Month: October 2014

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What to eat in Fall ?

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  • Fall is here. It’s cooler and leaves have turned colorful. Weather changing time is when mostly people get sick. So you want to stay in harmony with nature.
  • Fall is associated with Metal phase in chinese medicine and Ayurveda says it’s “Vata” season. Same thing..diff way of looking at it.
  • So what to eat in Fall? Of course whatever is growing in fall now. No brainer but not many ppl follow it.
  • All winter squashes like butternut, acorn, spaghetti squashes, pumpkin.
  • Root vegetables like turnip, rutabaga. Greens will be plenty and cheap in stores.
  • Limit sugar. All winter squash recipes online are very sugary i feel. They taste great with just little oil or butter, salt and pepper if you are not into spices.
  • I made butter squash today. Cut it in half and pressure cooked whole chunk for 1 whistle.
  • Now it was easy to peel and cut. Seasoned with spices.
  • Twist was, i had some methi growing in pot so added methi too.  Like popular gujju  “kela methi nu shak”. Mine is fusion recipe. Butternut squash with methi.
  • Easy curry with full of nutrition.
  • Find a way to eat all wonderful nutritious  fall vegetables.
  • Winter squashes stay good for a long time. You can just leave them on counter.
  • Enjoy !
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Simple Pumpkin Curry

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  • Do you know that most of the carving pumpkins are edible? And actually they are nutritional powerhouse. Alright..i read that somewhere on net.
  • So after carving my very 1st pumpkin, i had a big chunk of pumpkin. How can i let that nutrition powerhouse go waste?
  • Also was curious how this pumpkin will taste
  • And instead of trying to find another vegetable to cook, why not use what you have?  It’s also seasonal.
  • Too many reasons to try…..made very simple curry with it. 
  • It turned out too yummy and it took hardly 5 mins. Must try..i will have to buy pumpkin just to cook now.
  • Wash it and remove peel from pumpkin and chop into bite size pieces.
  • Heat little oil, crack cumin, mustard seeds. Add pumpkin pieces, turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin-coriandor powder and salt. If you have curry powder, then just use that.
  • Give it a good stir, add some water, cover and cook. It cooks pretty quick.
  • That’s it…power curry ready. 🙂
  • Enjoy !

PS:  Don’t use pumpkin after you kept outside for decoration. May be it’s spoiled.

 

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After Holidays

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  • Am sure everyone enjoyed Diwali and had plenty of goodies. Me too… 🙂  There’s no reason to feel guilty abt it. Festivals are to celebrate and have fun.
  • Here’s what i would eat after holidays or in between holiday parties just to keep things in balance.
  • Mung dal soup is a good choice since it  detoxify too. Don’t forget to squeeze little fresh lemon juice on it. I had with a piece of  home made whole wheat bread.
  • Mung dal khichadi with vegetables is another good choice. Easy to digest, nourishing and light.
  • Any soup with lots of vegetables is good. I don’t like to add dairy to my soup though.
  •  South indian rasam is good too.
  • Enjoy !
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All Abt Ghee

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  • “Ghee makes body flexible. Good for improving memory and lubricates connective tissue.”  – excerpt from book Ayurvedic Cooking for self-healing .
  • All indians know importance of ghee and we all grew up having little ghee depending on how much family could afford. Good quality ghee in india is expensive.
  • But now with weight problems, cholesterol or simply a new craze to not have ghee. 
  • Ghee has many benefits and ayurveda praises ghee a lot.  It’s tridoshic. If you know your ayurveda type, for vata and pitta ghee is good. And kapha can have little bit too.
  • If you have weight problems, cholesterol then you don’t want to eat ghee or you can have very little and give up some other fat.
  • Same for kapha types, they can give up some other fat from diet and include little ghee.
  • I will tell you my experience with ghee. There was a time when i didn’t eat any ghee too and i used to have dry skin even in summer.  When i started learning abt all food and realised ghee is good, i added little bit ghee back in my diet. Didn’t know much abt Ayurveda then.  I did notice that my skin was not dry anymore, no dandruff…i know..yuck.
  • It’s easy to make and there are plenty of recipes, videos online.
  • How to use ghee: Add like 1/2 tsp on your soup instead of cheese, spread on tortilla or sandwich bread instead of other spreads, oil . Half tsp over rice. Or over your steamed vegetables.
  • Enjoy !
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Fig Laddus, Mind And Diwali

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  • Is everyone making snacks, sweets for Diwali and sharing with friends, family?
  • There are lots of Diwali recipes for everything online which are very helpful and thanks to all wonderful cooks who are sharing their recipes.
  • I saw this wonderful burfi recipe here: http://litebite.in/recipe-gulkand-nuts-burfi-fudge/
  • As you all know my fig story, when i saw recipe using figs i wanted to try. But then i hardly make sweets so wasn’t sure how successful i will be.
  • And that’s when mind started playing it’s what i call games.
  • Mind: You know how much everyone is loving figs, you should give to ppl instead of experimenting and wasting them.
  • Me: Almost convinced, then wait a min… I will not experiment right now and when i won’t have tree, i will regret not trying out recipes using fresh figs. I have been wanting to make sweet using figs for a while. Phew…  Decided, m gonna experiment.
  • Don’t we all go thro’ this kinda scenarios now and then? Anytime we want to try something new, we find a reason not to do it.  Just to regret later….If we are AWARE, then we know when it’s mind playing games or there’s a genuine reason not to do something.
  • Back to recipe:  Blend fresh figs first, soak dates in it for 30 mins. If needed, add little milk. Blend everything again. I had more figs so added more figs but fig, date ratio is flexible.
  • Heat ghee (add more, less depends on you) or unsalted butter,  add fig-date mixture and cook until it becomes thick. Use nonstick pan. Now add sugar.
  • Add cardamom powder, chopped nuts of your choice.
  • First i spread on thali and thought will cut squares but then it’s was little soft. So i ended up making laddus and covered with dry coconut powder.
  • My friends liked them very much and asked to put it on blog hence they made it here. 
  • Happy Diwali Everyone ! May you all light your own lamp !