HealthFoodDesiVideshi

Native Australian Spices and Herbs : Some Recipe Suggestions

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:36:00 +0000

Spices and herbs are the lifeline of any cuisine. The way each cuisine of the world had been using spices and herbs, is a wonder that unfolds with each bite we relish with our senses. The classic flavor combinations have been time tested and it is not so much of a surprise that each one of the classic flavor combinations is good for health as well in terms of micronutrients and assimilation of nutrients in general.

Last month I received a spice box from Foodie Trails and Australia Tourism and the contents were really interesting. Seeing some tart fruit powders like Davidson Plum, Kakadu Plum, Quandang Peach, Finger Lime etc reminded me of how we use our anardana, amchoor, berchoor (yes, the powder of tart red zuzubes) and even crushed apricots that one finds in Leh markets. I was wondering if we could get tamarind, kokum and even elephant apple powders processed so beautifully.

The spice box had a few myrtle varieties too and I was amazed to see how potent flavor each one is. That’s not just because these plant products are themselves so flavorful but how well these are processed and packaged too. The powders have retained the colors and flavors really well and once they are added to the food, the aromas hit the senses gently and pleasantly. I was amazed with the aniseed myrtle when I used it in an herb tea and then in this ragi banana pancake.

Taking a cue from classing flavor combinations has always been useful when trying out new herbs and spices and that’s what I did.

The finger-lime powder was really good for a masala lemon tea. The bright color and sharp tartness of Davidson Plum powder worked really well for a fruit compote I made with apples and ginger.

The Mountain Pepper Leaf turned out to be great when I used it in a mutton curry with mince, the north Indian Rahra Mutton style. I used ½ tsp each of Mountain Pepper Leaf powder and Desert Lime powder and skipped adding tomatoes to the dish, resulting in a sublime aromatic flavor imparted by these two.

Here is a picture of the Rahra mutton direct from my stovetop, rustic North Indian mutton curry that has incorporated native Australian spices like its own kin.

The Davidson Plum compote with a base of apples turned out to be really good and when smeared on ragi banana pancakes that were pleasantly aromatic with the scant use of Aniseed myrtle, it was a delight.

Sharing the recipes here so you can follow these whenever you get a chance to try these fruit powders, spices and herbs coming from the indigenous communities of Australia.

Davidson Plum fruit compote with ginger

Ingredients

(for filling a 400 gm jar)

400 gm apples, peeled cored and diced

3 tbsp ginger grated fine

2 tbsp Davidson Plum powder

3 tbsp sugar

Pinch of sea salt

Procedure

Cook the apple with ½ cup water, covered, till they get mushy.

Add all the other ingredients, mash the apples with the back of a spatula and cook till everything mixes well and starts sizzling in the pan.

Store in a glass jar and refrigerate for up to a week or use fresh.

Ragi banana (sourdough) pancake with Aniseed myrtle

Ingredients

(enough for 3-4 breakfast servings)

2 overripe bananas mashed

1 cup full fat milk

1.5 cup ragi (finger millet) flour

¼ cup of sourdough starter (ripe starter, I used whole wheat starter but you can use gluten free starter as well)

1 tsp Aniseed myrtle powder

2-3 tbsp ghee for shallow frying the pancakes and a cast iron pan (or any other) to make the pancakes

Procedure

Mix everything together and make a batter similar to cake batter consistency. Rest for an hour or so to allow a little fermentation. You can also make this batter in the night and refrigerate overnight for cold and slow fermentation.

Heat a cast iron griddle, grease with ghee and drop spoonfuls of batter to make pancakes of desired size. Flip them once they cook on one side and drizzle more ghee to make them a bit crisp on the surface. Repeat to make all the pancakes and serve them hot topped with the compote or any other toppings that you like.

Gehat ka paratha | horse gram stuffed paratha

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 10:13:00 +0000

Horse gram is a type of lentil that I got introduced to quite late in life but once I got to know about this lentil about 20 years ago, I had to experiment with it out of curiosity. New ingredients have always been a pleasure work with and if someone says it's good for health, I feel even more enthusiastic.

Since I got reminded of how I discovered horse gram, let me tell you the little story as well. My husband's first posting was in Dhanbad, a mining town in Jharkhand which was then part of Bihar and we used to get many tribal hawkers come with their wares mounted on bicycles. Since their language was new to me, I would stop each one of them to ask what they were selling and once when I saw this hawker with a sack propped between the three tubes I asked just out of my habit. The name was new and I wanted to see the product he was selling, he opened the sack and I found a dark brown lentil that I had never seen before. I bought a couple of kilos immediately, it was grown wild (in fallow land) I learnt later and the name was Kurthi. Those were the days when internet wasn't on our fingertips and there were no results for such a lentil. All I got to know about this new lentils was courtesy the neighbours who came from all across the country and the names started floating around. Kulath, Kurthi, Kulith, Gehat and Horsegram, the lentil had so many names I was unaware of.

I remember I had made a dal just like we cook sabut masoor ki dal and there was a lot of leftover because the husband refused to eat it. The next best thing to do with the leftover dal was to make paratha and that was accepted well. Later when we moved to Delhi I found horse gram at Navdanya outlets and it was used regularly. The paratha has been shared many times on my Instagram feed but I could never post it on the blog. High time I corrected the mistake.

Ingredients

(for 8-10 parathas)

1 cup horse gram, soaked overnight (the volume will double after soaking)

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped coriander leaves (optional but recommended)

2 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp fine chopped green chillies

1 tsp amachoor powder or anaradana powder or any other souring agent you like (optional but recommended)

1 tbsp freshly crushed coriander seeds (optional)

1/4 tsp garam masala (optional)

salt to taste

You also need dough made with about 2 cups of whole wheat flour or a mix of whole wheat and ragi (finger millet). It can also be made gluten free with just ragi flour that I have made here. The process of making ragi dough will be like this ragi roti dough. Note that the consistency of the dough should be as firm as the consistency of the stuffing you make with the above ingredient list.

You also need ghee or preferred oil to cook the parathas

Procedure

Pressure cook the shake lentils with 3 cups of water and salt. Remove the soaking water and use fresh water for cooking. Once the lentils are cooked, drain the stock in a separate pot and use it for making a soup. Reserve the cooked lentils and mash them well.

Add the other ingredients to the mashed lentils and adjust seasoning. If you feel the stuffing is too soft for you to handle, you can refrigerate it for sometime so it gets firm. This is a great make-ahead stuffing that you can use for making breakfast parathas.

Stuff the mix in parathas and cook them on hot iron griddle with generous drizzles of ghee.

serve the parathas hot with your choice of chutneys, pickles and raita or fresh dahi.

Almond Coriander Soup Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 09:58:00 +0000

Soups are sustenance during the harsh winter months. This almond coriander soup or almond cilantro soup as it is called in many countries, is something I love making whenever I have good coriander leaves in excess, usually in peak season.

In India the season for coriander is winter and a lot of it is grown for the leaves. All over India we have so many dishes where the coriander leaves are used as the main ingredient, the kothimbir vadi, Bhopali rezala, harey alu, dhaniya patta vada are some of those dishes. Apart from that our green chutneys can't be imagine without green coriander leaves. As a garnish, we love a generous sprinkle of hara dhaniya over a lot of our curries and dals.

We have started getting coriander greens all year round but winter is the time when the whole green plant is most flavoursome. I do try and grow some coriander in my garden and I must add that the mature plants that bear the flowers and tender seeds, get a really strong aromatic property and I love adding the top part to my oriental soups and Indian dishes too. I used some of that even in this almond coriander soup and the flavour burst is something to relish slowly.

Flavour-wise, this almond coriander soup has a grounding base of almonds that's nutty and creamy, getting a bit of earthiness from the stems of coriander that I use in this recipe. If you like the delicate aromatics of coriander leaves you can use only the top leafy parts of the herb. I have used the stems but not the roots, that I prefer more for Oriental (Asain) soups.

Lets get to the recipe of this almost coriander soup that gives you the much required warmth and proteins in a vegetarian meal. Of course the soup itself is a meal in itself and a couple of sourdough bread slices are all that's needed.

I always make this soup in a large batch as it takes some time to assemble and reheats well. Better to maximise the effort right? Having said that, I have simplified the recipe over the years I have been making it and have tried enough substitutions to get the creamy consistency we love.

Ingredients

(about 10-14 servings depending on how you serve it, for soup meals it makes 8-10 servings)

600 gm cleaned coriander leaves with stems (separate the steams from leaves and keep aside)

1 small potato about 60-80 gms

2 green chillies

salt to taste

white pepper to taste

2 cloves of garlic (I love garlic a lot but for this recipe I like keeping it mild because it masks the taste of almonds and coriander)

200 gm almonds soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes, then peel the skins off (use almond meal if in a hurry)

1/4 cup light cream (Amul cream works well, or any 25%) or cream cheese, depends on how creamy you like it

Procedure

Combine the stems of coriander, peeled and diced potato, garlic, chillies and salt with 500 ml water and pressure cook till the whistle blows. Cool down completely. Blend together and pass through a strainer collecting the soup in a large pot, reserve any solids that remain in the strainer.

Collect the solids from the strainer, transfer to the blender and add the raw green coriander leaves, blend together really well and transfers to the soup pot. None of these solids are being discarded.

Now blend the soaked and peeled almonds till creamy (saving a few almonds for garnish if you wish), adding water if needed. Add cream or cream cheese or even milk and blend again. Transfer the contents to the soup pot.

Adjust seasoning by adding salt and pepper if needed, adjust consistency by adding water, stock or milk if you wish. The soup now needs to be heated gently to simmer at low heat for 10 minutes. At this stage you can reserve part of the prepared (and cold) soup and refrigerate for 3-4 days.

Serve hot, topped with butter, slivered almonds and coriander leaves or flowers if you have. Savour slowly as it warms the cockles of your heart.

Bajra apple muffins | gluten free healthy cakes

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:09:00 +0000

Cakes are a treat for everyone.

Sometimes the popularity of a food becomes such a case that it starts ruining its food value. Food value is the sum of all the good nutritional and flavour qualities a food has naturally. Once a food become too popular, it becomes the pawn of the market to generate more profits and the food value degenerates. Cheap processed ingredients replace good quality genuine ingredients and the food item has to not just taste good it has to stay on the shelf for longer so there are better chances of it getting sold. Being sold is the prime motive of a processed food that has become a product, a commodity whose utility is just to make money. No need to be nutritional anymore, food value is depreciated.

Same has happened to cakes. The real home made cakes with butter, unrefined sugar, fruits and freshly milled whole grain flour wouldn’t survive on the shelves and it is not seen in the markets ever. The markets are churning out artificially coloured and flavoured cakes made of cheap and shelf stable refined flour and it is not a food anymore, but taste has been made superlative with all the sugar and artificial flavours it packs.

Imagine something that not even food but it tastes great. The kind of taste that becomes addictive and toxic for the body in long run.

The good news is that baking cakes at home is easy and anyone can do it, even if you don’t have an oven. Yes there are ways to bake cakes in pressure cookers and even in frying pans or cast iron Dutch ovens. Just do not be fooled by the common myth that baking is a science and you must follow accurate measurements.

Cooking and baking is a science of course but accurate recipes work ONLY for ingredients that have been standardised by the industry by processing them to an extent that there are no variables in their physical and chemical properties but they have lost all nutrients in the process.

That’s the reason when you choose to bake with whole grain flours the formulae of baking don’t work. But you must know that once you start playing with the whole grain flours and real fruits, real extracts and real butter, you will get the hang of the variables and the process.

Like this recipe of bajra muffins can easily be adapted for a tray bake topped with fresh fruit slices or for a cake that can be dressed for a birthday cake too.

The bajra (pearl millet) and apple cake is something that children and adults both love to eat. Top it with a dollop of whipped cream to make it celebratory or serve it with breakfast or high tea. The recipe is quick, you need a bit of time to slice the apples thinly and arranging them over the muffins neatly but that’s a meditative excercise that the whole family can do together.

Good food brings nutrition and joy of course but let the good food bring families closer too. Making such foods together is a great family bonding exercise. Try that.

Ingredients

(For 12-15 muffins)

2 cups (225-250 gm) bajra flour (freshly milled or fresh stock)

¼ tsp salt

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ cup unrefined sugar or jaggery powder

100 gm salted butter (at room temperature)

3 eggs

½ tsp pure vanilla extract (use the best you can get)

¼ cup grated apples

3 apples to be sliced thinly when needed

You will also need muffin liners

Procedure

Mix the dry ingredients with the help of a ballon whisk (first 3 in the list) together in a dry bowl. Or just mix them and sieve together to make sure they are mixed evenly.

In another bowl whisk the butter and sugar together till they get creamed and look fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and the vanilla extract and whisk really well to incorporate everything. Add grated apples and whist again.

Now add the dry ingredients to the butter-eggs mixture and whisk again to make a thick batter. Add a bit of milk or water if the batter is too stiff. If the bajra flour is coarse it may need some liquid.

Spoon in the batter into a muffin tray lined with muffin liners. Now slice the apples thinly and arrange them skin side up in whatever pattern you like.

Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 45 minutes.

Serve warm.

The muffins stay good at room temperature for two days, in the fridge for two weeks. You can warm them up again before serving even though they taste really good even when cold or even chilled.

Cheers.

Pearl barley khichdi to mimic sabudana khichdi

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Thu, 21 May 2020 16:21:00 +0000

Sabudana khichdi is one of the favourites since childhood. When I used to do Navratri fasting in the 80s I would make sabudana khichdi in huge Kadhai at home because everyone wanted generous portions of it. I learnt supplementing the sabudana khichdi with paneer and seeds or nuts back then because that was the only big meal I used to have during the nine days of Navratri fasting.

Later I started doing minor changes to the recipe because this was a favourite and sabudana or sago pearls aren’t the healthiest of ingredients even though they are are neutral, considered cooling and Ayurveda approves it for cooling properties as well as to support lactation etc. Do check out the fortified, low glycemic sabudana khichdi I have shared earlier.

Nevertheless, my quest for a good substitute for sabudana was on and I didn’t realise the solution was just under my nose all this while.

I have been using barley in many forms ever since I started my own kitchen. This blog has barley recipes since the early days I started sharing recipes and you will find pearl barley in the form of pasta, risotto, soup, khichdi and herbed pearl barley etc.

Once pearl barley came to my mind as a substitute for sabudana I started planning about how to bring the texture close to cooked sabudana because that’s what makes sabudana khichdi unique.

In fact the taste, texture and properties of sabudana are quite in tune with pearl barley, the later being much more nutritious and low glycemic carb, something that suits us in present day almost sedentary lifestyle.

Pearl barley has a mild sweet taste on the palate and slightly firm texture with a soft bite just like sabudana and takes up the flavours of other ingredients just like sabudana. There couldn’t be a better substitute for sabudana in the classic sabudana khichdi recipe. Trust me I liked the pearl barley version a lot more than sabudana because the slightly firmer bite in pearl barley suits my taste better.

Note that pear barley and barley in other forms is considered cooling, pitta pacifying, gut healing and anti flatulent so it is the best grains to include in summers. Those who drink a mug of jau ki ghaat or barley water everyday will never be troubled by the excessive heat in the body or the ailments caused by summer heat.

With the addition pf potatoes with skin and pink salt in this recipe, it becomes good for hypertensive people as well.

I found a way to use pearl barley that works for me and I and sharing that method in the recipe. If you make barley water regularly by boiling pearl barley and straining the starchy water, you can use the leftover barley pearls in the recipe after draining it really well. If you have access to barley couscous, you might want to use that but I prefer pearl barley any day.

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

To steam together
100 gm barley soaked overnight (in the fridge preferably)
200-250 gm potatoes with skin, diced in small bits and rinsed well
½ tsp pink salt or rock salt

To make the tadka
1 tbsp ghee (don’t replace with any oil please)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp chopped green chillies
10 sprigs of curry leaves chopped

To finish
Salt to adjust seasoning
Pepper to taste
Lime juice to taste (or use a little amchoor)
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)
¼ cup roasted and crushed peanuts
1 tbsp roasted and crushed sesame seeds

Preparation

Drain water from the soaked barley, rinse the diced potatoes well.

Mix ¼ tsp salt to the barley and ¼ tsp to the potatoes. Put the potatoes in a pressure cooker pan and pour two tbsp water in it. Now put the soaked pearl barley in a metal bowl and place over the potatoes inside the pressure cooker pan. Fix the lid and place the pressure cooker over pan, cook on high till the first whistle blows and then take it off the flame. This steaming takes just about 5 minutes for the said quantity. Let it cool and release pressure.

Alternately you can layer the potatoes and soaked pearl barley in a pan with 2 tbsp water, cover and let it steam with a light lid. The potatoes should be cooked well but not mushy, Pearl barley should be cooked well with a soft bite.

Proceed to do the tadka and finish the pearl barley khichdi.

To make the tadka, heat the ghee in a wide pan and add the ingredients listed in tadka list one by one and let them get aromatic. Once everything sizzles, dump the steamed potatoes and pearl barley in the pan and mix really well. Add all the finishing ingredients and give it a good mix while the pan is still on stove. Once everything is mixed, adjust seasoning and serve hot. By this time you will get the aroma so characteristic of sabudana khichdi and that makes this recipe such a hit in my opinion.

This pearl barley khichdi tastes good even when it is slightly cold.

Pearl barley khichdi is a little more filling than sabudana khichdi and is a perfectly balanced meal so make it for a breakfast that starts your day at a delicious note and keep you energetic through the day or make it a meal any time time of the day.

If you want to make sabudana vada with the same kind of replacement, do try broken barley or barley daliya that’s easily available in the market. Use boiled and mashed potatoes, soaked barley daliya and proceed to make the vadas just like you would do for sabudana vada. I will post the recipe next because we did a trial and it was very encouraging.

Enjoy pearl barley khichdi to replace sabudana khichdi once and you would know what’s your favourite now.

Cheers.

Fermented foods for immunity : pickled watermelon pith

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Sun, 17 May 2020 07:11:00 +0000

Fermented pickles are not an accidental occurrence. Fermentation itself isn’t an accidental inclusion into human dietary habits. Fermentation was there before humans evolved so there is no question whether humans tasted the first fermented foods before or after a certain milestone of evolutionary process. They tamed the process of fermentation after they started cultivation of food for sure.

And how.

Humans always knew fermented foods are good for their gut even though they didn’t realise (in prehistoric times) there is a thriving population of bacteria in their stomach that helps in so many ways. Evolutionary wisdom is something humans tapped quite well I believe, fermentation is one of those evolutionary wisdom acquired over millennia and refined according to the climate and geography.

Coming to the present times, fermented foods are immensely useful in boosting immunity that we need during the COVID-19 outbreak. Using different types of fermented foods made with different vegetables and fruits is great to include because each one will have a slightly different set of microbial flora, mineral content and vitamin exudates into the ferment, helpful for the gut and hence its overall impact.

I have shared sauerkraut, black carrot kanji, pineapple kanji, winter water pickle recipes earlier and you can keep alternating them for your everyday consumption.

We are talking about watermelon pith pickle today. This is one of those fermented recipes that comes from the lineage of culinary cultures from hot tropical and desert regions of India. The marwadi, khatri and baniya communities of north India come from similar type of geographical regions and have used gourds for pickling for many generations. The lauki ka achar is possibly an ancient recipe, considering lauki or bottle gourd is one of the native vegetables of the country. The lauki ka achar is shared on Banaras ka khana blog here and this watermelon pith pickle is similar to that, though the process of preparing the pickle is a little different.

This pickle of watermelon pith or peel, whatever you wish to call the discard after eating the red juicy part of the fruit, is basic recipe that can be made with small variations too. Will add those variations in the last.

To clean and cut the watermelon pith, you need to peel the watermelon neatly so you can cut the pith portion in nice batons or bite size chunks. If you decide to eat the watermelon wedges directly, the pith won’t be fit for pickling.

See the picture how to cut watermelon in half lengthwise first and then in slices. Then separate the red juicy part and the white pith with green skin. The hard green skin needs to be removed neatly with a sharp knife. We don’t want rough edges in the pickled pieces of watermelon pith.

Note that if you decide to pickle the watermelon pith, do not treat it like garbage but like a perfectly edible ingredient that’s going to be a nourishing, delicious pickle to pair with your gourmet meals. Watermelon pith makes delicious subzi and salad as well, some I have shared on my Instagram profile over the past years.

Ingredients for the watermelon pith pickle

Watermelon pith batons or pieces to fill a clean sterilised glass jar of 1 liter capacity

Yellow mustard powder 1.5 to 2 tbsp

Red chilli powder 2-3 tsp

Salt 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder 1 tsp (optional)

Procedure

Boil one liter of water and cool down.

Fill all the pickles ingredients in the glass jar and pour the boiled and cooled water over it.

Close the lid and keep it on your kitchen platform or a sunny window. You can shake it once everyday for two days. In Indian summers it takes two or three days to get pickled.

If you are using about 25% of the pickling water from the previous batch of this pickle it will get ready overnight.

The sour taste, slightly translucent appearance of the watermelon pith batons and a pleasant fermented aroma is an indication of the pickle being ready for consumption.

The pickle keeps well on room temperature for a week, it keeps getting sour so refrigerate before the sourness starts getting too much. The pickling water turns to vinegar after a point.

In the fridge the pickle keeps for a month easily if you don’t manage to contaminate it.

Serving suggestions for watermelon pith pickle

This tart pickle pairs really well with all Indian fried foods like poori subzi, chhole bhatoore, pakodas, parathas, dal and rice, khichdi etc.

You can also use it with your sandwiches and burgers if you have cut in desired shapes.

The pickle can be chopped fine and used as a topping over your noodles, congee, stews and soups etc.

The chopped pickle and its pickling water makes a wonderful salad dressing for lentil salads and potato salads.

Finely chopped watermelon pith pickle can be mixed with hung curd along with garlic and pepper to make a delicious dip.

Variations in the watermelon pith recipe

Add ginger julienne for added punch in this pickle. You can chop the watermelon pith too in thin julienne for this pickle.

Add slit green chillies for added flavour.

Add chopped kale or cabbage or radish to the watermelon pitch pickle and make it almost like sauerkraut.

Add the gochujang paste, fish sauce and garlic to make it into a kimchi like pickle.

All these variations or the watermelon pith pickle will have great flavour and nutrient profile. Keep adding these fermented pickles in your meals everyday and improve your overall health, boost your immunity while eating all the delicious foods.

Being naturally fermented, this pickle is probiotic and since watermelon pith has good quality fiber for the got flora it is a great source of prebiotics as well. Do try this watermelon pith pickling and let me know if you like.

Amla and curry leaf pickle to boost immunity

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 11:30:00 +0000

This Amla and curry leaf pickle is one of the best immunity boosting condiments that’s easy to make and versatile enough to include in several meals every week.

What’s more? In the times of lockdown many of us aren’t getting a regular supply of vegetables so this pickle could compensate for the vegetables, providing comparable nourishment in terms of vitamins and minerals and even fiber content. The pickle uses huge amount of curry leaves that are high in vitamins and minerals as well as fiber and of course the other ingredients are the added benefit.

I have been sharing a lot of immunity boosting foods lately, something we all need right now to fight the COVID-19 and keep our health in best possible state.

Immunity building through read foods that are rich in antioxidants, hepatoprotective and immune boosting is the best holistic way to build and protect the health. In fact there are so many factors that compromise our immunity that almost all of us can be vulnerable in one or the other situation. Think about the people who are into essential services are exposed to more pathogenload, the aging people have their immunity compromised, kids with allergies, seemingly healthy young adults with high stress levels and others who have had surgeries and chemotherapies. All these situations can become a potential for compromised immunity.

The good thing is, that we have simple and affordable foods that can become the saviour. Like I have been saying on my Instagram posts and all the immunity boosting recipe posts here as well, the spices and herbs, some specific fruits and vegetables are very good immunity boosters.

In this post I am sharing a recipe of a pickle made of Amla, curry leaves, ginger, garlic and red chillies apart from fenugreek and nigella seeds. All these ingredients are commonly used in Indian kitchens but the combination here is something that gives you a good dose of immunity boost in each serving which is good enough if you are including this pickle in your meals even 3-4 times a week.

If you don’t have access to fresh Amla in this season, get some dry Amla or Amla powder and use about 75 gm of that along with grated raw mango for bulking up.

Ingredients

Amla cleaned, cut into bits and seeds removed 600 gm (or 75 gm Amla powder + 500 gm grated raw mangoes)

Curry leaves cleaned, rinsed and dried on a kitchen towel 250 gm

Chopped ginger 150 gm

Garlic cloves 150 gm

Dry red chillies 200 gm (the chilli heat is balanced well with the other ingredients)

Peppercorns 30 gm

Fenugreek seeds 50 gm

Nigella seeds 50 gm

Salt 200 gm

Oil (sesame, peanut or light olive oil) 700 ml

Procedure

Let the cut Amla pieces dry a little bit so the surface wetness is gone. Dry the curry leaves for a couple of hours after washing so the surface is dry to touch. We don’t have to dehydrate the Amla and curry leaves. Mix these and pulse in the mixie jar to get a coarse paste, there should be bits of Amla with a bite.

Make a coarse paste of ginger and garlic as well. You can grate the ginger and mince the garlic but try not to make a smooth paste.

Cut the dry red chillies with a scissor and make a coarse powder of this along with the spices.

Heat the oil in a large cast iron or iron pan, add the coarse powder of spices first and mix well for a second, using a spatula. Immediately tip in the ginger garlic mix as well and fry the mixture for 2 minutes till it starts dehydrating.

Now add the Amla curry leaves coarse paste and mix well along with salt. Switch off the gas after a couple of minutes and keep mixing for a few more minutes.

Let the pickle cool down and then transfer to a sterilised glass jar, take care to keep pressing down the pickle mix so there are no air gaps in between. Pour a little more oil on top so there is a ½ inch layer of oil skimming the surface. It will be absorbed within a day but the pickle stays well for a year, getting darker as it ages, the taste remains the same though.

This Amla and curry leaves pickle is a versatile condiment. It can be paired with idli, dosa, adai, pesarettu type South Indianbreakfast dishes or with paratha, roti, khichdi or dal rice type North Indian dishes.

Mixed with a little chopped onions and tomatoes it makes a good kachumber salad. Along with thick cultured yogurt it can make adelicious dip for crudités and crackers.

This Amla and curry leaves pickle can be treated like a chutney that stays well at room temperature for a year. I have been making it now and then but since I have access to wild Amla here in Dehradun I have made two batches in the last 4 months. I ended up gifting this pickle to a few people and everyone loved the taste. A neighbour from Andhra loves it mixed with his rice while a Tamil friend said it’s very good with her curd rice. We love it with our khichdi, dal rice and paratha mostly but with dosa and idli too.

The colour of this Amla and curry leaves pickle gets darker as it ages but the taste remains the same. Do try it this season and let me know how you like it.

This pickle is naturally great for skin and hair because these ingredients are used for hair tonics too. Isn’t it better to pickle them and eat them regularly to improve overall health, immunity and skin and hair health too.

Boost your immunity with protein rich foods: Recipe of protein rich immunity bliss balls

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 11:04:00 +0000

I have been talking about cranking up our immunity a lot these days. I believe all the fitness and diet parameters we work for have a role to play in keeping the immunity alive and kicking but there are times when we are indisposed which is normal if our immunity is strong.

Regular exposure to pathogens is normal and it helps build our immunity too. For example, when we do gardening with bare hands, when we eat street food and take public transport we are exposed to a lot of pathogens that may cause potential health issue but our innate immunity takes care of it with the help of first line of action against pathogens. Healthy eating habits, proteins, good fats, vitamin and mineral rich foods, proper hydration and a generally disciplined lifestyle play an important role in keeping the immunity alive.

Protinex has started an initiative in public interest bringing awareness about how proteins help in boosting one’s immunity.. I am partnering with them to highlight some foods that would help in building immunity in the current situation. The awareness about immunity is the most important aspect of health management today. While supplements have their role in keeping immunity and overall health in good shape, the proteins found in everyday foods are as important. We have a tradition of making protein rich laddus and halwas at home and eating a good portion of it everyday for breakfast with milk whenever someone is recovering from illness, for elders in the family, for growing kids in the family and so on.

In the last blogpost we understood how our immune system works for generic pathogens and any new pathogens, and what are ways to boost our immunity through lifestyle manoeuvres, it is time to know how protein in our diet plays a role in building a robust immune system and keeping it active.

Protein rich food becomes even more important for growing kids whose body needs more proteins because their bones, muscles and brain are growing and they are more exposed to pathogen exposure, hence their protein intake can’t be compromised. Similarly for older and convalescing people whose body is in a constant mode of repair and healing, protein rich foods that are easily digestible and readily absorbed by the system become more important.

While we know that dal-rice and dal-roti type lentil and grain combinations make really good complete protein foods that can help in boosting immunity when supplemented with spices and fresh green vegetables, we need some extra proteins when we need to take care of any such kind of compromised immunity or increased exposure to pathogens.

Soaked nuts and seeds, cooked lentils and beans, milk products, tofu etc. can be incorporated in everyday meals while some condiments like nut butters or sesame, hemp or flax seeds in chutney form can also become part of the everyday meals and keep the protein intake high in the most delicious ways. These items are normally found in our pantry and are easily accessible.

Now if we look at some of the traditional foods we have always known to be helpful in such conditions, most of them are rich in particular amino acids required for immunity boosting like Arginine, Glutamine and Cysteine, apart from being overall rich in proteins, good fats, vitamins and minerals overall. One of those ingredients is garden cress seeds of Halim and I have seen them being used in traditional supplement laddu recipes from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country.

Garden Cress seeds are also called Aliv or Halim, the ancient Sanskrit name is Chandrashoor and its medicinal properties are well documented since vedic era. The Latin name of garden cress is Lepidium sativum, belonging to mustard family, the seeds have a slight bitterness and gel up when soaked. Apart from the fantastic protein content that’s about 25% of the total weight with really good amino acid profile, garden cress seeds are rich in vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, copper, potassium, magnesium and shows anti inflammatory, healing, hepato-protective (protects liver), anti-hypertensive, anti diabetic and chemoprotective properties. Garden cress seeds are given to new mothers too to promote healing and milk production.

Garden cress seeds are available in old kirana stores and ayurvedic shops in almost every city in India. One can also buy it online through many ayurvedic ingredient portals which are now working because they come under essential services during the lockdown period.

I am sharing a recipe of immunity enhancing bliss balls that are rich in proteins because I have combined garden cress seeds with coconut and walnuts along with some immunity boosting spices, ghee and jaggery.

It is a recipe that needs some soaking time and about 30 minutes of cooking time to make about 24 servings. One bliss ball everyday with milk or porridge for breakfast or even for dinner, helps improve immunity. It goes without saying that one needs to maintain all the health and hygiene protocols despite eating such immunoprotective foods.

I have used dry coconut to make the immunity bliss balls but fresh coconut will give better taste, so use that if you get fresh ones. I didn’t have any and it is difficult to find fresh coocnut in Dehradun in such times. I am thankful for whatever I am getting right now.

Ingredients

1 cup garden cress seeds (soaked overnight in 2 cups water)

2 cups grated dry coconut or 3 cups fresh coconut

½ cup crushed walnuts

3 inch piece of fresh turmeric (or 2 tsp good quality turmeric powder)

1 tsp pepper powder

¼ tsp clove powder

½ tsp green cardamom powder

½ tsp of indian cinnamon (dalchini) powder

A generous pinch of nutmeg powder

1 cup crumbled jaggery (or a little more to taste)

3 tbsp ghee

Some crushed walnuts, pistachios and rose petals for garnish (optional)

Preparation

Soak the dry grated coconut in ½ cup water. Fresh grated or scraped coocnut can be used as is. Grate the fresh turmeric fine, if using.

Now mix everything except the jaggery and garnish material, in a large pan or Kadhai, preferably cast iron kadhai. Mix the ingredients well before taking the Kadhai to the gas stove.

Once on the gas stove, keep the flame high and stir with a spatula so the gelled up seeds of garden cress mix well the coconut and other ingredients. It takes about 10 minutes to start sizzling like a halwa and that’s when you add the jaggery.

The mixture becomes darker and a little loose but in about 5 minutes it starts sizzling again with the ghee glistening on top. The mixture should start coming together like a smooth yet sticky ball in the center of the Kadhai when it is ready.

Take the pan off the stove and let the sticky mixture cool down. Divide it in 24 portions and make balls, keep each ball in a muffin liner because the bliss will be slightly sticky. If you don’t have muffing liners you can use some desiccated coconut powder to roll the bliss bliss in it so they don’t stick to each other. Keep in an airtight container and refrigerate.

The immunity bliss balls don’t have a long shelf life because the watercress seeds are soaked and are allowed to gell up before making the bliss balls. Soaked and gelled up garden cress seeds allow quick release of nutrients hence this recipe is suitable for daily immunity boost.

These beautiful immunity boosting garden cress bliss balls are inspired from the traditional aliv laddu recipe from Maharashtra, the additional ingredients are used to make it better suited for immunity boosting properties. They stay well for 2-3 days on room temperature but can be stored in the fridge for 2 weeks easily. You may like them chilled or at room temperature.

The texture of the bliss balls is soft jelly like with a pleasant flavour of spices and jaggery. These bliss balls are suitable for all ages so its a good protein and micronutrients supplement for the whole family. Moreover, it can be mixed with hot milk and had like a pudding for dessert. Or just try crumbling the bliss ball between two slices of bread and make a grilled sandwich and see how versatile these bliss balls can be.

I hope you enjoy my take on this immunity boosting snack and i’m glad that Protinex has taken up such a great inititiative, issued in public health interest, that encourages and makes people aware about the importance of protein intake. Such an initiative needs to be brought to the public’s notice now more than ever, so that everyone can be well informed and do their bit to boost their immune system. Do share your ideas and recipes on how you build immunity for you and your family and ensure that they get the right amount of protein, vitamins and nutrients in their body!

Pressure cooker marinara sauce recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 14:43:00 +0000

Pressure cooker, one step marinara sauce is something you must have in your fridge all the time if you want to make some quick meals a few times a week.

Marinara sauce is a multipurpose sauce that can be used to make pasta, to slather a pizza base or even for making sandwiches and rolls when you just want some home made food on the go. You can make this sauce chunky or blend it to make smooth to your liking and it will be your multipurpose tomato sauce with whatever food you want to pair it with.

Imagine if you blend this marinara sauce really smooth in your blender and keep refrigerated, it will be your ketchup, your dip for fries, crackers or breadsticks and of course a quick pasta too.

In fact for pasta meals this one step pressure cooker marinara sauce sauce gets ready in the time your pasta takes to cook. Trust me when I cook for 2-4 people this pressure cooker marinara gets ready in just 10 minutes and that’s a huge blessing when one wants to eat healthy food cooked from scratch.

I have used this simple marinara with cooked pearl barley, grilled chicken, grilled fish or even roasted potatoes or in boiled eggs salad. Whenever I have to make fresh marinara sauce for a quick meal, I try and make a little extra so it lasts me for one more meal or a snack. You get the drift.

But one thing to ensure if you plan to make this simple pressure cooker marinara sauce, that the tomatoes you are using should be the best tasting tomatoes. I usually avoid making this marinara sauce when I don’t have good tomatoes in my pantry. In fact I don’t use tomatoes in my cooking at all if I don’t have good tomatoes.

Yes, many of my readers keep saying that most my recipes, especially the ones from banaraskakhana blog, are so easily cooked without tomatoes and taste so good. In fact I believe in making the main vegetables to taste good on its own and not get drowned in multiple ingredients and in this case, for marinara sauce it should be tomatoes.

That’s the reason in this pressure cooker marinara sauce recipe I don’t even use onions. And it helps cut down the cooking time too because chopping onions is additional 5 minutes to the process. If you want to avoid chopping garlic you can use garlic powder or garlic granules or flakes.

Here is what you do when cooking this pressure cooker marinara sauce.

Just roughly chop tomatoes and dump in the pressure cooker, mix everything else, place the lid and pressure cook for 5-8 minutes approximately. Let me explain in detail as the recipe is simple but a few key pints to make the recipe easier for you. Else you might end up with burnt sauce or too watery sauce that needs time to reduce over the stove.

Ingredients

1 kilo fully ripe good quality tomatoes
3 tbsp minced garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder, granules or flakes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dry thyme
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp chilli flakes
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Procedure

First of all chop the tomatoes roughly and dump them in the pressure cooker, mix with salt and sugar and let it release some water while you chop the garlic and arrange other ingredients.

Now dump everything else in the pressure cooker. Give it a stir and place the lid of the pressure cooker. Switch the stove on and let it cook on high heat till the whistle blows. Now lower the heat and cook for five more minutes. Switch off the stove and let the pressure cooker come release all pressure so you can open the lid. The sauce will be really mushy by this time.

Take a spatula, ladle or a potato masher and mash the tomatoes, cook for another couple of minutes so the sauce caremalises a bit. You can liquidise the sauce after this but try it in the chunky form once and see how it works for you.

Additions to this basic marinara sauce

You can add chopped olives, capers or fresh herbs if you wish.
Grate some Parmesan if you want to use for pasta or as a dip for your garlic breadsticks.
Add extra garlic flakes on top if you like.
Drizzle more extra virgin olive oil over it if you are using it for making sandwich or for grilled chicken or fish.

Do try this sauce and let me know how it made your life easier and food tastier.

Cheers.

How to boost immunity during COVID-19, recipe of immunity boosting Amla subzi

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:26:00 +0000

Immunity and healing isn’t optional for anyone but a lot of people have illnesses and underlying health issues that compromise the immunity and healing processes for a short while and sometimes even for lifetime. In the times of a pandemic COVID-19 caused by Coronavirus, we have to boost up the immunity for everyone, the healthy individuals as well as the ones who have had health issues that compromises their immunity.

The question is, how do we boost the immunity? Let’s understand how our immunity works, in layman terms.

Yes, our immune system is complex and it will be good to understand that we have two broad types of immunity, innate immunityand acquired immunity. The acquired immunity can be further divided into generic immunity for all pathogens while specific immunity protects from a newly encountered pathogen.

There are different types of specific cells and antibodies that are made by our immune system for generic (natural or innate) and specific immunity for a new pathogen being encountered. The first line of defence being the generic immunity that we can cultivate by following a healthy lifestyle and immunity boosting foods. It will be good to understand that innate or generic immunity is fast acting, it is effective to kill most pathogens but it is short lived and the specific immunity is supposed to develop in the meantime. The specific immunity for a newly encountered pathogen takes its time to develop (while the innate immunity is at work) but the immune system becomes equipped to deal with the new pathogen for life.

It will be good to know that if one encounters very few numbers of a specific pathogen, it is easier to fight it with the first line of defence, the generic immunity, successfully while the antibodies responsible for specific immunity are generated in the body. So if the pathogen load is too heavy, for example you have spent several hours with someone infected with COVID-19, in an closed space the pathogen (virus) load is heavier and the generic immunity may fail to fight with the pathogen. So prevention is important and quarantine measures should be taken seriously. Please note, quarantine doesn’t mean lockdown, it means keeping an ill person away from contact of others in the family and neighbourhood, but let’s talk about that later.

While there is no pill for immunity that takes care of the issue and prevents one from diseases, there are a few methods that one can bring in their lifestyle and develop a broad spectrum immunity from generic pathogens.

One thing we need to understand that sterilising every surface isn’t the solution to save ourselves from pathogens because by doing so, we are eliminating our chances to develop and sustain the natural or innate immunity towards generic pathogens around us and acts like the first line of defence. Second important thing to understand is that a healthy body will be better equipped to develop the specific immunity for a new pathogen as well, so working on one’s health and protecting our own innate immunity is the best way to deal with any new pathogens that one might encounter.

Both modern medicine and Ayurveda have recommended several ways to boost our immunity. I am enlisting some practical ways to boost immunity here.

1. Maintain your circadian rhythm, this is the prerequisite. Waking up and sleeping on time, eating meals on specific time and only when you are hungry, doing some physical workout during the day and resting and sleeping well during night will ensure your circadian rhythm is in good shape.

2. Start your day with warm water and then have some herb tea that suits your body constitution and season. For example in fairly cold Dehradun I am still having my herb tea/tisane that has fresh turmeric, fresh ginger, pepper and tulsi or lemongrass. In hotter places you can have mango ginger, lemongrass and hint of pepper or even mint, lemongrass and a hint of ginger. If you have chronic hypertension you should have a tea made of hibiscus, lemongrass and mint and the tea can be repeated a few times during the day. A decoction made of cumin, fennel and ajwain (carom seeds) will be great if you have chronic digestive distress. The idea is to keep your generic immunity robust.

3. Keep including some fermented foods in your everyday food. It can be some winter style pickles, sauerkraut, carrot kanji, kimchi or even buttermilk or home made dahi. Gut health is the key to a robust immunity.

4. Eat freshly cooked real foods. You can of course refrigerate foods and ingredients but eating warm nourishing food cooked at home will ensure better nutrition and minimal contamination.

5. Ensure there is enough protein in your everyday food because a robust immune system build up with proteins. Nuts and seeds, lentils, eggs, paneer and cheeses can be included easily on an everyday basis. For immune-compromised individuals it is essential to supplement proteins either though food or through supplements.

6. Keep adding the spices and herbs to your food everyday. The turmeric, pepper, cumin, fennel, cloves, cardamoms and all the fresh or dried herbs you have access to, will ensure a robust immunity everyday.

7. Start doing a simple Nasya practice every day after brushing your teeth and blowing your sinuses clean. To do the simple Nasya, you need to smear a little bit of oil in your nostrils and inhale deeply. You can so about ten rounds of kapalbhati kriya after nasya to clean up the sinuses and make the mucous membranes robust. I use mustard oil because I have seen this being used since childhood, you can use any cold pressed oil you have. Dip the tip of your little fingers of both handsin oil, smear both nostrils and take deep breaths. Then follow the kapalbgati kriya for better results. That’s it.

8. Keep your stress level in check. Stress compromises your immunity response and makes you susceptible for allergies and infections. Listen to music, meditate, go for walks, do gardening, cook or do some crafts to engage your mind creatively and I could be a switch to a stress free life for ever.

9. Do not consume too much caffeine and nicotine to beat boredom or stress. While caffeine is good in a little amount according to many studies, caffeine or nicotine dependence compromises immunity greatly.

10. Keep eating immunity boosting foods consciously. All antioxidant rich foods, good fats, mustard family vegetables, citrusfruits, berries are great for this purpose. India has the cheapest immunity booster available almost all through the year and that’s Amla. Use Amla, turmeric, ginger, pepper etc in your foods. Spices like fenugreek, nigella, mustard apart from the ones mentioned in point 5, are really good for boosting immunity.

11. Hydrate yourself well. Water is essential for all metabolic reactions so ensure clean drinking water. Store filtered water in copper jugs and bottles as copper Improves immunity as per studies.

12. Keep taking your prescription medicines and supplements on time.

13. Maintain hygiene but don’t become paranoid about hygiene. Give your immune system a boost and trust your body well. It won’t break your trust.

I am sharing the recipe of Amla subzi that I had shared on my Instagram couple of weeks ago and a lot of people made it and shared pictures with me. A good portion of this subzi everyday will be great to include in everyday meals. If you don’t have access to fresh Amla, you can get Amla pickle, chuawanprash or even dry Amla powder for yourself. The dry Amla powder can be added to chutneys easily or can be made into Amla rasam etc.

This Amla subzi is supplemented with spices that enhance the immunity boosting property of Amla, so follow the recipe. The subzi is similar to many achari preparations and can be made like a dry achari subzi or a soupy curry to be consumed like a soup.

Ingredients for Amla subzi

2 cups of Amla, chopped into segments or whole if chopping is a limitation

1 tbsp nigella seeds

1 tbsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp ajwain seeds

1 tbsp turmeric powder

A paste made of 3 inch piece of ginger, one bulb of garlic and 20 dry red chillies

1 tbsp salt

3 tbsp mustard oil

Preparation

Powder the spices coarsely.

Heat the mustard oil, tip in the ginger-garlic-chilli paste and the coarse powder of spices. Let them sizzle and cook for a minute or two. Do not let them burn.

Tip in the chopped Amla, add slag and mix well. Cover and cook for ten minutes on very low flame. The subzi is ready.

If you want to make the subzi soupy, add 2 cups of water and cook till Amla is soft. This can be done in pressure cooker as well.

Served with any meal of the day, this subzi will help boost immunity greatly.

Green falafel recipe with fresh fava bean pods

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 04:53:00 +0000

I love falafels and have been making them with soaked chickpeas and loads of herbs in it, the Isaraeli version that seems to be more popular. I never cared much about what herbs I used while making falafels because I would just add whatever was growing in the garden, falafels actually had become a recipe that would become a quick meal along with a dip and a salad on the side. In fact my Delhi garden used to have at least 4-5 types of herbs growing at any time of the year and I would just mix and match to make quick falafels, sometimes flattened like a burger patty and sometimes like our small pakodas, always shallow fried.

Only once I tried the Egyptian style falafels with a small batch of dried skinned fava beans that was shared by someone. I saved some to make halwa that was made traditionally in my family and made that too just once, saving a little bit of dry split fava beans like a true hoarder.

In the meanwhile I had this dream of growing some fava beans and when I saw seeds in the local market here in Dehradun few months ago, I just bought a few packets and sowed some hope of fava beans in the front garden as I had seen the pictures of its beautiful flowers. To my utter dismay an army of monkeys trampled over the young saplings and ate the growlingshoots. I tried to rescue about ten plants, they responded by shooting out new branches that grew with a bit of support. The fava beans plants are quite sturdy and straight, growing upto 3-4 feet tall if not disturbed.

Few travels happened in between and I kept seeing the plants surviving, flowering and ready to bear some beans. It was last month when I was away for a month long teaching assignment at NID Vijaywada and when the institute was shut because COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and a public health emergency, I had to come back home unexpectedly and my travel back home was such that I had to quarantine myself for 14 days. I decided to work in the garden during my quarantine because there was no human contact while doing so. The fava beans plants were ready to bring the bounty during this time, making my quarantine a lot more bearable.

Some flowers came on each node and then the pods swelled up, giving me two harvests of about 20-30 pods at a time. Since Arvind was cooking with his limited skills and interest in the kitchen, I asked him to just add those fava beans to alu baingan subzi once and to just boil them like edemame beans next. I love the fava beans subzi made with fresh pods that we call bakla ki subzi but that wasn’t something he could make on his own.

I turned to my Instagram followers for suggestions regarding fava beans recipe when I harvested the third batch after my quarantine was over and that’s when a friend Anoop Chand suggested falafels.

I must add that I felt my quarantine time was not at all lonely because of my social media interactions and a little bit of sewing, embroidery and crochet I did on a dress I made during that time. When the world seems to be going topsy turvy, a little crafty handwork gives a sense of control and calms the mind. Have you ever tried crafting during the times of distress? Try that and let me know.

After seeing Anoop’s suggestion I knew it was the time to cook falafels with freshly harvested fava beans now, more so because there was a lot of parsley and some coriander leaves growing in the garden too. This was the best falafel out of the three versions I had tried till date, the Israeli chickpea based falafels, the Egyptian dry split fava beans based falafels and this version of green falafels made with fresh fava bean pods that will be repeated whenever I have fresh fava bean pods on hand.

Here is the recipe, simple and yet spectacular in looks and flavours. I used a paniyaram pan to fry falafels and it didn’t disappoint.

Ingredients

30 fava bean pods or a cup of fava bean pods, strings and stalks removed

½ cup soaked chickpeas

6 cloves of garlic

4 dry red chillies

2 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp,pepper powder

½ cup chopped parsley

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Salt to taste

4-5 tsp peanut oil for shallow frying in the paniyaram or abelskiewer pan

Preparation

Pour ½ tsp oil in each slot of the paniyaram pan and heat it over low flame.

In the meanwhile, place all the ingredients in a mixie jar and pulse to make a coarse paste without adding any water.

Empty the paste in a mixing bowl, adjust seasoning and divide in 9 portions. It was 9 portions for me because the pan has 9 slots, you can make smaller or bigger portions if you using other kind of pans. Cast iron pan is highly recommended for such shallow frying because you get a crisp crust with very little oil used.

Make smooth balls with the mixture, without pressing it too hard to avoid getting the falafels dense and hard. A light handed approach while shaping them is the best.

Once the pan is hot enough, slip the round shaped falafels in each slot and crank up the heat. Use a pointed knife to ease out the falafels from the round slots and turn them to cook from all sides till they are crisp and cooked through. You may need to drizzle a little more oil while it cooks. Take the falafels out of the pan with a pair of chopsticks or any suitable tool you have.

I have not added onions to this recipe because there is a lot of chopped curly leaf parsley that gives it a nice fluffy character. Chopped onions would have made it crumbly if I didn’t add some binding agent like besan and that would have changed the flavour.

Serve hot with a garlic based dip. I always end up making toum style dip for falafels and here is a quick recip that’s ot perfectly emulsified like the original version but very delicious to pair with these.

To make the toum style dip, I mince 12-15 garlic cloves very fine and leave them on the board for 10 minutes so they get sharper on exposure to air. Now whisk it with ½ cup hung curd, 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt. Serve as required.

Fava beans are rich in L-dopa, a compound that helps nerve activity and fava beans have been found to be great from the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. I have written more about this in in an earlier post about Fava beans, please go check that out to find one more fava beans recipe and its goodness.

Good proteins are also the key to maintain a robust immunity and remember we need it a lot more right now.

Take care everyone. Eat well and keep your mind calm in this difficult time. We will sail through this and the suffering will be a lesson for the years to come.

Neem leaf pakodas in the times of Corona

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 07:09:00 +0000

There was profusion of Neem blossom at Rain Tree Park housing society that accommodates the transit campus for NID (National Institute of Design) Andhra Pradesh. I was there earlier this month for teaching a detailed course on applying design methods in food systems and was planning to introduce this unique ingredient to my class. I had already spent a week teaching the class about soil systems, the characteristic of food grown in different types of soil and climate and some cooking techniques to achieve different results while cooking, and that’s when the lurking pandemic broke havoc across the country and we started thinking whether we should return home.

A couple of days were spent in dilemma. It wasn’t safe traveling in a time when one might get infected or at least become a carrier. There were about a dozen visiting faculties staying in the guest house at Rain Tree Park and everyone was anxious to a certain degree. We kept talking while eating our meals and we would take long walks to keep ourselves mentally occupied.

The beautifully landscaped roads of Rain Tree Park had several Neem trees and the profusion of Neem blossom made me think if all the residents ate it in some form and boost their immunity. I was even thinking of plucking some and bringing them back to Dehradun as we don’t get Neem here.

In the meanwhile I was keeping a tab on the flight schedules, more so because there is no direct flight from Vijaywada to Dehradun. That’s when I smelled panic. The flight schedules changed every few hours and the daily morning Air India flight from Vijaywada to Delhi was cancelled, the evening flight was not available everyday. Also, the flight booking options showed a +1day in red against the scheduled timings and that made me curious. I asked my friends and someone sent me a link to a Facebook post where someone had shared that the travelers were being screened and they were held up at the airport for upto 48 hours. The +1day in red mystery was solved and I kept checking the schedules closely and luckily found the morning flight scheduled on Friday 19th March. I got it booked immediately and called the husband that I will be taking a cab from Delhi to Dehradun because the next flight to Dehradun from Delhi was in the evening and I didn’t want to stay back in an airport with so much virus load. Luckily, he found a Dehradun based cab operator whose drivers ply the route everyday and booked a cab with them.

That journey starting at 6.30 am from Rain Tree Park to home in Dehradun late in the evening will always be etched in my mind because of the worried faces I saw everywhere. The panic was evident in the body language and the way people clutched on to their hand sanitizers, most were wearing masks and kept adjusting the masks with hands, eyes fearful and suspecting everyone else to be a virus. I tried to tell a lot of people to not touch the mask and most understood with a silent nod, some turned away without an expression but I hope they realised why touching the mask isn’t the best thing.

Back home I had asked the husband to remove carpet from my study and bring the folding cot there because I needed to quarantine myself, with an intention to not carry the virus load to my neighbourhood. A 14 day quarantine was the best option but managing the quarantine was the most difficult thing ahead. I had hired a new cook before going for a month long teaching schedule to NID Viyawada and I thought the cook will help manage it, the husband being hugely inept at cooking and even finding stuff in the fridge. I felt it would be safe because she lives inside our campus which is a protected area and the guards at every gate are making everyone to sanitise their hands strictly. But she turned out to be the one of the most rigid minds who won’t take any requests or even commands to maintain hygiene even in the face of a pandemic that everyone understands now. She was fired within 3 days of my quarantine, of course she was paid for the month.

We are managing the quarantine period with the husband’s limited cooking skills and some easy and yet nutritious meals like dahi poha and gud chana but that’s a minor concern in a world that has so many struggles to deal with.

I miss the presence of a Neem tree in the neighbourhood. I had planted a Neem sapling in my garden but it couldn’t survive the winter. Neem was a big part of quarantine measures practiced during chicken pox epidemic for prevention of virus spread as well as building immunity. Since this is the time of the year when new leaves and flowers appear on big Neem trees, the change of season coincided with many flu and pox outbreaks, Neem became a natural immunity boost to the people of India in the form of cooked and uncooked recipes, decoctions, bathing mixtures, infused water for drinking and even bathing. The tender leaves and flowers of Neem are used for making quick condiments and even pakodas in many part of India. According to Ayurveda, the caution to take with consuming Neem leaves is that it should always be consumed in small doses. Too much Neem consumption may aggravate Vata as per Ayurveda practitioners.

I was planning to introduce the Neem flower tempered buttermilk to my class at NID and may be the pakodas too but I have to console myself with the pictures I shot during the making of my book Pakodas The Snack For All Seasons. Sharing a recipe here so you can make these if you have access to Neem leaves during this time.

Ingredients

(2-4 servings)

A dozen sprigs of tender neem leaves, preferably the copper coloured ones

A cup of thin pakoda batter made of chickpea flour and rice flour, you can also use just rice flour batter or even tempura batter.

100 ml mustard oil in a small round bottom pan or Kadhai for deep frying

Ingredients for pakoda batter

2 tbsp besan or chickpea flour

2 tbsp rice flour

¼ tsp of chilli powder

¼ tsp of turmeric powder

¼ tsp of ajwain seeds

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup water

Method

Rinse the Neem leaves and let them dry on a kitchen towel.

Make the batter by mixing batter ingredients and whisking till it makes a smooth free flowing batter. You can add a few Neem flowers into the batter too if available.

Heat the oil and start making of the pakodas.

Dip each sprig of Neem leaves in the batter, drain off excess and drop it in the hot oil, repeat with 3-4 sprigs in each batch and fry all of them in similar manner. You need to turn them in the hot oil to fry them evenly. Fish them out of the hot oil once the pakodas look crisp and slightly browned.

Serve hot as a starter with Indian meals or as part of an assorted pakoda platter. For more pakoda recipes it will be great if you buy the book Pakodas The Snack For All Seasons

Curry leaves and coriander leaves podi in olive oil

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 17:33:00 +0000

Curry leaves are nutrient dense food ingredient that can be used to make very interesting condiments apart from the traditional tadka in South Indian chutneys and curries. I have used curry leaves or karipatta, as it is commonly called, in many chutney mixes that were developed for young mothers, growing children and ageing people who may not be getting to eat conventional nutrient dense foods required for optimal iron and calcium supplementation.

The sesame peanut curry leaves dry chutney, the moringa leaves, kachri and sesame chutney, fresh Amla and curry leaves chutney and the curry leaf podi or karuveppilai podi have been popular recipes on healthfooddesivideshi blog and recently when I tried a variation of the curry leaf podi I was mightily pleased with the flavours it packed. I thought of sharing the recipe on the blog because the blog needs some urgent nourishment.

While curry leaves are quite flavourful by themselves, I decided to add some fresh coriander greens along with all the stems and tender roots for the added zing. Some fenugreek seeds and green chillies bring in a hint of bitterness and much required heat in the podi. Urad dal and loads of black and brown sesame seeds sourced locally from Dehradun farmers gives the podi a pleasant nuttiness. The most interesting dimension of this green curry leaves podi is the use of extra virgin olive oil that takes all the intense flavours and delivers it really well on your idli, plain boiled rice or dosa. I tried the podi with boiled potatoes to make a salad as well and it was a success.

Note that the curry leaf podi is made using fresh green ingredients and it will be dehydrated completely while cooking, it takes a long time to cook. So plan the making of this curry leaves podi alongside your daily cooking or weekly prep work so you don’t have to stand in the kitchen for long hours. It does take about two hours to cook completely and dehydrate well to make it stay good for a few weeks at room temperature. Do read the note at the end of the recipe for an alternate process which may be more convenient for you.

Ingredients

(Enough to fill a 700 ml glass jar)

50-60 sprigs of mature curry leaves

200 gms of coriander leaves and stems

150 gm green chilies
1/2 tsp asafoetida

2 tsp, about 10 gms fenugreek seeds

½ cup, about 100 gm urad dal

1 cup, about 200 gm sesame seeds, preferably black or brown or mixed

60 gm salt

200 ml oil (you can use peanut oil or sesame oil, I used extra virgin olive oil)

Preparation

Rinse and clean the leaves and let them dry out a bit either in a cloth napkin or shade dry overnight.

Chop the leaves and green chillies.

Pour the oil in a deep thick base pan (preferably a cast iron Kadhai), add the fenugreek seeds and urad dal to it and then bring it to the stove on medium heat. Once the content of the Kadhai start sizzling and emanating a mild aroma, add the asafoetida, chopped green chillies and stir and cook on lowest flame for 15 minutes. Then add the chopped leaves along wi5 salt and keep stirring and cooking for about 30-40 minutes.

Lastly, once the leaves are shrunk and aromatic, add the sesame seeds and keep stirring and cooking till everything in the pan becomes crisp and makes a rattling sound when stirred. Switch off the stove and let the mixture cool down. Transfer to the grinder and make a coarse powder to your liking. Fill in an air tight glass jar and tighten the lid. Use a dry spoon to take out required quantity and prevent it from moist air and it stays good for 2 months without any flavour loss at room temperature. One has to b e a little careful in high humidity areas though.

Note that this whole process takes about 2 hours but it can be done in 2-3 steps over the day. You can roast the fenugreek, urad dal and green chillies while making breakfast, add the chopped leaves and roast for a few minutes while you prepare lunch and rest of the cooking can be done while you cook dinner. Alternately you can roast the fenugreek and urad dal in the oil first and then mix everything together and spread in a baking tray and bake at low temperature (90-100C) till the leaves become crisp. Lol and grind and then store the curry leaves podi as mentioned above.

We are loving this podi mixed with ghee, sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil and I have gifted small portions to a couple of friends too. They have shared really good feedback but I think I am myself loving the flavours more than anyone else. It is a blend of flavours according to my own gut feeling you know.

So make some curry leaves podi or chutney powder, call it whatever you feel like and keep eating it 3-4 times a week to keep your hair, bones and skin healthy.

Dahi wale alu, baby potatoes in aromatic yogurt curry

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 06:37:00 +0000

I had stopped cooking this quick curry we call dai wale alu for a long time because the potatoes were not the most favoured vegetables in Delhi. Only the new potatoes in winter were good and dahi alu was always considered a summer curry because of its quick cooking time and also because it is such a light curry to go with soft chapatis or parathas or even as a meal on its own. Yes dahi wale alu can be made like a creamy potato salad with a mild kick of chillies and a pleasant tartness of dahi (homemade cultured yogurt), made aromatic with curry leaves (karipatta) and asafoetida.

We are getting very good pahadi alu (mountain potatoes) in Dehradun and naturally our potato consumption has gone up. I always prefer dahi wale alu with baby potatoes for the waxy texture of potatoes that gives a pleasant textural contrast but I have seen many others making dahi wale alu with large boiled potatoes mashed up in the dahi to make it look like a kadhi and that’s version is good too. In fact it is such a versatile simple curry that once you fix the flavour balance to your liking, you can do a lot with dahi wale alu. You can add boiled black gram (kala chana) or cubes of paneer for variation, chopped spinach or bathua (chinopodium or goosefoot leaves) to make it green and more wholesome. All these variations will become a favourite of everyone who likes dahi and alu and there are few who don’t.

Take care to make a big batch always because everyone will ask for more helpings and will look forward to the leftovers too. This curry reheats well with a dash of water added.

If you want a textural contrast of dahi and alu, you must use baby potatoes, boil them and cool them completely before cooking this variation of dahi wale alu. If you want the creamy kadhi type dahi wale alu you can use larger potatoes, boil them, peel them while warm and mash them before proceeding to cook dahi wale alu that looks like kadhi.

Ingredients

(Serves three or four)

500 gm baby potatoes boiled, cooled, peeled and cut into halves (or large potatoes as described above)

300 g dahi, slightly tart dahi is preferable

8-10 dry red chillies broken (use more than you think is enough because dahi neutralises the chilli heat)

10 sprigs of curry leaves rinsed and chopped

A generous pinch of asafoetida

1 tsp of rai (small brown mustard seeds)

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp mustard oil (use peanut oil if you don’t have mustard oil)

Salt to taste

Procedure

Heat the mustard oil in a deep pan and tip in the rai seeds, asafoetida, broken red chillies and curry leaves in that order, quickly, to make an aromatic tadka. Once the tadka is sizzling, lower the heat and add the turmeric powder and dump the chopped boiled potatoes over it. Add salt and stir to mix while cranking up the heat again. Keep stirring till the potatoes are well coated and start getting a little brownish. At this point you can smash a few of them if you like.

If using large potatoes, mash them roughly and proceed just like we did with baby potatoes above.

Whisk the dahi really well. Lower the heat and pour the dahi over cooking potatoes. Mix well and simmer for just about two minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature, depending on what you want to serve with this dahi wale alu.

If you want to add boiled black gram or paneer, add once the potatoes are mixed with with the tadka ingredients and then add whisked dahi and proceed. If adding chopped spinach or bathua, you can add along with the potatoes and cook till the greens wilt.

Dahi wale alu tastes great with hot rotis or parathas or even pooris and it can be one of those quick meals you make for hungry kids or sudden guests. If you use hung curd or thick set dahi you can serve it as a salad as well. We eat this dahi wale alu with our multigrain dosa too sometimes.

Kale and potato creamy soup recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 10:30:00 +0000

Kale soup may not be the most popular soup on the planet but trust me it can be made delicious and creamy despite the negative reputation these beautiful leaves have. The fibrous tough leaves and the strong mustard taste doesn’t agree with most people but those who know how nutritious it is, want to include more and more kale in their everyday meals.

Kale is not something you would find easily in Indian markets because we have our own mustard greens of various types with similar flavour profile and not so tough fibrous leaves. And since kale has that superfood tag, it is super expensive whenever you spot it in the fancier farmers markets.

For gardeners kale is a nice addition to the garden because it looks good, grows well for a longer duration and can be planted with cuttings as well. The reason I love growing kale and when I saw saplings of the lacy variety (called curly kale) in a nursery here in Dehradun, I brought them home to keep them closer to myself. And we had a few leaves to harvest almost every two weeks even if the growth has not picked up as yet.

Being the peak of winter soups are just fit for everyday dinners, with my sourdough breads or even some jowar (sorghum) or makki (corn) roti, some butter, extra virgin olive oil or plain old ghee. Sometimes fresh cream or malai goes into the soups and that’s how simple meals become so comforting and nourishing.

Here is the simple recipe of kale soup with potatoes for the rich creamy texture and superb taste of kale and garlic. This is the easiest pressure cooker soup that you will keep coming back to.

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

To pressure cook together

½ cup cubed potatoes

3 cups kale leaves chopped roughly

3 cloves of garlic

3 bulbs of spring onion

1 hot green chilli

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup water

To finish the soup

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp garlic paste or ¼ tsp garlic powder

2 cups milk (low fat, I used fresh cow milk) or almond milk or 2 tbsp fresh cashew paste dilutes with 2 cups water

Salt and pepper to balance

Some fresh cream or olive oil to garnish

Some bread to serve with the soup

Procedure

Pressure cook the ingredients in the first list. One whistle is good enough for cooking but allow it to cook for five more minutes if your kale leaves are hard and fibrous. Cool and liquidise the mix.

Mix extra virgin olive oil with the garlic powder, mix with the liquidised soup, milk and bring to gentle simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour in soup mugs and garnish as desired.

Serve hot with bread of your choice.

Asian style soba noodle soup with assorted mushrooms and brinjal

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 09:44:00 +0000

Asian style soba noodles soup with mushrooms and brinjal. Yes, that’s what I made during the monsoon here in Dehradun and it has been repeated a few times since the temperature started dropping and it was full blown winter before we could realise. This light soup meal is perfect for the season, full of umami flavours and sufficiently warming for the system.

The best part of this recipe of Asian style soba noodle soup with mushrooms and brinjal is, that you don’t need too many ingredients to cook it in an Indian kitchen. You can replace the assorted dried mushrooms I have used with the readily available button mushrooms and if you don’t have Chinese five spice powder you can just skip adding it, or may be add a few star anise flowers in the simmering broth to make it more aromatic.

The recipe can be tweaked to suit your taste and availability of ingredients. I recommend adding the brinjal slices even if you are not a fan of brinjal because thiss kind of flavours give brinjal a new life of its own. Just take care to not overcook the brinjal slices else they will disintegrate and the soup will get all cloudy and muddled.

You can add a fired end on top of the Asian style soba noodle soup with mushrooms and brinjal to make it more filling. But please don’t change the process of making the broth because that’s where the soul of this recipe lies.

You can replace soba noodles with egg noodles or whole buckwheat grains if you wish, or you can replace noodles with wild black rice may be. Such soup meals have evolved to include whatever you want and whatever is in the season. If not brinjal, you can add lightly torn water spinach to the soup or even baby spinach. The choices are endless.

Here is the recipe of what I made and something that can become your go to recipe for such a nutritious bowl of soba noodle soup with mushrooms and brinjal.

Ingredients

2-3 dried black mushrooms

2-3 dried monkey head mushrooms

3-4 dried oyester mushrooms

4 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 round brinjal sliced to make 8 thick slices

3-4 tbsp chopped springs onions (white parts)

2 tbsp chopped green parts of spring onions for garnish

2-3 tbsp chopped stems of coriander

2 tbsp chopped leaves of coriander

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tsp minced hot red chilies

2 tsp dark soy sauce

½ tsp black pepper powder

½ tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 tbsp sesame oil

Few strands of soba noodles (include enough to suit your portion size)

Few coriander stems, and one spring onion to make the broth

Salt to taste

Procedure

Rinse the mushrooms well before soaking or proceeding to cook directly.

You can soak the dry mushrooms overnight or till they are well hydrated and start cooking after that or start from scratch when required. If you start with dry mushrooms it takes about 40-60 minutes of simmering to cook the mushrooms.

If you have soaked the mushrooms, use the soaking water to make the broth.

Add the dry mushrooms to 1 liter of water in a stock pot and start cooking the broth. Make a bundle of the coriander stems and spring onion and put them into the broth, add salt and pepper, simmer till the mushrooms are cooked. Fish out the mushrooms once they are cooked and cut them into bite sized strips. Once the broth is ready you can fish out the bundle of coriander stems and spring onion and discard. Strain the broth if required and add the soba noodles to cook in it, add a little more water if required.

While the broth is simmering, rub salt on the brinjal slices and keep aside for five minutes.

Smear a little oil in a wide cast iron pan and spread the brinjal slices, grill till they are a little soft and get some roasted marks on them. Keep aside.

Add remaining oil in the pan, add the minced garlic, spring onions and hot red chilies and cook till they all get a bit fragrant, now add the sliced mushrooms and sauté briefly for a couple of minutes. Add minimal salt, pepper, Chinese five spice powder, soy sauce and toss together.

Now pour the prepared broth along with soba noodles. Add the brinjal slices and let it come to a gentle simmer before serving the noodle soup with the help of a large ladle. Take care to serve a few slices of brinjal, enough mushrooms strips and soba noodles in each bowl or soup mug, garnish with chopped spring onion and coriander leaves.

You can drizzle a little sesame oil on top if you wish.

Cheers.

Understanding Hypothyroidism and Importance of Iodised Salt in Reverting It

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 04:19:00 +0000

Understanding Hypothyroidism and Importance of Iodised Salt in Reverting It

I keep getting a lot of queries from my readers and clients about thyroid function. There is a common way of saying ‘I have thyroid’ when people have thyroid related issues but most are clueless about what those issues are. I have to really ask if it is hypothyroid or hyperthyroid and then I realise that some people can’t figure it even after seeing the reports. The questions about salt intake, iodised salt or unrefined salt, consumption of millets, soy products, cabbage etc are others things that concern people.

Talking about people who don’t have a background of nutrition or medicine, such a confusion leads to wrong dietary choices as most people have developed this habit of devising diets for themselves going by whatever impression they have regarding their medical condition. And then the confusion multiplies when internet is used as a resource for all such advise.

So when one searches about the ill effects of salt, one finds a whole lot of misleading facts and studies that are based on overconsumption of salt. While overconsumption of anything can lead to complications, and some people who eat packaged and processed foods a lot can easily fall into the trap of salt overconsumption, it is important to understand that in right amount, salt can be a preventive and even therapeutic tool in many health conditions. Do you know that most wild animals in forests find their way to supplement their mineral requirements by salt licks?

Be aware of the fact that salt is needed only in minimal amount and home cooked food is the best even in this case to have more control on what you eat, just choose the right kind of salt for your health concerns.

There is a misconception that salt intake causes weight gain, water retention and more health issues, this makes it more confusing for people looking for dietary solutions to prevent hypothyroidism. If one recommends iodised salt the immediate concern is whether it will cause some other health problems or cause weight gain. In fact Iodised salt helps the body get the much required iodine easily through normal intake of salt in each meal and help normalise the metabolism in cases of low Iodine availability. It is important to know that one doesn’t need to increase salt intake but just change the type of salt being used and iodised salt helps in preventing hypothyroidism.

While we do get a lot of good studies and solutions on the internet, we must realise that being aware of the exact problem is important to find a suitable solution for it. Having said that, thyroid dysfunction can actually be reversed by diet management most of the times if it is not caused by autoimmune factors. And I would stress on the fact again that one needs to understand the problem well before seeking the solution.

Discussing issues related to thyroid gland dysfunction, there are two conditions one needs to be aware of. Hypothyroidism which in layman terms is under active thyroid glad and hyperthyroidism which is over active thyroid gland. The thyroid gland secretes thyroxin hormone which is responsible for maintaining overall metabolism including digestive system, bone health, muscle control, brain development and heart movements. It is good to understand that in the condition of hypothyroidism the thyroxin hormone is deficient which causes overall metabolic rate to drop down, pulse rate becomes low and the person feels sluggish and low on energy. Prolonged deficiency of Iodine can also cause goitre which is visible as a swelling in front of the neck, apart from regular hypothyroidism symptoms.

On the other hand, Hyperthyroidism results in more thyroxin hormone which leads to high pulse rate, breathlessness, increased appetite, frequent visits to the loo, weight loss, and hair fall apart from a general feeling of tiredness.

First of all, we need to understand that salt intake has no effect on thyroid function. The myths and confusions around salt intake and thyroid function possiblly arise by the fact that iodised salt has been used all over the world to treat hypothyroidism effectively so salt has become the highlight and since salt has been linked with high blood pressure people assume it is linked to hypothyroidism as well. Salt actually helps carry the iodine to the bloodstream so it can reach thyroid gland to make T3 and T4 (two forms of thyroxin hormone) where iodine is an integral part. It is the actually the Iodine that helps treat hypothyroidism if it is caused by Iodine deficiency and salt is just a carrier. Note that in the cases of autoimmune related hypothyrpidism a different curative approach is required.

The two hormones from thyroid gland T3 and T4 control the metabolic functions and hypo- or hyper-thyroid are caused when these two hormones are either deficient or excessive. The reasons for hypo-thyroidism can either be deficiency of Iodine, some autoimmune condition or deficiency of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which is secreted by pituitary gland while the reasons for hyper-thyroidism can be stress, wrong medication, inflammation of thyroid, some autoimmune conditions or other medical conditions.

In fact the deficiency of iodine that causes hypothyroidism is quite common all over the world, especially in inland geographical areas. Since seafood, including kelp and algae, are rich in iodine, the coastal populations are rarely affected by iodine deficiency. Most soils are deficient in iodine and plants don’t have much iodine if they grow in such land. Missing Iodine from everyday diet (#MissingI) is as common as work stress and both may be interrelated. Even the seafoods have highly variable levels of iodine and for an Iodine deficient person one cannot determine the doses. Iodised salt, on the other hand is a reliable source of iodine because the iodine content is quantified and the daily dose of salt for an individual delivers the required amount of iodine.

Common unrefined salt is not a good idea for everyday salt intake for hypothyroid individuals and one must include iodised salt if prone to hypothyroidism or already affected by it because the symptoms are mostly so subtle that one gets to know when it becomes severe.

Prolonged deficiency of iodine can cause goitre (swelling of thyroid gland) or hypothyroidism leading to slow metabolism, low mental alertness and weight gain apart from many other symptoms. Even mild hypothyroidism can result in anxiety and depression so it is good to fix the issues with proper diet and supplementation.

In fact iodised salt is the cheapest and most practical dietary change everyone can adopt, there are a few sources of food that can help too. Vacuum evaporated iodised salt as recommended by the government authorities to tackle hypothyroidism, is affordable by everyone and Tata Salt is available throughout the country. Apart from salt all kinds of seafood, milk, cultured yogurt, buttermilk, fermented foods, brined pickles, fermented pickles, some beans, corn and some fruits have good amount of iodine.

A simple habit of having some thin buttermilk with iodised salt and roasted cumin powder, mint etc can help in prevention of hypothyroidism and can help revert it too if combined with a more focused dietary approach.

air fryer recipe : fried idli recipe in air fryer

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 13:20:00 +0000

Air fryer ‘fried idli’ recipe was something that came as a flash to me. Idli and dosa type breakfasts are quite common in my home as I feel these can be very inclusive recipes. One can include millets and different types of rice in both dosa and idli batter and the chutneys can be even more versatile in terms of protein content and greens or vegetables of the season.

More than dosa, I love idlis and I feel idli is the most underrated food in India. As I have written before on this blog, idli is the best gluten free bread, that too made with sourdough fermentation, a complete protein and allows inclusion of healthy fats into the meal in the form of chutneys and ghee+podi combination. What more can we ask from a humble food that has nourished several generations since time immemorial. Yes idli was known in the southern parts of the country since thousands of years.

For many years my idli and dosa batter has always had some millet or heirloom rice varieties in it, sometimes even barley. The barley and chana dal dosa and pesarettu are the ones that don’t need fermentation but the idea of making dosa, adai or idli in my kitchen is to include as many unconventional grains and lentils as possible. The multigrain fermented batter dosa and ragi dosa are some of the favourites.

And we love idlis made of many types of grains and lentils including this fresh corn idli.

So when there were a few idlis leftover one day and since it was made with 1:1 ratio of urad dal and kodo millet, it was a bit dry to be made into the normal pan fried idli that we usually make with leftovers. I thought of soaking it up with a dressing of sorts and then air frying so the edges get crisp and the inside of the idli cubes remain soft like bread. The experiment was a success in the first try and I have been making it quite frequently now.

This air fryer ‘fried idli’ has become a favored way of having idli now. We have been consuming these as croutons in our soup too and the taste is incredible, especially when we use tomatoes in the ‘dressing’.

Read on what I mean by the dressing of the fried idli. It does become a salad ingredient very conveniently.

Ingredients
6-7 leftover idlis
2 large fully ripe tomatoes, juicy variety preferably
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp sesame oil or coconut oil, use a bit more if you don’t have restrictions
Salt to taste

Procedure

Cut the tomatoes into halves and then slice them lengthwise thinly.

Chop the idlis into bite sized cubes.

In a mixing bowl bring all the ingredients except idli and mix with a spoon making sure the juice of the tomatoes get released. Add about 50 ml water or diluted lime juice if tomatoes are dry. This is your dressing for the fried idlis in air fryer.

Let this mix rest for 10-15 minutes.

If you want the idli cubes to be coated into a saucy mix you can liquidise all the above ingredients together and proceed.

Now mix the idli cubes with the tomato ‘dressing’, toss well to coat each cube till all liquid disappears.

Transfer this mix to the air fryer basket and air fry on high for 5 minutes. Take out the basket, turn the idli cubes well and air fry again for 2-4 minutes depending on how crisp you want the edges of idli cubes. The tomato slices will turn leathery and some of them may get blisters too, making them even more delicious.

Serve immediately as a snack or starter, mix with salads or add to your soups and see how no one can keep their spoons and forks away from their plates.

Now a quick recipe of the millet idli.

Soak kodo millet (or any other millet) and urad dal separately for 3-4 hours or overnight. The quantity of both will be similar, that is, 1 cup each, if you are planning to make idlis of a small family and some leftovers.

Grind the soaked urad dal in a mixie jar after draining the water. Add a little soaking water to make a fluffy smooth paste. Pour the urad paste into a deep pot and now grind the soaked millet with as little water as possible. The millet will also be ground smooth but it wont get fluffy. Empty the millet paste to the pot with urad paste, whisk well to incorporate. Add salt and a little water to make a cake dough like consistency of the batter. Keep the batter in a warm place and allow to ferment till the volume becomes 1.5 times.

Grease the idli moulds and pour idli batter into them. You can steam the idlis in shallow plates or bowls as well, refer to this post about making idlis for better understanding. To scoop the batter you must take care not to disturb the batter and just scoop gently to not deflate the air pockets. Steam the idlis for 15 minutes and demould when a little colder. Serve warm with chutney or as desired.

Don't forget to hide some idlis to make the air fryer fried idli.

Child friendly foods : mung cheela roll ups

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 08:41:00 +0000

Recently I worked with a Montessory school to help them curate a child friendly nutritious menu for2-4 yr old kids. The concept and curation of the menu was done keeping in mind the way children of that age need to develop their motor skills and the way they can be picky with foods.

At this age (between 2-5 years) kids are normally in the process to discover new flavours and textures along with learning to chew, move the food using the tongue, swallowing it and then taking another bite. The swallowing mechanism is a learned reflex that many kids pick up late if we keep feeding them only liquid foods.

Using the fingers, wrists and learning to pick food with fingers and hands, moving wrists to bring food to the mouth and then chewing, moving the food towards the base of the tongue and then swallowing is a complex set of movements for small kids and we must be patient with them while they start eating with practiced ease. These reflexes take a little time but certain foods can help in the process.

Introducing some finger foods, some rolls to be held in palms and some foods that need to be handles with spoons and forks is a great idea to make kids learn appropriate movements. All these movements help build up motor skills and appropriate brain development in turn.

In other words if you are feeding your child only liquid foods or soft foods, fed forcefully thrusting the spoon in their mouth, you are not allowing their motor skills to develop and some basic brain functions as well.

Variety in food for good for us adults and great for the children too.

For the Montessory school we kept all these factors in mind while curating the menu and I personally trained their cook to make all the foods I wanted to include in their menu. I will be sharing some of those foods here and the first in that series are these mung chela roll ups that are perfect finger foods for kids, they learn using their fingers with these roll ups and since the patterns on foods attract children, it is a good way to make them pick food by themselves.

Such roll ups can be made using our own adult foods like dosa, roti and cheelas, just applying some sauce or homemade jam or hung yogurt dip etc and rolling them up before cutting slices to show spiral pattern. Colors and patterns attract kids of all ages.

You can check the basic recipe of mung ka cheela here and make them easily. If the child eats even 4-5 of these bite sized roll ups they will get wholesome nourishment. Older kids will need more of these so make as per their requirement.

Ingredients

Prepared mung cheelas as per requirement
Homemade tomato ketchup or homemade green chutney or fruit preserve or dips of choice. Check the links in the last part of this post to find more ideas

Preparation

Spread the mung cheela on a chopping board or plate. Smear the chutney, dip or fruit preserve liberally and roll up the cheela tightly. Make sure the cheela is thin so it doesn’t make the roll too thick.

Cut the roll into slices and arrange the slices in a plate attractively. Serve warm or cold to kids and adults alike.

Remember the kids do like to participate in everything you do and they would love to eat with you.

Some of the useful recipe links to make such cheela rolls ups will be good to share. Go through these recipes and see what is in season and what your kid seems to like more at the moment.

Basic mung cheela recipe

Mung cheela tofu spring rolls

Baba ghanoush dip recipe

Tomato sauce homemade

Pasta sauce (tomato concasse) recipe

Purslane pasta sauce

Dates tomato chutney

Sweet chilli ginger tamarind sauce

Tamatar ki khatti mithi chutney

air fryer recipes : lemon-pepper-mint roasted makhana recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 12:05:00 +0000

Makhana is Foxnuts or Gorgon nuts, the seeds of Euryale ferox, an aquatic plant that bears spiny fruits with black seeds. The seeds are popped to make makhana or foxnuts. Note that makhana or phool makhana as they are called colloquially in India, is not the same as lotus seeds. Lotus seeds are used for making a delicious halwa that I shared earlier.

Makhana makes wonderful raita, curries and even halwa but the most common usage is to make dry snacks with it. The caramelised makhana is quite a favourite in my home and we use it in our parfaits too but the salted snacks with makhana is more of an everyday chai time munchy.

Earlier we used to make roasted makhana in a thick base Kadhai by slow roasting it with a little ghee and then adding salt, pepper and other flavouring of choice. But now that I have been using my air fryer for roasting nuts and many other foods, this method has become the most favoured as one doesn’t need to monitor it closely while it roasts.

Roasted mint and lemon pepper makhana is so delicious that has been an instant hit with kids and adults alike in my home. Only one little girl said that she doesn’t like makhana because it tastes like Styrofoam balls and that made me think it really does if it has got some moisture in it and that was the little girl’s first impression of makhana possibly.

Anyway, when I suggested she can lick it and then decide whether she likes it, she did just that. She would lick it, suck it for sometime and then spit it off once it lost all the flavour. And then she would pick up some more, it took a few repeats to make her curious enough to eat the whole thing and she learnt by the time all makhana were polished off.

Yes, the lemon pepper and mint makes a wonderful coating for makhana and some other snacks too. One just needs to be cautious about not burning the seasoning while roasting such nuts, so here is the foolproof process of roasting makhana in an air fryer.

Ingredients
100 GM makhana (the quantity depends on the size of the air fryer basket)
3 tsp ghee
Salt to taste
1 tbsp mint powder
2 tsp lemon pepper (add lemon zest and pepper powder if you don't have this)

Procedure

Pour the makhana in the air fryer basket and add 1 tsp ghee (not melted) on top. Now massage the makhanas with your hands to get a thin coating of ghee all over the makhanas. You can use ghee liberally if you want. I add more ghee mostly.

Push the air fryer basket in, roast it at 200 C for 5 minutes. Check the makhanas once by pulling the basket out, they should be lightly pinkish in colour but it will depend on how dry your makhanas were to start with. Is the makahanas you used were a bit moist you may need to roast for a couple of minutes more. They will make sounds like popping popcorns but that’s okay.

Take the makhanas out in a large bowl. Pour the remaining ghee and all the seasoning and mix with the help of a ladle. The ghee will help the powder seasoning to coat the makhanas well and the seasoning wouldn’t burn. The colour of mint will remain green if done so, else it turns black and looses all flavour.

Perfectly crunchy flavourful lemon pepper mint flavoured roasted makhana is ready to eat. You should keep it in an air tight jar once it cools down else it picks up moisture and becomes chewy.

Serve with tea or coffee, your weekend drinks or use them as a topping in salads if you wish. They are great munches for kids too.

Please let me know whenever you try the recipe. It takes very little time, just 5-8 minutes to prepare a huge bowl of roasted makhanas and is so healthy too.

Cheers.

gond katira sharbat : a cooling drink with gum tragacanth, milk and rooh afza

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 08:10:00 +0000

Gum Tragacanth (Gond Katira or Badam Pissin) is a useful ingredient to stock up during this intense summer heat when your appetite for cold and chilled foods wakes up. Overnight soaked gum tragacanth makes a cooling addition to many sharbats and falooda type drinks and desserts, some of the suggestions with this gum have been shared on this blog earlier.

I am not too fond of frozen desserts like ice creams, gelatos and sorbets as I like a gentle chill in my foods, drinks and desserts so a sharbat chilled with a few crushed ice cubes or made with chilled plain water works for me wonderfully. All my sharbats, lassi, ice teas are mostly minimally sweetened or naturally sweetened with fruits, juices or natural preserves. Rooh afza is one of those medicinal syrups made using a plethora of medicinal herbs and flowers, a Unani medicine formula that we have been consuming since childhood during summers.

This gond katira sharbat with rooh afza makes an ultimate cooling sharbat and you don't need any added sugar to this.

If you haven't seen Gum Tragacanth which is also known as gond katira in north India and badam pissin in south India, it looks like this.

I felt like adding these pictures because many of my instagram friends kept getting confused between gond katira and babool ka gond.

Please don't confuse it with Gum Arabic or Babool ki gond which is used for making laddus and panjeeris during winters (warming food) after frying the gum crystals in ghee. The next picture shows how different are both types of gum.

The large dull opaque crystals are of Gum Tragacanth and the smaller shiny, brownish yellow crystals are Gum Arabic.

Now that you know how the gum tragacanth looks like, you can easily get it in the old fashioned grocery stores or buy online.

The gum crystals need to be soaked overnight.

About 3-4 crystals of gond katira bloom so much that they fill up a 300 ml jar. Soak them in a large glass jar with plenty of water to allow proper soaking to get the cooling benefits of this gum.

Adding a little milk to this sharbat makes it a delicious summer drink that keeps you full till you feel thirsty again. Hydration is the key to survive the Indian summer.

You can add milk or buttermilk or even some fresh home cultured yogurt into this sharbat.

In fact adding milk makes this sharbat unique because this is possibly the original pyar mohabbat sharbat or love potion that has become so popular in recent times. A version of sharbat made with milk, sugar syrup, Rooh Afza or any other syrup is sold in the streets around Jama Masjid in Old delhi during the month of Ramzan. They add cut fruits like watermelon or grated apples to the sharbatand call it pyar mohabbat sharbat. Since fresh fruits apart from bananas and mangoes are never added to milk according to the Ayurveda or Unani system of medicine, I feel the addition of watermelon or apples is a recent innovation.

That's the reason I think the gond katira might have been the original ingredient of pyar mohabbat sharbat. But whatever the name, this sharbat is a pleasing welcome drink for your guests or for your afternoon snack during long summer days.

Ingredients
(for 2 large servings)

3 large crystals of gum tragacanth soaked overnight in 250 ml water
1 tbsp rooh Afza syrup (or use natural rose syrup or gulkand or honey)
150 ml chilled milk
400 ml chilled water (add crushed ice cubes if you wish)
sugar to taste (optional, I don't use any sugar)

Preparation

Mix everything together, stir well.

Pour into large mugs or glasses and serve immediately.

I know this gond katira sharbat will become one of your favourite summer coolers.

pressure cooker pasta : penne pasta with ivy gourd and herbed tomato sauce

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 25 May 2018 16:05:00 +0000

Pressure cooker pasta makes life so easy sometimes. I have shared a basic recipes of pressure cooker pasta with seasonal and local vegetables that includes ivy gourd and this time I decided to use just the ivy gourds for a change.

With the herbed tomato sauce the pasta turned out to be so wonderful I tried the same method with cooked chickpeas instead of pasta and loved the result.

In fact the flavour comes from the tomato sauce used here, ivy gourds (we call them kundru or tendli) retain their texture and subtle flavour resulting in a deeply satisfying meal.

ingredients
(for 2 lunch servings)
100 gm penne pasta
300 gm ivy gourd
3-5 cloves of garlic slit lengthwise (optional but recommended)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste (remember that the tomato sauce also has some salt)
3 tbsp herbed tomato sauce (you can blitz 2 fresh ripe tomatoes with herbs for this recipe and balance seasoning)
fresh basil or rosemary if you feel like

procedure

Soak the pasta in 100 ml hot water (or stock if you wish) and few drops of olive oil in a bowl. Keep aside. You need about 10 minutes to chop the ivy gourds so the soaking time is just 10 minutes.

Slit the ivy gourds lengthwise into two halves and then slit each half in 4 thin strips. If you are using macaroni you can cut round slices of ivy gourd.

Pour the olive oil in a pressure cooker pan (for this quantity using a 2-3 liter capacity pressure cooker is better), add slit garlic, rosemary leaves and cover with the ivy gourd slices. Add salt and toss to mix. Note that the pressure cooker pan is not to be placed on burner before this.

Using extra virgin olive oil ensures to benefit from the good flavour of oil and and mixing the ingredients while they are cold is a way to ensure the oil retains its nutritional benefits too.

Now place the pressure cooker pan on stove top, keeping the flame medium, and let the ivy gourd slices be cooked while tossing and turning them every couple of minutes.

Once the ivy gourd slices start turning pinkish brown you can add the soaked pasta at once, pour the tomato sauce or fresh blended tomatoes with herbs, toss to mix and place the lid on the pressure cooker.

Cook till the first whistle blows, switch off the gas stove and let the pressure release on its own.

Open the cooker, toss lightly to mix and serve hot or cold. This recipe is great for lunch boxes too as it tastes great even when cold. You can add some feta cheese or parmesan to top the pasta.

We often enjoy our pasta without cheese, especially when we have good quality olive oil. This time I brought a few tins of very good extra virgin olive oil from Cyprus, where I had gone for a product development assignment.

multipurpose tomato sauce recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 23 May 2018 16:54:00 +0000

Tomato ketchup has corrupted the palate of a whole lot of people. It has become the taste enhancer for everything they eat and the taste of real food gets masked with tomato ketchup.

Ironically, people seem to avoid sugar in their beverages and rightly in most cases, but they slather most of their food with ketchup on the other hand, not realising they are eating a lot of sugar along with a fair range of chemicals in the ketchup. I would prefer to have a bit of sugar in my tea and coffee instead and of course a better tasting tomato sauce as a condiment if I need some.

I have shared a home made tomato ketchup recipe earlier and have got really good feedback for that. Another tomato, tamarind and red chili chutney has earned many fans over the years. Many other homemade dips make even better condiments than ketchup and not too time consuming. It is actually not too difficult to keep making such condiments at home and keep ketchup away from our lives.

The tomato sauce that I am sharing today is great for pastas, for pizza, for potato wedges and fries and even when smeared on omelets, parathas or sandwiches, wraps etc.

It needs dry powdered ingredients apart from tomatoes and red bell pepper for the ease of making it but you can use fresh garlic and onions if you wish. The taste will be slightly different in that case but still great if you balance the chili heat to your preference.

ingredients
(makes about 300 ml thick sauce)

400 gm ripe tomatoes, better if you use mixed varieties (chopped, white parts removed if any)

200 gm red bell pepper (chopped, white parts removed)

1/2 tsp dry thyme

1/2 tsp dry oregano

1 tsp dry parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp hot chili powder if you like (I do)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar or any vinegar you like

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

procedure

Pressure cook the tomatoes and bell pepper pieces together with salt and 1/4 cup water.

Cool the cooked mixture.

Liquidize the tomato and bell pepper mix when cold. Add all the powders and blend well.

Transfer to a pan. Heat in a pan till the sauce comes to a simmer.

Add 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar.

Now add 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, mix well, cool down.

Transfer to a sterilized bottle and refrigerate. You can add lesser olive oil if you have to use this sauce in a generic way. I add the sauce directly to boiled pasta mostly and no additional oil is required, even as a spread on any kind of bread the sauce works better if the oil content is good.

Use this tomato sauce in whatever way you like.

I have been using it mostly for pasta but as a spread on my multigrain chapati wraps too.

If you abhor tomato ketchup like I do, you would love some of these chutneys that are quick to make and add more zing to life than the junk ketchup.

Tamatar ki meethi chutney

Date and tomato chutney

Angoor ki chutney

Plum chuntey

Mango chutney

Sweet chili tamarind sauce

Date ginger and tamarind chutney

You don't need any ketchup when there are so many chutneys, sauces and dips in your repertoire, for every season and for all sorts of food.

how to use dry coconut for everyday meals | sprouts salad recipe with dry coconut

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:04:00 +0000

Using fresh coconut and coconut oil everyday has not been part of my growing up. We had loads of coconut during festivals because it was part of the Puja rituals and fresh coconut cake home for the chutneys when we made idli and dosa. Coconut oil was used only for skin and hair and we never imagined eating food cooked in coconut oil at home even though we loved the food cooked by our Kerala and Tamil friends. I became more adventurous in using ingredients once I started my own kitchen and there was no looking back, thankfully.

But dry coconut or kopra was used in my parental home more frequently. There was always some dry coconut in the pantry which was added to desserts like halwa, kheer and to panjeeris, laddus, malpuas and even dry namkeen mixtures.

I realised dry coconut is a much more convenient ingredient to use because fresh coconut looses its freshness within a couple of days and we don’t consume more than one coconut per week between the two of us. To be honest I used to freeze the fresh coconut but I would always forget about it and get a new one every time I needed coconut.

Then I started getting the dry coconut grated and stored in an airtight container and use it wherever required. It became a life saver and a regular ingredient in my kitchen I must add.

Sprouts salad with dry grated coconut

Ingredients

(3 large servings)

1 cup mixed lentil sprouts (I used a mix of mung, moth and masoor sprouts mostly)

¼ cup peanut sprouts or 2 heaped tbsp of roasted crushed peanuts

2 tbsp of dry grated coconut

1 cup grated carrots

¼ cup chopped red onions

1 tsp chopped green chilies

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp mustard or sesame oil

1 tsp lime juice

Preparation

Toss everything together to mix well.

Let the salad rest for an hour before consumption, the dry coconut shreds plump up after the soaking time and get really fresh and nice. I make it for lunch box of the husband and my own lunch so it works well. If you are making the salad for immediate consumption you can soak the dry coconut shreds in a mix of water and lime juice for a while and then mix the rest of the ingredients at the time of serving.

For the lunch box I don’t add salt in the salad as it may get soggy by lunch time. Do take care of this when making this salad for lunch box. Without adding salt and onions this salad stays good for 2 days in the fridge so great for advance planning.

This salad makes a great filler for tart shells or golgappa shells if you are planning to serve it for a get together. Or just place a huge bowl of this salad in the middle of a table with many spoons and see how it vanishes fast.

I will keep posting more uses of shredded or grated dry coconut as it gives way to many kitchen hacks that you may find useful too.

Why not use a healthy ingredient regularly and make it convenient too for ourselves? Dry coconut grated this way will come handy almost everyday.

how to roast nuts in air fryer : spicy roasted cashewnut recipe

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 17:41:00 +0000

Roasted cashew is the most favourite snack in my home and I must admit it is quite addictive too. If the jar of roasted cashews is in sight you just end up going to it even if you are not feeling hungry.

Else I believe both of us have a very good hunger and satiety discipline. I must add that even if roasted cashews seem to tempt us to eat more, we can’t really over eat as it makes you feel too full to skip your next meal if you have been close to a roasted cashew jar frequently in a day, that’s how real whole foods work.

By the way I didn’t buy my air fryer to fry food or to roast nuts for that matter, it was because I wanted to dehydrate some ingredients for a product development assignment I was doing couple of years ago. I believe some foods taste better deep fried if they are meant to. Like we love our parathas and pakodas and I would never try and cook them without oil or ghee. I wouldn’t ever want to deprive myself from the goodness of good fats so fried and fatty foods will always be part of our diet, it is the good fats and right way of frying that matters more. Sometime I will write about how to deep fry foods in the best possible way so it is healthy and doesn’t waste the leftover oil.

Air fryer comes handy for a few specific ingredients like potatoes and a few other vegetables, marinated chicken and fish (which have natural fat in them) and paneer etc apart from roasting nuts and even reheating foods so it should just be called hot air oven or something and not an air fryer. In fact I have been getting lot of requests about usage off air fryer after I shared a few pictures of food cooked in air fryer on Instagram, including these roasted cashew nuts.

How to roast nuts in air fryer

Rinse 200-250 gm nuts with plain water, drain excess water and transfer to a mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the required seasoning. Mix well using a fork so the seasoning coats there nuts well.
Transfer the seasoned nuts to the basket of air fryer and spread evenly.
Insert these basket in thee base of the air fryer and lock it.
Switch on the air fryer, set the temperature to 160 C and timer to 4 minutes (for 200-250 gm) and let the nuts roast on their own.
Check the nuts after 4 minutes and transfer them to a dry plate if they are roasted enough for your liking, else push the air fryer basket back and let it brown a little more in its own heat. The air fryer remains quite hot for a few minutes so the nuts keep cooking for some more time to get you nicely browned nuts.

Precautions for roasting nuts in air fryer

Rinse the nuts before roasting. I used to do that even when I roasted nuts in microwave oven and in pan or other methods. It helps even roasting and the flavour of roasted nuts is much better.
Add a little extra (about 20% more than you want) seasoning to the wet nuts after rinsing. The seasoning sticks to the nuts well but a little bit of seasoning comes off while roasting.
If adding lime juice along with seasoning, it is better to let the nuts rest for 5 minutes before roasting. The resting time helps to absorb the extra moisture and flavour of lemon juice.
Take care to not overload the basket with too much nuts. There should be enough small gaps to circulate hot air. If you dump too many nuts at once it may lead to a mix of raw nuts and over browned nuts in the end.
Check the nuts after 2 minutes if you are roasting nuts in the air fryer for the first time. You may want to turn them with a fork for even roasting but it is not needed if the nuts are not overcrowded.
Check the nuts after the air fryer turns off after the set time. Push the basked back along with the nuts ONLY if you want to brown the nuts a bit more. Note that the air fryer cavity remains hot for a few more minutes and the contents keep cooking even if it has turned off automatically.

To make roasted cashew in air fryer (lime and chili flavour)

Rinse 200 GM cashews with plain water. Drain and transfer to a mixing bowl.
Add 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp red chili powder or more to taste, 1 tsp pepper powder, 1 tsp salt and toss well.
Rest the seasoned cashew nuts for 5 minutes.
Transfer the seasoned cashews to the air fryer basket, and bake at 160 C for 4 minutes. Leave the basket inside to brown on its own.

Store the roasted cashew nuts in an airtight container. Serve as desired.