Healthy Vegan Recipe: Spicy Okra

Hi Friends! Today I will share a great recipe with you with less oil & fats with the benefits of Okra or Lady's finger. It is filled with nutrients Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin K, Vitamin-C & folates without any fats. It has good amount of dietary fiber with a very low calorie composition of 30-35 cal per 100 g. Along with this it is also rich in minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium & manganese. The usual Indian recipes use a lot of oil to cook okra, this is a simple & low fat spiced version.

Spicy Okra
Ingredients:
Okra: 250 g
Olive oil or Rice bran oil: 1 tablespoon
Turmeric: 1 teaspoon
Kashmiri Red Chili powder or Paprika powder: 1 teaspoon
Corriander Powder: 2 teaspoon
Cummin Powder: 2 teaspoon
Aam chur powder or Dried Raw Mango Powder: 1 teaspoon
Lime juice: 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Wash the okra well & slice of a part of it's top, not exposing the inner edible part. Now make a long slit across the length of each of the okra. Dry them in a towel & keep them aside.
2. Take a mixing bowl & mix all the spices  and salt well. Now add the lime juice & some oil to get a paste, it should avoid being too liquid to avoid spilling over.
3. Start filling each okra with this paste. Make sure that the filling is not too much, it should not come out. Press the okra well after filling to bind it. Once all is done just add the rest of the oil to the mixing bowl & let all the spices be in the oil now take the okra in the mixing bowl, toss it so that it gets coated with the oil & spices.

4. You can now preheat the oven or airfryer (3min) at 180C or 355F.
5. Place the filled okra in the oven or the airfryer & cook for 7 min. And your Spicy okra is ready. If you want it crispy like chips can continue for another 2-3 min.

You can enjoy this recipe with Indian bread or Roti & yogurt. Also if you made it like chips, go snack them any time. I find this recipe very tasty & easy to cook. You can make simple changes as per your taste & you can have variety of okra chips. If you don't like spices just go ahead with the lie juice & salt. Share your ideas with me. Thanks Friends!

Healthy Egg Recipe- Scrambled Egg with boiled Potatoes

Hi Friends! Welcome to you a fresh new week, will start your week with a healthy egg recipe, you can enjoy any time of the day. It is a very simple & easy recipe.

Scrambled Egg with Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients:
Potato: 1 large
Eggs: 2
Condensed milk: 2 teaspoon (unsweetened)
Onion: 1 medium
Tomato: 1 medium
Cilantro: A few springs
Chili: 1
Dried Oregano: 1/2 teaspoon
Dried Basil: 1/2 teaspoon
Paprika Flakes: 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Olive oil: 2 teaspoon

Preparation:
1. Boil the potato with skin, cut into half in a bowl with water @ 100% Microwave for 8-10 min
2. Beat the egg with little bit of salt & condensed milk.
3. Pour it into a heated pan  with 1 teaspoon of olive oil & slowly stir it as it condenses to get a perfectly scrambled egg. After finishing keep it aside in a plate/ bowl.
4. Chop the onion, tomato, cilantro & chili finely. Take the boiled potato & cut into cubes of 1/2 inch each.
5. In the same pan add oil. Then add Onion, when it starts getting little light add the cut-boiled potatoes & mix well. Add the spices (dried oregano, dried basil, paprika flakes & salt as per taste). Add half the tomatoes to the same and after a min add the scrambled egg & turn off the burner.
6. Serve it on the plate & garnish it with chili, cilantro & rest of the tomato pieces. And serve it with love!

This can be had any of the meals & is filling for a person. Enjoy this recipe & let me know how you like it. Thanks Friends!

Rice or No Rice in Diet

Friends there are lots of articles which have stated all along that eating rice is bad for health & accounts to weight gain & other problems. But just think about the vast population of South East Asians Chinese, Japanase & others eat rice with every meal, all their breads & other foods like noodles are made of rice but they are not fat or overweight. So, can we actually account rice as the cause. I am also a rice eater if not three meals atleast 1-2 meals everyday, and frankly I love it :).

Removing rice from the diet is not a good idea, and especially going to a wheat diet instead. It simply means reducing your amino acid intake which is the building block for proteins and Vitamin B. It has essential 9 amino acids present which cannot be synthesized in the human body. The profile is excellent in comparison to other protein sources as well & has shown recovery in muscle strength. The presence of methionine in rice has shown to mobilize the fat from the liver and tyrosine present is also a very essential amino acid. The other option people have started choosing is to replace it with brown rice. Brown rice has the husk & bran remains on the rice which makes it high in fiber, this fiber is actually much more than the body can digest. This would only aid to indigestion, also the proteins present cannot be completely absorbed by the body. Instead of this a better way is to introduce rice which is not completely white but the husk is removed & is slightly brown.

Also to add on to the note that people think that rice is bad for type-2 diabetes has proven to be wrong. The carbohydrates present in rice are complained to be bad due to high glycemic index which makes the carbohydrates to be digested faster and increasing blood sugar levels. But recent studies have shown that Indian rice like swarna & mashuri have GI of around 50 & Basmati GI around 55-69, which is considered to be much better than other varieties of rice present. Another few ways to reduce the carbohydrate content is to wash & soak the rice for about 30 min before cooking. It also reduces the time to cook the rice. Next is to cook the rice in an open container with more water, this way the grains become much bigger as well as the excess water afterwards can be drained so reducing the excess starch.

The next important point to be noted is that rice is a gluten free grain. Gluten is a protein present wheat, barley, rye & oats. Gluten sensitivity is seen in many individuals and shows digestive issues like gas, bloating, diarrhea & also constipation in certain cases. This can cause disease called celiac disease which causes inflammation & destruction of inner cells of the small intestine. This chronic disease leads to malabsorption of vitamins  minerals. Also it has shown adverse effect on type-2 diabetes.

I hope the above article has helped you make your decision clearer. The average Indian's staple food is rice & can be enjoyed in a healthy diet, without worries. Please share your thoughts on the same.
Thanks!!