| Healthy
Yet Tasty Cooking
Low fat, low carb, raw food, cabbage-soup diet ... These days a majority of us is on some type of diet. I decided to go on a diet too but, I did not want to pick between a healthy diet and delicious food. I wanted both. A very simple solution to make any food tasty is to add extra salt or sugar or saturated fat. Does that mean if you go the opposit direction and cut down on fat, salt or sugar - your taste buds will have to go on a vacation?? Absolutely not…. This is where spices, herbs and special spice-techniques come into the picture. Using simple spices and simple techniques, you can cook healthy yet tasty food. The soul of Indian cooking lies in the delicate art of using spices. It is not which spices you use but, how you use them that makes a huge difference. Once you have mastered the spice techniques, you also will be more confident to cook up your own personal style of Indian food and add zing to every cuisine The inspiration for these healthy yet tasty recipes comes from some special foods that I enjoyed when I was traveling abroad. I have given these recipes my own healthy twists using different spice techniques. Healthy yet
delicious diet -- Good food that tastes good too. Jamaican Bean Stew Let us start with the Jamaican Bean Stew. Last year I visited Jamaica and loved their spicy bold adventurous food. I asked the chef for the recipe. Besides beans and spices and pumpkin, the recipe called for 1 full can of coconut milk ! We all know that the high saturated fat in coconut is unhealthy. So I decided to experiment and make this recipe without any coconut milk. Without the can of coconut milk, this bean stew taste is quite bland. Nothing to be very happy about. Finally I prepared this recipe with low-fat coconut milk and some spices. The coconut milk used in my variation is just 1/3 of a can which literally translates to about 1.5 teaspoon in one serving. Bingo - I had great tasting Jamaican stew that is healthy too.
Tofu-Tikka Sandwich In London, Indian food is very popular. Most grocery stores carry Chicken tikka sandwiches in their dairy section. In India, the same chicken tikka sandwich is served with Indian bread, while in London, it is served with lettuce, cucumber raita and white bread. The vegetarian version of Chiken tikka sandwich is paneer sandwich. A healthier variation of paneer is tofu. So, I decided to experiment with Tofu and create a sandwich that is as tasty as chicken-tikka but healthy vagetarian. Another important change I have made is to replace high-fat cream in the original recipe. Instead of cream, I found that a mix of ground almonds and plain greek yogurt is a good healthy substitiute. The experiement is indeed a success ! The humble tofu took to the rich flavoring and we now have a vagetarian tofu-tikka sandwich. Tofu-Tikka with Cucumber mint dressing
Almond-Quinoa Pilaf A couple of years ago, when I was visiting my niece in Edinburgh, Scotland, she made an interesting pilaf with Quinao (pronounced kin-wa). It has been used in South American cuisine for centuries and is respectfully called as the Mother grain. The quinoa
seed is high in protein, calcium and iron. It is a relatively good source
of vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. It contains an almost perfect
balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development
in humans.
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