Incredible Moringa Leaves

Moringa leaves are incredible. They are packed with all the essential amino acids, contains vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, iron. Extremely nutritious, its healing properties are exploited in Ayurveda and Sidha medicine. The powder from this leaf is used to treat malnourished children. It is also believed that eating this leaf produces more milk in post-natal women. The leaf is soothing and tends to reduce blood pressure.

Well now lets move onto what we can make with these leaves. I bought moringa leaves from a Vietnamese store in San Diego. In South India this is available in abundance. Here is one simple recipe to use the moringa leaves -

Kara Adai (Mixed dal, rice crepe) with Moringa leaves

Recipe

1. Soak 1 cup each of toor dal, chana dal and 3/4 cup of urad dal in water for about 6 hours.
2. Soak 3 cups of Idly rice in water for about 6 hours.
3. Add salt. Grind them in a stone grinder or a blender. The batter could be slightly coarse.
4. Take a tbsp of batter and add about 10 red chillies and 5 green chillies (use judgement in using the chillies as appropriate)
5. Add the moringa leaves to the batter and make the crepes.
6. Serve with coriander chutney.

Tips
1. For kids reduce the chilli usage.
2. Grate carrots finely and add along with the moringa leaves.

References/Sources

1. Incredible moringa leaves.
You will need Adobe PDF reader to read this article. Adobe reader can be obtained from here.
2. Moringa - A Common Tree with Rare Power.
3. Moringa - Health benefits
4. Wikipedia - Moringa

Hearty Tomato Soup

Seek beauty through simplicity. - Jon Bentley

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. All one needs - a bunch of tomatoes, a small onion and one small potato. This hearty soup can be prepared in less than 15 minutes.

Preparation

1. Pressure cook or steam cook the tomatoes, onion and potato. Optionally you can add some carrots, cabbage also.
2. Puree the vegetables.
3. Add salt and pepper and let it simmer in low flame for about 5 minutes.
4. Enjoy with bread.

Check this site for the beneficial effects of tomato.

Papaya-Kiwi fruit salad

Kiwi fruit has a striking interior. The fruit by itself is tart to acidic in taste. Papaya on the other hand has a milder taste more like cantaloupe. Mixing papaya and kiwi fruit is a happy marriage and gives the right kind of balance. Add a dash of black salt to spice it up a tiny bit and enjoy the goodness of papaya and kiwi. Papaya is a rich source of vitamin B,C and iron. Kiwi is a good source of vitamin C.

Preparation

1. Cut papaya into small cubes
2. slice the kiwi fruit to small pieces.
3. Mix them both and add a dash of black salt

Whole wheat flour Calzones

My foray into the calzone territory was a happy accident. I have always wanted to make my own pizzas. Primary reason being I can customize the pizza to suit my needs - namely less cheese, more vegetables, home-made sauce. So I was more than happy when I found the whole wheat flour pizza dough at Trader Joe's. My job was half done and still there was scope for my creativity! I made one small pizza and there was still dough remaining to make some other item. I tried out the calzones and could recommend this for any picnics - healthy alternative to the tasty samosas.

Recipe

Ingredients
1. Wheat flour pizza dough (Trader Joe's has this)
2. Tomato ketchup
3. Spinach
4. Beans
5. Carrots
6. Onions
Adding other vegetables like cauliflower, corn, tofu chunks are optional

Preparation
1. Add a little oil in a container and when slightly hot, add cumin seeds and let it crackle.
2. Add the finely cut onions.
3. Steam cook the beans, carrots, and cut spinach for about 5 minutes in microwave
and then add these to the onions.
4. Sprinkle chilli powder, salt and remove from fire.
5. Take a small lemon sized dough. Just brush it with little oil to stretch them into thin 6" diameter discs.
6. Spread a table spoon(tbsp) of tomato ketchup on this disc.
7. Add the filling and close it.
9. Preheat the oven to about 400 F. Put the calzones to bake for about 15-20 minutes.Turn the other side halfway through.
10. Serve with tomato ketchup.

Mint Pulao

Mint...A cool and refreshing herb. Oh the aroma of mint - just fills up the kitchen, makes the culinary journey with mint all the more enjoyable. Add some leaves to salad, lemonade or tea to make it zesty. Mint has lots of medicinal uses as detailed in this article. Its a good source of vitamin C and vitamin A. It aids in digestion. Chutney, thuvayal, pulao are just few of delicious recipes one can make with mint.

Mint is easy to grow. Most of the times, the problem would be to keep the growth under control. It needs lots of sun and water. I have had limited success with growing mint. Undeterred after hearing many success stories, I just can't wait to grow it this summer.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Bunch of mint leaves


• 1/2 bunch of cilantro


• 3-4 green chillies


• ginger


• 1 medium size onion


• 2 tbsp of coconut


• 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste


• 1 small cup of Peas


• cumin seeds

Preparation

1. Blend all the ingredients except green peas in a blender by adding water as necessary


2. In a kadai add little oil, add cumin seeds and wait until it crackles.


3. Add the boiled peas


4. Add the pureed mixture to this and close the kadai and let it cook until the water is all gone and the mixture represents a thick paste


5. Cook basmati rice separately


6. Mix the rice and the thick mixture together to make the pulao


7. Enjoy with cucumber yogurt (raitha)

Lima beans and French beans curry

Most of my weekend grocery shopping happens at "Henry's marketplace". I was fascinated by the display of the bean varieties. This store also lists the fiber, protein content for all the bean varieties - very useful in decision making. I picked up lima beans this time to experiment with. Lima beans are rich in soluble fiber. It's high potassium content and low sodium content also helps reducing blood pressure.

Here is a simple french beans curry recipe adapted to include lima beans.

Recipe:

1. Soak lima beans in water for 7-8 hours.
2. Pressure cook the lima beans drain water and keep aside. The water could be used for making sambhar.
3. Steam cook the cut french beans until soft.
4. In a container add little oil, add some mustard seeds and let it crackle. Add some asafoetida powder (optional).
5. Sautee the french beans and cooked lima beans for 5 minutes.
6. Add salt, curry powder or chilli powder according to taste cook for a few minutes and remove.

Whole Wheat Flour

There are several kinds of wheat flour in the market, all-purpose flour, enriched flour and whole wheat flour. They vary in the amount of gluten content, the processing method.

Whole wheat flour is a good source of iron, fiber and calcium. It is a staple food in many parts of India and is used to make chapathis, rotis, parathas.

Here are some tips to make the whole wheat flour more nutritious -

• Add quarter cup of soy/ragi flour for every cup of wheat flour. Mix and refrigerate.

Soy flour boosts the protein content of the chapathis, rotis, parathas. Ragi flour enriches the calcium content.

Green Tea

There is lot of evidence touting the health benefits of green tea
that it reduces cholesterol, full of anti-oxidants etc etc. Well as for me, the subtle flavor induced by green tea makes the warm water drinkable.

The Tea Companion books is an excellent resource guide on all kinds of tea found around the world.

Preparation

Take one spoon of tea and add warm water (about 80 F) to the cup. Let it
stand for 3-4 minutes. Separate the green leaves and use it for preparing
another cup. Don't add milk or sugar. Drink as is, a sip at a time. Enjoy the
different flavors each sip induces.

You can add a wedge of lemon to green tea. This is especially good in times of cold. You can use a tea cup as one in the picture above or a tea infuser to make a cup of green tea.

Green Gram Dal Dosa

Green Gram dal is an excellent source of protein. This dal finds a way to enter my kitchen in numerous ways. It is packed with nutrition. It is a known fact that soaking the green gram dal in water for 2/3 days increases its nutritive value many folds. Here is a simple recipe from green gram dal.

Preparation Time : 1hour

Recipe

1. Soak 1 cup of green gram dal for about 6-7 hours.
2. Grind the soaked green gram with a piece of ginger and 5-6 green chillies in a blender.
3. In a vessel add a little oil and let the cumin seeds crackle.
4. Shallow fry some finely cut onions and cumin and add to the batter
5. Add salt
6. Make dosas the usual way.
7. Serve with Tomato chutney or capsicum chutney.

Tips

1. For kids - use less green chillies. Rest of the recipe remains same.
2. While making dosas, cover and cook. Gets cooked faster as the heat is retained.