Indian Flavored Veg over Rice and Dahl

The mid day meal at our house was a simple but filling rice and bean dish topped with veggies and a few cashews. Nothing fancy just plan stick to your ribs food. The meals I cook for Dan and I tend to be much lighter but my folks are accustomed to heavier food so I try to accommodate them when I can. Today I decided to make this dish based on a few things. I wanted something that would cook mostly unattended and that only took two pots. No sense making more pots dirty than necessary. In the end this meal cooked for less than 45 minutes (I used my enameled cast iron for the rice which expedited the process), and most of that time it was cooking without me. I spent maybe 15 minutes preparing this meal. Here is what I did:

Indian Flavored Veg over Rice and Dahl
Makes 6 servings

Rice ingredients:

1 cup moong dahl (split mung beans)
2 cups brown basmati rice
5 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon turmeric (this could be increased to 3/4 teaspoon)
¼ teaspoon black pepper (which makes the turmeric more bioavailable)
½ teaspoon black mustard seed

Vegetable Topping Ingredients:

2 cups yellow onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
¼ cup water to sauté aromatics
2 cups tomatoes, pureed (2 large tomatoes processed in your blender)
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon black mustard seed
½ teaspoon cumin seed
½ teaspoon coriander seed
¼ teaspoon fenugreek
1 pinch red crushed pepper
3 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
3 cups green beans, cut into bite sized pieces
1 small head cauliflower cut into bite sized pieces (approximate 4 cups)
2 cups cabbage, julienned
½ pound mushrooms, cut into bite size pieces (I used shitake mushroom caps)
13.5 ounce can reduced fat coconut milk
1 tomato, cut into bite sized pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips, for garnish
¼ cup cashews, for garnish

Directions:

Combine the rice ingredients and bring to boil, covered. Then reduce to a simmer and cook until the water has been absorbed.

In a separate pan water sauté the onion, garlic and ginger for 3 minutes, until just beginning soften. Add the spices, pureed tomatoes, carrot and green beans and cook for 15 minutes. When you are 15-20 minutes from serving add the cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes. Add the tomato and coconut milk so it can warm through.

When you are ready to serve taste the sauce for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired. Serve the veggies over the rice and top with the red bell pepper and cashews. This would also be good with fresh cilantro sprinkled over the top but I didn’t have any on hand. ;-)

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 531.82
Calories From Fat (16%) - 84.82

Total Fat - 9.41g
Saturated Fat-  4.34g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 79.23mg
Potassium - 1395.48mg
Total Carbohydrates-  96.1g
Fiber - 16.43g
Sugar - 13.49g
Protein - 18.82g

Comments:

This is an intentionally mildly flavored Indian meal so that it would appeal to my parents. If you know you like Indian food I would suggest that you ramp up the seasonings, particularly the hot crushed peppers.

I made this dish because I thought it would appeal to everyone (vegans and omnis), and it did. However it was incredibly filling! Dinner tonight will need to be on the light side. We ate over 4 hours ago and my stomach feels as though we just finished eating. I am not accustomed to eating a meal this heavy. ;-)

The timing of when I added ingredients was based on how they react when being cooked. This is why the carrots and green beans went in early and the red bell pepper not at all. However I added the chunks of tomato at the end so they would remain fairly whole even though lycopene is more bioavailable when cooked.

Unrelated Note:

Today has been busier at our place than most Sundays. It isn’t that we did more than usual but somehow the day got away from us.

We started early this morning at the farmers’ market. Even though we arrived at 6:30 am we didn’t leave until almost 7:30. As usual we had to chat with the farmers and catch up on what they had been up to. It is so nice to get a chance to know the people that grow your food.

We came home with a nice haul from the market. This morning I bought: 2 bunches red kale, 1 bunch collards, 8 beets with the greens for juice, ½ pound fresh ginger, 1 pint blueberries, 1 pint black raspberries, 4 zucchini, 2 Asian cucumbers (haven’t had these before), 1 quart French green beans, 1 head cabbage, 1 small basket peaches, 8 tomatoes, 2 cantaloupes. Dan thought we were out of frig room so I stopped. But when we got home I had room to spare. It is so nice to have the extra frig space. Of course now I am worried that I didn’t buy enough. But with Dan in Indianapolis this week we should be fine on produce. Plus I can always walk down the street to the grocery store if we run out of anything critical. The best part of living in town is being able to walk to the grocery store. I love being able to get things accomplished without needing the car. ;-)

After the store we came home for breakfast. I was craving veggies so I made a huge salad for us with Swiss chard, cucumber, broccoli sprouts, avocado, tomatoes, butter beans, and salsa. Not your standard breakfast but it works and does help us to get those fruit and veggie servings in. Dan had a mid morning snack of strawberry and banana soft serve. I used this recipe but half banana and half strawberry.

While we were having breakfast we watching the 2010 Dr. Greger DVD on nutrition. It was the second time I saw it and the first for Dan. Dr. Greger included some very interesting stuff on this DVD. If anyone is interested in nutrition I would say you should pick this up. The price is reasonable and the proceeds go to the Human Society. I want to do a little research first but will write a formal review of this DVD soon and highlight a few of the items that caught my attention. As usual this is something I purchased, it was not sent to me to review.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I need to make us some fresh veggie and fruit juice and figure out what we are having for dinner. At the moment salad is the most appealing to me. Talk to again soon