Brown Lentil Rice

My dear readers, Thank you for all the emails and inquiries as to why I was missing from action. I just needed sometime for myself to rejuvenate and start with the cooking experiments again. The good news is that I have been cooking more health recipes with a Konkani twist. You will see much more whole grain recipes in the future.



Here is a recipe that my family loved the most - Brown Lentil Rice.

Brown Rice & Barley Dosa

Brown Rice & Barley Dosa served with Sambar
I always try to alter my recipes to make them more healthy. I do strongly believe that white rice, all purpose flour or maida and other refined products do have very few or no nutritional benefits. Hence I often try to modify my recipes to use whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour/maida and brown rice and rosematta rice instead of white rice. I have also started experimenting with barley since I found out that barley has more fiber than brown rice.

Ever since I made Brown Rice and Barley Dosa, the definition of dosa has changed forever for me. The dosa looks a little brownish unlike the pretty well known snow white dosas.

Veggie Patty with Brown rice & Barley

I just love the veggie patty in the Subway Sandwiches. Last week, I was reading the recipe for Aloo tikki on Homespices and an idea just flashed me to make the veggie patties at home. Aloo tikki is an great alternative for the veggie patties, but I wanted it be filled with veggies and high fiber. I peeked in my pantry and found some brown rice, barley and bits and pieces of leftover veggies. I managed to come up with a my own recipe for veggie patty. It was just delicious, I gobbled up a few for evening snack, they were like cutlets.

Fried Rice with Brown Rice

Vegetable Brown Rice with Chilli-garlic sauce
Brown Rice is the Kernel of rice from which only the hull has been removed. In White rice all the high fiber & nutrient rice outer bran is milled and thrown away, while the brown rice retains all the good stuff that the rice has. But eating brown rice is not as fun as white rice. This has a chewy texture like whole wheat grain and barley.

Spanish Lentils / Lentil Soup

A few month back my eyes ran through a packet of whole brown lentils in the local produce shop. Being a health and fitness freak, I wanted to make some recipes with whole lentils. I tried making Indian dals and curries out of it, they were OK but never wanted to try it again. Later I gave up on it. Recently, my friend Manisha who is from Spain, gave me this recipe for Spanish Lentils. She says this is a gourmet food served in restaurants in Spain. Its usually served on the side of the Bread. Spanish paav bhaji!? So here it goes.

Spanish Lentils is very healthy, delicious and also very easy to make. It is somewhat between a soup and side dish. You can eat it like a dip for bread or simply eat it like a soup. The dish is loaded with fiber and veggies that just a bowl makes a complete meal.

The soup is made with whole brown lentils which are available in the local supermarkets. But you can also make this soup with whole masoor and or any other lentils from the Indian Store, but remember you need whole dals with the outer layer. Thats what makes it so healthy.

1 cup lentils
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 medium potato
1/2 bell pepper
1 tomato
1 carrot
2 tsp oil
pepper
1 bouillon cube or stock cube of your choice
1 tsp lime juice

Soak lentils for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside. Chop all the vegetables into cubes.

In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Fry onion and garlic for a minute. Do not brown them. Add all the veggies and fry for another minute. Add lentils, pepper and stock cube. Add water just enough to cover the lentils. Cook for 2-3 whistles. Adjust salt. Usually the salt in the bouillon cube is enough. Squeeze some fresh lime juice.

Serve with bread.

I used Knorr chicken bouillon cube. You can also use veggie stock cube or any other of you choice. More on bouillon cube here

Flax Seeds

Whole Flax seeds

Flax Seeds are high in Omega3 Fatty acids. Whole Flax seeds are not digested and hence you need to grind it to be consumed. The ground flax seed becomes oxidized if kept exposed to air for long time. So it should be ground freshly at home. You can use a coffee grinder or the chutney jar of the mixer to grind it. It lasts upto 30 days when stored in an air tight jar.


Ground flax seeds

Ways to eat ground flax seed
You can mix the ground flax seed with your breakfast cereal, oat meal or even in milk. You will hardly notice its taste. I tried mixing a tablespoon of ground flax seed in the atta to make chapati. The chapati comes out very soft.


Flax seed chapati with gherkins

You can find more flax seed recipes here
Indian recipes with Flax Seed
Baking with Flax Seed

Mung Bean Sprouts

Mung bean sprouts are available in the local and chinese supermarkets in USA. The sprouts are usually 2-3 inches. These are industrially grown sprouts. Such long sprouts cannot be achieved at home.

Here are a few konkani recipes I tried with mung bean sprouts. Wash the sprouts thoroughly in water before using.

Potato Onion Upkari(Stir fry) with sprouts
1 onion, chopped lengthwise
1 small potato. chopped into sticks(optional)
2 fist full sprouts broken roughly into same size as onions
3 red chillies , broken
mustard, urad dal, oil for seasoning

Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok, make a seasoning of mustard, urad dal and red chillies. Add onion and fry till light brown. Add potatoes, salt and water, cook till potato is half done. Add the sprouts. Cook for 5mins so that the rawness of sprouts goes off but retain its crunch.

Onion butti with sprouts
1/2 coconut
1 tsp coriander seeds
5 red chillies, roasted
tamarind
1 big onion
1 fistful sprouts

Make a paste of coconut, red chillies and tamarind. Add coriander seeds and grind of a minute more. In a kadai, roast onions till its wilted. Add coconut paste and salt, cook till done. Add sprouts and cook for 5mins so that the rawness of sprouts goes off but retain its crunch.

Ambat with sprouts
1/4 coconut
5 red chillies, roasted
tamarind
1 cup mixed vegetables
1/2 onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup tor dal
1 fistful sprouts

Make a paste of coconut, red chillies and tamarind. Cook tor dal, add the vegetables and half the onions. Add the cococnut paste and salt, cook till done. Add sprouts and cook for 5 mins. In little oil, fry the rest of onions till golden brown and add to the curry. This curry is called Ambat in Konkani