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Bajra, jowar,   sama, varagu,   ragi –  some of these traditional millet names are already familiar to you. Many of you have eaten dishes cooked with them without knowing the different types and names of millet. Each millet has its own strengths, Some like  finger millet ( ragi ), are high in calcium , others, like sorghum ( jowar ) are imbued with potassium and phosphorus power. Still skeptical about introducing them into your diet? Allow us to bust some commonly held myths about them: Cooking  with millet is difficult The main deterrent to cooking millet is not its ease, or lack thereof, but ignorance about its usage. Earlier we bemoaned the lack of recipes, but today that’s no longer an issue.  The easiest way to cook millet is to take your regular  every day recipe, and just substitute millet for rice and other grains. Which means you can use millet to make  upma ,  rotis , use it instead of rice, couscous or quinoa, add it...

The secret to a fabulous salad is to balance taste, textures and colours. Nothing dresses up a dinner table like a large colourful bowl of salad, bursting with flavours, freshness, and yummy goodness. Follow our salad guide to get started, but don’t stop there. There are a zillion ingredients, flavours and tastes to explore. Get started, get creative! Make your salad colourful:  While you don’t need to have the entire rainbow on your plate, try a good mix of at least some of these: reds (carrots, tomatoes, red peppers, watermelon, grapefruit, oranges); leafy greens, cucumbers capsicum, green chillies; blue/black grapes, raisins, berries; white  paneer , cheese,  tofu; tan & yellow (pasta, bread croutons, chick peas, corn). Get in a mix of textures:  A bit of crunch adds hugely to the joy of a salad. Crisp veggies, toasted nuts, crunchy seeds, creamy cheese…whatever you like. Incorporate 5 tastes:  salty, sweet, sour, pungent and bitter. An...

To most people health is an ‘absence of disease’. But of course, it goes far beyond that. Funnily enough, though it’s easy to define disease, health almost defies definition. Renowned poet and activist Wendell Berry defines health as unconscious wholesomeness, while to the World Health Organization ( WHO ) health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being. So what brings on disease and is also the dominant cause of death? Why Health via Food is better than Health Fads Avoid excessively refined and purified food: Rice, for example, is a time tested cereal for at least 15 thousand years . But its refinement and devitalization by extraction of most of its nutrients through polishing lead to easy digestion and flooding of sugar into our blood, culminating in blood sugar disorders. Refining whole wheat strips it of its natural layers of bran and germ, reducing its nutritional value simply to improve its appearance and prolong shelf life. What’s more, the dieta...

The concept of ‘super foods’ is a new one, created by the marketing hype. Each food has its role in nutrition. Each food can become a superfood. Unfortunately, over the last few years, some foods have gained recognition as ‘super food’. For a balanced diet, we always need varied set of items. These ‘super foods’ are mostly international foods, and have come into India at the cost of the rich variety of Indian foods that have existed for centuries. Lest we forget, people used to come to India in search for spices & food items. Currently, the definition of super foods is limited to omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants and dietary fiber rich foods. QUINOA Vs AMARANTH Both these are cereals. More appropriately, pseudo cereals (both are non grasses that are used in much the way as cereals which are in the form of grass eg: rice paddy, wheat field ). Quinoa has been marketed globally as a rare and exotic food whereas amaranth remain subdued and sidelined. Amaranth, also known as R...

Nutritious Omega 3 Oil Seeds  Oh! So now that you have swallowed the seeds, you will start growing a plant inside your stomach, was said to me by my mother. So instead of eating them, I confess that I was discarding them. So did a lot of you. But next time think before you toss! Oilseeds  are among those categories of foods which did not play a very important role in our diet for a very long time. Frequently we throw away the seeds we find in vegetables and fruits, completely unaware of the high nutritional value of what we are discarding. Modern scientific research pointed out the benefits of the seeds and its back again onto our plate. Seeds can be incorporated in various forms either as toppings, snacks, bars or in the form of salads or as suggested in a recipe. Oilseeds are now known as  Superfoods : Chia seeds, Flax seeds, Garden cress seeds, Basil seeds. And also the humble Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Watermelon see...