitha_gadag_seasoning

 

Preparation:

  1. Heat up some oil in a pan, flavor the oil with your crushed garlic clovesankitha_gadag_sizzlingoil
  2. Add your cut bok-choy into the pan face down, and cover for 2-3 mins. ankitha_gadag_boyankitha_gadag1
  3.  Now prepare your marinade, using the sauces from the ingredientsankitha_gadag_choy
  4. Add marinade to your pan and saute together for about 1-2 mins
  5. Serve!

 

How easy is that? 5 steps, 3 ingredients. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

-Ankitha

Ankitha Gadag’s 2-Step Basil-Parsley Pesto

An Ankitha Gadag original recipe for a super easy pesto

I absolutely love pesto. Not only is it simple and quick to make, it is one of the most versatile recipes ever! Why would anyone ever buy pre-packaged pesto when it is such a cinch to make?! By making your own pesto, you can avoid all the artificial preservatives that come with most store bought products. The recipe I’ll be sharing today is an Ankitha Gadag original recipe! The key here is of course the fresh basil & garlic, but as you will see, every other ingredient can be a concoction of your favorite herbs, nuts and spices.

You can use pesto with pretty much everything. I use mine with eggs, pasta, as a spread in a sandwich, or even as a sauce to a good steak (it’s the italian chimichurri ;))

For this recipe you will need:

Ingredients:

  • Parsley (1 bunch)
  • Basil (1.5 bunch)
  • Garlic (1 bulb)
  • Nuts (1 cup of your choice, I prefer cashews or pine nuts… you can use almonds if you want to keep it healthy)
  • Parmesan cheese (1 cup)
  • Serrano (1)
  • S&P to taste
  • Olive Oil
  • lime juice to taste

ankitha-gadag-basil-pesto

Steps:

  1. Add all ingredients except olive oil into your blender ankitha-gadag-pesto

 

  1. While blending, slowly pour olive oil until it reaches a thick, creamy consistency

ankitha-gadag-vitamix

Enjoy!

Shrimp and Veggie Pesto Pasta

Pasta can be flavorful… and healthy
This spicy, garlic pesto shrimp pasta is packed with mouth-watering flavors. Its still creamy from the pesto yet light without all the heavy cream that is typical of pasta dishes. The charred broccoli in the dish brings a great crunch to complement the shrimp. This dish is truly the best of both worlds… flavor and health.
I used an orecchiette pasta from Italy for this dish, but feel free to incorporate your favorite type of pasta. I have tried this recipe in the past with angel hair pasta and spaghetti.

spicy garlic shrimp pesto pasta

Ingredients: 

  • Garlic (A TON, around 10 cloves)
  • Parsley (a handful)
  • Shrimp (1 lb)
  • 1/4 th cup pesto ( used this pre-made italian version which can be found here )
  • dash of black pepper
  • 1 jalapeno
  • dash of dried basil
  • dash of dried oregano
  • dash of red pepper flakes
  • Broccolli florets ( I used broccolli, but this would also go great with mushrooms, asparagus, or zucchini)
  • 1 lime
  • Parmesan grated (for topping)
  • Pasta ( of your choice, I used orecchiette )
Recipe:
garlic parsely pesto

  1. Grind the garlic, parsley and jalapeno into a paste
        2. Heat olive oil in low heat, and add the parsley pesto blend (from step #1) into the pan

  1. Add in the shrimp to this mix

  2. Cook on low heat for a few mins. Add the lime, salt, and black pepper at this point. You want  to heavily coat the shrimp with the black pepper.

  3. After cooking for 5-7 mins, add the broccoli florets, pesto, and all other spices. Stir in and cover for 5-10  mins.

pesto shrimp

  1. Once the flavors are cooked into the shrimp and the veggies, it will form a gravy. At this point you can add in the pasta.and stir. You can avoid overcooking the shrimp by turning off the heat before the shrimp start to form into circular rings.

  2. Top with a heaping spoonful of Parmesan, and serve! Voila!

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