HEALTH FOODS from INDIA

Vegetable Soup as a Diet Food

2009-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Thick Vegetable Soup, meaning a soup without straining the vegetable, makes an excellent Diet food.
Leafy vegetables like Spinach make the ideal soup in this category.
Cook chopped leafy vegetables in a pressure cook with a few cloves of garlic and some water, until done. Tomatoes and carrots may be added for improved taste.
Run the cooked vegetable through a mixie to make a thin paste.
Season with salt, dhana-jeera (coriander-cumin) powder.
This Soup may be eaten both, hot or cold, according to taste.
It is quite nutritious, even though some vitamins are admittedly lost, through cooking.
However, the proteins are intact and not all the vitamins are burnt out.
This Soup may be had before a meal, when it fills the Stomach and therefore reduces hunger.
If a person is actively dieting, this Soup can substitute for an entire meal, without any trouble at all!

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Two easy-to-make Health Foods

2008-10-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

A tasty Porridge from Millets
This can be made from Bajra (pearl millet) or Jowar (finger millet) flour.
Mix a cupfull of flour with two or three cupfulls of water and add jaggery (brown sugar) to taste.
Cook in a pressure cooker. Pour a little milk into it, (if desired).
And it's ready to eat......!
This makes a wonderful breakfast or a between-meals snack.
This is a very low-glycemic index food, with a lot of fibre and vitamins.

Easy-to-make Thalipeeth
Once, when I was hungry and went into the kitchen to make myself a thalipeeth, I found that I had quite run out of thalipeeth flour, which traditionally, is a roasted mix of flours. I did however, have a variety of (non-roasted) flours and a few assorted vegetables which I had saved for making a kind of a 'mixed vegetable' dish that night.

Deciding to experiment a little, I heaped a tablespoon each of wheat, rice and jowar (sorghum, a kind of millet) flour into a pan, and diced cabbage, white radish, a small carrot, spinach leaves, a potato and an onion very finely. Next, I chopped a small bunch of coriander leaves and a couple of green chillies.

I then added 1/2 teaspoon of onion-garlic masala, a pinch eacn of turmeric, cumin and dhania powders, and a pinch of salt to taste.
I rounded this off with a teaspoon of cooking oil and kneaded the dough with the help of a little water.

I patted this into a flat 'thalipeeth' directly in a non-stick pan, covered it and let it 'set' for around ten minutes, at the end of which, still covered, I let it cook on a low flame.
After it was a little more than half-done, I flipped it over and let it cook, again for a little while.

I could smell a lovely aroma seeping out of the pan, as the thalipeeth got ready.
The end result was a fairly soft, attractive greenish brown, very tasty snack which I could eat by itself, without feeling the need for adding sauce or any other embellishment!
Needlessly to say, I was simply delighted with this hurriedly-put together unconventional thalipeeth!

The next day, I decided to experiment a bit more. To the heap of the mixed flours, I added a lot of chopped coriander leaves and mixed in a couple of ripe bananas, with sugar, salt and cumin-dhania powder to taste. I added 1/2 tsf cooking oil before kneading the mixture and patting it in the pan and cooked it in the same manner.
The result was a super-smooth and soft thalipeeth which stayed that way until lunch, four hours later!

Since then, I have experimented with a different mix of vegetables, discovering that adding water in which tamarind and jaggery have been soaked and dissolved gives a lovely taste to thalipeeth that contains fresh fenugreek leaves.
Or that grated pumpkin gives it softness, like bananas do.

I have been having these thalipeeths almost everyday now.
They make for an excellent breakfast, a good lunch and a snappy dinner, when required.

They have medical virtues too..... a low glycemic index which means they do not make you feel sleepy after eating; they stave off hunger for a long time, they are a tasteful way of eating vegetables; they contain very little oil, only 1/2 to 1 tsf per thalipeeth, because extra oil is not required for cooking; they are as tasty as many fast-foods ..... the list can go on .....

I have decided that I am going to take this very easy-to-make health food to people far and wide, because it has the potential, if eaten regularly, to control Obesity and raised Cholesterol, and be of benefit in other lifestyle diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension, too.
They do all this, and simultaneously provide the best possible nutrition!
Post script: The humble thalipeeth of my childhood years, which my grandmother used to cook on the evening fire, is poised to go a long way now, indeed!

To get a consultation to keep yourself healthy using Alternative Medicines, please email herbaltradition@yahoo.com

My Astrology blog (How the Chakras in our Body and the planets intereact with each other):
http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/

Ayurveda says "Eat in this way"

2007-06-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

1. All food, and more so if it is hard, should be chewed properly.

2. Whenever possible, have a little buttermilk after a meal. It increases satiety and helps digestion.

3. The food should be tasty, fresh and it should look appealing to the eye.

4. It should neither be very hot nor absolutely cold.

5. Avoided drinking water for at least 15 minutes before starting your meal.
Drink only a small quantity of water after eating the food. You may drink water in small quantities frequently.

6.Heavy (guru) food should be taken in a limited quantity.

7.Heavy food should not be taken at night. Eat as soon as possible after sundown.
The proper time for dinner is two to three hours before going to bed.
After dinner, walk a little, say about a hundred steps.

8. Heavy work or exercise should be avoided after food.

9. After meals, heavy mental or physical work should be avoided. Some rest is needed for a proper digestion of food.

Dr. Jayashree Joshi, MD

My Astrology blog (How the Chakras in our Body and the planets intereact with each other):

http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
Email herbaltradition@yahoo.com

BHAKRI

2007-06-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

It's called BHAKRI and it's the staple diet of most people in rural areas of Maharashtra State, in India.

It can be made with the flour of one or more cereal. But the one I'm describing here is made out of a very healthy mix of many cereals and lentils.

Cereals called Jowar and Bajra ( specific to India ) are the mainstay, but Rice flour ( available universally ) can be the main cereal in it, as well.A little coarse wheat flour is also allowed, along with some 'Ragi' ( another Indian crop ).

Cereal flours are used without prior roasting.

To these flours, we add roasted and ground lentils ( black gram, green gram, chick peas, soya bean, whatever ).
Only salt is needed, for seasoning.

The flour is kneaded with a little hot water, and then patted gently into a flat round 'bread'.
This is put onto a thick pan ( it needn't be non-stick but it has to be thick-bottomed ) and the upper side of the 'bread' is moistened with a little water, spread evenly over it.
When the bottom side of the bread is roasted, it is flipped over and roasted on a low flame.
Then it is removed from the pan and the side that was roasted first is put onto the flame directly.
You will see that the 'bread' swells up beautifully, like a football!
This 'bread' is called Bhakri.

It is removed from the flame and can be served either immediately or eaten later, as you would like, along with a little chutney if you wish, or even by itself.

It makes a healthy snack. A couple of bhakris would make a whole meal by themselves!
You can see that this food is a very healthy food, having a lot of fibre and protein, and NO oil.

My Astrology blog (How the Chakras in our Body and the planets intereact with each other):

http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
Email herbaltradition@yahoo.com

Thalipeeth : a snack food from Maharashtra

2007-06-08T04:03:00.000-07:00

Thalipeeth is a quick fix snack food, which is at the same time very wholesome.
In olden days, most Maharashtrian homes would have the flour for this made and stored in the house, the whole year round.

Thalipeeth is a flat bread, baked on an open pan.

Its flour is a mix of many lentils and cereals.
Chickpeas, green gram and a few other lentils are washed and dried.
Similarly, rice, wheat, jowar, ragi and other cereals are also washed and dried.
The two are then roasted together lightly and the mixture is finely ground.
The flour is then stored in air-tight containers.

While making the thalipeeth, pieces of finely chopped onion, coriander and cabbage are added to the flour, with chilly powder and salt to taste. A little water is added and the mixture is kneaded well.
Crushed roasted peanuts can be added as well.

Then a handful of dough is flattened out onto a piece of a fresh banana leaf ( nowadays a plastic paper is used instead of the leaf ) and it is softly patted into thin flat circle.

A few holes are made in this with a finger, and then it is then overturned and placed onto a hot pan ( the pan has to have a very thick bottom, or the thalipeeth will burn, instead of getting roasted ).
A little ( very little ) oil is poured around the circular margin, with the help of a spoon. A few drops of oil are also put into the holes that have been made.

It is then covered with a lid and allowed to roast on a slow fire.
After about ten minutes, the lid is removed, the thalipeeth is picked up from the pan and turned over, to allow the other side to roast for a while.
In another 3 or 4 minutes, it is taken off the pan and then it is ready to eat!

It is served hot, usually with a little ghee / yoghurt / chutney.

As the flour is made from roasted grains, thalipeeth is easy to digest.
Because it contains many cereals and lentils, it has a good nutritional value.
Because it is very tasty ( it gives off a wonderful aroma while being cooked, too ) it makes for a very wonderful snack, too.

One thalipeeth would be a snack. Two or more would make a meal.
So do try it out, you will not be disappointed.

My Astrology blog (How the Chakras in our Body and the planets intereact with each other):

http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
Email herbaltradition@yahoo.com

CHUTNEYs for WEIGHT LOSS and HYPERACIDITY!

2007-05-12T03:00:00.001-07:00

Chutneys, as an essential ingredient of Indian cuisine, have become famous all over the world, and I feel, justly so.

Well, here is a recipe for a little-known Indian chutney, which will help in both, weight loss as well as reducing hyper-acidity, if eaten on a regular basis.

The active ingredients in this chutney are two types of Garcinia viz, Garcinia cambogia and Garcinia indica.
(The former, Garcinia cambogia, is a well-known weight loss supplement and the latter is for reducing hyper-acidity).

The dried fruit peels are available in the market.
These peels are thick and fleshy to the touch, deep purple in colour, and very sour to taste.
They have a distinct flavour, which gives the chutney its characteristic flavour, too.

Preparation :

Soak a few peels of Garcinia in water for 30 minutes.
Remove from the water and add to them, coconut shavings ( fresh or dry coconut ), a few leaves of coriander, a red chilly or two, and add cumin seeds, salt and sugar to taste.
Grind well, without adding water.And the chutney is ready to eat!

This chutney stays for a week or two, when refrigerated.It should be eaten along with bread, pasta, chapatti, roti or noodles.

My Name : Dr. Jayashree Joshi
E mail : herbaltradition@yahoo.com

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Fresh TURMERIC PICKLE.

2007-05-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

Fresh TURMERIC PICKLE

This is made from slices of freshly dug-up turmeric.
Turmeric rhizomes are washed thoroughly in water and sliced finely.
They are then mixed with ground mustard seeds and added to groundnut or sesame oil seasoned with sputtered mustard and cumin seeds, chilly powder, salt and a little sugar.

This mixture is packed in an air-tight container and allowed to stand for 3 weeks, by the end of which the pickle is ready for eating.

This simple preparation is very tasty. Besides, because turmeric has proven health benefits, it has great value as a health supplement.

Turmeric is a known anti-oxidant and immune-booster. It is good for the skin, helps to heal infections and to prevent cancer.

My Name : Dr. Jayashree Joshi
Email me : herbaltradition@yahoo.com

My other blogs on blogger are:
http://my-unforgettable-cases-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://bachflowers-indianpedi.blogspot.com/

Healthy Indian Snack foods.

2007-05-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Many of the following foods do not have a formal name. However, they are just as good and just as healthy as health foods with formal names!

Sprouted pulses with Indian garnishes :

Take a bowl full of sprouted moong ( Green gram ), masoor ( lentil - Ervum lens ), or other lentils.

Sprinkle a little chivda or sev on them.

Add a pinch of salt.
Stir lightly.

Eat with or without additional yoghurt, coriander, coconut shavings.

This is a low-calorie, high-protein snack food, ideal for eating inbetween meals, to both, assuage hunger and to reduce the amount of cereal eaten during mealtimes.

Eaten daily, once or twice a day ( or even oftener ) it helps to reduce weight, in the long-term.

My name : Dr. Jayashree Joshi
E mail : herbaltradition@yahoo.com

My other blogs
http://my-unforgettable-cases-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://bachflowers-indianpedi.blogspot.com/

HEALTHY SNACKS - for Breakfast or inbetween.....

2007-05-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

IDLI :

This South Indian snack food is prepared from fermented RICE and BLACK GRAM ( Urad dal ).

Preparation :

Soak equal quantities of rice grains and black gram, separately, in the evening.
After a couple of hours, grind them, again separately.
Mix the batter together well and add a pinch of salt.
Cover and keep it overnight.
By next morning, the batter will be fermented well and will have risen up to form a light, foamy and frothy mixture.

Now stir the batter and pour it with a ladle into a special 'idli' tray, which usually has cups for about 12 idlis. ( Apply a little oil to the cups if the tray is not of the 'non-stick' variety ).
Steam this for about 20 minutes, under ordinary pressure ( do not pressure cook ).

Wait until the tray half-cools, then remove it from its vessel, and scoop the idlis out.

Serve hot, with either green coriander chutney or a thin curry called sambhar.

Health benefits of idlis :

Because they are made out of rice and black gram, which is a pulse, idlis have a high nutrient value : they provide carbohydrates and proteins. They are low-fat.

They are easy to digest, and very tasty.

They are gluten-free, because they contain no wheat.
So, they can be safely eaten by people sensitive to gluten.

Being a wholesome food, they can be had a a meal by themselves ( breakfast, lunch and dinner ).
Being very tasty, they make an interesting snack food, too.

Convenience of preparation, a good nutritive value and easy digestibility have made them one of India's most popular food items!

My Name : Dr. Jayashree Joshi
E mail : herbaltradition@yahoo.com

My other blogs on blogger.com are :
http://my-unforgettable-cases-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://astrological-remedies-indianpedi.blogspot.com/
http://bachflowers-indianpedi.blogspot.com/