 Here’s a delicious recipe from my friend Amee Shah Meghani, who runs her own food blog at Rabbit Food Rocks focusing on how to make relatively simple dishes inspired by Indian and other traditions. What I like about her recipes is that they’re made of mostly plants. Here’s a recipe of hers courtesy of Herbivoracious. The recipe is also posted here courtesy of Amee! (Just click on "Read More" below.) Add Comment  Yet another recipe from "The Healthy Indian Diet!" (If you have the book, it's on page 142. Find the other posted recipes here.) Mung (or moong) beans, with their green outer husk intact, are a rich source of fiber and calcium and more easily digested than other beans. This wholesome, hearty Mung Dal recipe is packed with protein, and eating it with brown rice or just by itself as a soup is wonderfully comforting! Prep Time: 4 hours for soaking Mung Beans Cook Time: 30 minutes Serves: 4 (click read more below for the whole recipe)  Another recipe by Anuja and Hetal (of ShowMeTheCurry.com) from our book "The Healthy Indian Diet"! Doi Maach is a popular Bengali fish curry made with unmistakable and aromatic mustard oil. Rohu fish is used to get the authentic flavor but can be substituted with red snapper, halibut, cod, haddock or swordfish. Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Serves: 2-3 Ingredients: Rohu fish – ½ lb (substitutes: red snapper, halibut, cod, haddock, swordfish) Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp + ¼ tsp Salt – ¼ tsp + ¼ tsp or to taste Onion – ½ medium, blended Mustard oil – 3 tbsp Cardamom – 4 Click Read More (below) to get the rest of this delicious recipe.  A tasty recipe from my part of India. Whether you believe the Ayurvedic school of thought or not, you can't go wrong with kitcheri. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/ayurvedic-diet-kitcheri-vatas Ingredients 1 cup Basmati rice 2 cups Mung Dahl (split yellow lentils) 7 cups (approx) water Pinch of salt 1 tsp freshly cut ginger root 2 tbsp ghee Click "read more" to see the rest of the recipe.  We're trying this for the first time. Here's a recipe from our book "The Healthy Indian Diet," page 156 in the paperback. If you like it or put your own personal twist to the recipe, let us know. Asparagus is not usually associated with Indian cooking. The long bright-green spears have tender tips while the tough ends are discarded. Asparagus is a nutrient-rich food that is high in folic acid and a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C and thiamin. Many people tend to overlook this delicious vegetable due to lack of know-how in the preparation stage. Now, you can try fresh and tender Asparagus – the Indian way! Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Serves: 4 Ingredients: Asparagus – 1 lb, chopped into bite-sized pieces Canola oil – 1 tbsp Cumin seeds – ½ tsp Fennel seeds (powdered) – ½ tsp Ginger – 1 tsp, grated or crushed Garlic – 5 large cloves, roughly chopped Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped Salt – to taste Red chili powder – to taste Method: 1. Wash asparagus and snap the white/hard ends and discard. 2. Chop into bite-sized pieces. 3. In a skillet, heat oil on medium heat. 4. Add cumin seeds and allow them to splutter. 5. Add powdered fennel seeds, ginger and garlic and cook for a minute. 6. Add tomatoes and cook until soft. 7. Add asparagus, salt and red chili powder. Mix well. 8. Cook uncovered for 5-6 minutes until moisture has evaporated. 9. Serve hot with paratha.  Ever tried making brown rice for breakfast? Me either, but this is what Mark Bittman admits to doing in his piece in the NY Times. And the next open morning I get, I'm going to give it a try. Mr. Bittman explains how brown rice has become mainstream (which it true as you can find it at Wal-Mart and even ethnic grocers and restaurants) and gives us a few easy recipes. The recipes look delicious. I'm a believer that if we all switched from white rice to brown rice, we'd all be healthier. (See the evidence here and here.) But I know it's hard to make the switch because white rice tastes so good. But brown rice tastes good too, and in addition to our excellent masala brown rice recipe in "The Healthy Indian Diet" (a dish I make at least once a week, often with curry sauce and always with turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon and sautéd vegetables) I feel Mr. Bittman's recipes are worth adding to the repertoire!  By the way, you can learn much by reading comments. For example, here's a great rice cooker named the Zojirushi for making brown rice, which is less convenient than white rice (which is pure starch and quick to cook). A couple people also explain exactly why brown rice is healthier than white rice: there's nutrition in the brown parts of the rice grain that are removed to make white rice. Overall, Mr. Bittman's concise piece on brown rice is worth a read if not for an understanding of what constitutes brown rice and all of its varieties, then for the recipe ideas.  Here's a recipe from our recently released book "The Healthy Indian Diet" that's dahi (yogurt) mixed with Indian spices and herbs (e.g., mint). If you'd like to watch a video of Anuja & Hetal (my co-writers) making this summer drink, click here to go to the ShowMeTheCurry.com website.
Ingredients: Yogurt – 1 cup Ice – 1½ cups Cumin powder – ½ tsp (roasted) Chat Masala – 1 tsp Salt – to taste Mint – a handful (fresh) Cilantro – 10 sprigs Green Chili – 1 (optional) To read the instructions, click "Read More" to the bottom right.  Here's a fusion recipe incorporating dal (lentils) and spices commonly used in Indian cooking. While you won't find it in our book -- it's created by Martha Rose Shulman, who's been featured in the NY Times and wrote the cookbook "The Very Best Recipes for Health" -- this recipe fits within the Healthy Indian Diet profile. For the recipe, click here. Take it from me: it's easy to make and really tasty! Here's a recipe in our book The Healthy Indian Diet (available in mid-June) that features quinoa, a seed that substitutes quite well for rice. Unlike rice, you get plenty of protein (and a complete set of amino acids) from quinoa. Plus it has "good carbs," plenty of fiber, and minerals just like whole grains do, and it's gluten-free, a big reason why quinoa's become more popular. The chefs at ShowMeTheCurry.com transform the traditional Indian dish pulao (or pilau or pilaf) from one that's made from white rice (an unhealthy refined grain) into a dish rich in nutrition. In my opinion, it tastes better too (it's got a certain "nuttiness" you may like). The dish takes 45 minutes to cook after soaking the quinoa for 30 minutes. Enjoy! RECIPE Quinoa is a grain-like crop often referred to as a complete protein. (Grains, on the other hand, do not contain complete proteins and thus must be combined with lentils or dals.) Quinoa has cooking properties similar to white rice and can easily be used as a healthy substitute, as seen in this recipe for Quinoa Pulao. Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus 30 minutes for soaking) Cook Time: 50 minutes Serves: 4 to 6 Ingredients: Quinoa – 2 cups Canola oil – 2 tbsp Bay leaf – 1 Cinnamon – 1-inch piece Black cardamom -1 Green cardamom – 2 Black pepper – 4 or to taste, roughly crushed Cloves – 4, roughly crushed Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp Onion – ½ medium, finely chopped Ginger – 1 tbsp, minced Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced Green chilies – to taste, finely chopped Corn – 1 cup Green peas – 1 cup Carrots – 1 cup, chopped Garam masala – 1 tsp Coriander powder – 1 tsp Cumin powder – ½ tsp Salt – to taste Water – 3 cups Lemon/lime juice – to taste Cilantro – chopped for garnishing Method: 1. Wash quinoa and soak in ample water for 30 minutes. 2. Drain water and set quinoa aside. 3. Heat oil in a medium pan on medium heat. 4. Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, black cardamom and green cardamom. Cook for 30 seconds. 5. Add black pepper, cloves and cumin seeds. Allow them to sizzle. 6. Add turmeric powder and onions. Cook for 1 minute. 7. Add ginger, garlic and green chilies. Mix well and cook until onions are translucent. 8. Add quinoa and roast for 5 minutes. 9. Add corn, green peas, carrots, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder and salt. Mix. 10. Add water and lemon juice. 11. Mix and bring water to a boil. 12. Reduce heat to low, cover with a tight lid and cook for 30 minutes. 13. Uncover, fluff quinoa gently with a fork, cover and let it rest for 5 minutes. 14. Garnish with cilantro and serve. | BookWhere to find the book
Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Where to find the e-Book Amazon Kindle Apple iPad/iPhone B&N Nook Smashwords for other e-reader devices  AuthorHello! I'm a physician in Houston who reads & writes about what we eat & our health. The Healthy Indian Diet, written by Hetal and Anuja of ShowMeTheCurry and myself, was published in 2011. ContactGood Reads<> David B. Agus Blog
<> Happy Healthy Long Life - a medical librarian's take on evidence-based healthy living <> Today's Link by Michael Pollan, famous writer on the nature of food <> NY Times Well Blog - health and wellness topics <> LA Times Health section - same as above <> The Nutrition Source hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health - a site of useful info on nutrition <> American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - highest rated academic journal in nutrition and dietetics <> Healthy Indian Recipes - a UK site using a wholesome approach to making Indian food ArchivesApril 2013 CategoriesAll Disclaimer: The facts, advice and opinion on www.healthyindiandiet.com are based on scientific evidence published in journals. However, no content should be construed as medical advice. You should seek the counsel of your physician before making changes based on the content, especially if you have a medical condition. |
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