Flax Rice

BY DRSAILA · OCTOBER 4, 2018

Flax Rice

Owing to the increase of gluten related disorders in the US and other industrial nations, people are opting to replace wheat with other gluten free grains such as rice.

Flax seeds are ranked number one source of lignans which are fiber related polyphenols with antioxidant benefits. Flax seeds are excellent at binding, make brown rice more sticky and delicious.

Adding flax to rice will reduce glycemic index and increase omega 3s and fiber & is a great option for weight loss and maintenance.

Ingredients:

Brown Rice 1 cup

Flax powder 2 tbsp

Water 2 cups

Procedure:

• Soak brown rice in a sauce pan with two cups of water.
• Add ground flax to rice and cook uncovered on medium flame until you see bubbles of water on top of rice.
• Now turn heat to low and cover the pan and cook for about 10-15 minutes.  
• Fluff it up with fork and serve hot.

Rice is done when it is tender and the grain is soft without any uncooked grain in the middle.

To release more nutrients in flax seed, outer coating must be broken down. So use only ground flax, not whole flax seeds. Flax powder keeps best when stored in airtight container in refrigerator, for 2-3 months.

I blend flax seeds in coffee grinder every few weeks instead of buying ground flax from the store. Once flax seeds are ground they are more prone for oxidation and spoilage. No need to toast these seeds before blending.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3908912/

Amazing Avocado Sandwich

BY DRSAILA · JULY 1, 2015

This yummy sandwich is a great idea for kids’ lunchbox. Being a kid friendly sandwich it is full of protein, vitamins, good fats and fiber. Grown ups can enjoy this yummy sandwich anytime as a snack. 

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe avocado
• Juice from half lime
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. of ginger (optional)
•  Whole wheat bread 4 slices
• Sprouts of your choice, I used mung beans (green gram dal or Pesalu)
• Veggies of your choice, I added cucumber and tomato slices
• Baby spinach

Preparation:

• Peel and pit avocado.
• Blend avocado pulp with lemon, ginger, salt and pepper (I blended in stone mortar).
• Spread this on bread slices and top with baby spinach, sprouts, cucumber and tomato slices.

You might also want to view these recipes:

Avo-Rado Sandwich

Avocado Roti

Spicy Avocado Chutney

Avocado Smoothie

How to cook Brown Rice

BY DRSAILA · JUNE 24, 2015

Know how to cook Brown rice, which is usually thought to be very tough. Follow the steps below to know the preparation of this simple, healthy and very nutritious rice. 

2 cups of Brown rice

5 cups of water

Thick bottom sauce pan or Stone pot 

• Soak brown rice for at least 4-5 hours.
• Rinse in a fine-meshed strainer.

• In a medium saucepan heat the brown rice and 5 cups water until boiling.
• Leave it uncovered until you see bubbles of water on top of rice, about 15 minutes, at this time reduce heat to medium low and place the lid slightly tilted to let the stem out.
• After the rice is cooked and there is no more water on the top,(you will see holes on the top at this point), cover with lid, bring the heat down to low and simmer it for about 15 minutes – 20 minutes.
• Fluff it up with fork and serve hot.
• Rice is done when it is tender and the grain is soft without any uncooked grain in the middle.

Jowar Roti

BY DRSAILA · JUNE 24, 2015

Easy gluten free bread recipe. Jowar is called Sorghum or Jonnalu in Telugu. I heard people say you need to have skill to make authentic jowar rotis. I disagree with this. If you follow the roti recipe below, you can easily make jowar roti without any hands-on experience. There are no hidden ingredients like leavening agents or oil used in other store-bought breads. This healthy gluten free grain is used primarily for animal feed in the United States.

Ingredients:

2 cps of Jowar flour(use only freshly ground), rotis taste bitter if you make this with store-bought flour.
Pinch of salt
¾ – 1cup of hot water(keep few table spoons of extra hot water aside, if you need to add to dough while mixing)

Preparation:

• Grind Jowar in vitamix. These rotis tastes delicious with freshly ground flour. It is very easy to grind Sorghum at home if you have a high speed blender with a dry grain container attachment. I used vitamix to grind the flour. I bought sorghum grains from Indian store. You can buy either yellow or white sorghum.

• Boil water and remove it from heat. Immediately add freshly ground sorghum flour slowly to very hot water, this helps gluten free dough bind. Amount of water depends on moisture of the flour, humidity and so forth. Keep extra hot water aside in case you need while mixing. Make sure you take wide mouth and shallow vessel to knead the dough.

• Knead the dough thoroughly and make balls. When you mix this you might want to use a spatula to start with because it will be hot.

• The ball should be smooth in all edges, you can smear your hands with water if the dough breaks while pressing the ball. I take a ziplock bag (preferably thick ziplock bag) and wet the surface of bag, then pat the dough ball on it with finger tips as I smear my fingers with water to prevent dough from sticking. You don’t have to make it too thin. You should make roti while dough is warm, don’t wait until it cools down completely, which make it difficult to flatten the dough. You can also use rolling pin to roll the rotis, but make sure you wet ziplock bag or plastic sheet surface and wet the rolling pin too. You can get thinner rotis with rolling pin.

• Carefully separate the roti from plastic sheet and transfer it onto hot griddle. Right after you place it on hot griddle, smear it with water(only on one side) if it appears dry, this step helps roti puff up, you will see it puff up more when you turn it to the other side. When you reverse the roti to fry, press the roti while frying to help it puff up.
  • Remove it from Griddle and serve hot.

• This roti has slight sweetness in it which makes it distinct from other flours.
  It goes well with tamarind or onion garlic masala.

  Variation:

  
  • Mix this with a ¼ cup of wheat flour per 1 cup of Jowar flour to make it smoother and softer.
  • You can add 2 tbsp of olive oil or ripe avocado while mixing.
  • You can also heat it on flame like fulkas

3. The dough should not stick to your hand, if it sticks, you have added more water; and if it crumbles up, it needs more liquid.

4. Knead for 5 minutes to form soft, pliable balls.

5. Make little lime size balls and knead into thin round shapes.

6. Apply oil on the top before you cover and store it.

Rolling out Chapatis:

·  Knead and roll out the dough into a cylindrical long roll on a wooden board. I prefer professional silicone baking sheet to roll rotis.

·  Take small lime sized portions, and shape them into balls.

·   Sprinkle some flour on clean board. Using a rolling pin, press/roll out the dough into a big thin round.

·   To get layers, fold the rolled out round twice.

Frying Rotis:

·  Heat a cast-iron griddle on high flame, when it is hot, place the roti and fry it on each side until it turns golden in color.

·  Sprinkle few drops of oil on roti while frying. You should fry them only on high flame, to get soft rotis.

·  Fold the rotis/flatbread and store them in an insulated container.

Tip

You can have this roti by itself. It also goes well with curries like No oil egg plant soy curry, creamy greens, eggplant and unripe mango medley, broccoli and pea saute.

This is very delicious and nutritious sandwich. You simply can’t stop at eating one. Flavors in this dish will amaze you. Make it with fresh baguette slices only.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 Avocado
• 7-8 Radishes, sliced and salted for 1-2 hours
• handful of any sprouts or sesame seeds
• 1 small piece of ginger
• Cilantro
• Salt to your taste
• Lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
• Green peppers optional
• 1/4 inch Baguette slices

Preparation:

• Blend avocado, ginger, lemon, salt and peppers.
• Spread this mixture on baguette slices.
• Place radish on top.
• Sprinkle sprouts, cilantro or sesame seeds.

Watch Video :

Green Roti

BY DRSAILA · JUNE 24, 2015

Today I am sharing Green Roti recipe. An easy recipe to make your kids eat avocado and roti all at once. Know the ingredients and preparation of this very nutritious and delicious recipe.

2 cups of wheat flour, unbleached

¼ cup besan(channa dal or garbanzo fl)

1 cps bacchali or methi leaves or any green leaf of your choice like spinach, mustard greens or kale; roughly chopped and loosely packed

1tsp turmeric (optional)

1 tbsp corriander powder(optional)

1 tsp Gharam masala

1 tsp cumin seeds(jeera)(otional)

3 tbsp coconut oil

½ cup yogurt

½ tsp celtic sea salt

Mix all the ingredients. No need to saute the leaves. Mix well until you can make a ball, add yogurt and warm water as needed to make firm dough. This dough should not stick to your hand, if it sticks, you added more water; If it crumbles up, it needs more liquid.

Knead for 5 minutes to form soft, pliable ball. Make few lime size balls and knead thin into round shapes. Roti in this photo are made with bacchali leaves. I prefer this leaf, because it is slimy and a good binder.

Rolling out Chapatis:

Knead and rollout the dough into a cylindrical long roll on a wood board. Take small lime sized portions and shape them into balls.

Sprinkle some flour on clean board. Using a rolling pin, press/roll out the dough into a big thin round. To get layers, fold the rolled out round twice, to get a triangle shape then roll into a big, thin triangle.

Cooking Rotis:

Heat a cast-iron griddle, when it is hot, place the roti and fry it on each side until golden.

You can have this by itself. This goes well with any curry like No oil egg plant soy curry, creamy greens, eggplant and unripe mango medley, broccoli and pea saute.

Kids would love to have this pizza. It is fun to choose their toppings.

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat pita bread rounds, 2
• Tomato sauce, may use pasta sauce or marinara sauce, 5 tbsp.
• Cheese, Goat cheese crumbles, vegans use nut cheese, 2 oz. for each pizza
• Herbs, dried or fresh, I used fresh cilantro
• Olive oil or Butter, melted
• Veggies of your choice like onions, mushrooms, carrots, capsicum

Preparation:

• Marinate veggies in organic soy sauce for 30 minutes. I marinated mushrooms, onions cut into rings and diced carrots.
• Grill the veggies and keep them aside
• Place aluminum foil on baking sheet.
  
   
• Lightly brush surface of foil with melted butter, place pita bread and brush lightly with butter or olive oil.
  
   
• Spread tomato sauce, homemade or store-bought
• Sprinkle cheese

• Top with veggies and herbs of your choice
• Place in oven at 400 F until cheese melts or until pita edges turn brown, for about 10-12 minutes
• Remove the pizza and transfer to cutting board
• Cut with pizza cutter into wedges and enjoy!

Tip:

For spicy version sprinkle red pepper flakes or use Jalapeno peppers for toppings.

Preparation:

• Boil water in large container.
• Add thin rice noodles or brown rice noodles to boiling water,
• Let them cook for 5 minutes and then immediately drain and spray cold water.
• Cut the noodles with scissors after draining hot water as these noodles tend to be very long and difficult to eat otherwise.

Note: After I made beetroot stir-fry in stone pot, I scooped out saute into a small container, and wiped off the stonepot that had leftover beetroot juices with cooked rice noodles to give them the pink color.

Caution: Do not add rice noodles before water boils

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour (preferably whole grain, unbleached)

1 ripe avocado

½ tsp of salt

Warm water as needed (about 3-4 tbsp)

Mix the flour with salt then add the avocado to the flour and mix thoroughly. Now slowly add water to make firm dough, I used about 3-4 tbsp of warm water to bring the dough to this consistency. Make sure that dough is not too soft or too hard.

Knead the dough for two minutes. Cover and set it aside to rest for about 15 to 30 minutes.

Rolling out Chapatis:

Take small lime sized portions and shape them into balls.

Sprinkle some flour on clean board. Using a rolling pin, press/roll out the dough into a big thin round. Even for novice roti maker, once you blend avocado, rotis roll out very easily. To get layers, fold the rolled out round twice, to get a triangle shape then roll into a big, thin triangle.

Cooking Roti:

Heat a cast-iron griddle, when it is hot, place the roti and cook it on each side until golden.

Serve hot with curry or dal.
This goes well with No oil eggplant soy curry, creamy greens, eggplant and mango saute, broccoli and pea saute.