WARMING BUCKWHEAT, BEAN SPROUTS, AND SWEET POTATOES

After a number of weeks of travelling for work and eating out, I came back to SF looking forward to my regular workouts and home-cooked meals. I got that, and a week of cold rainy gloomy weather! I wanted to make something that's high on the feel-good factor - inside and out. Something that's not raw, not bread, not any grain, not eggs, definitely not meat, and something that makes the whole kitchen smell divine and home-y. Enter this dish...

This perfect-for-cold-rainy-weather dish takes very little time but is nourishing and big on flavour. And, the sweet potatoes, mung bean sprouts and buckwheat combination will keep you full without weighing you down. If you're diabetic or otherwise watching your sugar, use cauliflower instead of sweet potato.

Buckwheat is amazing! Contrary to the name, it's not related to wheat and in fact it's not even a grain. It's a seed - like quinoa. It's delicious, easy to cook, light on the digestive system, gluten-free, low glycemic index which makes it suitable for diabetic diets, and is a complete protein since it contains all essential amino acids. And if you must have a gilded lily: like artichoke flowers, buckwheat flowers smell incredible and make a luscious honey with floral notes. It's the bees knees!

Mung beans sprout really fast and since they're a small bean, they're easy on the stomach even when sprouted for just a day. Growing sprouts is really easy, and if you haven't grown them before, you can see my post here on growing sprouts.

Warming Buckwheat, Bean Sprouts, and Sweet Potatoes

makes: 4 main servings

- 1/2 cup buckwheat

- 2 cups mung bean sprouts (or sprouts from any other small bean/legume)

- 2 cups cubed sweet potatoes

- 1 small onion, diced

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1 tsp. minced ginger

- 1 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground

- 1 tsp. cayenne powder

- 1 tsp. turmeric

- 1 tsp. coriander powder

- 1 tsp. cumin powder

- 1 tsp. garam masala (or any curry powder)

- 2 tsp. mustard seeds

- 3 tsp. salt

- 1 tsp. coconut oil (or ghee, or any neutral oil - *not* olive oil)

- 1-1/2 cups water

- 1 tbsp. ghee

- 1 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C. Rinse the buckwheat well and soak in a bowl in plenty of water. In a small bowl mix all the dry spices except the garam masala and mustard.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the sweet potatoes, 1 tsp. salt, 1-2 tsp. spice mixture, coconut oil, and 1 tbsp. water so that the sweet potatoes are evenly coated. Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 25 - 30 min. or until the sweet potatoes are cooked.
3. While the sweet potatoes are baking, heat the ghee in a deep pan, saucepan or Dutch oven on medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and when they start to pop, turn the heat to medium-low, add the onion, garlic, and ginger and saute until the onion is mostly translucent.
4. Add in the spice mixture and bean sprouts. Stir well and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. Drain and add the buckwheat. Turn the heat up to medium-high, stir everything well and cook for 1 - 2 minutes. Add the garam masala and 1 cup  of water. Cover the pan, turn the heat down to low or medium-low and cook for 12 - 15 minutes. Take the lid off, give everything a quick stir - if you can still see water, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook the water off.
5. Turn off the heat and mix in the the sweet potatoes, lemon juice and remaining salt. Taste and adjust salt if needed.
6. Enjoy this delicious warming dish on its own or with a quick salad of diced cucumbers mixed into 1/2 cup of yogurt! Refrigerate leftovers for up to a day - max 2 days.

PINEAPPLE TURMERIC DETOX SMOOTHIE

This is the colour of happy! How can it not be?! It's bright, it's yellow, it's cheery, it's summery, it's healthy, it's... happy! And insanely delicious!

I talked a bit about the nutritive qualities of turmeric in one of my previous smoothie posts. As I said before, one of the things about turmeric is that it's constituents are fat soluble and therefore not very bioavailable when turmeric is consumed on its own. For this reason, when cooking Indian food, powdered turmeric is added to hot ghee or oil, never eaten raw. In fact, after adding turmeric to the hot ghee (or oil), all the remaining spices to be used are also added to the hot ghee. This is because all spices have a fat soluble component and ghee, considered to be a noble fat and a rasayana in Ayurveda, is the preferred carrier for the spices and their fat soluble compounds to the body through our liquid tissue: the blood (hematic) and lymphatic systems. In my turmeric smoothies, I usually add up to a tbsp. of hemp hearts, flax seeds, flax oil, coconut oil, or ghee (I add ghee to savoury smoothies, not fruit-based ones).

If you don't want to add any fat to your turmeric smoothie, it's quite ok. Fresh turmeric root (not dried and powdered) is very high in Vitamin C, a water-soluble compound, so you will still get plenty of benefit from fresh turmeric root. In fact in India, when fresh turmeric is in season, we make a relish of sliced fresh turmeric root seasoned with salt and lemon... it's so delicious and pretty!

Ok so turmeric is definitely a nutritional heavy-hitter... but pineapple's no shrinking violet when it comes to being virtuous! It's one of the most detoxifying fruits, full of digestive enzymes including the lung-cleansing bromelain, antioxidants, Vitamins C and B Complex, manganese, fibre, among other things. In fact even the core of the pineapple has a lot of bromelain so don't throw it away!

Pineapple can interfere with certain medicines though, so if you're taking any medication, especially blood thinners, check with your doctor before having pineapple.

Despite all the great qualities, pineapple can be a bit like a woman at times: gorgeous but a handful to deal with. However, I'd still recommend a fresh pineapple over precut pineapple that's been exposed to light all day long in the store (or even a few days). To easily cut a fresh pineapple: cut it into 1 in. or 1-1/2 in. slices. With a paring knife or other small knife, use a vertical sawing motion to cut out the flesh from the middle, cutting close to the skin (photo above). For the end pieces: cut them into half and carefully cut out the flesh from the skin.

Don't discard the core - it's chock-full of bromelain and other healthy things!!

Pineapple Turmeric Detox Smoothie

makes: 16 oz.

- 2 cups ripe pineapple chunks

- 1 in. piece of raw turmeric (peeled if not organic)
- 1/2 in. piece of ginger

- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 tbsp. hemp hearts, flax seeds, or coconut oil

1. Blend well into a smoothie.
2. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 8 hours. 

INFLAMMATION-REDUCING TURMERIC SMOOTHIE

It's well-known that reducing inflammation internally and topically is one of turmeric's many many salient and healing qualities. In addition to it's quality of imparting a beautiful golden hue to foods, turmeric is used in nearly all Indian savoury foods, because Indian cuisine is rooted in Ayurveda, in which turmeric is revered for it's medicinal and immunizing properties. The beneficial compound in turmeric - curcumin - is fat soluble (not water soluble), so in order to get the best of turmeric, it should be combined with a bit of fat. In my turmeric smoothies I generally add up to 1 tbsp. of hemp hearts, flax seeds, flax oil, coconut oil, or ghee (in savoury smoothies).

However, if you don't want to add fat, you'll still get plenty of Vitamin C, a water soluble compound, from fresh turmeric. So do add it to smoothies as often as you please.

In India internal and topical use of turmeric is ages old, and now it's increasingly being used in the West. When I was at university, I was working on a research project for developing artificial human tissue from the intestinal submucosa of pigs since pig mucosa is closest to human. Anyway in the course of that project I met a woman from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) who was delighted to tell me (since I'm Indian) that BMS is developing a turmeric-based skin care cream for reducing/removing facial hair. I was quite delighted as well, though perhaps a hair less than her. Face masks with turmeric and yogurt are commonly used in India for reducing facial hair and brightening and cooling the skin in the summer.

Sliced fresh turmeric root marinated in lemon juice and salt is also eaten as a relish in India. Generally though, when taken internally, turmeric is paired with a fat to enable assimilation of curcumin compounds. Powdered turmeric used in cooking is briefly sautéed in ghee or oil before other spices and ingredients are added. In this smoothie, I added a tsp. of hemp hearts as the fat along with raw turmeric. If you don't have hemp, you can add a tsp. of coconut, olive, or flax seed oil, or flax seeds to the smoothie.

Inflammation-Reducing Turmeric Smoothie

makes: approximately 32 oz.

- 1/2 in. turmeric root, peeled
- 1/2 in. ginger root, peeled if not organic
- 2 cucumbers, cut into chunks
- 6 stalks celery, cut into chunks
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 tsp. pink Himalayan salt (or uniodized sea salt)
- 1-1/2 tsp. hemp hearts (or flax, coconut, or olive oil)
- 2 cups romaine lettuce
- 3 cups water 

1. In the order listed, put everything except water in a blender.
2. Add 1 cup of water and blend to a thick smooth paste.
3. Add the remaining water and blend to a thin-nish smoothie.
4. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate/store away from heat and light up to 8 hours.