Cabbage and Sunflower Seed Parathas

Between Bobby Chin's Punjab-special episode, and a live tandoor station at the back of my own building for some function I wasn't invited to, I just had to make some parathas, or Indian flat bread, for myself. These are generally made of spinach, cauliflower, potato, or paneer stuffed inside or mixed alongside the dough made of wheat. I made mine with wheat and soy flour, added sunflower seeds. I would have liked to have added some saffron too, but didn't have any handy. And finally, I used very little water - instead just used extra virgin olive oil and coconut milk to bind the dough. I'm usually very yucky about getting my hands dirty while kneading the dough, but soldiered on nonetheless.

I had the parathas with a green and red pepper relish I got a couple of weeks back from the farmers market.

I wish I had access to that tandoor oven at the back of my building. I later learnt it was 10 days since some old chap died and they were celebrating with tandoor-cooked breads and such.

Oil, water, and flour measurements are approximations only. I just kept adding them as needed.

Cabbage and Sunflower Seed Paratha

Servings: 4 parathas

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups wheat flour
• 0.5 cups defatted soy flour
• Approx 0.5 cups of olive oil
• 1 cup cabbage
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 green chilli
• 2 handfuls of sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons of coconut milk
• Lukewarn water, as needed
• Salt to taste

To make:
Chop your chilli, cabbage, and onion finely.

Mix the veggies with your flour with salt, olive oil and coconut milk.

Add the sunflower seeds and water, as needed, to form the dough. Keep kneading till the dough is not sticky  - when you lift it off the plate, it comes off clean. If its too sticky, add more flour. If its too dry, add more water.

Divide the dough into four pieces and roll them into a ball using your hands.

Dust some flour on your rolling board, and roll the dough ball into a thin round roti. Hopefully, more round than mine. :)

In a flat frying pan, add some olive oil. Remember you're not frying the paratha - the oil is just so the paratha doesn't stick to the pan. When the oil and pan are hot, gently place your paratha and let it cook for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Enjoy immediately with some pickle, or yoghurt.

Lettuce, Grape, Almond and Basil Salad

As far as salads go, this one is a keeper, as far as I am concerned. Real easy to put together (but so are all my salads!) and yummy enough to polish off an entire bowl in one sitting.

Lettuce, Grape, Almond and Basil Salad

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups of loosely packed iceberg lettuce
• 2 cups green grapes
• 5-7 leaves of basil
• 12-15 almonds
• About a handful of sunflower seeds
• Dash of olive oil

To make:

• Tear up the lettuce and basil.
• Combine all ingredients except the oil and sunflower seeds.
• Drizzle with olive oil.
• Top off with the sunflower seeds.

Beet Salad with Peppers and Lettuce

Eating a lot of beetroot turns your pee pink/red, eating more makes your poo pink as well. That's right. And on that rather appetizing thought, here's the recipe - Its really quick and simple to make, and is wholesome and filling.

Beetroot Salad with Peppers and Lettuce

Ingredients:

• 1 beet
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 2 cups of iceberg lettuce
• Handful of sunflower seeds

Dressing:

• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon of dry basil

To make:
Chop the peppers and lettuce into thin slivers.

Chop the beets into circular discs, so that they remain the star of the salad and get their moment in the sun.

Mix all the salad ingredients.

Add the salad dressing when you want to eat the salad. Garnish with sunflower seeds.

Orange, Peppers and Cabbage Salad

It was just one of those days. Between getting late for work and making the best of what's available in the fridge (My stock's run out), this salad is what I could rustle up for lunch.

Orange, Peppers and Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

• Cup of cabbage
• Cup of green pepper
• 1/2 cup carrots
• 1/2 cucumber
• Tablespoon of sunflower seeds
• 10-12 black olives
• 1 1/2 oranges
• 2 jalepeno peppers
• Teaspoon of olive oil

To make:

• Chop up the cabbage, carrots, cucumber, and peppers into thin long slivers.
• Juice half an orange. Mix this with the olive oil to make the dressing.
• Peel and seperate the remaing orange.
• Toss together the veggies with the jalepenos, olives and orange slivers.
• Add the dressing.
• Garnish with sunflower seeds.

Carrot and Cabbage Salad with Coriander+Cumin Dry Rub

Apparently, Bugs Bunny isn't the only gone going gaga for carrots. They're everywhere, and I can't get enough of my organic carrots and mom's got a bunch of them red carrots. I made my salad today using dhana jeera powder, which is equal parts coriander seeds and cumin. If you can't find the same, dry roast some coriander and cumin seeds, then blitz them into a powder in a blender.

Carrot and Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups of carrots
• 1.5 cups of red and green cabbage
• Bunch of coriander
• Teaspoon of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of sunflower seeds
• 1 teaspoon of dhana-jeera powder (coriander and cumin seed powder)
• Juice of one lime

To make:

• Chop up the carrots and the cabbage into slivers of roughly the same size.
• Add the dry rub powder, lime juice, and olive oil and massage it into the veggies.
• Add the coriander and sunflower seeds on top.
• Leave aside for a couple of hours for the spices to seep into the veggies for added flavor.
  
  
  

Raw Rice

This is a recipe for raw "rice" by David Jubb on Disc 2 of Raw for Life - The Ultimate Encyclopedia of the Raw Food Lifestyle. Firstly, what is up with David flaunting his beer belly in that all-too-tight t-shirt and his gut hanging out?!...*Creeps*

The original recipe calls for Jicama root, which I have replaced with sweet potato, since I have no idea what Jicama root is or tastes like. It just looked like a hard meaty root with a texture similar to yams, and hence the substitution. I'm not entirely sure we can eat yams/sweet potatoes/potatoes etc raw - but its not killed me yet, so its only made me stronger!

I tried this last night and its sooo filling and delicious! It keeps very well in the fridge - I just had the leftovers a couple of hours ago. I used just one sweet potato and less than a quarter of a large cauliflower as the base - which was more than enough for one person. The below recipe has serving portions for an entire family.

Raw Rice

Servings: One HUGE bowl for a family of four!

Ingredients:

• 1 cauliflower
• 1 sweet potato/yam (About the same weight as the cauliflower)
• 1/4 of an onion
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup of olive oil
• 1 Lemon
• Bunch of coriander
• Sea salt, per taste

To make:

Peel the sweet potato/yam. Chop into rough sized pieces and blitz in a blender. You want a fluffy chunky consistency - Do not turn into a fine powder or mush. Transfer this into a bowl.
Add lemon juice and zest to preserve flavour.
Blitz the cauliflower in a blender into a chunky consistency.
Add this to your mix and toss lightly.

Chop the onion and coriander (don't discard the stalks as they have a sweet crunch to them) finely and add to the bowl.

Add olive oil. Toss with your hands.

Top off with sunflower seeds.

It may not be rice, but you'll definitely love the taste and get your fill of starch - and no cooking involved!

Watermelon, Zuccini, Carrot Salad

I'm now officially one tooth (giant tooth, I might add, along with the not so pleasant business of abscess and such) lighter. As per doctor's instructions, I am not to eat anything "hot or hard". So, seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip up something raw, after days of not so raw eating habits.

Watermelon, Zuccini, Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 1/4 of a zuccini
• 1/4 of a red cabbage
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 1/2 cup watermelon
• Handful of sunflower seeds

To make:

• Chop the carrots, zuccini, cabbage and pepper into long thin slivers.
• Juice half a cup of the watermelon (just squeeze the juice out with your hands or use a blender). The other one cup of watermelon will be chopped up and added to the salad. Be sure to scrape the watermelon right off the rind and include some of the green portion as well- thats where all the good stuff is, nutritionally.
• Combine all the ingredients except the watermelon juice and the sunflower seeds.
• Add the watermelon juice over the salad - A lame dressing, I know, but to be honest, you dont even need it!
• Finish off with the sunflower seeds on top.