Pure & Healthy: Helping to sculpt a healthier self

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You don't need your nutrition fix from an incessant blur of snappy, blink-and-you-miss cooking videos online. That is the kind of feeling one gets when they breeze through Vidhu Mittal's calming and no-fuss Pure & Healthy published by Roli Books.

Much to the delight of vegetarian weight-watchers, the coffee-table book offers simple, sumptuously arranged recipes, from drinks, soups and salads to desserts. Written in collaboration with celebrity nutritionist Radhika Karle, there are analyses and calorie counts for each of the recipes.

According to the book's meal plan, if you are looking for a menu for general well-being on a Tuesday or Saturday, eat roasted rice cake (paniharan) with sambhar for breakfast, stuffed pointed (bharwa parwal) gourd for lunch and black chickpea soup with spicy lentil rice (bisi bele bhaath) for dinner. Similarly, there are weekly timetables for people with heart-disease, hypothyroidism and diabetes.

The whole point of the book is to rediscover natural ingredients eaten since the time of our grandfathers and which are easily available. That fresh, seasonal and local food is an infallible argument for a healthy lifestyle. Besides, one must have ghee, rice bran oil, all kinds of lentils and millets apart from spices as indispensables in the pantry.

Mittal, known for books like Gourmet Indian Vegetarian Cuisine, liberally uses pumpkin, sunflowers and Amarnath seeds in her cooking. Enlarged in high-definition picture clarity and set against a plain white background, the often far-fetched kitchen improvisations like green banana cutlets and fenugreek savoury cake (methi muthia) assume delectable contours. Here are two recipes which might induce a visit to the local grocer for a desi dinner which isn't rich and elaborate. 


1. Baby Bok Choy & Onion Soup (Pattidar Shorba)

Ingredients

4 heads of Baby bok choy

4 Spring onion (hara pyaz) bulbs

1 tsp Rice bran oil

1 tsp Ginger (adrak) paste

1 tsp Garlic (lasan) paste

2 tsp Coriander stems, finely chopped (kache danthal) 

2½ cups / 500 ml Water

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground Black peppercorn (sabut kali mirch), to taste

Lemon (nimbu) juice

Method

Separate the leaves and the stem of the bok choy. Keep leaves aside. Cut the stem into 1½-inch slant pieces. This should make ½ cup of chopped bok choy.

• Peel the onion bulbs and cut into thin, round slices. This should make ¼ cup of sliced onions.

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a broad pan for 30 seconds over medium heat. Add the ginger paste, garlic paste, chopped coriander stem, chopped bok choy stems and onion slices. Sauté for 10 seconds.

• Add the bok choy leaves (2 cups) and cook for 30 seconds. Now add 2½ cups / 500 ml water, salt and black pepper. Bring this mixture to a boil. Add the chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice, and serve hot.

2. Lacy Rice Pancake (Chawal Ka Dosa)

Ingredients

¼ cup / 40 gm Rice (chawal) flour

¼ cup / 30 gm Onion (pyaz), finely chopped

¼ tsp Green chilli (hari mirch), finely chopped

2 tsp Curry leaves (kadhipatta), finely chopped

1/8 tsp Cumin (jeera) seeds

¼ tsp Salt

½ cup (100 ml) Water

1 tsp Rice bran oil

Method

• In a bowl, mix rice flour, onion, green chilli, curry leaves, cumin seeds and salt with ½ cup of water. Prepare a batter of pouring consistency and set aside for 30 minutes.

• Heat a griddle (tawa) over medium heat for 40 seconds. Mix the batter well. Pour half the batter with a deep ladle in the center of the griddle creating a web. Drizzle ½ tsp oil on the edges of the pancake. Cook until the edges begin to brown, flip and cook for another 20 seconds. Flip again, fold and serve hot.

• Check the pouring consistency of the batter and, if required, add an additional ½ Tbsp water. Repeat the same process for the other pancake.

Book: Pure & Healthy: Healthy Indian Vegetarian Cuisine

Author: Vidhu Mittal

Publisher: Roli Books, Lustre press

Pages: 232; Price: Rs 1,995

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