Lunch Ideas - Creating Balanced Vegetarian Meals

I'd say it was a hybrid raita. I cooked the beets and greens like a saag with shallots, ginger-garlic, and added ginger powder, fennel (saunf) powder, roasted jeera powder and salt to the yogurt. Then mixed the veggies into the yogurt once they had cooled a bit. I had eaten an Iranian dish made with roasted beets and dill, mixed into yogurt. This was my attempt at an Indian version. It tasted great with steamed rice.

 

Depending on how the pumpkin was cooked I would guess 350-400. Most everyday Indian meals add up to a surprisingly low amount of calories, or I should say vegetarian Indian meals do.

 

I do it the same way and mine comes to about 80 cals for a largish portion (~200 gms). Yours looks like small portion. I think that plate is way under 400.

 

Until two years ago I used to suffer from recurrent throat infections that would turn into a sore throat and dry cough that lasted for months. On average I used to get two such infections a year. They would be so bad that I used to sleep sitting up. It would take multiple rounds of antibiotic cocktails, narcotic based cough syrups, and steroids for the infection to work its way out of my system. My doctor was worried that chronic inflammation of the throat lasting months was an invitation to worse problems in the future. That was the time I became obsessed with fixing my immune system starting with the gut. I've been making kefir for about 2 years which I use for everything from raita to kadhi, apart from drinking it straight. I make sourdough bread and incorporate kimchi and sauerkraut into my diet. Aside from reducing stress in my life, consuming more probiotics was the most significant change I made. Though this is purely anecdotal, I haven't had such an infection in nearly a year and a half. Even when I do get a cold it is mild and disappears in a couple of days. All this when I have a 5 year old germ factory at home. Even my kids have milder infections that haven't involved a trip to the doctor so far.

That brings me to kanji. It is a fermented drink my mother used to make all winter when carrots and beets were in season. It is made with black carrots, beets and turnips with yellow mustard acting as the fermenting agent. It is flavored with black salt, hing and chilli powder. It is a bit of an acquired taste and has the piquancy you would expect in fermented foods. When we were kids we would clink our glasses pretending we were having wine then close our eyes and gulp it down in one breath. : ) The pickled vegetables are my favorite part and can be eaten as is or added to salads.

Since it is traditional to make kanji for Holi, I made some to give my kids a taste of home.