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.

Multi-grain Cookies

Here is a delicious and healthy recipe for cookies and kids love it too!

Ingredients:
1 cup ragi flour (also known as madua/ nachni/ finger millet).  High in calcium.
1 cup jowar or oats flour
1 cup whole whear flour
1.5-2 cups of shakkar (yellow powder of jaggery)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
Handful of dried raisins or cranberries
1 cup coarsely ground almonds/ cashews/ hazelnuts/ walnuts (any nuts)
Water as required
2 tbsp olive oil

Method:
Mix together all the dry ingredients.
Add oil and water as required to make into a tight ball of dough.
Make samll balls like for a chapati and pat flat into cookies or use a cookie cutter for interesting shapes.
Bake on 180C for 5 mins than on 150C for 15.  Check to see if done and adjust temperature accordingly. Turn if browning required on other side. (Depends on the oven.)

Check if cookies are ready by inserting a wooden pin.  If it does not go in, they are ready.  Do not overbake as they become extremely hard after cooling!  Happened to me :(

Coconut Multi-grain Cookies
Oil Free Variation - Instead of water and olive oil, add homemade cocounut milk which is made by blending freshly grated cocounut with some water.  For this recipe, half coconut should be enough.

By: Bulbul Mankani

Date Squares

Raw Vegan Date Squares

Ingredients:

2 cups cashews/ almonds/ walnuts
1 cup raw oats
1 tsp cinnamon powder
35 large pitted dates
Juice and zest (grated peel) of 1 large orange

Method:

CRUST - In a food processor, grind the nuts and oats into powder.  Add cinnamon and pulse again. Add 20 dates and pulse again till the mixture starts clumping together.

FILLING - In a food processor, blend the 15 remaining dates alongwith orange juice and zest until smooth.

ASSEMBLY - Press 2/3 of the crust mixture into a pan lined with wax paper or foil.  Press down with your hands hard to make the base firm.  Spread the filling mixture in a thin layer on top of this.  Then loosely sprinkle the remaining crust on top of the filling.

Optional - Spread some dried grated coconut on top.

Raw Lauki soup

Try this nutritious live soup. You will love it.

Ingredients

·      2 cups chopped lauki - (unpeeled of course!)

·      3 cloves garlic

·      handful of celery leaves or fresh dhaniya

·      4 pitted dates

·      4 tbsp fresh grated coconut

·      salt to taste

Method

Put all the ingredients in the blender. Add water as needed and serve cold.

Steamed Beans with Gun Powder

Chop and steam a bowl of green beans till they are soft enough to eat but still crunchy.  Toss them in 1 tbsp of gunpowder, 1 tsp of flax seed powder and add salt to taste.

Variation: Add some crushed peanuts or toasted sesame seeds and lemon juice.

It's that simple! :)

Green Smoothies

Ingredients: 40% greens - spinach, coriander, mint, etc. 60% fruit - bananas, papaya, mango, chickoos etc.

Method
Put all the ingredients in the blender and mix till very smooth. Serve immediately.
Variation : Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Awesome Broccoli Snack/ Salad

Ingredients: For the dressing - 1 tbsp cashew butter (FabIndia) or homemade peanut butter or seasame butter/ tahini, juice of 1-2 lemons, 1 tbsp powdered flax seeds, 1 tbsp jaggery or date syrup, salt and herbs to taste.  2 cups broken broccoli florets,

Method - Break the broccoli into small florets and chop the stalk into bite size pieces.  Steam lightly till crunchy but not too hard/ soft.  Takes 1-2 mins in a steamer.  Mix all the dressing ingedients in a food processor or whisk with fork and pour 1/4 or 1/2 the dressing as per your taste.

Cashew butter is heavy so go easy but much better than oily dressings and so creamy.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Whip

Ingredients: 3 cut up and semi-frozen bananas.  Freeze for about 3-4 hours.  1 tsp cocoa powder, pitted dates, date syrup or honey, 1/2 lemon juice.  Variations - Cinnamon powder, vanilla essence powder.  Sometimes, I add a tbsp of cereal to get a crunchy feel and leave out the cocoa.  You can also add a handful of chopped nuts and some raisins.

Method: Whip banana and other ingredients in blender.

Something magical happens and it looks and tastes quite close to cream/ ice-cream.  You could eat it just as it is or garnish with chocolate sauce and nuts for kids or the kid in you!

Rice Puff Bhel

Ingredients: 1 cup rice puffs, 1/2 cucumber, 1 tomato and 1/2 onion chopped into small pieces, some coriander and green chilly for garnishing.  Tamarind chutney or homemade saunth, 1/4 cup peanuts.

Variations- For the crunch factor you could add a tbsp of seviyan or other crunchy namkeen, or some roasted chanas insteady of peanuts, you could also add 1 small boiled potato or some steamed corn.  You can also mix in some green chutney or simply lemon juice and some gur syrup.

Method:  Mix everything in a bowl and enjoy!

I love this recipe when I am craving something chatpata and don't want to have dahi as that is heavy.  So quick and easy to make with so many variations possible.

Peanut and Gur Laddoos

A great healthy sweet treat for everyone for the festive season and upcoming winter.  So easy and fun to make.  I just love these for my sweet craving fixes.

Ingredients: Peanuts 1 bowl.  Jaggery 1/2 of same bowl.

Method:

* Lightly roast Peanuts and cool.

* Grind Peanuts in a grinder with or without the skin, it makes no difference to me so I prefer with the skin on.

* Add jaggery and roasted elaichi powder (optional) and grind again.

* Bind laddus making small balls with your hands and pressing them hard.  Kids love this!
Variation- You can put some dried coconut powder or almond chhaan that gets left over from the almond/ nut milks.


Peanuts are a rich source of protein (roughly 30 grams per cup after roasting). Peanuts are a good source of niacin and thus contribute to brain health, brain circulation and blood flow.(Source: Wikipedia). Peanut ladoo (kadalai urundai) is a tasty snack which is prepared under 10 minutes.

Brown Rice Mix Veg. Pulao (Oil Free)

Ingredients: 
1 cup of boiled brown rice per person
broccoli steamed with a little salt
red, yellow and green peppers cut into small pieces
mushrooms cut into halves
cumin seeds (jeera)
green chillies cut into tiny pieces
salt to taste
roasted peanuts and/or sesame seeds for additional flavour

Method:
Dry roast jeera till it releases aroma. Add mushrooms and peppers and stir fry dry, wait till they are a little soft. Put in steamed broccoli, stir fry dry till jeera coats the veggies. Add rice and stir in salt and green chillies.
Remove from flame add some roasted peanuts and sesame seeds.

Contributed by Ruma Malik.

Veg. Moussaka (No Fat)

Ingredients: 
2 potatoes, 2 aubergines, 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, a few pods of garlic, a piece of ginger, a few olives.

Method:
Steam and mash potatoes.
Grill thinly sliced aubergines till they turn brown.
Cook tomatoes, onion, garlic and ginger and then make a paste in mixie.
Cook tomato and onion puree on simmer for 15 minutes or till the sauce mixture turns deep red.
Add salt, white pepper and oregano. Now your sauce is ready.

Layer an oven proof dish with potatoes and then the grilled aubergines, top with tomato puree sauce and grill in the oven for 15 minutes.

Garnish with olives.

Contributed by Ruma Malik.

Raw Pepper and Zucchini Soup

INGREDIENTS: One large red pepper, one zucchini chopped with skin, some fresh coriander, lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic, 1 spoon chopped onion and 1/2 green chilly, 1/2 tbsp flax seed powder, salt, herbs and pepper to taste.  Variation - Try with 1 cucumber, 2 tomatoes and a handful of spinach or green capsicum - all raw of course.  All other ingredients are the same.

METHOD:  Blend all in the blender.  Garnish with some steamed veggies or seeds.  Enjoy as a cold soup on a summer day or heat it slightly if you must.

This is my favourite most surprisingly yummy soup as it takes 5 mins to prepare and 1 min to wash the blender ;)

Raw Vegan Oats Porridge

Ingredients
1 cup of raw Oats
1 cup of Berries (strawberries, blueberries) or any of your favourite sweet fruits e.g. banana, mango, chickoo, grapes
1 tbsp of soaked Raisins
1 tbsp of Nuts (Almonds, hazel nuts or any other nuts of your liking)
1 tsp Cinnamon


Method
Soak the oats overnight (before going to bed!). You can soak in it different liquid, depending on your liking - Almond milk, Water, Apple Juice. You can mix water with almond milk if you feel that apple juice only will be too sweet (which is what I find).
When you wake up, your porridge will almost be ready! Add some berries on top, some soaked raisins (that you would have soaked in water overnight as well), sprinkle with some crushed nuts of your liking and cinnamon.
If you want to add even more sweetness, add a tsp of raw date or gur syrup or honey if you eat some.
This is an amazing breakfast! You can also have this as a snack in the afternoon, provided you don’t have this twice a day because it’s a bit heavy!

Contributed by Nandini Gulati.