Dal, Spicy Spinach and a Food Demo!

The other day I was craving a nice simple and easy Indian meal so I made dal (rich in protein) and spinach and ate it with rice. Jasmine loved it as well, in fact dal is a great weaning food after about 10 months.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1/2 head of cauliflower chopped
• little salt
• toor dal 1 cup
• little turmeric
• sambar powder (can be found in Indian grocery store- famous in South India)
• 4 curry leaves
• teaspoon mustard seeds
• 2 green chilis
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/4 chopped tomato

Method

1. add dal, cauliflower, tomato, little onion, little tumeric 1 clove garlic to pressure cooker and cook till you hear two whistles.
2. fry mustard seeds (let pop) onion, curry leaves, garlic, green chili in canola oil, then add some sambar powder- more if you want it to be spicy
3. mix fried onions and spices with dal and boil 5 - 10 min add coriander/cilantro to garnish.

Easy South Indian Spinach

Ingredients

• 1 bag baby spinach (or fresh, any kind of spinach works)
• 1/2 red onion chopped into slices
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• little salt
• a pinch of cumin seeds
• pinch of turmeric
• little urad dal
• 1 green chilli

Method:

1. Heat canola or olive oil in pan, then add cumin, urad dal, chopped garlic, chilli and onion and fry till onion starts to brown.
2. Add Spinach and stir fry on med/high heat, cover and cook for 5- 10 min
3. It is then cooked - so fast and tasty

Enjoy this wonderful healthy vegetable, rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Niacin, Zinc and Iron.

Finally I met the Marketer for my Local Winston Salem Whole foods through twitter and I did my first in store demo today for fun, I talked about herbs and spices we walk past and never use, lemongrass, lime leaves, Herbs De Provence, Mirin, Sesame seeds and leeks, it was a fun experience. Maybe I will do more in the future!

Fellow foodies and food bloggers, go and spread the word about cooking and using fun ingredients!

Love you all