Mingle it up

Couple weeks back my husband felt like eating Chole Bhature. Chole Bhature is a popular North Indian entree. Chole = Garbanzo Beans curry & Bhatura =Leavened fried indian bread.

I don’t prefer frying. In fact I think I have fried just 2-3 times. But I didn’t want to dissapoint him and decided to cook up some Chole Bhature.

As it generally happens with me, I didn’t end up making Bhaturas but made some Naans. Naan is also an Indian leavened bread but baked in hot tandoor(Indian oven). I have made Pizza dough before and I thought making Naans should not be very different. They came out really well and we both were very impressed :-D. The truth of the matter is I owe a lot of my naan’s success to Manjula Aunty from whom the naan recipe is inspired. I wanted to make mine whole wheat so I altered the original recipe to add my signature healthy touches.

You can use White Flour (All-purpose flour) alone if you don’t want to use Whole wheat flour. The recipe is tasty both ways.

Lets get started. Here is what you will need

UPDATE - I recently made the Naans with Whole wheat flour only and it turned out just as delicious & soft. So you can completely skip All-purpose flour & use Whole wheat instead.

• 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour (Or 1/2 cup All-purpose flour for original naan)
• 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
• 1+1 tsp of oil
• 1 small potato
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• Upto 1/4 cup of warm milk (2 tbsp + 2tbsp)
• 2 tbsp of smooth yogurt
• 2-3 tbsp of water

Toppings (optional)

• 1-2 tsp of ghee/clarified butter
• Finely minced garlic
• Finely chopped coriander
• Chat Masala

Makes 2-3 naans

Oven Temperature -500F

1. Boil your potato & nicely mash it. Generally lots of Naans have eggs in them to make them soft but since we don’t do eggs I have replaced an egg with potato.
2. Add your yeast to 2 tbsp of lukewarm Milk along with sugar. The dry yeast is inactive and it becomes active when added in warm water or milk. Bacteria in yeast will die if the liquid is hot. Sugar in the mixture facilitates the growing process.In about 10-15 mins the mixture will become a little frothy & murky cream color. If its not frothy at all then your yeast might be weak & may not work as well.

2.5 years back when I started my weight loss journey, I would not find as many healthy food choices in the grocery store as there are today. But wait, are they really healthy & good for you as they claim? For sure, the healthy offerings have increased but just don’t go by the labels alone. I do some reading before buying a new product from the aisles & check for some red-flags. Just don’t be blown away by the fact that the product is labeled “low-calorie”, “low-fat” or low-something..!!

Red Flags

1. Low fat label by itself does not necessarily mean its good for you except in the case of low-fat diary. In Milk along with proteins, vitamins and calcium you even get saturated fat(which is bad). Lowering the fat content in milk just removes the saturated fat. It doesn’t strip the milk off nutrition or add unwanted ingredients.

Typically when fat is reduced in food items other than diary, some other ingredients creep into the list to make up for the loss of texture, flavor, shelf-life etc of the food. The most commonly added item is Corn Syrup which is added to make up for the loss of flavor and texture.

Not all low-fat items are bad. For example Dreyer’s Light Vanilla Ice cream is surely far less in fat & saturated fat than its Grand Ice cream. Its important to read through the contents before making the choice.

2. Whole Wheat doesn’t mean 100% Whole wheat - there is a DIFFERENCE. If the ingredients show Enriched Wheat flour or refined wheat flour, it lacks important minerals & vitamins which you get from Whole Wheat Grain.

3. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) - This is basically a sweetener made from corn which is cheaper than sugar & increases the shelf life of the product. No wonder this item is now the most common ingredient in foods.
HFCS imparts a nice browny texture to the breads, gives sweetness to our sodas, juices, yogurts (flavored & plain) ,cereals,ketchups, salad dressings and several other items. So now you know why the store bought yogurt is sweeter & home-made or organic one tangier, thanks to HFCS.

Bean Sprouts Mix can easily top the charts as one of the healthiest food items. It’s very rich in proteins, fiber, vitamins & minerals. Unlike beans that can cause digestion problems, sprouting destroys the seed’s natural preservative enzymes that inhibit digestion. In turn creates an enzyme that aids digestion.

You can sprout several different kinds of seeds like -

• Mung beans
• Kidney beans, Black eyed peas, Pinto beans etc
• Soy beans
• Lentils

Sprouting is a very simple process that doesn’t need any special equipment, detailed attention or great technique. We just need to mimic the underground environment where seeds grow for them to sprout like moisture, darkness & bit of warmth. So let’s get started -

Sprouting the beans

1. Soak your beans for about 8 hours in water. I generally use a mixture of
   • Mung Beans
   • Kidney Beans
   • Black Eyed Peas
2. After 8 hours, the beans would have increased in size by absorbing water. Drain off the water & rinse them well.
3. Take a damp cloth or kitchen towel & put the beans in them. Place this in a vessel & keep it in a dark and warm corner of the kitchen like Oven.
4. Keep monitoring the beans every day & make sure the towel in which the beans are wrapped in is a little damp.
5. After 2-4 days depending upon the warmth of the place, your sprouts should be ready.

Making Bean Sprouts Salad Mix

1. Boil the sprouts for around 10 minutes with the vessel covered. Just remember that boiling the sprouts for longer time strips off its nutrients so keep the boiling process smaller.
2. Once they are boiled, drain off the water & let them cool.
3. Till then finely cut all veggies you like for the salad -
   • Onions
   • Tomatoes
   • Cucumbers
   • Red Bell Pepper
   • Coriander/Cilantro
   • Green Chilies
4. Seasoning for the salad (as per taste)
   • Salt & Pepper
   • Chat Masala Or Black Salt
   • Pinch of Amchur (Dried Mango) Powder
   • Few tsp of Lemon Juice
   • Cumin Powder
5. Mix all the above well in the cooled sprouts & your nutritious mix is ready!!

There are several ways to enjoy these sprouts other than the salad

1. You can make a nice sabji (Indian entrée eaten with Bread) by giving a nice tempering of oil seasoned in ginger/garlic.

Me & my husband simply love Gujju food & can’t get enough of it anytime :).   I remember when we were in LA we would always go to Rajdhani - the unlimited gujju food restaurant(I strongly recommend that restaurant. Plus the service is awesome people come and serve you food unlike the other buffets where you go and pick up;)). Up here in Seattle there are no gujju restaurants & we really miss that. But nevermind - I have upped my Gujarati cooking skills since then & big thanks to my mummy for that.

This recipe is requested by one of my friends who likes my gujarati dal. Here it goes -

Ingredients

1 Cup Dal
12-13 Peanuts
2-3 Kokum
½-1 tbsp Jaggery (depending upon how sweet you like your dal. I put ½ tbsp to add just a hint of sweetness)
5-6 Curry Leaves
1 Medium sized Tomato (I like to use Roma tomatoes)
2 small finely cut chillies (I use thin Thai Chilies)
½ tbsp grated ginger
2 cloves (optional)
1 small piece of Cinnamon stick (optional)
1 tbsp of Lemon Juice
2 tbsp Coriander Leaves

Spices 

All the spices are to taste. So please start with little & work up with respect to your judgment and taste.

1 tbsp of oil
2 tsp of Mustard Seeds
Pinch of Hing (Asafoedita)
Salt to taste
1.5 tsp Turmeric powder
2-3 tsp Chilli powder
½ tbsp Coriander powder
½ tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp of garam masala

Serves - 4-5 people.

This dal has 2 main steps

STEP 1
1.  Boil your Dal with peanuts in around 2 cups of water.
2.  Once your dal is done, blend your dal well with spatula so that it mixes well with your water. Try not to mash the peanuts while mixing the dal.
3.  Add may be 1 more cup of water or depending upon the consistency you like.
4.  Turn on the flame to medium low
    a. put the dal + water mixture
    b. add jaggery
    c. kokum
    d. Salt