In my post “The Oil Dilemma“, I had concluded that the best oil for high temperature necessitated by Indian cooking is organic canola oil. Because it is non-GMO, has a high smoke point and is made of mono-unsaturated fatty acids. It is a lot healthier than vegetable oil (which is mostly soy oil) and
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Have you heard of dulse? It is a sea vegetable just like kelp and nori- rich in iodine. I found these flakes in a health store. It looks like chili flakes but is tasteless, and odorless. A great way to include iodine and other trace minerals in the diet, for vegetarians like me who do not
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Here’s a review of Spectrum brand organic shortening, that can be used in place of regular shortening. Crisco, the widely used vegetable shortening may claim that it has 0% trans fat, but is made by partial hydrogenation that will still introduce trans fats below the threshold for declaring it. It has other unhealthy stuff as
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  Being a south-Indian, it took me a while to learn the art of making good rotis. I once had a Gujarati roommate and her mom used to make these awesome chapattis for dinner. I picked up some tips from her, but when I tried it by myself it wouldn’t work. Always ended up tearing
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  You know how crazy I am about using whole grains, if you follow my blog closely. I have now tried using brown rice in the traditional dosa/south-Indian crepe and it turns out pretty good, in fact! I served this to a few friends of mine and they said there was no difference between these
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  A couple of friends requested me to post ingredients of the salad I make on weekday mornings. No fancy dressing, just whole ingredients that I buy once a week within a budget of $10. It takes me less than 15 minutes to put everything together in the morning, fresh and delicious for lunch (serves
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Did you know about nutritional yeast? It is a great source of B vitamins especially B-12 which is hard to get for those on a vegetarian or vegan diet. It can be added to many things including crackers burgers and pasta for a cheese-like flavor. It belongs to the “umami” category of flavors (with high
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So, let’s say you have decided to try out juicing for a better intake of nutrients and to achieve good health. It is always good to know the right way to go about it. I recently came across an article in the NY Times that highlighted some of the mistakes that can be made while
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Finger millet is one of those ancient grains that has gained recent popularity for its health benefits. It has very high calcium and and potassium content among other millets and grains. In countries outside India you would find it in most Indian stores. Some health food stores carry the Bob’s Red Mill brand. The Indian
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There have been 2 concerns about using brown rice on a daily basis. 1) One is that recent studies have shown arsenic content  (in the inorganic form) is inherently high in rice grains and it is found in the outer bran. So maybe we are taking in too much arsenic if we consume whole rice
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