Soup which is rich in fibre from the Beans and the Cauliflower, makes it satisfying enough to be a main course..

There are so many reasons why I love soups, few reasons are: A bowl of steaming homemade soup is good enough to fill my stomach and I don’t have to do any extra cooking by making other sides to go with the soup. Also, I could throw any kinds of veggies or meat or beans, literally anything from my pantry or refrigerator can go into that soup pot. If you feel that your refrigerator is over stacked with veggies and wants to empty them without even thrashing a single veggie, then consider making a hearty soup throwing everything into the pot. You get to enjoy the homemade soup and nothing will go wasted. Apart from these, soups are nourishing, refreshing and inexpensive if you want to feed a large crowd. When the soup is homemade, there is nothing more comforting than that.

Last night, I made a soup with cauliflower and two types of beans: Red kidney beans and Black eyed peas. In most of the soups, the flavor comes from the chicken stock or veggie stock added to that. So this time I wanted to avoid adding the chicken stock, of course to make it more healthy. Hence to make the soup rich and flavorful I had to puree the cooked beans and cauliflower, which indeed made the soup hearty and rich.

Cauliflower and Beans Soup:

Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• Onion, chopped- 1
• Celery ribs, chopped-2
• Garlic minced- 2 cloves
• Cauliflower, separated into florets- 1 whole
• Tomatoes, diced-2
• Black Eyed Peas dried- 1/2 cup
• Red Kidney Beans, canned, drained and rinsed- 15.5 oz can
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Bay leaves, fresh or dried-2
• Parsley sprigs- 2
• Ground pepper- 1 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Water- 4 cups
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
• Grated Parmesan, to garnish- 1 tbsp/bowl or according to your needs

Preparation:

• In a large Pot with Cover, heat 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, celery, garlic and season with ground pepper and salt.
• Cover over medium heat, until the veggies are softened, 5 minutes.
• Add the cauliflower and saute.
• Add the tomatoes and cook for few minutes.
• Add the dried black eyed peas and water, bring to a boil.
• Add the parsley, thyme and bay leaves into the pot.

• Cover the pot and simmer over low heat until the black-eyed peas are tender, it takes 30 minutes.
• When the black-eyed beans are well cooked, add the red kidney beans and simmer for 10 minutes longer.
• When the beans are cooked through, transfer the thick soup into a blender in batches and puree it into a coarse paste.
• Pour the pureed soup into the pot, if the soup is too thick you could add water to thin it according to your needs.
• Taste the soup, add more salt and ground pepper if needed.
• Ladle the soup into bowls.
• Sprinkle each bowl with 1 tbsp of the cheese and serve hot.

Tips:

• You could add low sodium Chicken Stock instead of water and cook the beans in it.
• If you are using chicken stock, there is no need of pureeing the soup, you could have it just like that.
• To make it healthy, I cooked the beans in water and pureed it for making the soup rich and flavorful

After a long day, when I don’t feel like spending too much time in my kitchen, easy breezy recipes comes to rescue me. One such recipe that I’ve fallen for lately is Peas Paneer or Mattar paneer( in Hindi), which is a famous North Indian veggie dish, often served with Naan. I order either Mattar paneer or Palak paneer ( Spinach paneer) as the veggie dish whenever I dine in Indian restaurants. I never thought that I could make Peas Paneer in less than 15 minutes in my microwave. If I had known this before, this dish would have made frequent appearances for my lunch and dinner.

For those of you who don’t know much about Paneer, here are few interesting facts about Paneer:

• Paneer is the most common Cheese in India, commonly used in North Indian cooking.
• It is completely lacto-vegetarian as the making of paneer does not involve Rennet (which is traditionally derived from calf stomachs, but today may come from genetically modified microbes or fungi) as the coagulation agent.
• It is a good source of protein for hard core vegetarians.
• Paneer is one such cheese which can be prepared easily in anyone’s kitchen.

Preparation of Paneer:

• To prepare paneer, food acid (usually lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid or yogurt) is added to hot milk to separate the curds from the whey. The curds are then drained in a muslin cloth or cheesecloth and excess water is pressed out. The resulting paneer is dipped in chilled water for 2–3 hours to give it a good texture and appearance.
• From this point, the preparation of paneer diverges based on its use. In most of the Indian cuisine, the paneer, wrapped in cloth, is put under a heavy weight, such as a stone slab, for 2–3 hours, and is then cut into cubes and used in curries. Pressing for a shorter time (approximately 20 minutes), results in a softer, fluffier cheese.
• Frozen Paneer is available in almost all Indian grocery stores and it can be used in all types of curries.

Common Paneer dishes are:

• Mattar paneer ( Peas Paneer)
• Palak paneer( Spinach Paneer)
• Chilli Paneer( Spicy Paneer)
• Paneer pakora( Fried Paneer)
• Paneer Tikka Masala
• Paneer Makhani ( Butter Paneer)

Mattar Paneer or Peas Paneer, Microwaved:

Ingredients:

• Paneer cubes- 1 cup
• Frozen Peas, thawed – 1 cup
• Onion, minced, medium size-1
• Green chillies minced- 1 tsp
• Ginger minced- 1/2 inch
• Chilli powder- 1/4 tsp
• Cumin powder-1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Tomato paste ( no salt added) or fresh Tomato puree- 5 tbsp
• Cashew nuts  – 8 no’s
• Cilantro chopped- 1 handful
• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 4 tbsp
• Microwave proof dish with lid – for microwave cooking

Preparation:

• Grind onion, green chillies and ginger into a smooth paste.
• In a wide non-skillet pan, heat the oil, add the paste and fry for 5 minutes until the raw smell of onion goes away.
• Add the tomato paste, chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala and the peas along with 1 tbsp water and give it a stir.

• Transfer this into a microwave proof dish, close it with its lid and micro high for 3 minutes.
• To the above Peas mixture, add little salt, paneer cubes, cashew nuts, 3 tbsp water and mix gently.
• Cover the dish and again microwave for another 2 minutes and let stand for 2-3 minutes.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with Naan or Rice.

Tips:

• Adjust the spice level of this dish accordingly.
• If you don’t have a microwave, you could make it in the pan itself, after the peas has cooked well, add the paneer, cashew nuts, salt and cook for few minutes. Don’t mash or break the paneer.

Pomegranate juice infused with aromatic spices, poured over Crab cakes….

Without any further pondering, I would say, pomegranate is the glamorous and the gem among the fruits. The vibrant glossy red colored seeds can be easily mistaken for the gemstone ruby. I adore this fruit like anything and when I have this fruit I make sure to munch it with style, after all I am chewing the ultimate beauty. My acquaintance with this fruit started when I was a kid and the pomegranate tree at my grandparents had made it even more stronger. Whenever I visited my grandparents, I made sure to examine the tree for any ripe fruit. The joy of plucking the fruit from the tree and devouring it right away standing under the shadow of the tree, cannot be put in words, it was mind-boggling and the best way of having this fruit. Besides eating the fruit as such and making milkshakes with it, I had never looked at this fruit as an ingredient for making savory dishes. I must say I was so much mesmerized by the beauty of this fruit and this might have stopped me from trying anything else with this and just eating the fruit.

Luckily, I came across the POM wonderful pomegranate 2009 contest in food buzz, to participate in the contest, I have to submit an original recipe with POM wonderful 100% pomegranate juice. As soon as I read about this contest, I felt the adrenaline rush to participate in this contest, as I love POM wonderful and all their products, also this is the chance to be creative and make something out of pomegranate juice. As I have never cooked anything with pomegranate juice before, first thing I had to do was a little research about how it could be used in cooking. I was overwhelmed to see the numerous pomegranate recipes posted online, and this put me in embarrassment for not cooking with it before. Since I have to post an original recipe, I obviously had to be creative and had to think out of the box. After few days of experimentation in my kitchen I came up with a recipe with the POM pomegranate juice. My goal was to keep it simple yet fancy.

I easily figured out that the sweet and the tangy flavor of the pomegranate juice made it a flexible ingredient for cooking savory dishes. I tried to infuse aromatic spices into the pomegranate juice and added a hint of fish sauce and Tabasco sauce to make the flavor stronger and deeper. Thickened the infused aromatic juice with cornstarch and made it into a sauce constituency. This sauce was served over crab cakes. I had a real quick recipe for making crab cakes. Poured the sauce over the crab cakes. The aromatic, spicy pomegranate sauce enhanced the overall taste of the crab cakes immensely.

Here is the step by step instructions of making the Pomegranate sauce and the Crab Cakes.

Preparation time:

Sauce: 5 minutes

Crab cakes: less than 15 minutes

Yields, Crab cakes- 6

Ingredients:

For making the Sauce:

• POM wonderful, 100% pomegranate juice- 1 cup
• Freshly grated ginger-1/2 tsp
• Star Anise seed -2
• Lemon zest-1tsp
• Cornstarch- 1/2 tsp dissolved in little cold water
• Fish sauce- 1 tsp
• Tabasco hot sauce- 3-4 drops

Preparation:

• In a sauce pan, add the pomegranate juice along with ginger, star anise seed, lemon zest.

• Boil and simmer it for 2 minutes to infuse the flavor.

• Strain it to discard the spices.
• Return the aromatic juice back into the sauce pan, add fish sauce and Tabasco and give it a stir.
• Finally add the cornstarch dissolved in little cold water and keep stirring until the sauce thickens.
• Remove from the heat and pour the sauce into a serving bowl and keep aside.

For making Crab cakes:

Ingredients:

• Crab meat shredded, use fresh or canned-12 oz

• Lemon zest- 1 tsp
• Scallions chopped-1tbsp

• Plain Bread crumbs- 1/2 cup

• Ground black pepper-1/2 tsp
• Butter- 1tbsp
• Olive oil or Vegetable oil- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a medium bowl, combine the crab meat, lemon zest, scallions, bread crumbs and ground pepper until evenly incorporated with spoon and keep aside. Don’t over mix the meat.

• Make medium sized balls out of the mixture and flatten the balls in between the palm of your hands.

• In a wide skillet, add butter and oil, let the oil gets hot. keep the flame in medium.
• Place the crab cakes onto the butter/oil.
• Brown both the sides for few minutes, until it is cooked through.

• Transfer it on the serving plate and pour the Pomegranate sauce over the crab cake.

• Enjoy the Crab cakes with the sauce.

Gearing up for Thanksgiving, starting with Cranberry sauce with caramelized onions..

Thanksgiving is the time to express our gratitude to our family, friends and everyone out there. The best way to show our love and appreciation to others is by making a scrumptious meal for them, the moment they devour our food, all the silly dislikes and bitterness they carried in their hearts just vanishes and a bridge to peace and contentment sprouts immediately. Obviously, food has the power to bring friends and family together, to heal the hostility we had developed for others in our strenuous attempt to triumph.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, apart from making the big feast, it gives me a chance to spend quality time with my family and friends. A perfect holiday with black Friday, when I could go little over board and shop crazily. A time when everyone will be seen happy and caring for others. It gives the opportunity to look back and to flip the pages in my life until that day, and to remember those people who had helped me, influenced me, encouraged me, appreciated me and refined me to the person I am today. I simply wouldn’t be what I am today without many. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to ALMIGHTY, my parents, my siblings, my husband, my family, my friends, my teachers and to each and every person I had met and known over the years.

The Thanksgiving dinner or the Thanksgiving feast symbolizes the tradition and custom of the families having the dinner together on the Thanksgiving Day. Dinner is served, generally centered around a large roasted turkey. Turkey, being the main dish for this dinner, Thanksgiving is sometimes colloquially called ‘Turkey day”. Other dishes commonly served are Cranberry sauce, Stuffing, Gravy, Mashed potatoes, Green beans, Bread rolls, and for dessert various Pies are often served: Apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie etc.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone!

Cranberry sauce with Caramelized Onions: Slow-cooked onions bring extra flavor to this simple sauce and cloves add warmth. I never thought that this simple sauce would taste this good, it had a refreshing taste. I couldn’t resist having this sauce with almost everything I had today, even the sauce itself tasted so good that we don’t need anything to go with it. Truly splendid.

Yields: 2 1/2 to 3 cups

Ingredients:

• Fresh or thawed frozen cranberries, rinsed- 12 oz bag or 3 1/2 cups
• Large yellow onion, medium diced-1
• Granulated sugar-1 cup
• Ground cloves- 1/8 tsp
• Salt- a pinch
• Freshly ground black Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Water-1/2 cup
• Vegetable oil- 1tbsp

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, heat the oil over medium-heat.
• Add the onions, cloves, a pinch of salt and pepper powder.
• Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden-brown and very soft, 20-25 minutes.
• Remove the lid, increase the heat to medium high, and cook the onions, stirring often, until deep caramel brown, an additional 2-3 minutes.
• Add the cranberries, sugar, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup water and bring to simmer over medium-high heat.
• Simmer for 1 minute, then cover, turn off heat, and let cool to room temperature.

Tips:

• You could half the ingredients and make this sauce, which will be good for 2 people.
• The sauce may be prepared up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Return to room temperature before serving.

When button mushrooms got glazed..

Lately, whenever I get a chance to cook, I have been quick fixing everything, from appetizers to desserts. It’s not that I have lost my passion for cooking, it’s just I have moved to a different state and in the process of settling down. It’s hard to move out of a place where you have good friends and family always around, but what I feel is, this separation helps our relationship with them grow even more healthier and stronger. No matter where you are true friendship lasts forever.

Apart from getting yet another chance to meet new people and to explore new places, the part I love the most is that I could explore new restaurants and new kinds of food. New place didn’t disappoint me in this matter, it is incredibly packed with many restaurants which I have never dined before. Hoping for more fun and food, I hereby start a new life in this new place..

Glazed Stir Fried Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Button Mushrooms- 1 pack
• Minced garlic- 1tsp
• Red pepper flakes- 1/2 tsp
• Fresh Rosemary sprigs- 1
• Thyme sprig- 1
• Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Balsamic Vinegar- 1 tbsp
• Butter or olive oil- 1-2 tsp

Preparation:

• In  a wide skillet, add  olive oil, add garlic and saute.
• When the garlic starts to turn golden, add red pepper flakes, give it a stir and add mushrooms to this.
• Add fresh herbs to this, rosemary and thyme, along with salt and pepper powder.
• In medium high heat, stir fry the mushrooms until it turns brown.
• Finally, glaze the mushrooms with 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar.
• Stir fry in the vinegar for a second and remove from the stove.
• Serve hot as a side dish or spread the glazed mushrooms over baked chicken or steak.

Football Season=Chicken wings, any doubts??

Summer means a lot of fun; this doesn’t mean that all the fun comes to an end with the start of winter, fun still continues. Often winter is referred to as the season of hibernation, but I totally disagree with this. How could someone undergo hibernation when there are numerous indoor activities to do and enjoy. I love winter as much as I love summer. Winter season always wakes up the artistic Me, I get the motivation and interest to do a lot of crafty stuffs, from glass painting to flower making, I will be seen indulged in these crafts throughout the winter…Am I hibernating during winter?? Heck no.

Another thing, which makes winter exciting, is that this is the football season as well. Being football fanatics, my husband and I love-watching most of the games. On weekends we always have friends come over to our place and all you can hear is the guys cheering, screaming and shouting, while watching the game. This continues till the big game, Super bowl. Just watching the game sitting on the couch makes it real boring, but when there is some activity going on in your mouth as well, makes it interesting. One food everyone looks forward to while watching the game is undoubtedly “Chicken wings”. I love chicken wings as much as the guys love it. Often, my husband warns me by saying this, ‘chicken wings are for men, not for women; with my eyebrows raised I will continue to devour it, I couldn’t give a better reply than this. But I have to agree with him at times, this is definitely a guilt stuffed food. So to make this football season, guilt free and healthy I baked my chicken wings. There are gazillion ways of seasoning the chicken wings, so this time I seasoned the chicken wings with the things that are always found in our refrigerator/pantry.

So for this football season, you don’t have to give up chicken wings for the sake of health, you could devour this Baked Glazed Chicken wings.

Ingredients:

• Chicken wings- 12 pieces, you could even use other parts of chicken.
• Low sodium Soy sauce-  8tbsp
• Tomato Ketchup-6tbsp
• Honey-2tbsp
• Pepper powder-1 tsp
• Garlic minced-3 cloves
• Olive oil-1tbsp
• Salt- if needed, watch out for the soy sauce as it already has sodium in it.

Preparation:

• In a zip lock bag, put the chicken and the all the above ingredients, close the bag and shake it as to coat evenly over all the chicken wings.
• Let sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Place the chicken wings in a baking dish with the sauce poured on it.
• Cover the baking dish and cook for 45 minutes in the preheated oven.
• Uncover and cook for 15 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and scrape any sauce left from the baking dish and pour over the chicken wings.
• Serve hot.

Vegans, don’t worry you could marinate your choice of veggies in the above sauce and bake it at 375 for 20 minutes or until the veggies get caramelized.

Veggies I used:

• Green pepper- cubed, 1
• Cauliflower florets- of 1/2 cauli
• Zucchini- cubed, 1

Preparations:

• In a non stick pan, in low heat, combine the above ingredients: soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, olive oil and pepper powder.
• Let the sauce thicken.
• Coat the veggies with this sauce.
• Put the veggies in a skewer and pour any sauce left over the veggies.
• Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.

Tips: You can change the amount of ingredients accordingly, if you want it spicy add more pepper powder, or if sweet add more of the honey. It is your chicken wings, and you make the rule!

Chicken wings are the best!

Cheesy, Crispy, Crunchy Samosas…..

If someone asks me what was my favorite snack while growing up, I would say instantly without any further pondering: Samosas. Yes, this was and is my favorite snack, especially to munch on in the evenings along with a cup of hot tea. This crispy, crumbly triangle shaped stuffed pastry with either veggie or non-veg filling gained a special place in my heart. My mom used to make this most of the days, especially on weekdays so that my sis and me could have this after coming from school. On those days, coming back from school, first thing I did was to rush into the kitchen and eat the samosas, it was hard for me to stop with just 2 or 3. I ate as if I were on a samosa eating competition. If I had participated in a real competition, I would have won for sure. Most of the times I fought with my sis over the last one. Many times I won the fight, but my conscious wouldn’t let me have it all by myself, so had to share with my sis, and this made the last samosa taste the best.

This snack is often considered as the street-smart snack in India, sold by street vendors. Not just sold on streets, there wouldn’t be any cafeteria without samosas on their menu, mostly placed on a huge tray piled up with this crispy treats. As soon as we enter the cafeteria, our eyes would start starring at this and the order will be placed in no time.  Now this doesn’t limit on just streets or cafeteria, this can be found on the menu of any fine dining restaurants as well. Without a question, samosas have become the favorite snack of all.

I usually make samosas with non-veg filling, here is the recipe for non-veg filling: http://thasneen.com/cooking/stuffed-poori/

But this time I wanted to make the filling in a totally different way. Hence I made a cheesy filling for my samosas. Here are the step-by-step instructions for making the pastry and the filling.

For making the Filling:

• Onion chopped-1
• Green pepper, chopped-1/2
• Canned corn, rinsed-1/2 of the can
• Jalapeno chopped-1
• Garlic mined- 1tsp
• Ground cumin-1tsp
• Ground coriander-1tsp
• Ground black pepper-1/2 tsp
• Cheddar cheese shredded-1/2 cup
• Cilantro chopped-1 handful
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Vegetable oil for frying

Preparation:

• In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat.
• Add onion, salt and saute till translucent.
• Add garlic and jalapeno to this and saute for few minutes.
• Add green pepper and corn to this and let it cook.
• Now add, ground cumin, ground coriander, ground pepper and give it a stir.
• Add cilantro to this.
• Finally add the cheddar cheese and mix everything well.
• Turn off the flame and close it with the lid until we make the dough.

To make the Dough:

• All-purpose flour or Maida- 1.5 cups
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Water- enough for kneading the flour

Method:

• In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
• Add water little by little and knead the flour, add only just enough water to make a soft dough.
• Add oil to this, combine well, wrap it and set aside for 20 minutes.

• After 20 minutes, make small lemon size balls out of the dough.

• On a floured surface, roll each balls into a thin circle using rolling pins.

• On a flat skillet or tawa, heat the rolled dough on both sides, just for a second.
• Don’t over heat the rolled dough, edges should be still soft.

• Cut the heated rounds into 2 halves.

Making the Glue:

1. All-purpose flour- 1tbsp
2. Water- little
3. Mix flour and water together and make it into a smooth paste. It shouldn’t be watery.

• Working with 1 piece at a time, apply the above glue on half of the cut edge.
• Form cone shape by overlapping the cut edges.

• Fill the cone with 1 tbsp of veggie-cheese mixture.

• Apply glue on top inside edges of pastry; press to seal. Trim jagged edges. Crimp with fork if needed.

• In a wok or deep saucepan, heat oil to 350°F.

• Fry samosas, in batches, until golden, about 4 minutes. Remove to paper towel–lined tray.
• Serve Warm with tomato ketchup or with the quick salad; http://thasneen.com/cooking/quick-salad-for-any-meat-appetizer/

Tips:

• For a healthy version, use fat free cheddar cheese and bake these, @ 350F for 20-25 minutes

After blogging about the benefits of fruits and veggies, I went for a mega grocery shopping and I blindly took almost all the fruits and veggies that were in the store. When I was ready to check out, my shopping cart was stacked up with all healthy stuffs. I occasionally sneaked into others cart, and what I saw was all frozen and unhealthy stuffs heaped up. Looking at my cart, I felt way too healthy and gratified. After that shopping, I was surprised to see that I actually had ignored many fruits and veggies. For instance, Kale was one such veggie I never haven’t cared to buy. It was when I started to arrange all the healthies in my refrigerator that I realized; I actually needed one more refrigerator to keep all of them. Somehow I forced everything into the refrigerator and with a deep breath out, I stood still with the fridge open for a while and thought about all the healthy dishes I would be making with them.

Now, I make sure to include veggies in my daily diet. The best part is we don’t have to make a real fancy dish with the veggies to get its benefits, by really easy cooking methods we can include these in our daily diet and benefit out of them. One such cooking method is baking the veggies; only thing we have to do is season the veggies, which would take less than a minute. And then pop it in the oven and the rest of the cooking the oven would do, we don’t have to stand aside to stir it or sauté it.

It’s been only 4 years since I have included asparagus in my diet. I have never seen or heard about this when I was in Kerala, because it wasn’t available there, I am not sure whether it is available now though. When I first saw this veggie, I was so curious to taste this veggie. After tasting this veggie in a restaurant, this has become an unavoidable veggie for me. I always roast them in the oven, soup them and use them in stir-fry.

If you haven’t tried this veggie, you must definitely try this, it is really healthy and tasty. Check my “say YES to fruits and veggies” blog post to know more about its health benefits.

Roasting the asparagus in the oven is the easiest dish you could make out of these. This would make a healthy snack or a side dish.

Ingredients:

• Asparagus- 1 pound
• Garlic, cut thin long- 3 cloves
• Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Olive oil- 1tsbp

Preparation:

• Season the asparagus with the above ingredients,  toss them and spread them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
• Preheat the oven to 425F.
• Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes.

For Seasoning after the baking:

Ingredients:

• Lemon zest- 1/2 tsp ( grate the skin of the lemon using a veggie grater)
• Parmesan cheese, freshly grated or frozen- 2 -3 tbsp
• Basil leaves chopped-4-5 leaves
• Toasted Almond slices- 2tbsp ( you could toast the almonds in a pan until it gets golden brown)
• Olive oil-1 tsp
• Lemon juice-1tsp

Method:

• Combine lemon zest, Parmesan cheese and chopped basil leaves together and keep it aside.
• As soon as the asparagus is taken out of the oven, sprinkle the above mix on to them.
• Drizzle it with olive oil, lemon juice and put the toasted almonds on it.
• Serve immediately when it is still hot.

Tips:

• Make sure to sprinkle the cheese mix as soon as the asparagus comes out of the oven, this would help to melt the cheese and enhance the flavor.
• You could also skip the cheese, if you are going too healthy.