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Ulli Surka or Pickled Onions

Posted on 16-06-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Gluten Free Recipes, Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Salad

Spicy, pungent, and tasty onions. Packs a punch of flavor and nutrition to any dish. Eating onions raw has several benefits, the best of all is to keep all unwanted guests away! Apple cider vinegar is good for the body. One of the things it does is to lower blood pressure. This simple side or salad combines the goodness of onions and the vinegar. Feel free to add as much vinegar as you can tolerate.

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My love for onions!

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A great side to add oomph to any dish, be it a burrito, roti, rice, snacks, creamy biriyani…..the list is endless.

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Chop Thai Red chilies making sure that you get rid of the white pith seeds.

Slice half an onion lengthwise, I prefer red onions.

Have your red Thai peppers or green chilies chopped and ready.

In a small bowl, combine, 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, a pinch of Sea Salt, and a pinch of White pepper.

Add sliced onions and peppers to the bowl and mix well.

Let sit 15 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Will keep in fridge for only a day. Best when eaten fresh, does not taste very good when stored for longer periods.

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Make in small quantities and enjoy!

Cool Collard Wraps with Red Bell Pepper Chutney

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Posted on 30-05-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Gluten Free Recipes, Kids Lunch Ideas:, Pachadi / Chutneys / Relish, Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Salad, Tiffins / Snacks, Vegan

Collard Greens are rich in calcium and the wraps made with these greens are extremely good for the body. This is a great meal to have for summer and they are surprisingly filling. The tangy chutney makes this wrap extremely tasty.

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Ingredients for The Cool Collard Wrap:

  • Red bell Pepper Chutney, as required according to your taste
  • Cashew / Almond Nut butter, 1 Tbsp
  • Collard Green Leaves, large, 4
  • Hass Avocado, 1, scooped and chopped up
  • Mozzarella Cheese, 3 large balls, shredded by hand
  • Tomato, 2 large, seeded and chopped lengthwise
  • Water Cress leaves, handful, washed and chopped finely
  • Honey, 1 Tbsp
  • Lemon Juice, 1 Tbsp
  • Freshly cracked Pepper, as required (optional)
  • Sea Salt, as required (optional)
  • Red Onion, chopped lengthwise, 1/4 (optional)

Method:

Stuffing:

In a large bowl, combine avocado pieces, chopped tomatoes, mozzarella cheese shreds, chopped water cress leaves, and red onions.

Add honey, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

Mix well to coat evenly.

Preparing the Wrap:

Wash Collard Greens well.

Cut the stalk off, turn the leaf over and with a sharp knife even out the thick stem in the back of the leaf.

Take filtered water in a large tray. Submerge the leaf in the tray and microwave for 4 minutes on 100% power.

Microwaves vary, so please adjust accordingly.

The leaf should look bright green upon cooking. Carefully drain the water and soak for a minute in ice cold water.

Drain ice water, and gently pat the leaf dry taking care not to tear the cooked Collard.

Skip the Microwaving to keep the dish raw.

Remember that Collard Greens are very chewy and cooking in the Microwave softens it up and makes it easy to eat.

Raw Food enthusiasts can heat the food in an oven for upto 110 degrees until the leaf softens.

 

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Carefully spread 1/4th  Tbsp of Almond Butter lengthwise along the leaf.

Now spoon desired amount of chutney next to the Almond Butter.

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Heap the Stuffing covering the almond butter an Chutney.

Fold the leaves from the corners toward the center.

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Start at the tip of the leaf and carefully roll until the wrap is formed.

This can be put in the fridge to cool it up even more.

Serve with more chutney and enjoy!

Red bell Pepper Chutney:

  • Red Bell pepper, large, 1/2
  • Walnuts, 6
  • Flax seed powder, 2 Tbsp
  • Honey, 2 Tbsp
  • Red Chilli Flakes, according to taste
  • Salt, as required
  • Mayonnaise, 5 Tbsp
  • Lemon Juice, 1 Tbsp

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Chop the red bell pepper and microwave it for 3 minutes on 100% power.

Once cooled, put the peppers in the food processor with the rest of the ingredients and grind until chutney is formed.

Taste test and adjust accordingly.

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These cool wraps make a very filling lunch / dinner / snack.

A great way to bring in summer, Enjoy!

 

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Sending this to MEC-Calcium rich food event by Srivalli and Lakshmi.

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Sweet Lassi (Chilled Yogurt Drink)

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Posted on 27-05-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Smoothies / Juices / Beverage

Aaahhhhh! the thought of Lassi itself takes me way back in the past to my childhood days. The doodhwala (milkman) would bring an almost yellow color milk, yep, you read it right: yellow; it was buffallo milk with full fat. My Grandmother would boil the milk and remove the Malai (butter) and save it up in a little jar which she kept in a cool place. She would then blend equal amounts of buffallo milk (after it cooled completely), full fat, with home made sweet yogurt (Which ferments to yogurt in just 4 hours and no more and tastes sweet without any sugar added). She would put in a little sugar, a pinch of salt and blend the mixture into the world’s best lassi. Finally; she would top it with the malai she had saved earlier and one sip of this lassi was a round about ticket to heaven and back.

Today I find myself standing in front of my Vitamix using 3/4 th parts organic yogurt (home made or store bought, whichever is on hand) and the rest 1/4 parts with Whole milk. I add about 2 cups of ice to the blender and blend the whole mixture with pure cane sugar. Satisfying; not an exact recreation of my grandmother’s painstaking and meticulous creation but still fine on hot summer days. Vitamix frothes it up like crazy and once you get the hang of it, you’ve a tall chilled glass of buttery lassi.

As a new bride a few years back, I met an equally enthusiastic newly married woman who was wildly experimenting away in the kitchen. The two of us had tried Mint Lassi which was blech to me and Yum to her. She also created Elaichi Lassi which was Okay. The best of them was probably Rose Lassi and Pista Lassi. They were surprisingly tasty! We blended actual rose petals, sugar, and milk in the blender, strained the mixture and add it to the basic sweet lassi and blended again. It was really nice. When we tried the same with Rose Water, it was plain OK. For the Pista Lassi, we roasted the pistachio nuts (unsalted), powdered it, mixed some elaichi powder to it and topped our lassis with the mixture. It was really a unique tasting but totally worth it experiment. One of the more memorable lassis that passed the ‘dude test’ where the husbands drank the lassi without much fuss or suspicious glances toward the drink and then back at us alternately for 10 minutes straight was probably Date Lassi where we replaced seedless dates instead of sugar! My friend suggested a Jello Lassi! Thank goodness we did not try that! I’m sure she must have, but never bothered to tell me about her ‘dude test’ result or her own experience.

And that concludes all versions of Sweet Lassi experimented by me in my kitchen; I know as I can see you going ‘tch, tch, poor guy Radha’s husband: the guinea pig.’ Share your stories, recipes with pictures and we can create a Guest Blog for you. Do you have any more sweet Lassi recipes to share? Do so, I’m curious to see what I missed out. Lots of love, Radha!

Pineapple Slush

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Posted on 26-05-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Desserts, Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Smoothies / Juices / Beverage, Vava Voom Vitamix!, Vegan

Summer is one time of the year where fruits and vegetables get juiced like crazy in my home. The sweltering heat does not make me feel like sitting down for a big meal at all. I enjoy smaller meals and compensate with juices, smoothies, or slushes. Owning a vitamix has really made life easy for me. The only condition is that the fruit or vegetable has to be pretty ripe.

 

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The way to know if your pineapple is ready is by pulling one of the top leaves. If it comes out without too much fuss then the fruit is ripe and ready. I use the pineapple in this stage for making pineapple fried rice. I love to use the hollow pineapple shell as a lovely dish to present the exotic fried rice. But for a slush, I usually wait till the leaves come off without any effort at all. The smell of the fruit must be overwhelming.

 

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I have made pineapple slush with canned pineapples before. However; after the Vitamix arrived, I’ve absolutely stopped buying canned fruit. When I skin the fruit, the juice already starts flowing. I cut it up into bits, fill the Vitamix with enough ice and dunk the cubed fruit in it. I blend until it’s all slushed up. That’s it! All done! Slush is ready. What?! Now you are rolling your eyes?! D-UH gal, done!

 

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Now if you’re a little naughty, you can add some gin or Vodka to it.

If you’re a little preachy and feeling green, then add some Kala Namak (black salt) and a green chili.

If you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, just add oodles of sugar. Try brown sugar or molasses too for a little twist.

Then again when you are in no mood for all of the above, then add a little lemon juice and mint! You’re all set!

This often times also ends up as a fabulous dessert for me with all that sugar.

Wishing you a happy summer! Stay cooolll!

 

Fresh Water Melon Juice

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Posted on 26-05-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Gluten Free Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Smoothies / Juices / Beverage

Hi there pretty woman, how’s it going? Done with shopping and exhausted? Well, here’s some cool Watermelon Juice for you.

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A tall cool glass of pure watermelon juice with no frills, except some ice and maybe some melon balls to munch on now and then should freshen up a tired girl.

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Recipe? Take a really ripe watermelon and cut it open. Scoop the insides into a strainer and using a big ladle crush the fruit. Make sure you’ve a large vessel under the strainer to collect the juice . Add some ice and serve. With a spoon or melon baller scoop some of the fruit and keep aside before dunking the rest of the fruit in the strainer. Add the balls as shown in the picture for some texture in the juice. Add ice and you’re ready for a cool sip. One can also add some lemon juice for a tangy taste. Mint leaves add more freshness. For me? I just love it as is without any of the ‘extras’ except maybe for some ice. Enjoy your summer!

Simple Salad and Dressing

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Posted on 24-05-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Radha's Raw Food, Salad

Salad is a must for me when I’m eating curries and chawal (Rice). The crisp coolness of the salad with spicy curries or rice dishes is an awesome contrast I look forward to. I prefer to make my own salad instead of buying ready made store bought ones.

Salad

Ingredients:

  • Iceberg or Romaine lettuce, shredded, 2 cups
  • Baby carrots peeled or cut, 10
  • 1/2 cucumber, skinned and quartered, discard the seeds if you don’t like it,
  • 1/2 large red onion, chopped lengthwise
  • Green chillies, halved and deseeded (optional), as required
  • 1 Tomato, halved, deseeded, and cut lengthwise

Method:

Put all ingredients in a large bowl, add dressing and toss.

Serve immediately, can be stored in a tight container for a day.

Oil free Dressing:

  • 3 Tbsp Orange Juice
  • 2 Tbsp Lemon juice
  • Salt, 3 pinches (optional)
  • Pepper, 1 tsp

Mix well.

Radha’s Warm Fruit Delight

Posted on 20-01-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Desserts, Foods during Fever, Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Vegan

I never thought much about baked fruits until I came to the USA. Back home, for young babies, I used to watch moms bake apples or pressure cook them, add a little honey and ghee and feed those cuties. I did that for my one year old, and he loved it. Here I tried the apple pie and simply loved it. After some experimenting, I came upon this recipe which is really nice. The fruits best for this dish are soft and fleshy ones. I like apples, mangoes, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, and banana. My husband is very allergic to cinnamon powder. So I skip it for him.

Take your favorite fruits,  cut them into lovely looking slices, about three to four cups, and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes until soft. Check your oven settings, about 350 degrees should soften it. Add a couple of bay leaves before you bake.

In a small bowl, mix:

3 Tbsp Raw Honey

Vanilla essence or Elaichi powder or Cinnamon powder, 1 tsp

2 Tbsp hot water to melt honey

Pinch of Sea Salt

A teaspoon of lemon juice or Orange juice.

First mix honey and hot water. To this add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

In a large bowl, add a little fruit, add a little of the mixture, mix well and repeat until all fruit is mixed well.

Chances are that your fruit may lose its shape.

Adjust sweetness accordingly

Alternately, you can soak fruits in the syrup, leave it in the fridge and eat it crisy. Or you can simply put the soaked fruit and bake it nice and warm.

This way, your fruit will not lose its shape.

To keep this dish raw, mix Agave Nectar with filtered water, and eat the dish crisp.

You can also heat this to a 104 degrees and eat it warm.

Even my picky hubby loves this for dessert on cold nights huddled cozily between the children, puppy, and his Gharwali (wife).

My Fave Smoothie:Dates N Cream

Posted on 20-01-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Desserts, Gluten Free Recipes, Radha's Fit Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Smoothies / Juices / Beverage, Vegan

There’s no Cream in this Smoothie. The creamy texture comes from the nuts in it. I love this on some mornings as it’s nutritious, sweet, and so healthy. Several Raw Food cooks recommend that you soak the nuts to get rid of the phylate  coating it. Phylates do not let the body absorb minerals. Furthermore; soaking nuts activates several enzymes in it. Dates are nature’s answer to  sweetners. It is raw and very sweet. Dates should be ripe and plump. If you don’t have dates, substitutre with Sweet Raisins. It’s so sweet that I love to sometimes make it for dessert, especially on those nights when we stay up late after work or a really long, neverending movie. Dry dates can also be used. Just remember to soak it in hot water. My grandpa used to soak dates in milk for sometime and then eat it up and drink the milk. This was his regular bed time ritual that he beleived kept his metabolism in full gear. Dates have seeds within, so be sure to deseed after soaking, and check once more before you blend. The seeds may ruin the blender.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soaked Raw Cashew Nuts

3 Brazil Nuts, soak alongwith Cashews

1 Ripe banana

4 or 5 plump dates, or

15 large dark colored Raisins

1 peeled apple, or keep the skin on

Optional: Strawberries, Nut Butters, Water, Coconut milk or Cow Milk if you don’t want it raw.

Method:

Soaked nuts will blend better.

Blend all ingredients of your choice from above in a blender for up to a minute.

Serve chilled in a tall glass.

I sometimes add a scoop of Vanilla ice cream when I need this to be a special treat.

I personally love eating this with a hot muffin in the morning to have a filling breakfast.

My hubby loves it as I pack it for him, handy to polish off in his car as he drives to work.

This is his favorite drink and his goodbye hug is a little more tighter as he rushes off to his office ;)

To keep it completely raw, I think this would be totally awesome with tender coconut meat topping.

Radha’s Qucik Dosa

Posted on 18-01-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Dosa, Gluten Free Recipes, Radha's Raw Food, Tiffins / Snacks, Vegan

This is my emergency fast food at home. Always have chutneys, pickles, a small salad, and ketchup in the refrigerator. Stock some Chick Pea (Besan) in the pantry. Heat a pan and get done quickly. Raw Fooders can skip the tempering process and make these crepes on a dehydrator. I don’t have one yet, but I’m sure that an experienced Raw Fooder knows how to exactly operate and make these perfect crepes in the dehydrator.

Ingredients:

Besan, 1 Cup

Filtered Water, one cup or according to necessity

Salt, as required

Tempering:

Ginger, grated, 1/2 tsp

Cumin, 1/2 tsp

Freshly Grated pepper, 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves, chopped, 5

Cilantro , chopped, 1 tbsp

Finely sliced green chilies, as required, optional

Method:

Seive the Besan.

Add Salt, mix well.

Add Water, taste test and set aside.

In a pan, heat oil, add cumin, turn off flame and add the rest of the ingredients and toss.

Add this to the batter and mix well.

Heat a pan, when hot enough, pour 1/3 cup of batter toward the center of the pan.

Whirl the pan to spread the batter evenly.

Add oil along the sides of the dosa for a crisp dosa.

Once golden, flip and cook for some more time.

Serve immediately with pachadi or curry.

You can add potato or onion stuffing if desired,

Radha’s Mango Relish with a Zing

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Posted on 18-01-2011 | By: Radha

Category : Pachadi / Chutneys / Relish, Radha's Raw Food

I love raw mango very much. I fell deeply in love with it when I was pregnant with my first child. Until then my taste buds had been on mute and my mind was preoccupied with reading. My father and I used to sit and discuss various kinds of books and writing styles. I was always deeply engrossed in books and cricket. I was an excellent player, batter in particular. Once I even won the “Girl of the Match,” nothing official, just that all the boys in my class were thrilled at my performance which led to the team’s victory.  I was always preferred by any team, and when I was assigned in one, that team was super confident in my ability and would expect to win. Those were the fun days.

Coming back to this relish/pickle, whatever you want to call it, I made this by accident. The lemon zest in my hands meant for a sophisticated “Western” dish  I was trying to prepare fell into the Mango pieces meant for a heavily South Indian “Maanga Thokku.” I got upset as I did not have any more zest for that super dish I had planned to make, and was also furious at having ruined my lovely thokku. Still pretty much upset, I threw in some fresh green chilies and grated ginger, (meant for a curry) into the mango pieces. Later in the day after I had cooled off, I added some tempering to this and served it with Yogurt rice for dinner. It was heavenly. So this way, an accidental pickle made it’s way into the Rayasam cookbook.

As for my super sophisticated dish? I made it exactly as described in the book, as perfectly as possible. It turned out good, but not great. However; we polished off this Exotic super dish with the help of some Accidental Pickle ;)

Ingredients:

1 Raw or Unripe Mango (Wash, towel dry, cut, discard seed and pith, chop into tiny pieces)

Lemon Zest, 1 tsp

Ginger Root, freshly Grated, 1 Tbsp

Green Chilies, 3, slit lengthwise

Sea Salt, 3 tsp

Garlic (optional), 2 pods or more crushed

Jicama (optional), julienned, 5 tbsp

Red Chile powder, 1 tsp (optional)

Orange Zest instead of Lemon Zest can be substituted

Tempering:

Oil, 1 tsp

Black Mustard Seeds, 1 tsp

Curry Leaves, 5

Turmeric, 1/4 tsp

Jaggery, small marble size

Method:

In a large bowl, toss in chopped Mango pieces.

Add Red Chile powder, Salt and toss.

Add Ginger root and green chiles, toss. Check flavours and adjust taste.

Add Zest, Jicama and toss.

Complete tempering and add Jaggery to the hot oil and melt.

Add immediately to the Mango Mixture.

Mix well, wrap tightly with plastic and let sit in a corner for an hour.

Serve with sandwich, tiffin items, Corn chips or enjoy a little as is.

To Keep this as Raw Food, simply add Sesame oil to the relish instead of tempering. Add the curry leaves and substitute jaggery with Raw Honey. You can skip the sweet part and still have an awesome dish.

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