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Do you throw away the rind after you eat the sweet red part of your watermelon? I never throw them away and find endless possibilities to use them. Here is one... Watermelon rind cooked in coconut tamarind gravy, aka Pulinkari.Pulinkari is a traditional dish made in a variety of ways in different parts of Kerala. The most common one must be the one with pumpkin. The sweetness from the pumpkin comb
Growing up in South India, Khichdi is not something that I grew up eating. It is something that I started making after living here in the New England winter. A great thing about raising your family outside your hometown or outside your country is that you get to meet and learn from a lot of different people, their culture, their cuisines (that is what I am more interested in :-)). I had learnt dif
For the past few months, we have been buying royal red quinoa instead of the regular white kind. It tastes so much better, I have to say it is really 'royal' :) This recipe is inspired from the quinoa garden cakes from Whole Foods Market. I have made it vegan and gluten free and given it a mild Indian flavor. These baked cakes/patties are packed with a good amount of veggies. I serve it
Finally summer is here... time for frozen treats. What better way to welcome summer than a scoop of freshly made peach ice cream. Inspiration is from 'Peach Cobbler' from Ben & Jerry's, but this version is made with simple, plant based, raw and organic ingredients. You just need a little bit of planning to freeze the fruits and soak the nuts/seeds.Peach - 2 - Sliced and frozenBanana - 1
Everyday over the breakfast table, my son asks me what I am going to have for lunch. Usually when I say it is some kind of salad he just says 'cool' :) But this one a got a ''wooooww' and he also requested if I can make it for dinner instead of lunch, so that he can have it too. I had to agree and he says that it is his favorite salad now :)Southwestern Ranch Style Dressing:Raw cashew nu
You can say this recipe was made by accident. I was actually planning to make black rice orange cookies, but when I came back from my weekend shopping, I realized that I did not buy oranges. I had my black rice already soaking for a few hours. So I had to find something else to add the flavor to the cookies instead of orange. I wanted to give cinnamon and cocoa a try with black rice and they
If you decide that you want to start eating heart healthy, plant-based food, but would still want to eat to your heart's content, then Mediterranean cuisine would be an ideal choice :-) Mediterranean cuisine uses a lot of plant based ingredients: veggies, herbs, nuts and legumes. It is flavorful with the use of garlic, ginger, onion, extra virgin olive oil, etc. Another plus I have
Yes, I am back with another raw entrée :) In fact, this week we increased our raw food intake significantly and it felt very good (for the body and the mind). To the uninitiated, raw food might mean just cutting fruits and vegetables and eating it, and this might not sound appetizing. Raw does not mean that there is no cooking involved, in fact, it involves the most innovative cooking and the resu
When I write about buckwheat, I have to make clear the fact that buckwheat is not a type of wheat. It is not even a type of grain. It is a grain-like seed, and can be consumed by people with gluten intolerance. Buckwheat can be bought in many forms such as whole buckwheat, buckwheat groats, buckwheat flour, etc.I usually buy whole buckwheat, which I sprout and use in salads, or buckwheat groats, w
This is our newest favorite salad dressing and we have already made it a few times in the past couple of weeks. Cucumber and basil works so well together, avocado makes it nice'n'creamy and we need the heat from the green chillies. It is raw, vegan, oil/sugar free and can be used as a salad dressing or as a sauce for raw noodles.Mini cucumbers - 2 ( or 1/3rd of an English cucumber)Avocado -
We have been into raw eating for about a year now, I would say 50% of what we eat is raw, and rest semi cooked to cooked. I have been thinking about trying a complete raw entree for quite a while. Quite a lot of raw food bloggers talk about raw noodles/pasta with yam, zucchini, carrots, etc. I was a little skeptical about how well raw yam noodles would taste, but as always my husband encouraged me
We ran/walked for a 5K race today as part of Strides For The Spectrum. Felt so good to start the spring with a good cause. After that we definitely deserved a nice and refreshing mango kulfi. Traditional kulfi is made with condensed milk as a base with optional flavors like mango, pistachio etc. My version is made with mango as the base, along with other plant based ingredients. If we ch
Here is a fresh'n'spicy raw-apple-crisp for a refreshing Friday morning breakfast. My husband suggested that I make apple crisp for breakfast today. I know that he was not a fan of soft baked apples where it can no longer be called 'crisp' anymore ;-). Anyway, I have never figured out why on earth do we ever bake apple, when the raw apples are so fresh, crispy, juicy and taste so refreshing!
It is spring time and Kumato* is here..!This dressing is an old favorite with us. It is sweet and sour from the fruits, and has a mild kick from the green chillies. I made a simple salad today, which had baby spinach, sliced apples and mung sprouts. The dressing complemented the salad so well, that I had to keep reminding myself that I am eating a salad and not an exotic spicy
I usually make all of my raw fudges brown, because most of the time my main ingredients are dates and cocoa powder. I wanted to see, and taste something different this time. I decided to "go green," with pistachios and pumpkin seeds :-) They taste awesome and also come loaded with nutrition from pistachios, which are heart-healthy and pumpkin seeds, which are a good source of protein, iron, and ot
This is an Indian inspired salad dressing with cilantro and dried mango powder being the main flavors. This can go well as a salad dressing and can also pass off as a chutney for chat or dipping sauce for chapati rolls or just for fresh cut veggies.Dried mango powder (Organic amchur powder) - 1 Tbs.Cilantro - 3-4 stemsRed pearl onion - 2Garlic cloves - 2Green chilly - 2Organic chia seeds - 1 Tbs.E
We are visiting India for 2 weeks while enjoying the mango season, not-so-hot weather and, little pleasures like freshly made rice flakes from local farmers. These simple treats are made with simple and local ingredients. Red rice flakes from a local farmer and fresh coconut from our backyard. Aval (Red rice flakes) - 1 1/2 cupsShredded fresh coconut - 1 1/2 cupsJaggery - 3 medium blocks - make sy
This is a real quick dessert using no refined sugar/flour. This is raw, wholesome and can please kids and adults. Who will not like a chocolate mousse if there is no guilt involved? To top it all, it is ready in five minutes :)Strawberries - 3/4 cup frozenMedjool Dates - 5 pittedRaw Cocoa Powder- 2 Tbs.Avocado - 1Strawberries - few fresh for toppingAdd frozen strawberries and dates to a blender an
We are so proud of ourselves. We ate salad, (mostly raw) for every lunch of this week. Today we wanted do away with grains and just eat beans. That is how I came up with this salad. The soaked and lightly cooked chickpeas were so filling and awesome that we did not miss the grain at all :-)Chickpea Spinach Salad:Chickpea - 3/4 cup (soaked overnight)Spinach - 2 cupsArtichoke hearts - 1 cup (I used
To eat raw, you don't need to use complex equipments (high speed blenders, dehydrators, etc.) or complex ingredients/techniques. This simple salad can be put together with ingredients that grow in your backyard. That is if you live in Kerala or somewhere tropical where you can grow mangoes, papaya and coconuts in your backyard :-). I don't have that luxury living in the c
This one is a traditional breakfast recipe that is made in our homes for festival days as an offering to God. The traditional recipe is a steamed rice ball with a jaggery and coconut filling inside. This is also made jackfruit preserve (Chakka varattiyathu*) and coconut filling. I usually make it by using dates instead of jackfruit preserve. This time, I also replaced 3/4 of the white rice with re
It is difficult to eat cold raw salad in winter. So we try to eat lightly cooked salads like this one. This one is very nutritious, quick and easy to put together.Quinoa:Quinoa - 1/2 cupCook with 3/4 cup of water and let it coolRoasted Butternut Squash:Butternut squash - 1 cup (cubed)Sea salt - 1/4 tsp.Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp.Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.Coconut oil - 1 tsp.Mix the spices and coc
We are not cookie eating people and our dessert usually consists of fresh cut fruits, fruit juice, etc. I have been following many of the positive, eco-friendly, sustainable, and responsible food businesses that are a new trend in India. One such place is Terra Earthfood in Chennai. They make organic, gluten free snacks that are mostly made of plant based ingredients. The most rece
I have been making pizzas at home with homemade crust, sauce and toppings, and with cheese .. until I found a fall vegetable pizza on New York Time's vegetarian TG menu. Like the editor rightly said, the creamy consistency of the white bean purée makes this dish seem like a decadent treat, and you won't even notice that it doesn't have cheese. I have been playing with all different toppings on thi
My son had a Russian classmate and he used to mention that she brings Borscht for lunch once in a while. He found the ingredients and the bright color very appealing, but his problems were that it had meat and that they serve it cold. So I knew that if at all I make it I had to serve it warm and of course that I would make a vegetarian version.I am trying out the winter farm share from a farm Clos
Cardamom and Coconut are meant to go together. And so it did in a warm freshly baked bread. My kitchen (in fact my whole house) smells so nice 'n refreshing:)Here is a quick and easy recipe for cardamom coconut bread.Whole wheat flour - 1 1/4 cupBread flour - 1/4 cupArrowroot powder - 2 Tbs.Finely shredded coconut - 1/2 cupCardamom - 5-6 pods (peeled and ground)Virgin coconut oil - 1 Tbs.Luke warm
Who says you can't make dessert and eat it too? Desserts do not have to be loaded with refined sugar or fat. They can be made with wholesome ingredients and still taste awesome. You can feel good about what you are making, serving and eating. Happy Valentine's Day !! For Base:Raw almonds - 1/2 cupMejdool dates - 3-4Raw cocoa powder - 1 Tbs.Coarsely grind everything together and press into cup cake
When I buy my organic nuts, seeds and lentils from WholeFoods' bulk section I have seen organic millet and wanted to try it some time, but never really bought it until yesterday. I have been following Dhanyam Oragnic Superstore and their recent post on Varaggu Coconut & Carrot rice really inspired me to read about Millet and buy some.Millet provides a host of nutrients, has a sweet nutty
This is something I have posted before, just that this time I decided to spice it up a little bit. This might have been better with a spicy chutney, but I served this with sambar. Quinoa idli can made in different ways. One way is to replace half of the rice in regular idli and ferment the batter and make idlis. Another way is to make instant idli like how we make Rava idli. I chose the latter thi
I am trying to reinvent the 'Salmon with Peanut Sauce' that we had at a Thai restaurant a few months back. I made it with Almonds instead of peanuts and paired it with brown rice and stir fried snow peas on the side.Prepare Salmon:Salmon - 2 steaks of Alaskan wild caught sockeye salmonRed chilly powder - 1 tsp.Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.Sea Salt - 1/2 tsp.Wash and cut salmon steaks into 1' X
A short note on Red Rice. We like trying out different varieties of rice, especially the varieties that are nutritional. We use Brown rice, Brown Basmati rice, Red rice, Matta Red rice, Black rice and a variety of white rice. Our favorite amongst all is the single polished Red Rice from SriLanka, it is very nutritional and tastes awesome. It has a lot of bran in it and is high in fibre, iron and o
Soup and salad is our regular lunch these days. Some days I look at my son's school lunch menu and I try to make the same thing at home. This is a recipe from Vitamix cookbook which calls for heavy cream. I cannot justify having a cup of heavy cream as part of soup that is supposed to be nutritious and healthy, so I am substituting it with potato or yam.Asparagus - 15 spearsGarnet Yam or Pota
My son's school chef is inspiring me a lot these days. Last week, he had made a ginger-cucumber salad. Even though my son is not a big ginger fan, he said he liked the salad. I am very proud that I have been able to raise him to be a real foodie who is brave enough to try different flavors and enjoy them. His school serves very nutritious and wholesome food, which includes local and organic produc
Set-dosa always brings back memories of my teenage vacation days when our family used to go to Trivandrum and stay at my Dad's office guest quarters. We used to buy breakfast from a nearby tea stall. It used to be pretty much the same every day - set-dosa and chutney or set-dosa and kadala curry. I still remember the taste of the dosas; nothing special, maybe it was just tasty because of the
My son came up this name, but this is not a complicated French chocolate recipe as you might think :-). These are just simple coconut balls covered with chocolate, inspired of course from Bounty chocolates. They have only simple organic ingredients: dried organic coconut, organic raw honey, organic cocoa powder, organic agave nectar and organic virgin coconut oil.For coconut balls:Dried shredded c
We are coconut lovers, especially coming from the part of India where everything starts and ends with coconut. Unfortunately we have not been consistently getting good fresh coconut in this part of the world. We have been on the lookout for a way to satisfy our craving for good coconut. Our only other alternative was to use frozen coconut from local Indian stores. Even though we have been see
When you buy beets, do you throw away the greens, or keep them? If you keep them and actually eat them, you are getting a lot more nutrition, in fact more than the beet root itself. You can read more here.I always keep the greens and try to pair the greens with the beets as 2 dishes to serve with brown rice. These are really simple and easy recipes; recipes that I have grown up with, but with diff
If you are travelling for work, or generally staying late at work, and you are not sure about the choice of food that you are going to have, it is always a good idea to pack some healthy alternatives from home. A bunch of apples, home made trail-mix with raw nuts/seeds/dry-fruits, home made energy bars etc. can always be handy. Here's a quick recipe for a spicy and nutritious energy bar.Dried goji
There are a lot of quinoa black bean chili recipes online, and in cookbooks. Of course, chili is not something that I grew up with - it is an acquired taste for me. What I have noticed is that chili is a slow cooked soup. I have also noticed that a lot of recipes call for canned beans, canned tomatoes, ready made chili powder, and things like that. I am not a slow cooker person, b
You can call these fudge bites, brownie bites, energy bites, or anything else :-) What matters is that there is no baking involved, it can be put together in a jiffy, and it has no refined flour, sugar, or fat. It is raw, vegan, gluten free and above all kid-approved - my son cannot get enough of it :-)Pumpkin seeds -1/4 cupBuckwheat -1/2 cupChia seeds -1/4 cupMedjool Dates - 8-10Raw cocoa powder
There is no real tea involved in this one. Just rejuvenating ingredients like fresh ginger, black-pepper, coriander, tulsi, and turmeric. This is inspired from "Chukku Kappi" and Coriander tea. There are some tastes and memories that stay with us for a life time. Chukku Kappi (dried ginger coffee) is one of those nostalgic tastes that I carry with me, along with the memories of an old Sabarimala p
Chia is an edible seed that comes from the desert plant Salvia hispanica, a member of the mint family that grows abundantly in southern Mexico. Chia is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, even more so than flax seeds. And it has another advantage over flax: chia is so rich in antioxidants.. here's more on chia seeds by Dr Weil..We have been trying to include chia seeds in our smoothie
Goji Berries:The goji berry is also called the wolfberry. It is a bright orange-red berry that comes from a shrub that's native to China. In Asia, goji berries have been eaten for generations in the hopes of living longer.Over time, people have used goji berries to treat many common health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, fever, and age-related eye problems. Goji berries
Raw Chocolate Fig Filling:Raw Cocoa powder - 1/4 cupDried Calimyrna Figs - 8 Himalayan Salt - a pinchBlend everything together in a high speed blender to make a coarse paste that really binds together. Refrigerate till ready to make the layers.Raw Energy Bars:Almonds - 1/4 cupPumpkin seeds - 1/4 cupSunflower seeds - 1/4 cupBuckwheat - 1/4 cupMedjool Dates - 6Himalayan salt - a
Here is a hearty soup inspired by couple of recipes from ForksOverKnives. It can be made by adding less yams and chickpeas to make it a starter soup. This one is made as a meal on its own and was served with a batch of freshly baked whole wheat dinner rolls.Chickpeas - 1/2 cup (soaked for 12 hours)Yam - 1 smallOrganic Dino Kale - 1 small bunch (4-5 stems)Tomato - 2 smallCilantro - 1 smal
These quick'n'easy crackers are sweet with dates, spicy from peppers, and with all goodness from goji berries, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds.Rolled Oats - 1/2 cupAlmonds - 1/2 cupHandful of goji berriesHandful of pumpkin seedsMedjool dates -3Black Pepper - 1 -2 tspnCumin seeds - 1 TbsnSea Salt - 1/2 tspnChia seeds - 2 TbsnEV Olive oil - 2 TbsnBaking soda - 1/2 tspnGrind everything except o
I had recently learnt that its easier to sprout split lentils than to sprout whole lentils. I have been trying it for some time now. This recipe is a marriage between bulgur Tabbouleh and Sprouts Sundal :-)Split lentils - 1/2 cupBulgur wheat - 1/2 cupSpinach - 2 cupsTomato - 2Raisins - 1/2 cupGreen chilly - 1-2Cilantro - 4-5 stemsLemon juice - from half lemon about 2 tbsnEV Olive oil - 1
I have been making a lot of different variations of my Date-Almond snack balls lately. Who doesn't like variations? The most recent one had an addition of ginger, of course ginger is a sure win with Jyo:-)Almonds - 3/4 cupWalnuts & Cashew nuts - 1/4 cupMedjool Dates - 4 (remove pits)Fresh Ginger - 1 inch piece (sliced)Cardamom - 2-3 (remove peel)Sea Salt - a pinchStart pulsing the nuts, ginger
This is a quick Friday night meal to finish off your veggies from the week.Multi-grains - 1/2 cupCauliflower - 1/4 of a medium head -chopped fineCelery - 4-5 stems - chopped fineOnion - 1 small - chopped fineGarlic - 2-3 cloves - mincedOregano - 1 tspnCashew nuts - handfulSea salt - as per tasteBlack pepper corns - 1 tspnEV olive oil - 1 tbsnCook multi-grains with 1 cup of water (I
This one got Akku drooling and offering to finish any leftovers,even though there were hardly any. With raspberries and mangoes, the colors were so inviting, and they tasted so well together. I guess I'll probably be making this more often, and with a wider variety of fruits.Ripe Mango - 1Avocado - 1/2Fresh Raspberries - 1 cupOrganic Raisin - 1/2 cupOrganic Honey - 1 TbsnSoak raisins in coco
