Crave Bits

Tag: vegetarian

  • Being Vegetarian is a Delight!!!

    Being Vegetarian is a Delight!!!

    Non- vegetarians always think the only food which is edible is in form of meat. That’s so unfair for those people who do not eat meat and still have a happy tummy after every meal. Yes ! its a myth that only non vegetarians can survive in other parts of world or even in India. That is completely untrue and so not “The Fact “. Its good that you follow a certain cuisine and prefer to eat meat as its the best form of protein but its totally not true that who doesn’t eat meat is wasting his life or appetite.According to my own research (putting in statistical view point )I have seen a variety of dishes are catered for vegetarians which are full of nutrients and full of taste. They are easy to be made yet so good in appeal. Its not necessary that tandoor food should only have meat else we do not

    consider it to be tandoor. You will be wrong if you taste panner tikka or tandoori Gobi. The variety of curries and appetisers are more in number for a vegetarian than for a non -vegetarian. I am not stating that we should quit non-veg and pledge to be vegetarians (That’s so not the motive of writing this ) but instead appreciate the value of a vegetarian cuisine and just do not crib about having only non-vegetarian dishes only in every meal. The variety , colour , aroma which can be created in a vegetarian recipe is just awestruck and it tastes much better than a non-veg item (Putting this on a serious note).The variety we eat in a marwari wedding is more than a variety we eat in a Bengali wedding (I have attended both so am capable of distinguishing both). I would appeal to my bengali
    friends (Specially) to not crib for non-vegetarian food always and try and appreciate the richness , variety and goodness of veggie’s delight. Give a look to the recipes below and come out of the myth . Stay fir stay blessed.

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    Mix Vegetable Fried Balls :

    Ingredients : 2 cup roughly chopped onions , 2 cup roughly chopped capsicum , 1/2 cup green peas, 1 cup grated carrot, 1 cup spring onions finely chopped, 1/2 cup grated potato, 1 &1/2 cup gram flour (Besan ), 1 tablespoon green chillies finely chopped, teaspoon carom seeds, 1 teaspoon Asafoetida, 1 teaspoon red chilly powder,1/2 teaspoon of sodium bi-carbonate,1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 tablespoon coriander chopped, water as required for batter, Oil for deep frying, Chat masala for garinshing

    serving : 4

    Method :Mix all the ingredients with water to get thick flowing consistency. Leave it for 30
    minutes.With the help of a large spoon drop small drops into the heated oil of the drying pan and fry till golden brown . Do not fry in high flame else it will remain uncooked in the centre. Fry in medium or slow flame. Once golden brown vegetable balls sprinkle chaat masala over it and serve with tamarind chutney. Its a dish to be enjoyed with friends and invite those who believe non -veg is the only food possible and surprise them.

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    Panner Kofta :

    Ingredients :

    For Kofta : 200g grated cottage cheese (panner), 3 medium sized potato boiled and mashed, 1 teaspoon Pomegranate seeds (anardana) finely crushed , 1 tablespoon chopped green chillies, 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves , Salt to taste, 1 teaspoon kashmiri lal mirch , 1 teaspoon dry mango powder (amchur powder), 1/4 cup resins finely chopped for kofta filling , Oil for frying .

    For gravy: 1 tablespoon cooking oil, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 to 3 cardamoms, 2 to 3 cloves, 1/2 cup onion paste, 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste,1/2 cup tomato purée, 2 teaspoon cumin and coriander powder mixture, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 3/4 cup fresh cream, 1 teaspoon garam masala, salt to taste. Chopped coriander for garnishing.

    Servings : 4

    Method:

    For kofta: Add all the ingredients except resins, listed for kofta, mix them well and make a smooth dough. Now make even balls out of the dough, filling chopped resins into the kofta balls as a filling and givethe koftas its desired round shapes. Keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Fry the koftas in medium flame slowly until golden brown and keep it aside.

    For Gravy :
    Heat a deep pan ,add oil, cumin seeds, whole spices , onion paste , ginger and garlic paste and stir it for 3 to 4 minutes until onions separates oil .Add tomato purée and all the dry spices along with little bit of salt keeping in mind that koftas too have salt.Cook until tomato separates oil and add fresh cream and 1/2 cup water. cook the gravy for 4 to 5 minutes and switch off the flame. When its time to serve, then only add fried koftas into the gravy so that koftas doesn’t turn soggy . Isn’t it a recipe which can compete with any non-veg dish .

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    Vegetable biryani :

    Biryani is such a non-veg recipe and breaking the typecast lets make it a veg dish and it will still be so yummy and mouth-watering which will surprise you to the fullest.

    Ingredients : 1/2 kg basmati rice washed and soaked in water for an hour, 1 cup sliced Onions, 1 chopped carrots , I cup chopped beans , 1 cup diced potato, 1 cup panner cubes, 1 cup yoghurt, 1 cup tomato roughly chopped, 1 cup boiled green peas, 1 tablespoon coriander and mint leaves finely chopped, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon cumin powder, 1 tablespoon ginger and garlic paste, 1 teaspoon red chilly powder, 1 teaspoon garam masala, half a dozen cloves, half a dozen black peppercorns, half a dozen green cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick.

    Servings : 6

    Method :

    Half cook the rice and flatten it on large rice plate and sprinkle a little ghee on top avoiding sticking of rice grains with each other. Take a deep pan with a lid and and separately deep fry all the vegetables (Except Onions and tomatoes) and panner and keep it aside. Pour the remaining ghee into the pan and add all thw whole spices ,half a dozen cloves, half a dozen black peppercorns, half a dozen green cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick .Add Onions and ginger garlic paste to it and stir till onion becomes translucent.Now add Tomato and all powdered dry spices, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon cumin powder,1 teaspoon red chilly powder, 1 teaspoon garam masala, Salt, and green chillies . Sauté it for 5 to 6 minutes stir in all the deep fried vegetables along with panner  and add yoghurt to it. Stir gently for 3 to 4 minutes let the gravy dry a little and then pour out half of the gravy into a separate plate. Now spread half of the cooked rice into the deep pan and garinish on top with chopped green coriander and mint leaves and half of the fried onion slices, Repeat theame step with the remaining gravy and rice. Slow the flame. Close the lid of the deep pan and remove it from the flame. Now place a flat tava/pan on the slow flame and then put the biryani containing deep pan on it . with the help of a tight dough seal the edges of the pan’s lid so that air could not pass through it.This process is know as cooking in Dum. Keep the dum flame on till the dough which is used as a seal looses out moisture and nearly becomes breakable. The Biryani is ready to be serve with your prefered choice of gravy or curry or even a raita.

  • Truth about the Vegan Diet

    Truth about the Vegan Diet

    Veganism is a special type of vegetarian diet in which people completely exclude eggs, meats, dairy products and all those ingredients which are derived from the animals. In veganism, people completely boycott the processed foods such as the white sugar and wines as well. Those people who follow such diet as called as vegans. Vegans generally give several arguments so as to why you should stop eating the animal foods. There are many myths in the mind of the people regarding the vegan diets. Some believe that the vegan diet is the best way a person can lose weight and fight the life threatening diseases. Every now and then you will be inspired to follow the vegan diet as it is highly beneficial for the human body. But the reality is completely different from what is presented in front of you. Vegan diet has in fact lots of side effects as well on which people don’t pay much attention and these side effects deteriorate the health of the individual. Here we will be talking about such lies and myths people have regarding the vegan diets.

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    People generally believe that since the vegan diet is completely free from animal foods, they offer several health benefits and are in fact healthy compared to the other food items that we eat in our daily life. The proponents of the vegan diets have whole foods in them. Vegan diet completely boycotts refined sugar, refined grains, Trans fats, vegetable oils and other processed foods. Consequently many food items which offers fewer nutrients and have chemicals that are harmful for the human body gets eliminated. The health benefits of the vegan diet is due to the fact that they consume only the whole food and eliminates the processed food items as they have harmful ingredients in them. It is nothing to do with the elimination of the animal foods from the diet. None of the studies have been able to prove that animal food is bad for the human health.

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    The other reason which people give for you to encourage in joining the vegan diet club is that the animal foods have huge amount of fats in them which is extremely harmful and is the root cause of the heart disease. The truth is that the cholesterol and the saturated fats which are present in the animal foods improves the blood cholesterol profile and offer several health benefits. They both give rise to the HDL and not the LDL which consequently helps in protecting the heart from diseases. Some of the recent advanced studies conducted in this field have proved that there is absolutely no connection among the heart disease and the consumption of the saturated fats and cholesterol. Vegan people use this myth to attract people but this myth has now been completely debunked.

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    People believe that the vegan diet is the only way one can reverse the heart disease. There is a huge contradiction on this fact. Till date no major prove is present which can support this fact. While this is true that a diet which has low fat content in it can be helpful in reversing the heart diseases but it is not necessary for you to completely adopt the veganism.

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    There is a very famous China Study associated with the vegan diet. China Study is in fact a world famous book written by the veteran biochemist T. Colin Campbell. In this book the author has claimed that the animal protein is the reason people suffer from the cancer and various heart diseases and lose their precious life. He stated the facts by examining the results of the survey conducted in the Cornell Oxford Project in China. But many researchers and biochemists from around the world have expressed their unhappiness over the content written in the book and have contradicted the facts given by T. Colin Campbell. They believe that the book China Study is in fact a science fiction and there is not enough evidence to accept the claims made by T. Colin Campbell.

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    People opt for the vegan diet as they believe that the animal protein is bad for their health. But this is not true. The animal protein is in fact useful for the human body. Several researches made in this regard confirm the same. The diet which has high protein in it acts as a wonderful appetite suppressant and this eventually helps you in losing weight. If you want to shed some kilos from your body then you must opt for the animal proteins instead of ignoring them. Further the animal protein also lowers the blood pressure and helps in building muscles.

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    The vegans argue that the human body is naturally herbivore and so people should not eat the animal flesh of any type. This is rather contradictory. We people are consuming animal flesh from generations and our body is well adapted to consume and digest the animal flesh. The humans on the other hand are omnivores. There are lots of nutrients and minerals obtained from the animal foods which are good for us. Moreover the claim that the person opting for the vegan diet live longer is also not true. No study has been able to prove that vegan diet is superior and is more beneficial for health.