Magic additives

wellbeing

Sometimes, when our daily diet becomes monotonous, we look for new flavours. How about adding simple ingredients to everyday dishes to make them tastier and more nutritious?

To your drinking water, add a different aroma every day of the week. Soak tulsi, lemongrass, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin or caraway seeds in it overnight, strain and drink.

To the chapati dough, add something new every day. Choices include sesame seeds, jeera, crushed ajwain, khus khus, groundnut powder, or chopped leaves of methi, palak, coriander, etc. Add a handful of ragi, soya, oats, besan, green gram dal flour or methi flour to make them multi-grain!

Use jaggery syrup mixed with caramom and nutmeg to sweeten fruit juice, lassi, soups or kheer.

Use toasted and coarsely-powdered grounduts, copra, sesame and poppy seeds and toasted Bengal gram powder to garnish curries and salads.

Almond and cashew powder can be used to thicken soups, curries and milky desserts like kheer or shakes.

For additional protein-fibre, soak a handful of different whole pulses, like Bengal gram, cow peas, green gram, field bean, Kabuli channa, groundnuts, etc, overnight and cook in a pressure cooker. Use them in sambar or curries.

As a souring agent in salads, flavoured rice or buttermilk, use lime juice or amla gratings. They are a rich source of Vitamin C.

To buttermilk, add ginger juice and two tsp of popped ragi flour. It makes a cooler drink.

For mouth fresheners, instead of peppermint or chewing gum, use healthy options like ginger candy, salted amla, cardamom, or clove powder mixed with arecanut powder and nutmeg.

Finally, for proper assimilation of food, relish every morsel of food heartily without any distractions.