Tag: Budget Friendly Recipes

Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe
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This quick and easy Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad combines a creamy dressing – like a mixture of Greek yogurt or sour cream – with freshly sliced cucumbers and red onions along with plenty of chopped dill! It’s the perfect unique pasta salad recipe for your next barbecue party.

Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe

Loaded with tender pasta, crisp juicy cucumbers, fresh dill and red onion, this dish will be the hit of every get together. And it comes together within just few minutes and it’s incredibly delicious! The dressing in this salad doesn’t have a lot of ingredients, but that’s really the beauty of this recipe! The fresh Greek yogurt adds a little zip to the dressing while the dill adds summery freshness complementing the cucumber and cooked pasta perfectly!

Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe

If you have access to fresh dill, it really makes a huge difference in this salad.

Ingredients in Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe?
- Pasta: penne or rotini pasta
- Cucumbers: fresh long English cucumbers work the best for this recipe
- Onion: red onion (can sub white for less of a “bite”)
- Dressing: sour cream or Greek yogurt and vinegar
- Herb: fresh dill
- Spices: salt and pepper
Ist Gather Your Equipment’s:
- a Sharp Knife, for cutting
- a round spoon, to remove seeds
- Spatula, for mixing
- Cutting Board
- Hand Whisker
- Large Glass Bowl
How to Make this Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad:

This is such an easy recipe, y’all. Seriously. Yes to Summer recipes that don’t require hardly any effort!

1. First, begin by cooking your pasta according to the box instructions! Make sure to salt your water and cook the pasta until al dente. Once it’s done, let it cool! If desired, rinse cold water over top to stop the cooking and speed up the cooling process.

Cook pasta. drizzle with oil

Sprinkle pepper and toss to coat evenly.

2. While the pasta is cooling off, slice up your cucumber! Slice it in half lengthwise and then slice very thin slices of cucumber.

Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise

remove seeds using a spoon

Dice it into thin slices.

and its done !!

3. Do the same thing with the red onion! Thin slices go a long way here, folks! While it’s not required, soaking the onions in cold water for a few minutes takes just a little bit of bite out of them. .

Thinly slice onion

place in a bowl of cold water

4. Next, mix together the delicious Greek yogurt dill dressing! Combine the Greek yogurt with the dill, vinegar, salt (i added the pink salt) and pepper. Mix until deliciously thick and creamy. Set this aside.

Mix dressing ingredients

Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

5. In a large bowl, add your cooled off pasta. On top, add your cucumbers, onions and all of the Greek yogurt dressing! Mix together gently until fully combined.

Add pasta, cucumber and onion

Pour dressing over it.

6. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. I always love garnishing with a big pinch of extra dill – it makes it taste extra fresh and adds an amazing pop of flavor.

Toss to combine

sprinkle some extra dill (if desired)

7. Let it sit in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes to make sure all of the flavors can melt together and it can stay cold! Enjoy when chilled and eat up! 🙂

Note: If possible try to toss this at least 1 hour before serving to allow the flavors to blend.

Bismillah let’s get started.
Check it out The Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe and printable version here!!
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Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad Recipe

This quick and easy Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad combines a creamy dressing – like a mixture of Greek yogurt or sour cream – with freshly sliced cucumbers and red onions along with plenty of chopped dill! It’s the perfect unique pasta salad recipe for your next backyard barbecue.

Keyword 30 minutes meals, cucumber, greek yogurt, Pasta, pasta salad, salad, summer salad, veggie salad

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6

Author Bushra Waheed

Ingredients
For Pasta Salad:
½ pound medium sized pasta such as penne or rotini
2 large English cucumber thinly sliced
1 medium red onion thinly sliced
For Salad Dressing:
1 cup sour cream or whole fat plain Greek yogurt can substitute mayo if desired
2 tbsp. fresh chopped dill
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
For Garnishing
fresh dill

Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions, until al dente. Drain and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly and let it cool.
While the pasta is cooling, Thinly slice onion and place in a bowl of cold water. (see note)
Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and remove seeds using a spoon then dice it into thin slices.
To Make The Salad Dressing:
In a small bowl, mix the sour cream or Greek yogurt along with the vinegar, fresh dill, salt and pepper. Mix until fully combined. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
To Make The Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad:
In a large bowl, add the cooled rigatoni pasta. Top with the fresh sliced cucumber and red onion.
Pour dressing over pasta and toss to combine.
Place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to let the pasta salad cool off and for the flavors to meld together.
When serving, if desired, add a large handful of dill on top for garnish and an extra pop of flavor!
Delicious Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad is ready to serve. Enjoy!

Notes
Soaking the onions in cold water is optional but takes a bit of the “bite” out of the onion.
Serving Suggestions:
Goes great with BBQ Chicken Wings.
Want more Pasta Salad Inspiration?

Here are some other Pasta Salad recipes on my blog:
- Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe
- Creamy Shell Pasta Salad
- Russian Macaroni Salad
- Macaroni Egg Salad
Hope you guys loved this one and are having a great Summer. Let me know what your favorite garden produce is this time of year in the comments below!

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Put your own spin on it. And lemme know how it turns out and do take a few seconds to rate it! I would love to see your recreations so tag me on instagram @recipestable or Facebook (Recipestable) or on Twitter so I can see how lovely yours turn out.
March 10, 2021
The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe
Loaded with veggies and flavorful chicken, warm spices like cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace and the heat of green chilies this Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao is a delight to the taste buds in every bite!

The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe

Chicken broth and seasonings are added to give it lots of flavor and moisture. It’s a one-pot meal to prepare and cook in a pot that comes together quickly for a hearty and hot week-night dinner.

There are some Rice Pulao that are overly packed with gorgeous spices flavors, but this isn’t one of those. This Chicken pulao is a medley of rice, chicken, spices, and vegetables. I just add a tiny sprinkle of green onion as a garnish, just to add a little more color when serving. Pairs perfectly with any raita or curry of your choice.

The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe

What goes in Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao

The ingredients you need to make this Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao are:
- Best rice for pulao – basmati rice is the best for both flavor and fluffiness. Basmati is a type of long grain rice – the longer the grain, the fluffier the rice. It also has a lovely subtle fragrance that really compliments the flavors in this rice pilaf; You can use brown rice as well for this pulao recipe.
- Chicken: The juicy thighs or chicken breast are the ideal meat choices for making pulao. You can use either the boneless pieces or the bone-in ones like leg pieces. I personally, like pulao with boneless chicken pieces.
- Fat – Ideally desi ghee (clarifying butter) is the best choice for making the pulao. I choose the clarified butter (desi ghee) for flavor, but if the aroma and taste of ghee are too over-powering for you, use unsalted butter, coconut oil, or any other cooking oil.
- Flavor Base – sautéed ginger and onion, to add savouriness;
- Pulao Spices – I’ve used a combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, bay leaves and cumin in this Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao. It’s reminiscent of traditional Middle Eastern flavors but also a festive combination. Feel free to customize this to your own taste;
- Broth OR water – For extra flavor, I almost always make my pulao with broth. However, water will work just fine as well, though I’d add an extra pinch of each of the spices;
- Vegetables – Use any vegetables you like here. I like using carrot and green peas for a vibrant color, and potatoes because the flavor melds in nicely with the rice. Cabbage and Capsicum also work well but be aware that they provide a sharper pop of flavor. Broccoli would also be great.
- Garnishing – I’ve used green onions in this mix vegetable chicken pulao recipe. I adore both the flavor and fresh green color that green onion bring to this pulao. Fresh Coriander and Mint Leaves are also great!
How to make Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao:

Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao is straight forward to make.
1. Soak the rice for 30 minutes then drain.
2. Sauté onion and whole spices in butter, then add the ginger and chicken along with seasoning. Cook for 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and all juices run clear.
3. Then add carrots, green peas and potatoes cook 5-7 minutes or until vegetables crisp-tender then add chicken broth and bring it to boil. Then add rice cover the pot and let it simmer on medium low flame or until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. This takes roughly 10 minutes.
4. Now give a dum for a further 15 minutes. Fluff the rice and dish it out.
But here are my tips for how to make the best Pulao every time!
- Soaking Rice or not: Soaking white rice for about half an hour before cooking allows moisture to get to the middle of the kernel. During cooking, the heat transfers quicker to the middle and the rice will be done in about eight minutes, causing less damage to the outside of the kernel. Thus, it’s more evenly cooked, and easier to separate than the non-soaked rice.
- Right liquid to rice ratio – 1 1/2 Cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice will yield perfectly cooked fluffy rice. Adding too much liquid to cook rice always results in a mushy and sticky pulao
- Do not peek while rice is cooking! Escaped heat compromises the cooking of the rice;
- Rest undisturbed – this is the most important step for cooking rice. This is when the rice finishes cooking and becomes fluffy!
What To Serve With Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao?

This is home-style, hearty chicken pulao with delicious flavors full of spices and aroma. I suggest, serve it hot right after dum (steaming) with zeera raita, or mint raita and kachumber salad for best taste. It would also go really well with my Chicken Shorba– a mild flavored desi style chicken stew with a great combination of Oriental spices.

The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe

Bismillah let’s get started.
Check it out The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe and printable version here!!
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The Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao Recipe

Nothing like a good plate of aromatic pulao! This Flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao hits all the right spots with its wonderful aroma and exotic flavors! Spice up your week with this flavorful Pulao!

Keyword Chicken, Chicken Pulao, Dinner, Iftar Recipes, Pulao, Quick and Easy, Ramadan, Rice, vegetables, Veggie Pulao

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Author Bushra Waheed

Ingredients
2 pounds Boneless Chicken
3 cups long gran rice basmati rice
1/2 cup clarified butter/ desi ghee or oil
1 onion thinly sliced
4 inch Ginger piece thinly sliced
4 carrots peeled and cubed
3 potatoes peel and cubed
2 cups Green Peas
2 green onions thinly sliced( only green part)
4 Green Chilies thinly sliced
1 large Cinnamon Stick daarcheeni
2 Black Cardamom bari elachi
5-6 Cloves (loong)
2 Bay Leaves tezpaat
1 tsp Cumin Seeds (zeera)
1 tsp nutmeg and mace powder
1/2 tsp Black Peppercorns (kali mirch)
2 tsp Red Chili Flakes
1 tsp all spice powder garam Masala powder
2 tsp salt or according to your taste
6 cups Chicken Broth Yakhni

Instructions
Rinse the basmati rice till the water becomes clear. Then soak it in water for 20 minutes. After soaking, drain the rice and keep it ready.
Take a heavy bottom skillet or pot and melt clarified butter in it.
Add the onions and sauté until they are a deep golden brown. This can take up to 5-7 minutes over a low heat. You will need to check and stir a couple of times. Don’t be tempted to rush this stage because this adds a lot of flavor to the finished dish.
Add the cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, black cardamom, black peppercorns and cloves. Sauté for 2 minutes or until popping and fragrant.
Now add the ginger slices and Chicken, cook for 15-20 minutes or till chicken turns golden brown before adding the vegetables.
Now add Carrot, Potatoes and green Peas. Sauté and cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are just tender-crisp.
Season with salt, red pepper flakes and some garam masala.
Next, add green chilies and sauté for a second and adjust the seasoning and add more salt if needed.
Add Chicken Stock and once the it starts boiling add the soaked basmati rice and mix it gently.
Now, wait for it to boil again, then cover and simmer on medium low flame or until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. This takes roughly 10 minutes.
Put the pot covered (give a dum) for a further 15 minutes.
Now, uncover the pot sprinkle green onion (only green part)and fluff the rice gently from the corners
Remove from the heat and dish it out.
Enjoy flavorful Mix Vegetable Chicken Pulao!!
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this Mix Vegetable Chicken pulao. If you’ve tried both my chicken biryani and my chicken pulao you really have to let me know what you think!

Want more Pulao Inspiration?

Here are some of the other Pulao Recipes that I love to make for my weekday meals.
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March 9, 2021
Hot and Sour Noodles Recipe – Just Like the Restaurants Make It
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Who needs takeout when homemade tastes better and you’re in control of the ingredients. Next time when you crave Chinese food, instead of take-out, make this quick, easy and Incredibly delicious hot and sour noodles. Perfect comfort food and a a hearty meal, full of veggies, egg noodles and fried chicken, that’s ready in under 30 minutes!

Hot and Sour Noodles Recipe – Just Like the Restaurants Make It

This Hot and Sour Noodles Recipe makes a bright and healthy dinner for a small family. There are layers and layers of flavors in these easy noodles that are ready in 30 minutes. Soy sauce, hot pepper sauce, vinegar, ginger- garlic, red chili and tomato sauce coat the noodles beautifully. They’re hot and sour with a very subtle heat from the ginger and hot pepper sauce. Fried Chicken, Onion, Capsicum add texture and crunch. Olives and tomato add bright color.
I love the hot, spicy, salty, savory, garlicky and the slippery noodles. It’s all about the combination of textures and flavors — there’s tangy sauces, crispy fried Chicken, zesty vegetables, salty Egg noodles and chili flakes for heat.

A bowl of hot and sour slurping goodness. _ Just Like the Restaurants Make It!

These noodle bowls are a lightning fast dinner that the whole family is sure to enjoy. They are surprisingly easy to make from scratch, and you don’t need to worry about the questionable sodium ingredients that are listed in the store bought version.

What makes hot and sour Noodles HOT?

The heat in this hot and sour noodles comes from red pepper flakes and hot pepper sauce. The noodles has to be on the hotter side. The sourness comes from adding vinegar right at the end. If you add the vinegar in the beginning or towards the middle, the vinegar will evaporate during cooking. Which is why we add the vinegar right at the end.

These noodles will be your new go-to. Take it to work for lunch, take it to cookouts, make it for your family dinner. Trust me – you’ll knock their socks off with this one.

Bismillah let’s get started.

Ingredients in Hot and Sour Noodles?

This Hot and Sour Noodles recipe is quick, requires few ingredients and is great for those days when you don’t have a lot of time to cook. The list of ingredients is so simple – red chilli flakes, ginger, garlic, onion, capsicum, tomato, chicken, soy sauce, hot pepper sauce, vinegar and egg noodles of course. These are things that are probably already in your pantry so its a quick and easy dinner to make which is ready in under 30 minutes. Perfect for last minute dinners!

How to make the Restaurant Style Hot and Sour Noodles (step by step instructions):

However, in order to get the restaurant like taste and texture it needs to be cooked in a certain way and this step by step recipe of Hot and Sour noodles explains it with photos and detailed instructions. The tips and serving ideas given after directions will also help you avoid some common mistakes which can ruin the dish.

1. Prepare the ingredients (this is the most time-consuming part of the recipe, but then it goes very quickly):
Chicken: Cut chicken breast into 1-inch cubes, mix with ginger garlic paste, egg white, Cornflour, soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, red pepper and salt to taste. You can cook right away or leave to marinate for 30 minutes to blend flavors.
Vegetables: Chopped ginger and garlic and cut onion, capsicum, and Tomato in ¼ inch cubes and keep aside.
Hot and Sour Sauce: In a small bowl, whisk all the sauce ingredients, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup tomato ketchup, 2 tablespoon hot pepper Sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Vinegar, salt and Pepper to taste, chili flakes. Set aside.
Egg Noodles: Cook the egg noodles in boiling water, add a little salt, cook for 5-7 minutes, then strain.
2. Cook the Marinated Chicken: Now heat 4 tablespoon of olive oil in a wok or large frying pan, cook the marinated chicken over high heat for 2 minutes (no stirring), then on the other 4-5 minutes more, or until cooked through and golden brown. Take it from the oil. It‘s important not to overcook the chicken, otherwise, the coating will be slightly burned, cook it only until it changes its color to golden brown.
3. Saute Ginger & Garlic: Add ginger garlic paste in remaining oil to the same pan, and saute for 30 seconds, until lightly browned. Then add 1/2 cup of water, hot pepper sauce, soy sauce and red chili flakes. Let it simmer for 2 minutes or until all water dries up.
4. Stir Fry Vegetables: Add onion, capsicum, tomato and cook for 1-2 minutes, until lightly tender and browned, but still a little crunchy (they should not be completely cooked).
5. Add Fried Chicken: Add the fried chicken pieces back to the pan, and the tomato ketchup and vinegar. Stir well.
6. Add Noodles: Add the cooked noodles and toss everything together.
7. Final Step: Transfer to into serving bowl. Top with olives and sprinkle some red flakes. Enjoy! 🙂
Check it out Hot and Sour Noodles Recipe and printable version here!!

Other versions of this dish:
- If you‘d rather have a sweet and sour chicken with noodles, check out this recipe: Sweet and Sour Chicken with Noodles, served on noodles.
- For a desi twist try this recipe: Finger Lickin Butter Chicken Pasta
- I also have for you a similar dish: Hot and Sour Soup
Put your own spin on it. And lemme know how it turns out and do take a few seconds to rate it! I would love to see your recreations so tag me on instagram @recipestable or Facebook (Recipestable) or on Twitter so I can see how lovely yours turn out.
March 29, 2020
Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls Recipe

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Every day the same question pops up “What to make for Lunch today?” and when the same question is asked on a weekend the response has to be something that’s not the usual and really delicious.

What better way to spice up the weekend lunch than with a Kebab Paratha Rolls stuffed with flavorful hot and spicy sauces and bright colorful vegetables pickles.

Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls recipe

It’s the age of one pot meal and who says one pot meal has to be a rice dish. It can be bread based dish as well. I believe wraps or rolls loaded with meat, kebabs and veggies also come in the genre of one pot meal and why not, bread gives us starch while veggies help bring a balance diet while meat gives us protein.

The best thing about it is, that its a wholesome meal and can be prepared with leftover kebab’s too. Its as simple as assembling it all together (if that makes sense).

Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls

Ingredients in Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls

The ingredients you need to make this Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls are:

For Kebabs: meat, onion, ginger, green chilies, fresh coriander, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, all spices powder, salt, butter for busting
For Parathas: whole wheat flour, white flour, Salt, clarified butter, water for kneading and black seeds (optional)
For Topping & Stuffing: mayo garlic sauce, mint chutney, pickle cucumber, onion, carrot, green chili, few salad leaves, red chili flakes (optional)

Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls recipe

How to make Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rollso:

Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls are straight forward to make. Prepared kebabs then make paratha’s and stuff with kebabs, sauce and topping.
Pretty simple!!

For this recipe, I’ve prepared the homemade Paratha’s but you can use store bought frozen paratha in case you don’t feel like making your own and keeping it all quick and simple.

Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls recipe

You can pack them and stuff your lunch box too making it a totally mess free meal for yourself. As with all wraps, you can use filling of your choice. For me it had to be this kebab paratha rolls, with some garlic sauce, minty yogurt chutney and colorful pickle that were wrapped in the paratha rolls and gave those hot, zingy and spicy flavors that were sure to tickle those taste buds!

Do try this recipe, these Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls can become your ultimate comfort and nutritious food.

Bismillah, Let’s get started!

Check it out the Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls recipe and printable version below.

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Pin it for Later ~ Hot and Spicy Kebab Paratha Rolls

I have also posted Shami Kabab Paratha Rolls and Chicken Paratha Rolls which are another easiest & tastiest version of making Paratha Rolls at home. Do check it out as well. It’s finger lickin’ good. You’ll be coming back for more.

Put your own spin on it. And lemme know how it turns out. Post a photo on Facebook (Recipestable) or on Twitter so I can see how lovely yours turn out.

Happy Lunch Making!!

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August 4, 2016