Author: Laxmi Parida

Dandelion Vatana Dal

Yes, dandelion, the pesky weed in your lawns. My friend once told me that her parents, back in the days, used to pull over in the middle of the highway and harvest dandelions from the roadside, which was a choice green back home in Istria. I am reminded of this story every time I encounter a healthy, luscious bunch of dandelions from the farmer’s market.

Here is an interesting treatment, with unexpectedly sumptuous results, that may help you embrace this nutrition-dense, bitter green. Enjoy!

Special tools:

Food processor.

Ingredients

  • Lentils: 1/2 cup vatana (or garbanzo) soaked for at least 2 hrs + 1/2 cup tur dal
  • 1 bunch of dandelion greens + 1 green jalapeno
  • Veggies: 2-3 medium potatoes
  • Allium: 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • Aromatics: 2 tsp of your favorite (Indian) spice-mix (like curry powder)
  • Acid: 1 tbsp vinegar
  • Baghar/Tempering: 1 tbsp ELOO + 2 tsps mustard seeds + 1 red dried chillies, hand-torn into small pieces + 2 stalks of curry leaves
  • salt to taste

Method

Pressure cook the vatana+tur lentils with the garlic and chopped vegetables + salt to taste, till tender. Process the dandelions leaves and stems and the green jalapeno pepper (not blend!) till broken down into tiny pieces, but not any more (i.e., not blended into a paste).

Extended baghar: Heat oil and mustard seeds till the seeds begin to sputter. Add the curry leaves and chillies. After 30 seconds or so, add the spice-mix and make sure it does not burn. Then add the processed greens + vinegar and saute for a minute or so. Season with salt to taste.

Mix the dal and the baghar. Serve hot.

Notes, hints, tips:

  1. ELOO = Extra Light Olive Oil.
  2. You may also check https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dandelion-health-benefits/.
  3. The “AAA” principle (Allium, Aromatics, Acid) is a good rule of thumb to build the flavor base for lentils, meat, vegetables or any combination thereof.
  4. Cooking the garlic along with the staple reduces its intensity but provides the oomph.
  5. I heat the oil along with the seeds, so that it does not need babying and you can afford to be distracted with other tasks and the sputtering of the seeds acts as a natural timer the beckons you back to the stove. Don’t stray too far away though.
  6. Use you favorite spice-mix, be it quatre épices or Madras curry or vadouvan or Berbere or simply mirepoix. Change the tempering spices accordingly- here I have a very Indian take with whole mustard seeds, curry leaves.
    When I travel to India, I bring back a variety of high quality spice-mixes (trying to cover the expanse of the country, like a Kashmiri Rogan Josh, a Rajasthani bharwan, or Goan Xacuti, ….). India offers a fascinating array of not just spices, but also spice-mixes, tried and tested over generations.
  7. Dandelion Garbanzo pancake/waffle: Here is another addictive (believe me!) dandelion-legume treatment. See pictures below. It could be prettied up a bit, but who has the patience 😉
    Soak 2 cups garbanzo beans for 4-6 hrs (or, until it meets the bite-test). Drain.
    Pulse in a processor till a coarse paste: garbanzo + 1 bunch dandelions, stems and leaves + 2-3 scapes (or other alliums) + 1/4 cup EVOO + a few green chilies + 1 tsp whole cumin seeds (optional) + 1 1/2 tsp baking soda + salt to taste.
    Mix in chopped onions and shishito peppers. Use 1/2 cup measure to scoop each pancake out. Flatten and cook for 4 mins on each side on a non-stick pan. No extra oil is necessary.

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Future of Food: Fonio

I have not met anyone who does not like couscous (expect my daughter).  I discovered fonio while browsing the shelves at Kalustyan. Move over, couscous. This little-known African grain blows even couscous out of the water.  And wait until you hear more. Popularizing grains such as this actually not just diversifies your diet but that of the world, releasing pressure on the Big 3 (wheat, corn, rice), and ultimately food security for the planet.

Special tools:

None.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup fonio grains
  • allium: 1 scape OR a quarter medium onion, diced
  • spices: 1 tsp jeera + 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns + 10 curry leaves
  • Veggies: 1 pepper, charred and slivered + 1 cup sprouted urad (or moong)
  • 1 tbsp oil; dash of turmeric; salt to taste
  • Topping: 1 tbsp EVOO to moisten

Method

Fonio: Toast fonio lightly and pour 2 cups hot water. Cover and turn off heat. After 10 minutes, fluff with fork.

Heat 1 tbsp oil. Add jeera + whole peppercorns. When the seeds sputter add the curry leaves. Saute for 15-20 seconds. Add the allium, Mix for another 10-15 secs. Mix in the turmeric and then add the veggies. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add salt and then mix in the fonio. Mix well for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 tbsp EVOO and mix well.

Serve warm (with guacamole).

Notes, hints, tips:

  1. Fonio can also be steamed. Although that might take longer, it yields even fluffier fonio.
  2. Use fonio anywhere you would have used couscous. Note that couscous is made from wheat while fonio is a different grain. It is also being touted as a superfood.

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Peach Puff

My sister-in-law made an amazing Napolean (Mille-feuille) cake and the curious in me asked too many questions. So much so, she packed me home a bag of 1 lb (Russian) pastry sheet. It occupied the freezer until an occasion (Labor Day cook-out ) presented itself. I confess, in the past, I have laboriously made puff pastry from scratch, with buttering and rolling and folding on and on. For hours. All on chilled slabs.

But the store-bought one was a breeze! Here is a fruit pinwheel. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Muffin pans.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 6.

  • 1 lb puff pastry
  • 2-3 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced into moons
  • little EVOO to spray the muffin pan
  • Peach or any other jam

METHOD

Thaw the frozen pastry and work while it is pliable but still cold. If it gets too warm, leave in the refrigerator for a few minutes. I unwrapped the sheet on parchment, placed another layer of parchment on top and rolled thin. Score the rectangle to make 6 equal-sized strips.

Keep the muffin tray ready by spraying with EVOO.

Work with each strip at a time (keeping the others between parchment in the refrigerator, else it may get too warm). Brush the jam and place 2 to 3 layers of halfmoon peaches with the curved sided of the moon facing out (see picture). Fold the strip over. Roll tightly and place in muffin cup.

Bake at 375 F for 30-40 mins or until golden brown.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. My muffin tray had 6 cups, so I made 6 large puffs. But if yours has 8, you could make 8 delicate puffs from 1 lb of puff pastry.
  2. This was inspired by youtube’s Delish recipe.
  3. You could garnish with powdered sugar.
  4. Mille-feuille (thousand leaves) is a mathematical pastry. Let me explain. Repeated folding and rolling gives you 3^6 = 729 layers. It is rounded off to one thousand. If you repeat the process again (which is not usually done), you will get 3^7 = 2187, way larger than one thousand. QED.

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Two-Way Gajar Halwa

No added sugar, no ghee!! Then, is it any good ? I have it from my fussiest that indeed it is finger-licking good.

Here is a little, soft primer on “you are what you eat” or what La Nutritionista says. Added sugar –such as cane sugar or honey or maple syrup or agave or any syrup– toys with one of your body organs (say, pancreas via insulin) while sugar, such as in fruits or vegetables, can be viewed as contributing to the total calorie intake . The latter has more leeway than the former in your meal planning. So averting added sugar in favor of natural sugar may be a sound strategy.

Back to the carrot pudding. The sweetness in this halwa comes from the natural sugars in dried apricots. With a tiny dose, the halwa replaces your breakfast cereal, and, with a stronger dose turns into a dessert . Moreover, it is embarrassingly simple to make. Enjoy both-ways!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Microwave; food processor (or grater), coffee/spice grinder.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4.

  • 2 cups finely grated carrot + 1 cup milk
  • 3 dried apricots finely diced, and nuked in microwave with 1/2 cup water for 2 mins until very soft and fragrant
  • 2 tbsp powdered raw cashews + 2 tbsp whole raw cashews + 2 tbsp raisins
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
  • Optional topping: 1 tbsp mulberries soaked in 1/4 cup black cherry rum

METHOD

Place ingredients (except cardamom) in a microwavable bowl. Cover loosely with damp kitchen towel and nuke at 50% power for 20 mins or so (in intervals of 8 mins, say).

When done, mix in the cardamom powder. Serve hot or chilled.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. The traditional halwa is slow cooked for hours with generous amount of sweetener and ghee. My daughter is the fussiest eater I know and a fierce critic. She found this lighter version of halwa finger-licking good!
  2. You can powder the raw cashews in a spice/coffee grinder. About 1 1/2 tbsp cashews yield 2 tbsps of powder.
  3. In pressure cooker: Place ingredients (except cardamom) in a pressure-safe bowl and pressure cook for 15 mins.
  4. Recommendation by AHA/CDC is to limit the consumption of added sugars to a few teaspoons a day. Check the different resources in your country for the exact recommended number that best matches your health profile.
  5. For the sweeter version of the halwa use 6 dried apricots in 3/4 cup water. Surprisingly, when the apricot cooks in water it is fragrant like a mithaiwala’s sugar syrup!
  6. The recipe is inspired from Indian Instant Pot Cookbook, by Urvashi Pitre (that used about 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp ghee).

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Sakura Rice Pudding

When the much awaited cherry blossom (sakura) tea arrived, all the way from Japan, it was a little anticlimactic to see “Lipton” stamped on it. Nevertheless, the floral scented tea did not disappoint! So much so, that I tried a sakura-infused rice pudding. It turned out even more delicious. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Coffee/spice grinder, microwave.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2.

  • 2 cups milk
  • 4 sakura tea bags
  • 2 tbsps powdered brown rice (coarsely ground in a coffee/spice grinder)
  • 1 tbsp sugar (or more, to taste)
  • Garnish: raisins or Blackstrap molasses or berries or pitted, halved cherries

METHOD

Heat the milk to scalding (about 3-4 mins in microwave). Place the tea bags and let steep (for about 1 hour). Remove the teabags and add the rice powder to the milk and cook in microwave till thickened (at 60% power for 5 mins, stir and repeat two more times). Add the sugar and mix well. The mixture thickens as it cools.

Serve hot or chilled with the garnish.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. This is a simple, entirely-in-microwave rendition of a rice pudding.
  2. I used 2% milk, but any milk will do, even skimPlus. After adding the tea bags, to get a stronger extraction, you can nuke it for a 1 minute.
  3. The rice can be ground in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. It should not be a very find grind: coarse is good.
  4. Blackstrap molasses? See https://purba.blog/2023/07/30/horchata-matcha-with-blackstrap-molasses/
  5. This is similar to Indian kheer, or, phirnee/firni. Another variation is to set it in individual ramekin or even blancmange molds. Inverting from a mold would need the consistency to be even thicker.
  6. Garnishing sakura (cherry blossom) pudding with cherries reminds me of the Japanese dish called oya-ko (parent-child) donburi which refers to chicken-egg. Oya-ko being cherry blossom-fruit.
  7. Lavender pudding with lychee. I have used lavender to scent the pudding and chopped lychee as garnish. Has been a big hit. You can get culinary dried lavender buds from your spice/tea store, if it is fancy enough 🙂 Make sure it is culinary. It is indeed worth the trouble to locate such a source.
  8. Cardamom infused pudding. The Indian in me, of course, has infused rice pudding with cardamom, with incredible results.

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Horchata Matcha with Blackstrap Molasses

Mexican horchata with Japanese matcha tea. The rice and the molasses combo is reminiscent of my Indian grandmother’s rural kitchen. It has become my favorite kick-back, unwind, Sunday afternoon latte and is sure to challenge all your lattes. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

High powered blender or Nutr.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 1 solo drink.

  • In 1 1/2 cup water in a mason jar, soak overnight:
    • grain: 1 tbsp brown rice OR millet +
    • flavor: 1/3 stick cinnamon OR 2-3 whole cardamoms +
    • nuts: 1 tbsp almonds OR pecan+
    • a dash of Himalayan pink salt
  • Green matcha tea: 1 tsp matcha powder, with 1 tbsp hot water, well mixed
  • Sweetener: 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses

METHOD

Run the horchata ingredients with the water through a blender or Nutr and strain back into the mason jar. Heat and add the green tea and the sweetener.

Serve hot or iced.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. Here is a stronger horchata: In 1 cup water in a mason jar, soak 1/4 cup rice +1/4 cup almonds + 1/3 stick cinnamon, overnight
  2. Blackstrap molasses has all the goodness of a regular sweetener but –almost impossibly!- is also an ingredient of clean eating. Check https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-blackstrap-molasses
  3. The horchata is adapted from https://www.thehealthymaven.com/iced-horchata-latte/.
  4. For the hot version of the tea, I use the microwave to warm the horchata (1 min at 60% power; but you may want to adjust with yours).

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