MIXED SPROUTS: GUJARATI CUISINE

Mixed Sprouts: Gujarati Cuisine

makes: 6 servings

- 6 cups sprouts

- 1 tbsp. plain or spiced ghee (or coconut oil)

- 2 dried cayenne chiles or chiles de arbol

- 1 tsp. heeng (asafoetida)

- 1 tsp. ajmo (ajwain, carom/bishop's weed seeds)

- 1 tsp. powdered turmeric

- 1 tsp. powdered cumin

- 1 tsp. powdered coriander

- 1 tsp. cayenne powder

- 1 tbsp. tamarind paste

- 2 - 3 tbsp. jaggery (or sugar, to taste)

- 3 cups water

- 1 tbsp. salt

- 4 tbsp. chopped cilantro, to garnish

- 1 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Heat the ghee in a large pan, add in heeng, ajwain, whole red chilies. 
2. When it's all aromatic, add the sprouts, turmeric, enough water to submerge the sprouts. Pressure cook until done. 
3. OR - Add steamed sprouts, turmeric, and just enough water to submerge the sprouts. 
4. Cook to a simmer, then add powdered cumin, coriander, cayenne powder, tamarind paste, and jaggery. Bring to a fast simmer and cook for a few minutes. 
5. Lower the heat and add salt. Taste and adjust seasonings. 
6. Turn off the heat and garnish with lemon juice and cilantro. Enjoy!

STIR-FRIED SWEET PEPPERS WITH COCONUT AND PEANUTS

Summer comfort food at it's best! I love these stir-fried peppers - or shaak as we call it in Gujarati - with rotli, these gluten-free flatbreads, or rice. It's flavourful, healthy, fresh, and light. Try it!

Adapted from here.

Stir-Fried Sweet Peppers with Coconut and Peanuts

makes: 4 servings

- 1 lb. (~1/2 kg) sweet mini peppers, stemmed, washed and sliced into rounds

- 1/4 cup raw peanuts

- 2 dried whole cayenne chiles

- 1/4 cup desiccated coconut (unsweetened)

- 2 tsp. salt

- 1 tsp. sugar

- 2 tbsp. coconut, safflower, sunflower, or other neutral oil (not olive oil!)

- 1 tsp. cumin seeds

- 1 tbsp. caraway seeds (shah jeeru, or cumin seeds)
- 1 tsp. mustard seeds

- 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder

- 1/8 cup water

- 2 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Dry roast the peanuts, caraway seeds, and dried chiles on medium-low heat till they are fragrant and the peanuts and chiles are lightly browned in some spots. Turn the heat off and cool. Transfer the roasted peanuts, cumin, and chiles to a blender or spice grinder. Add the coconut, sugar, and salt and grind into a coarse powder.
2. Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat and add the cumin and mustard seeds. Once they sizzle and the mustard seeds start to pop, add the turmeric and sliced peppers and mix well. Add the water, cover, and cook for 4-5 minutes.
3. Uncover, add the coarsely powdered spices, and mix well. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes uncovered, stirring once.
4. Turn off the heat, add the lemon juice, stir.
5. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with the chopped cilantro. Serve with roti or rice.

SMOOTHIES GALORE, SWEET AND SAVOURY!

My family and friends often ask me for smoothie recipes and everytime - despite having this blog which I started so I could easily share recipes with everyone - I end up typing the recipes a few times to send to each person. So I decided to do a bit of a smoothie compendium. In this post I'm including some of the smoothies I make very often, if not almost everyday.

PRODUCE

Select fresh seasonal produce for your smoothies when its at peak flavour. There are some things I make a point to buy organic - herbs, tomatoes, root vegetables, apples, peaches, all berries, leafy greens, and corn- to name a few. But if you can't get organic produce, it's ok. Use whatever you get at your local market, just make sure its fresh and not wrinkled, stale looking, or partly rotten. Turmeric I always use raw but you could use powdered as well.

SEASONINGS

Remember that seasonings go a *long* way when blended so start small and add more if you want. I sometimes add a small amount of salt to my savoury smoothies because I like the slightly savoury element salt brings to the smoothie. You can, however, easily leave out the salt without negatively affecting the taste. Interestingly, celery adds a hint of saltiness to smoothies so you can use it instead if you wish. To savoury smoothies (sometimes also called raw soups) I add a bit of garlic, pepper, or crushed chile for a slight kick.

STORING SMOOTHIES

Smoothies and juices are of course best within 8-12 hours of blending, but if you really need to, you can safely store them in the fridge for 2 days. Or freeze them for a few days. Before I travel somewhere, I often freeze a couple of smoothies so I have a healthy meal or breakfast ready when I'm back.

Smoothies will develop flavour over a few hours, which is especially great when you're trying to ease into intense tasting things like kale, collard greens, mustard greens, etc. I don't ever have time to make smoothies in the morning so I make them at night and by the next morning, after everything has had time to meld together, I have a refreshing energising and filling bottle of the best meal ever!

The photos below are just ideas, feel free to modify ingredients based on whatever's in season or in your fridge. I don't use dairy in my smoothies and I also don't mix melons with other fruits. Herbs and greens like spinach are ok with melons. More on food combining later... 

RAW SOUP, OR SAVOURY DINNER SMOOTHIE

I love this mildly earthy raw soup at any time but especially at dinner when I don't want the sweetness of fruits, and need a quick dinner after the gym. 

Raw Soup, or Savoury Dinner Smoothie

makes: 32 oz.

- 1 small beetroot, peeled and cubed

- 1 cup cucumber chunks

- 2 small zucchini, cubed

- 1 capsicum (any colour), trimmed and cut into chunks

- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes (or tomato chunks)

- 1 packed cup red amaranth (sometimes also called red spinach) or other greens

- 12-15 sprigs cilantro (or parsley)

- 1 tbsp. fennel seeds (optional)

- 1 lemon, juiced

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 2 - 3 cups water

1. Put all the vegetables, fennel seeds if using, lemon juice, salt, and 1-1/2 cups water into a blender jar. Blend everything till smooth. Add water to adjust consistency and enjoy! This will keep in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

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.

LYCHEE CUCUMBER SMOOTHIE

Not that we need much convincing to eat this silky juicy fruit by the bagful, but lychees are very high in Vitamin C! Just 10-12 lychees provide 100% of the US Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of Vitamin C. Even if you don't consider the US RDA as sound nutritional advice, lychees are an exceptional little fruit. In addition to Vitamin C, lychees are rich in minerals - potassium, phosphorous, copper, to name a few.

Lychees are very sweet and juicy, but not intensely flavoured. So I like to eat them plain or with a few other fruits. I also like them in smoothies with complementary mild ingredients like mint, ginger, and cucumber. This smoothies is so light and refreshing, you'll want to make it often!

Lychee Cucumber Smoothie

makes: 20 oz.

- 2 cups lychee flesh (~20 lychees, skin and pits removed)

- 1 Persian cucumber, cut into chunks

- 7-10 mint leaves (from 2 sprigs)

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

- 1 cup water

1. Put everything in a blender jar in this order: lychees, cucumber, ginger, mint leaves, water.
2. Blend on High into a smoothie.
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy! Or refrigerate for up to 12 hrs.

GREEN GOLD SMOOTHIE

This is one of the most refreshing smoothies ever! The colour is a beautiful bright green thanks to the golden pineapple and mango that soften the deep green from spinach, and the flavour is crisp and refreshing. I'll be making this a lot more.

Flax seeds, like hemp hearts, are a nutritional bazooka. Flax seeds are a complete protein - i.e. they contain all 9 essential amino acids. Most proteins have to be combined with others to make complete protein, but not flax seeds. They can hold their own!

Flax seeds are also one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-9 are the other two types of omega fats - more on those later). Omega-3 fatty acids are the parent molecule for anti-inflammatory hormones in the body and, as with most things, food is the best source rather than supplements.

Ironically, the high omega-3 content of flax seeds makes them highly volatile when pulverised. Flax powder or oil is sold in dark containers to prevent oxidation from exposure to light. Similarly, heat also destroys omega-3 fats and flax seed oil should never be heated. If you're buying flax seed oil, buy organic, cold-pressed oil sold in dark containers.

Flax seeds are also called linseeds. The same linseeds that are pressed to make the linseed oil we all used to mix with paints in art class! In art, linseed oil is used because it dries fast... back to the whole volatility of linseeds thing. Don't go to the nearest Flax or other art store for linseed oil to put in your smoothie though - get food-grade linseed or flax seed oil from the grocery store!

Green Gold Smoothie

makes: 32 oz.

- 1 small cucumber, peeled and quartered

- 1 fresh mango, peeled and cut into chunks (~ 1 cup)

- 1/2 cup pineapple chunks

- 1 Key lime, juiced (or 1 tsp. lime juice)

- 1 lemon, juiced

- 1 in. knob ginger (peeled if not organic)

- 1 tbsp. flax seeds, aka linseeds (or 1 tsp. food-grade flax oil)

- 5 oz. baby spinach

- 1 cup water (or coconut water)

1. In this order put the ingredients in a blender jar: mango, ginger, cucumber, flax seeds, pineapple, lime and lemon juice, ginger, and water. Blend until very smooth.
2. Add more water and pineapple to adjust consistency and sweetness if needed.

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.