Cucumber Salad with Peanuts and Coconut Ingredients:4 unpeeled cucumbers chopped into tiny cubes ¼ cup grated coconut ¼ cup roasted crushed peanuts Juice of 1 lime Salt to taste Green chillies, finely chopped Dash of jaggery Chopped fresh coriander for garnishing Method:Mix all the ingredients together. Adjust the salt, jaggery and lime juice to taste. Garnish with coriander and serve. Source: SHARAN

Dalia Salad

Source: Minakshi Upadhyay Tewari


Ingredients:

1 cup wheat dalia
2 cup vegetable stock
1 cup chopped capsicum
½ cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped onions
1 tbsp roasted peeled almond slices
1tbsp roasted groundnuts(peeled)
1tbsp sliced dried apricots
1teaspoon olive oil
1tbsp lemon juice
1/4th teaspoon pepper
Handful of coriander leaves
Salt to taste


Roast Dalia in a pan and pour the boiling stock over it.
Cook for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Let it cool.
Take olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions and add green chillies to it.
Turn off the stove and put the sauted onions in the salad mixing bowl. Let it cool
Add capsicum,tomatoes to the bowl along with cooked dalia and toss it..
Now add salt as per taste, pepper and lemon juice.
Mix it and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Add almonds, groundnuts and chopped apricots.
Garnish it with coriander leaves before serving

Amla Chutney

Source: Jayanti Pandey
Ingredients:


4 Green Amlas (cut and deseeded)
1 small Onion
2 Green Chillies
A sprig of Coriander
A piece of Ginger 
1 small Tomato
Salt to taste


Method:


Grind all the ingredients raw.

Vegan Gajar Halwa

Source: SHARAN.  By the way, mine looked much better than this picture but I forgot to take one.  The carrots were redder and the almonds were toasted.

Makes 1 big bowl

Ingredients:
3 carrots, 1/4 cup of soaked cashews, 1/2 tsp elaichi powder, 5-10 raisins, 2-3 tablespoons jaggery powder or 8-10 soaked dates for sweetening, 1 tbsp toasted almond slivers for garnish.

Method:

Soak the cashews and dates for at least 3-4 hours Make a paste of the soaked cashews in a grinder.  If using dates, take out the pits and add these into the cashews for a combined paste.

Grate 3 carrots and put in kadhai and cover and cook to steam in its own juices over high heat for 10 mins.  Stir occasionally so as not to stick to bottom as we are not using any grease.  If you want it to be very dry, uncover and keep on heat longer till the carrots are dry.  I don't believe in overcooking so am happy to have a moist gajar halwa :).

Add the date syrup or jaggery powder (shakkar), elaichi powder and raisins and mix and stir for another 3-4 minutes.  Mix the cashews into the carrots by stirring and turn off the gas within a minute so as not to cook the cashews/ dates much.

Garnish with toasted almonds and enjoy!

This is not low calorie as nuts are high in calories and so are dates but it has no saturated fat and cholesterol that is found in milk and ghee and you can still taste the carrots since they are not overcooked.  Besides whole cashews, almonds and dates are loaded with nutrients and fibre.  It is much better to consume your calories (if you must) WHOLE vs. refined or through milk... but that is another story ;)

Chocolate Mug Cake

Source: Dr. John McDougall's Newsletter

Chocolate cake? check. Single-Serving? check. Made nearly instantly? Oh yeah! This whole-wheat chocolate cake goes from flour to in your mouth in under 5 minutes.

4 tbsp whole wheat flour
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp almond/soya milk
¼+ cup mashed banana
vanilla extract
dash cinnamon
2-3 tbsp chocolate chips - I usually crush a half small bar of Bourneville which is a vegan chocolate.

In a small bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon together, set aside. For a really sweet cake, add more sugar. In a small bowl, blend ¼ cup mashed banana, almond/soy milk, and a drop or two of vanilla extract together. 


Pour wet into dry, then add Bourneville chips, stirring to combine. Add another 1-2 tbsp of mashed banana/ almond milk, until the batter is wet and resembles regular cake batter. Pour batter into a coffee cup, and microwave for three minutes (at 1000 watts).

Per Serving: 276 Calories, 4.1g Fat, 59.3g Carbohydrates, 7.8g Fiber, 31.6g Sugar, 8.3g Protein

Hot and Sour Kohlrabi Soup

A little known vegetable of the kashmiris makes an excellent and practically zero calorie soup.  I just love it raw too as a salad.  It is tender yet crisp and a little sweet, juicy and delicious!  Rich source of fibres and Vit C and the greens contain lots of other nutrients too.  

Clear vegetable soups are the best friend of anyone looking to detoxify and release fat.  It has practically zero calories.  Nothing you need to count!  This one was in TOI.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
2 kohlrabi or gaanth gobhi used abundantly in kashmiri cuisine
1 tsp mustard oil (optional)
1/2 tsp roasted cumin
Red chilli flakes according to taste
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Retain the tender leaves of the kohlrabi and discard the rest.  Pluck off the long shoots and chop them along with the leaves. Peel the round vegetable and slice thinly and chop into halm moon discs.
2. Heat oil and throw in spices till mustard seeds are popping.  Add all the kohlrabi and saute for a couple of minutes.
3. Add 3-4 cups of water, salt and pepper and let it boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 mins or until kolrabi is cooked but still crunchy.
4. Serve with a dash of lemon.

No Oil Variation - Dry roast the spices and add water when the mustard seeds pop to prevent burning.  Add the kohlrabi just after the water and allow it to boil and then simmer as above.

Dates Chutney

Ingredients:

Dates 50g
Jaggery 25g
Tamarind 25g
Red Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp
Black Salt to taste
Roasted Cumin Seeds Powder 1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak tamarind and dates in hot water for 10 minutes.
Remove seeds from tamarind and dates.
Grind tamarind and dates with rest of the ingredients.