Healthy Winter Indian Recipes

Winters mean a lot of seasonal produce and we at Fitness Roar love to eat local and seasonal. Foods, when eaten according to their season, have a more dense nutrition packed in them. In winters tomatoes, corns and pineapples are all available locally. So we got Executive Chef Anil Dahiya, Hotel Bristol, Gurugram to share some guilt-free recipes. For the diet conscious use stevia or any sugar-free. Here are Pineapple Rice Salad, Tamatar ka Halwa and Bhutte ki Kees for you to try this weekend:

Pineapple Coconut Cashew Rice

For Garnish

Freshly cracked salt and pepper

Method

• Pour pineapple juice (collected from crushed pineapple) in a measuring cup. Add coconut milk in 3 equal cups – add water if necessary.
• Transfer the liquid into a large pan and bring to a gentle simmer
• Stir rice, coconut milk, sweetened coconut flakes, thai red curry paste and onion powder.
• Bring it to a boil then cover and reduce heat to low (dial should be a little above lowest setting).
• Simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until rice is tender, stir for 15 minutes and add water if necessary.
• When rice is tender, remove the pan from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
• When ready to serve (not before), stir in lime juice, cilantro and cashews.
• Taste and season with freshly cracked salt and pepper and additional lime juice to taste if desired.

Tomato Halwa

Method

• Wash the tomatoes, remove the eye and make an incision on the lower side.
• Boil water and blanch the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes. Drain, peel, deseed and chop.
• Reserve the pulp with the juices. Grind the cardamom with 1 tablespoon sugar to a fine powder, sieve and keep aside.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee and fry the Cashewnuts and Raisins to golden brown.
• Wash and shred the Rose petals and Tulsi leaves and reserve.
• Boil the sugar with ½-cup water and make a single-thread syrup and keep aside.
• Heat the ghee in a wide kadai (utensil), roast the cloves in it, till they start to crackle.
• Add the tomato pulp and cook till the liquid dries up. Cook on low heat.
• Increase heat and add the hot syrup slowly.
• Reduce to low heat, keep stirring to avoid burning and cook till it starts to leave the sides.
• Sprinkle the Cardamom powder, Rose petals, Tulsi leaves and the Camphor.
• Mix well
• Garnish the halwa with fried Cashewnuts and Raisins and serve warm.

Bhutte ka Kees

A pinch of Asafoetida (Heeng)

Chopped coriander and grated coconut for garnishing

Method

• Grate the corn with a hand grater to make a coarse paste. (You can also use a food processor or mixer grinder but it will affect the taste. It tastes better if you use the hand grater)
• Chop the ginger and green chilli finely.
• Add oil in a pan. Add asafetida (heeng) and mustard seeds till it splutter.
• Add green chillies and chopped ginger.
• Add corn paste, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Stir it occasionally to make sure that no lumps are formed.
• Cook it for approx.10-15 mins until the liquid in the corn paste gets dried off and the colour of the mixture changes to golden yellow.
• Add milk and water. Continue stirring till its consistency becomes like halwa or upma.
• Add sugar and lemon juice.
• Garnish it with chopped coriander, grated coconut and serve hot.

The above recipes have been shared by Executive Chef Anil Dahiya, The Bristol Hotel, Gurugram.