Monday 13 August 2012

SPINACHED BROCCOLI, OKRA AND BELL PEPPER

Green with Envy? A wasted emotion!
Green with Chlorophyll? A requirement!

I would rather put all the green in my food.
And that is just what I did for my Raksha-Bandhan lunch party that I have been talking about.
I put all the goodness in a bowl for my family on this festive occasion celebrating the brother-sister bond.
Just like chlorophyll energises a plant, meeting up often with family and friends energises the framilial bond.

spinached broccoli, okra and bell pepper

All green foods contain chlorophyll, the life giver in plants.
It is an extremely useful component of our meal as it contains high concentrations of magnesium that is required for keeping our bones and muscles strong.
It also helps in maintaining a normal blood pressure by helping the blood in the blood vessels to flow properly.

Chlorophyll works as an antioxidant and interferes in the absorption during digestion of hydrocarbons, such as those produced by smoking tobacco.
Green leafy vegetables give us a good supply of vitamin K1 that helps in blood clotting.

Vitamin K1 like all K vitamins are fat soluble and require some dietary fat in the guts at the same time to enhance its absorption, so when eating salads it is a good idea to add some nuts or a dressing that contains a little olive oil.

SPINACHED BROCCOLI, OKRA AND BELL PEPPER


Ingredients:
serves 4
.Broccoli............................1 cup, tightly packed, cut in 1 inch pieces
.Green bell pepper.............1 cup, tightly packed, 1 inch dices
.Okra..................................1 cup, tightly packed, 1 inch pieces
.Spinach.............................2 cups, tightly packed, finely chopped
.Onion(optional)*..............1/2 cup, tightly packed, roughly chopped
.Ginger...............................1/2 tsp., grated
.Garlic................................1/2 tsp., finely chopped
.Green chili........................1/2 tsp., finely chopped
.Cumin seeds......................1/2 tsp.
.Fennel seed powder..........1 tsp.
.Red chili powder..............1/4th tsp.
.Tava fry masala*...............1 tsp.
.Coriander seed powder.....1 1/2 tsp.
.Salt....................................to taste(approximately1/2 tsp.)
.Lime juice..........................1 tsp.
.Oil......................................1 tsp.


spinached broccoli, okra and bell peppers

Method:
.Wash all vegetables thoroughly before cutting.
.Wash and wipe dry okra before trimming and cutting.
.Cut into required size pieces and set aside.
.Heat oil in a pan.
.Add cumin seeds and saute for 30 seconds.
.Add ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
.Add onion and saute till translucent.
.Add the broccoli and okra and stir fry on high heat for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
.Add the bell pepper and green chili and saute for 1 minute.
.Add fennel seed powder, coriander seed powder, tava fry masala, red chili powder and salt to taste.
.Mix well.
.Add chopped spinach leaves and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until all vegetables are cooked yet crunchy.
.Add lime juice.
.Serve hot.

Tava fry masala:
Ingredients:
.Coriander powder.....................1 tsp.
.Dry mango powder....................1/2 tsp.
.Cumin seed powder...................1/2 tsp.
.Black salt...................................1/4th tsp.
.Red chili powder.......................1/2 tsp.
.Mustard seeds............................1/8th tsp.
.Fenugreek seed powder.............1/8th tsp.,
.Garam masala powder................1/2 tsp.
.Dry ginger powder......................1/4th tsp.
.Fennel seeds...............................1/2 tsp., coarsely powdered
.Black pepper powder.................1/4th tsp.
.Kasoori methi leaves..................1/2 tsp., dry roasted and crushed
.Salt..............................................to taste

Method:
.Mix together all the ingredients and store in a glass jar.


Note:
*I skip the onions when feeling lazy, though onion in the recipe does add its lovely sweet flavour and
 crunch.
*Tava fry masala is a combination of spices. It can be easily combined at home and stored
 in an airtight jar or you can buy it off the shelf at Indian grocery stores.
.Tava fry masala works well in a variety of preparations, as you will find in this blog.
.Cooking in induction pans helps cook the food quickly and evenly.

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic post. Thumbs up!
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  4. The beautiful messages have been removed as they contained the website addresses of senders and were causing a problem with my website. They were also due to the same reason going into the spam message box.
    A request to all...
    Please do not add your website address while commenting on my blog. I would love to share your messages with all my friends.
    Thank you.
    Cheers!!

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  5. This recipe was YUMMMM! Tried it for the 1st time yest, and will definitely be making it again. My hubby n i dread any dish with spinach in it, but this dish has definitely changed our views :D

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  6. This recipe was YUMMMMM!! I tried it for the 1st time yesterday and totally loved it:)
    My hubby n i dread any dish which has spinach in it, but this dish has totally changed our view :D

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  7. Thx Tanya, glad u enjoyed this recipe. :-)

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