An Ayurvedic Okra Dal

Here is one more Okra recipe - by now I've made 4 different Okra dishes in the last few days, all because I bought a half a bushed of Okra for $3.99, and I ate some of what I made, but I froze a lot. That all goes into the idea of cooking cycles, now I have a ton of these Okra dishes, and it will make my cooking easier for months. You could just have some brown rice with a portion of this Okra Dal, some other vegetable, like spinach or zucchini or broccoli, or whatever, and a salad, and you have a meal fit for a prince.

Okra Dal (Ayurveda)

Get rid of the oil - all Ayurvedic recipes use oil, so that is the first thing to get rid of, and I tend to make up for the taste with some more onions and garlic.

View on geniuskitchen.com

Ingredients

2-3 onions, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced.
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon of caraway (optional)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken up, or you can use some flat cinnamon and crush it with a mortar and pestle.
12-16  ounces red lentils
1 teaspoon ground coriander and/or
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro chopped fine
1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder (or more, to taste)
1⁄4 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 1⁄2 cups water
1 large tomato, halved
24 okra (ca. 1 lb), topped and tailed, and cut in 1/2" sections
liquid aminos to taste

 

Preparation

• Caramelize the onions in a large saucepan and cook with the cumin seeds and cinnamon over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until the onion is beginning to brown.
• Add the lentils, coriander, chili powder and turmeric. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the water and then add the tomato and okra.
• Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, until the okra and lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

Okra Tomato Stew

OK, so the other day I scored a 1/2 bushel of Okra for $3.99 and this has me cooking ahead.

There are tons of recipes and youtube videos around, and converting them to a #WFPB alternative is easy.

Basic Okra Recipe

Here is one nice video, which you can easily convert to #WFPBNO (No Oil - EVER!)

 

How to cook Okra and make an UNhealthy vegan dish

This recipe would be easy to make, and substitute the oil as follows:

• Cut up the onion. Don't drag your knife sideways across the cutting board as the video shows - you will be destroying the edge of your knife very quickly.
• Dry roast it for 5 minutes at 425F (medium/high) without stirring.
• Stir fry it for another 5 minutes at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Follow the rest of the recipe.

 Ok, I have so much Okra, I am making this dish as well.

Her ingredients, with comments:

Okra/Lediesfinger- 500gm Onion- 1 medium or large - double up - see below.
add some chilis
Garlic- 3 or 4 cloves Turmeric powder- 1 tsp Cumin powder- 1tsp Salt- 1/2 tsp - use some liquid aminos instead Oil- 30ml - double up on the onions instead

I remove the oil and double up on the onions. That's all. 
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So here's the main dish - the promised Okra Tomato Stew:

Okra Tomato Stew

Okra Tomato Stew #WFPB variant

 

View on tasteofbeirut.com

 

Ingredients

• 1 Bag of frozen okra (14 ounces) or the fresh okras
•  1 red onion, chopped or a small bag of pearl onions (6 ounces)
•  Tomato sauce (14 ounces) or fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut (diced)
• some cilantro - I use about 10+ sprigs of cilantro and cut them up good
• 1 teaspoon of allspice or seven-spice mix, or panchpuran
• 1 Tablespoon of mashed garlic (mash with a teaspoon of salt till pasty), alternatively some garlic/ginger paste
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

 

Preparation

• Chop the onion and dry roast it in a sauce pan, for 5 mins at 425F, while mincing the garlic.
• Add the minced garlic and stir fry for 5 more mins at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Add the okra (still frozen) to the onions and stir-fry for 5 minutes or so.
• Add the garlic paste to the okra, then the tomatoes (or tomato sauce) and lemon juice and allspice or panchpuran.
• Cover the saucepan and let the mixture simmer for 45 minutes, making sure it does not burn at the bottom.
• Add the cilantro if you're using it
• Uncover the last five minutes of cooking to let more liquid evaporate and turn off the heat.
• Serve at room temperature with some pita bread.

NOTE: To save time I use the frozen okra that is available at the Middle-Eastern store imported from Egypt; it is already prepped and requires no additional chopping. If you are using fresh okra, cut off the tip of the pod, dry with paper towels and stir-fry in olive oil; then proceed with the recipe.
The original recipe omits the cilantro, but I think it is delicious and really makes this stew a winner!!!

In an earlier post I discussed Okra in Lentil Sauce:
https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/2017/08/and-another-brilliant-wfpb-supper-at.html



Have at it folks.

Budget #WFPB on Starling Avenue

Recently, Premium Halal had Okra at $1.49. Their selection of veggies is always great. In general Okra goes anywhere from $0.99/lb to $2,49 lb, depending on the shipment. It pays to watch... Okra is extremely healthy! Low on the glycemic index and high in nutrition.

Rice, one of our staples

White rice is a nutritional disaster.

White Rice is very high on the glycemic index, and basically it is stripped of the nutrition and fiber of brown rice. Yes! Magazine had a beautiful story recently about The Story of White Rice. Notice this passage:

After farmers harvest their rice, it typically goes to a mill. There, it is cleaned and the husks are taken off the grains of rice. At this point, it is referred to as “brown rice” or “unpolished” rice. Once the husk has been taken off the rice, there remain several very thin layers of wholesome bran. At this stage, the rice is full of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and protein—and very healthy to eat.

But polishing rice from so-called “dirty rice” into the sparkling white form that most people prefer has caused—yes, caused—a number of major, adverse impacts on health.

First, polishing removes most of the vitamins and minerals vital to one’s health. One example: the rice bran contains vitamin B and thiamine, both key to preventing beriberi. Indeed, in the largest World War II prison camp in the Philippines (where John’s grandfather was interned), American prisoners suffered from beriberi until they convinced the Japanese prison guards to let them cook the bran shavings that came off the polished rice; then the beriberi went away.

White rice also increases the risk of diabetes, rates of which are rising quickly in the Philippines, the United States and many other countries. The rice layers removed during polishing contain nutrients that guard against diabetes. Polished rice further contributes to diabetes risk because it causes blood-sugar levels to rise more rapidly than brown rice does. According to the New York Times, a 2010 Harvard study showed that people who consume white rice at least five times a week “are almost 20 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who eat it less than once a month.” In our travels in the Philippines and the United States, we meet people who are shifting to brown rice on their doctors’ orders precisely because of concerns about diabetes.

And polishing rice also reduces the protein content of the rice, which can mean the difference between being well-nourished or malnourished. The bottom line on all of these health fronts is the same: the more polished the rice, the less healthy.

from: The Story of White Rice

Brown rice is healthy, black and red rice even better...

Here's for the selection of Basmati Brown Rice at Al Aqsa:

Basmati Brown Rice in 4lb, 8 lb and 10lb packs.  The Shimla Road Brown Basmati is $6.99 for 4 lbs and $14.99 for 10 lbs, Deer Organic Brown Basmati is $14.99 for an 8 lbs bag. Neerob Bazaar, by the Bx22 bus stop carries Swad Brown Basmati for $12 per 10 lbs. Take your pick. Brown Rice from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is the healthiest you can get because of lower arsenic levels. In the US, I would trust Lundberg rice the best.

Brown versus white

The bottom line? Brown rice versus white reduces the diabetes risk by 16%, and a significant reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer and, for that matter, red, purrple and black rice may be even better, so you might explore some variety:

Different varieties at Chang Li Supermarket:

Rice blend

Black Rice

 

Onions, another daily staple

Canadian Onions on the left, US Onions on the right.

The US onions go for $2.99 for a 10 Lb bag, and the Canadian onions, such as Onio and Vegco, go for $4.99 for 10 lb. It all varies a bit with the seasons. I've seen the Canadians for as little as $3.99 and sometimes more than $4.99 too. The US onions I've seen as low as $ 1.99 at times.

In short, with $15 to $20, you can have 10 lbs of high quality rice and 10 lbs of quality onions, then you can add various lentils, chick peas and beans, and that is most of what you need for staples for the month and you only need to add fresh fruit and vegetables.