JFI Entry 2: Garlic Raitha

This recipe is my second entry to Jihva for Ingredients – April.

Please check my previous post here.

Here is the recipe for you using raw garlic.

Ingredients

• 5 or 6 flakes of garlic
• 2 pieces of coconut
• One green chilly
• One small piece of ginger
• One cup of fresh curd
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

For seasoning

• 1/2 teaspoon of mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon of jeera (cumin seeds)
• A pinch of hing (asafoetida)
• 1/2 teaspoon cooking oil
• 3or4 curry leaves

Method

• Peel off the skin from the garlic.
• Grind garlic, coconut,ginger and green chilly into fine paste.
• Mix the ground paste and curd with enough salt.
• In a small frying pan put 1/2 teaspoon oil.
• Add mustard and jeera.
• When mustard starts spluttering, add hing and curry leaves.
• Add the seasoning to the mixture and stir well.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve with any mixed rice or chappathi.

JFI Entry 1 : Garlic and Mushroom Masala

This recipe is my entry to Jihva for Ingredients – April.

I take this opportunity to thank Indira for introducing something like JFI and attracting many food-bloggers to participate in this.

Indira’s blog has truly been an inspiration for me to write my own.

I also appreciate Mathy Kandasamy’s initiative to host JFI for the month of April.

So here comes my first recipe featuring garlic cooked to perfection.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of garlic flakes (100 gms)
• 6 medium sized mushroom
• 1 big onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 green chilly
• Small piece of ginger
• Half bunch of mint leaves
• Few coriander leaves
• 1 small cup of fresh curd
• 1 teaspoon ghee
• 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon dhania – jeera powder (A blended powder of coriander and cumin seeds)
• 1 teaspoon red chilly powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
  
• A small piece of cinnamon
• 1 clove
• 1 cardamom
• Salt for taste

Method

1. Wash the mushroom thoroughly and cut them into pieces.
2. Remove the skin from the garlic and cut it into two.
3. Cut onion and tomato into fine small pieces.
4. Grind one teaspoon of cut onion, ginger, two flakes of garlic, mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chilly into fine paste.
5. Take a frying pan and put 1 teaspoon ghee.
6. Add mushroom and little salt and fry till it becomes soft. Keep it aside.
7. Add one teaspoon of oil in the pan.
8. Add cinnamon, clove and cardamom.
9. Add the cut onion and garlic flakes and fry till it becomes soft.
10. Add the ground masala and fry till you get a nice aroma.
11. Add cut tomato and fry till it gets cooked.
12. Add all the masala powders and fry for a while.
13. Add one cup of curd and boil for two minutes.
14. Add the fried mushroom and enough salt and boil for 5 minutes.
15. Garnish with coriander leaves.
16. Serve hot with phulka.

Wheat Rava Upma Kozhukattai

Ingredients:

• One cup of wheat rava (200 gms)
• One teaspoon of mustard
• One teaspoon of urad dhal (Blackgram dhal)
• One teaspoon of channa dhal (Bengalgram dhal)
• One teaspoon of cooking oil
• One teaspoon of hing (asafoetida)
• Few curry leaves
• Salt as required

For Grinding:

• Two medium size green chillies
• One small bunch of coriander leaves
• Few pieces of coconut
• One teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

• Grind coconut, green chillies, coriander leaves and lemon juice coarsely.
• In a frying pan put one teaspoon oil.
• Add Mustard, urad dhal and channa dhal.
• When mustard starts popping, add hing and curry leaves.
• Then add two cups of water.
• Add the ground paste and salt.
• When water starts boiling, add wheat rava little by little and stir well.
• When the mixture thickens, switch off the burner and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
• The consistency of the mixture should be like upma.
• Touching little water in the hand, make small oval shaped balls (egg shape)out of that mixture.
• Place the balls in a greased Idly plate and steam for ten minutes.
• For 200 gms of rava you get 12 medium sized kozhukattai.
• Serve hot with coriander chutney.

Sprouted Wheat Adai

Ingredients

• One cup of sprouted wheat
• 1/2 cup of sprouted green gram
• Two teaspoon of channa dhal (Bengal gram dhal)
• Two teaspoon of redgram dhal(Toor dhal)
• Two teaspoon of urad dhal ( Blackgram dhal)
• 2 or 3 Red chillies
• One teaspoon of hing ( asafoetida)
• Salt as required
• Cooking oil for making adai
• Few curry leaves
• One small cup of cut onion

Method

Getting the batter ready

• Soak channa dhal, urad dhal , redgram dhal and redchillies for one hour.
• Grind sprouted wheat to a coarse paste.
• Grind sprouted green gram, channa dhal, urad dhal, redgram dhal,Redchillies and hing to a coarse paste.
• Mix the ground wheat and ground dhal with enough salt.
• Add cut onion and curry leaves to the batter.
• Mix well.
• Add enough water to the mixture so that the consistency of the mixture should be little thicker than dosa batter.

Preparation

• Heat a non stick tawa.
• Smear little oil and spread one ladle full of this batter to a thick circular shape.
• Make a few holes in the centre.
• Pour oil on the sides and in centre and cook on a low heat.
• Turn over and pour little oil and let it cook till it is crisp all around and golden brown in colour.
• Serve hot with any chutney or sambar.

How to Make Sprouted wheat

• Soak Whole Wheat in fresh water. Keep it over night. The next day pack the wheat in a thin cotton cloth.Let it remain for 24 hours. The third day you can see the sprouts coming up in the seeds.

Healthy Vegetable Salad

I read in a magazine that green salads not only fill your stomach well but also help you reduce weight. In this healthy salad recipe, I use sprouted green gram along with raw vegetables and a choice of spices to enhance the taste. My husband relishes this salad and it turns out to be a good appetizer.

You can have just this salad for dinner. This will help you reduce weight drastically.

Ingredients

• One small cup of sprouted green gram
• One onion
• One small capsicum
• Half cucumber
• One piece of cabbage
• One carrot
• Few celery leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon redchilly powder
• 1 teaspoon oregano ( Italian spice)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoon vinegar
• Salt for taste

Method

1. Cut cabbage, carrot, capsicum,cucumber and onion into thin strips.
2. Cut celery leaves into small pieces.
3. In a bowl Put all the cut vegetables along with green gram sprout.
4. Add red chilly powder, pepper powder oregano and salt
5. Mix well.
6. Add 2 teaspoon of vinegar and olive oil and mix well.
7. Serve with hot soup and whole wheat bread.

Lakshmi of Taste of Mysore has a recipe for Sprouted Moong Salad in her site. Do check that out too.

Sprouted Chick Peas Curry

Chick peas are highly nutritious and they contain maximum of 25% protein. If you want to lose weight, have chick peas with two rotis for lunch at least 3 days a week. Chick peas fills your stomach quite well just like sprouted green gram.

There are two types of chick peas. Here I use desi chickpeas which are smaller in size with a thick seed coat.They appear dark brown in colour and take 24 hours to get the sprouts.

Ingredients

• One cup of sprouted chick peas
• One big onion
• One tomato
• One red chilly
• one green chilly
• 3 flakes of garlic
• One hand full of mint leaves
• A small piece of ginger
• One teaspoon of hing (asafoetida)
• One teaspoon of jeera
• One teaspoon of daniya
• One teaspoon of mustard
• One teaspoon of urad dal
• Few curry leaves
• Few coriander leaves
• One teaspoon of lemon juice
• 11/2 teaspoon of cooking oil
• Salt as required

Method

1. Cook sprouted chick peas with enough salt and water till it becomes soft.
2. Cut onion into small pieces.
3. Grind onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, red chilly, mint leaves, jeera (cumin seeds), daniya (coriander seeds) into a fine paste.
4. Put 11/2 teaspoon oil in a pan.
5. Add mustard and urad dal. Let it splutter.
6. Add green chillies , curry leaves and hing.
7. Add the remaining cut onion and fry till it becomes soft.
8. Add the ground paste and fry till it becomes dry.
9. Add the boiled chick peas and fry for 5 minutes.
10. Remove from the burner, add lemon juice and stir it well.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Snakegourd Vegetable with Sprouted Green Gram

As mentioned earlier, you can mix sprouts with a combination of vegetables and this way sprouted green gram becomes palatable too. I tried using a choice of spices and ingredients to enhance the taste of this dish. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• One tender snake gourd
• 2 onions
• 1 tomato
• 3 flakes of garlic
• One hand full of mint leaves
• 2 green chillies
• One teaspoon of jeera (cumin seeds)
• 1/2 teaspoon of daniya powder (coriander powder)
• One teaspoon of panch phoran*
• One small cup of green gram sprout
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of hing (asafoetida)
• 2 to 3 tablespoon of curd
• 2 teaspoon of cooking oil
• Salt for taste

*Panch Phoran

Mixture of 5 spices that is mustard(rye), methi (fenugreek), jeera, fennelseeds(sonf), and kala jeera in equal quantity.

Method

1. Cut the snake gourd in to small pieces.
2. Cut onion into small pieces.
3. Cut tomato into four.
4. Grind onion, garlic, tomato, green chillies, raw jeera, pudina and curd in to fine paste.
5. Boil snake gourd and sprout in a pan with enough salt, and water, turmeric powder, and hing till it is completely cooked.
6. Remove it and keep it aside.
7. Put 2 tsp oil in a frying pan, add panch phoran and let it splutter.
8. Add cut onion and fry till it becomes soft.
9. Add the ground paste and fry till the raw smell goes.
10. Add dhaniya powder and fry for a minute.
11. Add the cooked snake gourd and sprout and fry for 5 minutes.
12. If required water may be added to make it gravy.
13. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Sprouted Green Gram Dosa with Mint Leaves Chutney

Dosa is one of the most common and most loved dishes across India. There are umpteen variations and varieties of dosa. You cannot find a single restaurant in India that does not serve this dish for breakfast and evening snacks. This just shows how Indians love this simple dish so much.

The diabetic is usually deprived of even the most common and easily available dishes such as dosa because it is made of rice. Diabetics always have to be very careful about what they eat. You never know which food triggers the blood sugar level.

That is the reason most diabetics either do not care and eat anything and everything or they get depressed and heartbroken.

Well, I obviously did not want my husband who is also diabetic to be deprived of any tasty dish.

So I tried making dosa with sprouted green gram and wheat rava (semolina) and mint leaves chutney to go with it. It was just too delicious and my husband does not miss the rice flour dosa anymore.

Sprouted Green Gram Dosa

Ingredients

• 1 cup of wheat rava
• 1/2 cup of sprouted green gram
• 1 onion
• 2 green chillies
• 1 teaspoon jeera
• 1 small cup of curd
• A few curry leaves
• Salt as required
• Cooking oil for making dosa

Method

1. Soak wheat rava for 1 hour.
2. Grind the soaked rava into fine paste.
3. Grind sprouted green gram, onion, green chilli, jeera and curry leaves into fine paste.
4. Mix the ground sprout with ground wheat rava paste.
5. Add enough salt to the batter and mix well.

Method for making dosa :

1. Beat the curd well.
2. Add it to the batter.
3. Add more water if required.
4. The consistency of the batter should be thick enough to thickly coat on a ladle when dipped.
5. Heat a non stick tawa and pour a ladle full of batter on to the tawa and spread round with the back of the ladle evenly but slightly thick in size.
6. Pour 1/2 teaspoon of oil over it.
7. Remove with spatula when it turns brown on both the sides.
8. Serve hot with pudina (mint leaves) chutney.

Mint Leaves Chutney
Ingredients

• 1 bunch of pudina
• 3 tablespoon of urad dal
• 1 tablespoon of channa dal
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
• 3 or 4 red chillies
• A small quantity of tamarind
• 3 flakes of garlic
• 1 onion – to be cut into pieces
• 1 tomato – to be cut into pieces
• 2 teaspoon of cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon of hing (asafoetida)
• Salt as required

Method :

1. Wash pudina leaves and keep it aside.
2. Put 1 teaspoon oil in the pan.
3. Add onion, garlic and tomato pieces and fry till the onion becomes soft.
4. Grind fried onion along with pudina leaves to make pudina paste.
5. Again put 1 teaspoon of oil in the pan and fry urad dal, channa dal, pepper, red chillies and hing till urad dal becomes red.
6. Grind the fried dals along with tamarind and salt coarsely .
7. Mix the pudina paste and the fried dals and stir it well by spoon or using the mixer.
8. Serve with dosa.

Sprouted Green Gram Dumplings for the Diabetic

In South India, dumplings ( called Kozhukattai) are usually made of rice flour and for the filling, coconut and jaggery is used. Obviously, this dish is a big no-no for the diabetic because it contains sugar.

I have always wondered why the diabetic should be deprived of such yummy food as dumplings and I have always wanted to try out such common recipes with alternative ingredients that would suit the diabetic.

For the dumplings for the diabetic, I substituted rice flour with wheat flour for the outer layer and I substituted coconut and jaggery with green gram sprouts for the filling. Believe me, they were as tasty as any other dumplings.

My husband who is a diabetic has been eating this Sprouted Green Gram Dumplings quite often now and there has been no spurt in his blood glucose level.

I include this low fat and sugar free delicacy in his menu once in 15 days. 🙂

Here comes the recipe :-

Ingredients for the Outer Layer

• 1 cup of wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of cooking oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Ingredients for the Filling

• 1 cup of sprouted green gram
• 2 or 3 red chillies
• 1 teaspoon of hing(asafoetida)
• Salt as required
• 1 1/2 of teaspoon of cooking oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon of urad dal (black gram dal)
• few curry leaves
• 1 green chilli
• few coriander leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice

Method

Getting the Dough Ready

Heat a pan, add 1 teaspoon oil, add 1 1/4 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Allow the water to boil. As the water is boiling add the wheat flour and keep stirring continuously without allowing any lumps to form. When the mixture has formed into a smooth thick batter, remove the pan from burner. The batter must be thick enough like a chappathi batter. Knead the wheat flour dough well with hand and keep it aside.

Making the Filling

Grind sprouted green gram, red chillies, hing with enough salt. Put 1 1/2 teaspoon of cooking oil in a frying pan. Add mustard and urad dal. Let the mustard splutter, add curry leaves and green chilli. Add the ground sprouted green gram. Cook for 5 minutes on low flame. Remove from the burner, add lemon juice and coriander leaves.Stir the contents well. The filling is ready now.

Making the Dumplings

Take a lemon sized portion of wheat flour dough and form into a cup. Smear little oil on your finger tips to make it easier to handle the dough.

Fill the stuffing inside the cup and close from all the sides and make like a ball. Repeat till all the dough and the stuffing are used up.

Place the dumplings in a slightly oil greased idly plate and keep it in a pressure cooker. Steam it for 10 minutes with out the weight.

Serve when it is warm.

Sprouted Green Gram And Vegetable Stew

You may be wondering why I use sprouted green gram as the main ingredient in most of my dishes. Well, there is a real story as to why I strongly recommend sprouted green gram as the best cure for diabetes and obesity.

My husband, a known diabetic for over 15 years was advised to take sprouted cereals and stop the insulin shots and drugs that he had been regularly taking to control his blood sugar. 

He sincerely followed this advise and started taking sprouted cereals. He also stopped taking medication and insulin. Sprouted Cereals did work wonders. He was able to maintain normal blood sugar levels without any medication.

But then after some time he got tired of eating stereotype food. This is when I started exploring possibilities. I started making variety of dishes with sprouted cereals and my husband relished them and so did many of our friends. Sprouted Green Gram and Vegetable Stew is something that my husband has for his breakfast.

So here is the recipe for you:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of sprouted green gram
• 1 small cauliflower
• 1 small carrot
• 1/2 cup of green peas
• 50 gms beans
• 2 onions
• 1 teaspoon of butter/ghee
• 2 green chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
• 3 nos cloves
• 2 small pieces of cinnamon
• 1 small cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour
• salt to taste

Method

1. Cut onion into small pieces.
2. Dice cauliflower, carrot and beans.
3. Grind green chillies and pepper coarsely.
4. Boil sprouts along with cauliflower, carrot, beans and peas with enough salt and 1 cup water in the pressure cooker for 5 minutes and set aside.
5. Melt butter in a small frying pan.
6. Add cloves and cinnamon and fry for 30 seconds.
7. Add onion and fry till it becomes brown.
8. Add the ground green chilli and pepper and fry for a minute.
9. Add this to the contents in the cooker .
10. Mix the corn flour with the milk and add this to the contents in the cooker.
11. Again cook for 2 minutes
12. Serve hot along with whole wheat bread.