Recipe: Beetroot & Mushroom Pachadi
"One of my favourite dish I learnt in Kelara (India)"
Ingredients:
4 small beetroot, cut into small pieces
½ cup of mushrooms, sliced
½ cup coconut yogurt
salt to taste
2 tblsp ghee or olive oil
To grind
Grated coconut 3-4 tblsp
Mustard seeds ¼ tblsp
Cumin seeds ½ tsp
2 green chilies
For seasoning:
Mustard seeds – ¼ tblsp
Curry leaves – 1 spring
Shallots -2
Dry red chilly -1
Preparation:
Wash & peel the beetroot and grate it of slice into small pieces.
Coarsely grind all the ingredients under “ to grind” section and keep aside.
Take the beetroot and cook with salt for 5-10 min until cooked with a pinch of salt. While cooking, fry mushrooms until soft. Then add cooked beetroot into the mix and add the coarsely ground paste to the beetroot and mushroom mix. Mix and cook with beetroot water for another 5 minutes, then remove from the gas and let it cool. Add the coconut yogurt and mix.
Finally, heat oil in a small pan a pop the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the chopped shallots and red chili. Fry till the shallots turn golden brown. Then pout this seasoning on the top of the beetroot and mushroom Pachadi. Enjoy with rice or chapatti.
Enjoy!
Beets are naturally sweet and Kapha provoking. Sugar beets, a cultivated variety of the beet we normally find in our grocery store, accounts for half of the world's refined sugar production.
Raw beets provoke Pitta but cooked beets are Pitta pacifying. Cooked beets transform the starches into sweeter sugars that are cooling. Beets cleanse and cool the blood, nourish the liver, and improve the eyesight. Beets are good for anemia. Beet juice increases stamina and was used as an aphrodisiac in Roman times.
Beets are high in flavonoids, known as 'nature's biological response modifiers'. Generally, bioflavonoids show anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-cancer activity. The body tries to get rid of bio-flavonoids soon after they are eaten. To eliminate them the body activates phase II enzymes that also help eliminate mutagens and carcinogens.
Picture: Organic kitchari, Beetroot Pachadi, Carrot Corinader Raisin salad, Paloo Padak recipe https://www.thelocalsmarket.com.au/blogs/seasonal-recipes/ayurvedic-paloo-padak-by-jana-brunclikova-2