Recipes for a healthy heart

Raw foods are ‘living foods’ with the enzymes or ‘life force’ still active in them. These enzymes make digestion easy and aid the absorption of nutrients while providing energy and nutrients in the right form and proportion. On the other hand, cooking — while increasing palatability — destroys these enzymes. It makes the body work hard to digest food and increases toxic build-up in the body, leading to degenerative diseases. Raw food experts say a good way to start a meal is with a large salad and a glass of vegetable juice.  Here are a few salad and juice recipes.

Bean sprout salad

Ingredients: Bean sprouts — 200 gm; Cabbage — ¼ cup (shredded); Carrot —                        1, cut lengthwise; Spring onions — 1 stalk, cut in small pieces; Capsicum — 1 small, cut lengthwise. Mix vegetables and sprouts in 1:1 proportion.

For dressing: Groundnuts (powdered) — ¼ cup; Sesame seeds (whole) — 1 tbsp; Lime — 1; Red chilli powder and salt — to taste; Jaggery syrup — 1 tbsp.

Method: Mix dressing ingredients separately. Toss into vegetable-sprout mix just before serving.

Spinach salad

Ingredients: Spinach —1 bunch, finely chopped; Cucumber — 2 ½, sliced; Spring onion — 2-3 stalks or ½ the quantity of spinach, chopped finely; Tomato — 1 big, chopped lengthwise; Corn — 1, steamed (optional). Ginger — 1 inch piece, made into a paste; Green chillies — 3, ground into a paste; Groundnuts — a few (powdered); Lime juice and  salt — to taste.

Method: Mix all the vegetables. Add ginger paste, chilli paste, peanut powder, lime juice and salt.

Tropical tornado

Ingredients: Cabbage, pumpkin, capsicum, cucumber — 250 gm, shredded lengthwise; Lime — 1; Jaggery — 30 gm; Salt and pepper — to taste.

Method: Cut all the vegetables lengthwise. Mix dressing separately. Add to vegetables.
Peanut-veggie salad

Ingredients: Cabbage, tomato, potato, cucumber, carrot — 400 gm (diced); French beans and capsicum —  400 gm (diced). Vegetables like baby corn, red and yellow peppers and broccoli can also be added for extra colour and flavour.

For the sauce: Roasted peanuts  — 100 gm; Chilli powder, jaggery, tamarind  and salt to taste.

Method: Steam beans and potatoes . Mix all ingredients for the sauce, add a little water and blend to a smooth paste. Mix the sauce well with the vegetables. You can also cut the vegetables into sticks and serve with the sauce as a dip.

Mixed vegetable juice

Ingredients: Beetroot — 1; Carrot —  2; Bottle gourd —  ½; Dates — 5; Betel leaf — ½
Method: Cut vegetables, put them in a mixer and extract juice. Blend the dates and betel leaf into the juice. Chill and serve fresh.

Coconut milk juice

Ingredients: Coconut   —  ½; Raw mango — 1; Cucumber — 1; Ginger paste — ½ tsp; Salt to taste.

Method:  Extract milk from the coconut by grinding into paste and then straining. Dilute to make 6 glasses of juice. Grate raw mango and cucumber. Add to juice with salt and ginger paste. Serve chilled. Whatever roughage remains can be added as stock to soup or mixed into flour to make nutritious rotis.