The Veggie Blog

I wrote a recent post about making chai tea and how it can take less than 5 minutes to make gourmet Indian Chai Tea. I have it every day so I know how awesome it is. I honestly think if Americans and Europeans are waiting to figure out how cool this drink it. It’s got only a third of the caffeine that you find in a regular cup of coffee in the US brewed 5-6 minutes. And it’s got milk which is a wholesome food. So, all in all, I really think it’s a great way to reduce caffeine intake while not going all grumpy on Monday mornings

Image courtesy: www.blogger.com

Anyway, this post was about an accompaniment to Chai tea. There are actually many, but I am going to write about them one by one. They deserve the individual attention :).

Khari biscuit is again something you find almost only in the Indian kitchen. It is pronounced “Car - ee”. They are like puffed pastries or croissants really, not very different than that, but crispier. They are typically rectangular in shape, about the size of a small cell phone. You dunk it in freshly prepared tea and bite into it. The crispy, multi-layered texture with the taste of chai tea in it, BOY! I’ve been a fan of it since the day I started drinking tea.

You should be able to find it at any Indian store in the US or Europe. It should be in the crackers isle. Some sites even provide recipes to make this at home - Homemade Khari Recipe. I understand it’s not the easiest thing to make at home. I would stick to the one from the store unless you like to take on some real exotic cooking challenges.

Almost noone other than Indian people would have heard about this extremely delicious dish - Rajasthani Dal Bhati. It is not one of those things that you find in Indian restaurant. I’ve never seen it served at any Indian restaurant in the US or India or even in most restaurants in India itself. But man, are these restaurants missing out on something awesome!

Image courtesy of Surf India

It is popular the central and western parts of India - in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The people there treat this as their ’staple’ everyday dish. The dish’s speciality is its simplicity and appropriateness for daily meals.

If you are still trying to figure out how to say it, it is pronounced “DAAL BHAATI”. The D is said more like “th” in “the”. I hope that makes sense.

It appears like some mixed ground lentils made into a paste and then rolled into a ball, then lightly friend to form something like a ‘falafel’ or ‘cutlet’. It is served dunked in a boul of spinach soup and traditional Indian pickle. Sometimes the ball is mashed inside this boul as well.

I have no clue how its made. I just had it last night at a friend’s place and can’t stop thinking about it.

I found these posts that provide a recipe.

1. Rajasthani Dal Bhati Recipe
2. Dal Bhati Recipe 2

I am not sure how good it is because I haven’t tried it. But if you want to taste what real homemeade western-Indian food tastes like, go for this one!

They call it the land of innovation. Where every market is saturated with competition. All products that can be made are already there. Well, I am telling you that’s not true. I’ve lived in the US for the last 5 years. And from day 1 when I landed at Cincinnatti airport and went scurrying to find some vegetarian food, I have wondered time and again why there isn’t a nice vegetarian burger widely available in the US? Not just the US, in fact, it is almost everywhere else in the world, except the metro cities in India. I have looked for them at airports in Franfurt, at Singapore, Paris, Abu Dhabi, Bharain, Kuwait and a few more. Nothing. Nada. No sign of the elusive veggie burger.

Now you might be thinking that you’ve seen veggie burgers at the grocery store and at other burger places, so WTH am I blabbering about!? Well, you are right that those are available. But compared to the good ones that I’ve had, they are just so bad that I don’t even count them in.

Veggie burgers can have a Soy base, Gluten base, Rice four base, and the best of them all, a potato curry base. I have not seen a single place in the US that sells the potato-based veggie burger. McDonald’s in India sells them and they are amazing. My mouth waters at the mere thought of those juicy spicy veggie burgers with the fresh warm bun, molten cheese, crispy lettuce and a hint of mayo. Why don’t they make it here? I am almost sure the Americans will love it too. So, that one’s still a mystery to me.

Even the soy ones like the ones at Burger King are usually pretty bad. Instead of the meat-based cheeseburger, they just replace that with an old stale under-cooked burger piece. For Soy burgers, sprouts go really well with it and I’ve seen that in a couple of places including The Habit Burger Grill in the Los Angeles area (Ventura, Encino and a few others) and the Veneetian Resort and Casino at Las Vegas. So the next time you visit LA or Vegas, try them out, they are a delight. Image Courtesy of RosevilleRestaurants.net.

So here’s my requrest/plea/challenge to all the burger fanatics out there - make a veggie burger in the US and I think you will be surprised how much demand there is for it. If you do make a million with this idea, make sure you post a comment here and let me know

Chai tea is to Indians what a cup of black coffee with cream and sugar is to the rest of the world. For the coffee drinkers, it is important to get good coffee AND get it quick. At 6 AM in the morning, when you wake up from sleep and walk towards the kitchen you don’t want to have to use log tables to figure out the coffee formula. Hey, that’s exactly how I feel about tea. Now, I’ve probably had 50+ kinds of teas and at least 10+ kinds of Indian chai teas, ranging from really simple to complex ones that could take a good 30 minutes to make just one cup of tea.

Well, my favorite is the simple one. I love that regardless of where I am in the world, I can make my own little cup of Indian chai tea in less than 5 minutes. Yup, no kidding, less than 5 minutes, I’ve timed it - takes between 4-6 minutes.

So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for THE simplest chai tea in the world.

Ingredients:

1. Chai Tea powder (My favorite is one called Vagh-Bakri Chai that you can get at any Indian stores. Tata Tetley will do it too. Of course the long-leaf expensive Sikkim tea is the best, but I am going for the rather low-end everyday tea for this recipe).
2. Whole Milk (NOT skimmed milk and NOT 2% reduced fat milk. It only needs a little and that’s when it tastes good. If you can’t handle whole milk, I have a tip for you at the end of this reciped).

Sugar

Preparation:

For 1 cup tea,

1. Take half a cup of water in a regular pan.
2. Add 1 teaspoon tea leaves/powder to it and heat on a medium flame.
3. Add half a cup of milk to the mix and keep on the medium flame for 2-3 minutes to let the milk blend well with the tea.
4. Strain the tea leaves using a strainer. Add sugar to taste (usually 1 teaspoon) and serve hot.

THAT’S IT.

Extras - Now, for those of you looking for a little more, here are some ideas.

1. Add peeled, mashed garlic ginger to the water before adding the tea. There you go, you got Ginger Chai Tea now.
2. Add green cardamom or even better black cardamom to make your Cardadmom Chai Tea.
3. OR just buy Indian Chai Masala from the store and add half a teaspoon to the mix for Masala Chai tea.
4. Add clove or cinnamon for a spicy Indian tea.
5. Here’s the tip for those of you that don’t like whole milk. Just add only half a teaspoon of tea leaves instead of 1 teaspoon and then add 1 cup water instead of half. Now have the tea without any milk, and you have Vegan Chai Tea.

Not bad for 5 minutes, eh?

This is not the fancy Dal Makhani that you might have had at the Indian Restauranta. Not the oily Dal Fry either. Just the simple Dal recipe that a lot of Indian people actually eat on a daily basis. It is simple to make, not too spicy, easy to eat (babies to bed-ridden old people can have it), and best of all, just tasty. Like with anything else, simple is usually the best.

Try it and let us know how you like it.

Ingredients

1. Toor Dal: 1 cup
2. Onions: 1 medium sized
3. Tomatoes: 2 medium sized
4. Garlic: 2-3 cloves
5. Green chillie: 2
6. Fresh coriander leaves: Few sprigs
7. Red chillies whole: 2-3 (optional)
8. Mustard seeds: half tea spoon
9. Cumin seeds: half tea spoon
10. Oil: 2-3 table spoons
11. Asafoetida-a pinch
12. Salt: to taste
13. Lime juice: 1 tbsp (optional)
14. Curry leaves (optional)

Preparation:

1. Wash the dal and cook the dal well with 4 cups of water in a cooker.
2. Once cooked, mash it nicely. You can add water if it is too thick.
3. Peal and finely chop the onions. Wash and finely chop the tomatoes. Peal,wash and crush the garlic. Remove stems and chop  green chillies and coriander leaves and curry leaves. Remove stems and break red chillies into 2 each.
4. Heat oil in a pan .Add mustard seeds to it. Once the seeds crackle add the cumin seeds and whole red chillies and a pinch of asafetida.
5. Add green chillies and the onions. Once the onions turn golden brown, add the tomatoes and fry it till the oil from the tomatoes separate.
6. Add the cooked dal to the tomatoes mixture, add salt and bring it to a boil.
7. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves
8. Lastly add lime juice and its ready!!

A very subtle variation of this recipe can make you tasty Dal Soup as well. Just mash the Dal finer, use some additional water, leave out the coriander leaves and that’s it, you have Dal soup instead.

If you have ever tried copying text or images from word to wordpress, you know how that can be a totally frustrating experience. I have done that many times and painfully tried to get the formatting right. I know HTML pretty good but despite that, it can be a challenge. There is just something about MS Word text that messes up wordpress altogether. Especially if you have things like numbered points or bulleted text, or interesting fonts, forget it.

THe simplest way to work around this problem is simply copy from MS Word to Notepad first and then copy from Notepad to Wordpress and format the text as you like in Wordpress.

I wish I knew this years ago!

OK that’s a rhetorical question and we both know that. However, there is a point here that I want to make. I am a born vegetarian (never eaten meat in my life) and owing to that, I have had several conversations (dozens, no hundreds, hey, may be even thousands, yes I AM that crazy of a vegetarian) with several different kinds of people about this topic. My world is divided into 4 kinds of people:

1. Meat eaters debating how they do not believe or understand vegetarians
2. Fellow born-vegetarians/vegans
3. Meat-eaters who converted to be a vegetarian
4. Those that are considering to make the switch

The first 2 categories are pretty boring. They’ve been doing it all their lives. It doesn’t take all that much courage to do what you’ve been raised to do and done forever. I have a lot of respect for the third category of people that actually made the choice to avoid eating meat either for health reasons or because they were conscientious. Hey, if you’ve ever tried sacrificing something that you find pleasurable because it is the right thing to do, you know what I am talking about. THIS IS NOT EASY AT ALL. If you loved eating sweets, let alone quitting all sweets, can you quit eating just donuts? 99% would say no. It takes courage, discipline to make the switch.

I have two colleagues at work who made the switch. The first one was a female who did it in her mid 40’s because she got medical advice that doing so might help get rid of her allergies and improve her health. And she is certainly one of those people that sticks to it once she makes the decision to switch. Before the switch, her allergies were so bad she was told she may not even survive more than a few years. After a few years into quitting meat, she not only got completely cured of her allergies but feels that her overall health had dramatically improved. She is now in her early 50’s but looks more like 40.

The million dollar question. Can this happen to anyone? Well, I believe that avoiding meat can certainly have long-term health benefits but I personally have no data to prove it. However, avoiding meat is obviously not the only thing one needs to do to stay healthy. A vegetarian that eats donuts all day, drinks 14 cups of coffee and 8 bottles of coke every day and eats fried appetizers for breakfast lunch and dinner and I bet this guy or gal will be 300 pounds in no time. So, it really is only a piece of the puzzle. For some, it can be a very crucial one though.

The other guy at work who quit meat actually did so for no real apparent reason. Just stopped the meat one fine day. He did mention that he hopes this will improve his health, but that wasn’t his primary reason. He is THE only person I know who did that. He has been a vegetarian for almost a year now. But he says his weight has not reduced and neither does he know if he feels and healthier than earlier. He weighs around 200 lbs and wasn’t really unhealthy earlier either. His example shows that you don’t necessarily lose weight by quitting meat.

Anyway, I know that a lot of people have asked me these questions. Tons of people will tell you different things. But these are two examples of people that I have had close contact with and seen over the years. Whether you choose to quit meat or not is your call, but this hopefully gave you some perspective.

For the benefit of those that are not from India, or from a cricket-playing nation, Ishant Sharma is a member of the Indian cricket team that recently beat the world-champions Australia at thier home-turf without breaking a sweat. Ishaant had a major contribution in this effort, and took 14 wickets in the series with an average just above 20.

Now this post is not about how good Ishaant did. It’s about his coach’s comments that he wants Ishaant to eat meat to put on some bulk.

http://sify.com/sports/fullstory.php?id=14618614

I find that disturbing. I guess he has no idea that noone really needs to eat meat. Take a look at  vegetarian body builder Mike Mahler’s comments in his site:

One of the biggest problems that people tell me about on a vegan diet is the difficulty in gaining muscle. They usually state that they could not find enough high calorie sources to consume to put on weight rapidly and got discouraged. The bottom line is that they were not consuming enough protein and fat. To gain weight rapidly, eat 1-1.5 grams of protein for each lb of lean bodyweight. Thus, if you weigh 200lbs and have 10% bodyfat, eat 190 to 285 grams of protein per day, every day. Start off on the lower end of the scale and work your way up.

Next, get an ample supply of quality fats in your diet. Almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, and pistachios, are all high quality sources and are loaded with both protein and fat. Also, add a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to your salads and protein shakes. Next, unlike the weight loss advice, eat several servings of rice, potatoes, and bread. The key to gaining weight rapidly is an abundance of calories. Thus, do not hold back and have 6-7 high quality meals a day. Also consider having a protein shake before and after workout as well as before bedtime. When you go shopping load up on tofu, tempeh, lentils, avocadoes, nuts and seeds, and high calorie fruits such as bananas, tropical fruits, and try adding some coconut milk to your routine as well.

SO, there you go Mr. Coach, ask Ishaant to be what he believes in and guide him on what he needs to do on the field instead of coaching him about changing his diet. Well, at least that’s my opinion.

I am a vegetarian living in Las Vegas and if you are a vegetarian in the US, you know how it can be pretty hard to find good vegetarian food at times. That’s when you need to get positive and creative. There truly are a ton of vegetarian dishes right around the corner that we often don’t think about because the restaurant is not exactly known for its vegetarian dishes. Hey, the reason why some restaurants are not famous for their vegetarian dishes is because vegetarians eating at those places are in a microscopic minority, and sometimes their vegetarian dishes can actually be better than their other offerings. Here are three dishes that you should most probably be able to find in your neighbourhood without a problem, so here you go:

1. Einstein Bros Bagels: They have a Vegetarian Sandwich that is to die for. The sprouts and the garlic-paste in gives is a very refreshing taste and texture. They can even make your sandwiches on a bagel and you will probably agree that they make one of the best bagels out there. The sandwich costs about $6 and comes with a side of potato salad or chips. The potato salad is vegetarian and pretty good as well. So the next time you are wondering what new to eat for lunch, give the bagel bros a try!

2. Vegetarian Thai Fried Rice: I have had Thai Fried Rice in several Thai restaurants and they never disappoint me. Restaurants have different styles and that makes it fun to try this at different Thai restaurants. You can usually tell them how spicy you want it to be so you can adjust it to your taste. My favorite Thai restaurant in Las Vegas is Kung Fu. Their Fried Rice is just $6 and is amazing value for that money. I honestly would pay $9 for it I think. They also have the Panang Vegetarian and the Pad Thai which are to die for as well. The Panang Vegetarian is a coconut milk and peanut butter sauce based dish with sauteed vegetables. Yummy! Try your local Thai place the next time and ask them what they can do for you in Vegetarian. You will be surprised how good they can be.

3. Chipotle Burrito: This is my favorite when I am really hungry. They have a HUGE vegetarian burrito. Like all other Chipotle stuff, the burrito is quite flavorful. I always ask them to add a few drops of lime or lemon because I like the citrus flavor with burrito. What I like about their burrito other than the fact that is is perhaps the biggest Burrito I’ve ever had is that the tortilla is moist and soft. And the ingredients are always fresh. The rice is always perfectly cooked and tastes quite yummy. Ask to add the guacamole and their medium corn salsa, and you have a $6.5 dish that will fill you up good

I hope you enjoyed reading about these 3 vegetarian ideas to try out in your neighborhood!

Jeff Popick has been writing articles and information about the benefits of the Vegan lifestyle. He assumes the title of the “Vegan Sage” which is kind of funny to me actually. But title aside, the things that he says are right on. He recently wrote a neat Ebook called “The Real Forbidden Fruit“. This book goes into the details of how a vegan lifestyle benefits both the Vegan as well as the entire world. He talks about how our farming and livestock practises have eroded the top soil in the US in just 300 years. He talks about how vegans contribute to stopping global warming. He also dedicates and entire section to talking about the myths surrounding vegetarianism and veganism and how and why they are false. Overall, a good read for any Vegetarian or Vegan or anyone considering to become one even partially. Read the Ebook - The Real Forbidden Fruit and let me know what you think.

He also has a neat Vegan Restaurant Search by zip code on his site, which actually works unlike many other similar restaurant searches on the ‘net. Also, the results were quite accurate for my zip code in Las Vegas.

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