Sattvic Cauliflower

I know the name sounds comical; but then I couldn’t think of a name that would be more appropriate for my blanched, mildly seasoned and sautéed cauliflower florets. I always like my cauliflower just cooked, as in it should still be firm in appearance and soft in texture. Sattvic foods are those that instil sattva guna in us. 

Ok... for those who’ve not come across this stuff: According to Bhagavad Gita, there are three gunas namely sattva guna, tamas guna and rajas guna each of which have their own traits and are there inside every being in different proportions. We would require them in varied scopes depending on our profession, personality and so on. Though these gunas are not determined merely by our food intake, food does have an influence in arousing these gunas in us. Generally, Sattvic foods are fresh fruits and vegetables that are either uncooked or mildly cooked and minimally spiced; Tamasic foods are fatty, meaty, and stale; Rajas foods are spicy, fermented, sour and pickled. Spiritual guidelines encourage us to maximize the sattvic guna while maintaining the other two just at the minimum required levels in order to lead a happy and healthy life.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Cooking Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Cauliflower – 1 small

2.    Salt to taste

3.    Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

4.    Oil – 1 tsp

5.     Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

6.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

7.     Chili powder – ½ tsp

Method:

Step 1: Cut the cauliflower into bite sized florets and clean in warm salted water.

Step 2: Blanch the florets in salted water by adding a pinch of turmeric to it for approximately 2 minutes and immediately drain using a mesh and pour some cold water on the vegetable to prevent further cooking.

Step 3: Heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin seeds in it, sprinkle the asafoetida, red chili powder and toss the blanched cauliflower in it. Adjust salt if required.

Step 4: Serve it as-is like salad or as complement with a rice dish.

Potato Moong Salad

Potato salad is quite filling and so can easily be substituted for a meal. It is considered to have lower GI if eaten boiled, not mashed and cool; hence is a good choice for people who want to lose weight. It is very wholesome with carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Potatoes – 2

2.    Moong sprouts – 1 cup

3.    Tomato – 1

4.    Onion – 1

5.     Green chili – 1

6.    Pepper crushed – ¼ tsp

7.     Salt as per taste

8.    Lemon – ½

9.    Olive oil – ½ tbsp

10.            Coriander chopped – 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes with salt, peel and cube them.

Step 2: Steam the sprouts with a pinch of salt.

Step 3: Chop the onion, tomato, green chili finely.

Step 4: Take all of these in a mixing bowl, sprinkle enough salt, crushed pepper; drizzle olive oil and juice of half a lemon and toss them well.

Step 5: Check and adjust taste before serving normal temperature or chilled.

Urad Sprouts Salad

I tried sprouting every other sprout-able grain before adding them to any recipe; so did I experiment with urad dal also. This is another imitation recipe that I tried, which otherwise we usually make with moong sprouts. As I expected, it did not have any raw smell or urad dal, in fact it did not taste any different from moong sprouts. For most of us urad is dominantly used only in idly/ dosa batter or tadka; this recipe is for people who want to try something new.

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

1.      Sprouted urad dal – 2 cups

2.    Cucumber – 1

3.    Capsicum – 1

4.    Onion – 1

5.     Tomato -1

6.    Olive oil – 1 tbsp

7.     Salt as per taste

8.    Lemon – ½

9.    Pepper crushed – ¼ tsp

10.            Roasted cumin powder – ¼ tsp

Method:

Step 1: Chop the cucumber, capsicum, onion and tomato.

Step 2: Toss the chopped vegetables and sprouted urad dal in a bowl.

Step 3: Sprinkle salt, crushed pepper, cumin powder and squeeze juice of half a lemon. Drizzle olive oil and toss well again.

Step 4: Serve garnished with mint leaves.

Sprouted Moong Salsa

This is a simple salad that I make often at home for it is tasty as a chaat and good as a salad. I have named it sprouted moong salsa because I use all ingredients that go into salsa plus the sprouted green gram to make this salad. Another best part of this salad is just with a tad bit of salt it strikes so well without any other seasoning. It is so simple to make with every ingredient usually available at home all the time yet is very refreshing and healthy.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

1.      Sprouted green gram – 1 ½ cups

2.    Onion – 1

3.    Tomato – 2

4.    Green Chilies – 2 (you can replace with 2 pinches of pepper if serving for kids)

5.     Coriander – few sprigs

6.    Lemon – ½

7.     Olive oil – ½ tbsp

8.    Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Take sprouted moong in a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Finely chop onion, tomato, green chilies, coriander and add all these to the moong.

Step 3: Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt and squeeze half a lemon into it.

Step 4: Toss the salad well and adjust salt if required.

Step 5: Serve it fresh before it starts to water.

TIPS:

*Mint leaves can be used instead of coriander.

*In the absence of fresh coriander or mint, dried herbs like Italian seasoning can be used to flavour the salad.

Broken Samba Wheat Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is an arab salad conventionally made from a wheat kind of cereal called bulgur which is parboiled and dried, process similar to our parboiled rice. This bulgur is high in fiber, protein that is easily digestible and so is the samba broken wheat which I've used for my version. Couscous and quinoa can also be used in the same recipe instead of broken wheat. My addition to the simple traditional tabbouleh is some pomegranate beads and capsicum.

Ingredients:

1. Broken samba wheat - 1 cup
2. Onion - 1
3. Tomato - 1
4. Capsicum -1
5. Pomegranate beads - 3 tbsp
6. Coriander chopped - 3 tbsp
7. Olive oil - 1 tbsp
8. Salt as required
9. Pepper crushed - 1/2 tsp
10. Lemon - 1/2

Method:

Step 1: Boil 2 cups of salted water and cook the cleaned broken wheat in that until done. In case there is excess water, drain it completely.

Step 2: Finely chop the onion, tomato (seeds and inside removed), capsicum, coriander and squeeze half a lemon's juice into the chopped vegetables.

Step 3: Add pomegranate beads, coriander, salt and toss in the veg bowl.

Step 4: Now add the cooked broken wheat, crushed pepper, olive oil and toss well again.

Step 5: Serve immediately. If you prefer it cool, chill the chopped vegetables before mixing with the wheat.

Coleslaw

I tried this coleslaw with a purple cabbage without the traditional coleslaw seasoning. It is very simple and refreshing.

Ingredients:

1. Small purple cabbage - 1
2. Onion - 1
3. Salt as required
4. Pepper crushed - 1/2 tsp
5. Vinegar - 1 tsp
6. Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
7. Roasted sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
8. Coriander leaves

Method:

Step 1: Shred the cabbage, cut the onion into thin long slices and chop the coriander leaves.
Step 2: Now in a bowl toss them all by drizzling vinegar, gingelly oil and sprinkling salt and pepper.
Step 3: Garnish with roasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Simple fine salad

We had our lunch at Cholaiyil Sanjeevanam yesterday. I would say it was a heaven on plate, ok...plantain leaf; very wholesome it was :)
The Rajakeeyam, royal lunch started with five super shots namely 1. Dates juice 2. Nuts milkshake 3. Salted vegetable stock 4. Minted buttermilk 5. Flavored rice starch followed by several morsels of vegetables; uncooked, semi-cooked and fully cooked that included plantain stem, plantain flower, squash, pumpkin, green leafy vegetables and others. Then both steamed red rice and white rice were served with pureed dal, sambar, morkuzhambu, rasam and buttermilk along with paruppu payasam. The food served is said to be had in the same order of serving for best results ;) After you are done, they pour a spoon of honey into your palm that is said to help digestion and finally will be given a natural beeda along with the nominal bill of Rs.220 per Rajakeeyam lunch. Good lunch :) :) :)

Original recipe Source: Sanjeevanam restaurant

I tried something with this inspiration at home today for lunch but very few items relatively.

1. Beet root soup
2. Simple fine salad
3. Plantain stem raita
4. Steamed cabbage salad
5. Plain rice
6. Capsicum sambar
7. Roasted papad
8. Cumin flavored buttermilk

We both usually have max of 3 items (rice, vegetable, curry) for a meal. But it was so good to have many items in a single meal, its a balanced one, huh :)

In this post I share the simple fine salad that is not the imitation but the inspiration from rajakeeyam salad. I think they had mixed chopped cabbage, beet root, raw mango with some salt. So simple yet tasty. My version below:

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage - 1 cup finely chopped
2. Beetroot - 1/2 cup finely chopped
3. Onion - 1/4 cup finely chopped
4. Lemon - 1/2
5. Salt to taste
6. Pepper powder - 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Mix all the ingredients and serve chilled.

TIPS:
* You can also add vegetables like carrot, capsicum, etc.
* For more spicy salad, add finely chopped green chilies and season with cut coriander leaves.

Russian Salad

Sometimes we would like to have a non-boring and filling salad. Russian salad would be one of the most appropriate items in this category. It is creamy and very delectable and yet simple to make. I had made this with things that I had at home but there are other ways to make it which you can find on web.

Ingredients:

1.      Carrot – 1

2.      Apple – 1

3.      Capsicum – 1 cup

4.      Crushed white pepper – ¼ tsp

5.      Salt – 1 pinch

6.      Mayonnaise – 1 tbsp

7.      Fresh Cream – 2 tbsp (can be replaced with yoghurt or sour cream as you like it)

8.      Sugar – ½ tsp

9.      Lemon juice – 1 tsp

10.   Herb for garnishing (Mint, Coriander, Basil or so)

Method:

Step 1: Make juliennes out of carrot and apple. Mix apple, carrot and cabbage in a bowl and coat with lemon juice to avoid oxidation. Refrigerate salad for sometime.

Step 2: In a small cup take mayonnaise, fresh cream, salt, sugar, pepper and beat until smooth; add few drops    of milk if the paste is too hard and make the dressing to ketchup like consistency

Step 3: Before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss them to coat evenly. Garnish with herb of your choice and serve chilled.