Vegetable Koftas and Curried Lentils.

Finally its Saturday. In less than  a few hours I will be at the airport.  I will then have my husband home and I will be cooking again, and eating again. So you can see my dilemna as a "dieter".  Here is the good news.  Because my caloric intake has been so low, I should ( I just read this in my truth about abs book) take a day off and splurge on carbs... Not more than 1000calories over my normal daily intake.  That is a life saver, on the psychological level as well as the physical.  If you continue to go along with a low intake the body in all its wisdom slows down in response to the starvation mode it thinks you are going thru.  Thats why its not wise to skip meals and be hungry!!  This diet actually forces me to eat way more than I am used to (or so it seems).  I eat more than 3-4 times a day and some people can do more.  The point being that food- the right kind of food-increases your metabolism.  These foods are proteins. Fats help your body slow down the absorption of sugars such as starchy foods.  Remember, I don't eat any sugars now, and if I do eat starchy carbs, its quinoa, or Essene Bread.........with butter. I am so scared to eat a potato even a sweet potato or brown rice even. I will eventually after I see a little more of a weight loss.  If I do eat a sugary thing (an apple) I do so with a couple tbsp of raw almond butter.  I do not even miss sweet things because the apple is so sweet to me now.  I mean it. I used to put at least 2 tbsp of honey in my yerba mate tea. I really don't like this tea without honey and lots of cream. So I just stopped the honey,  went thru a few days of anger, then settled for the tea and kept putting in the cream.... Now I noticed that the honey made me sleepy, where as all this time I thought the tea was doing this.  Okay so in honor of my carb splurge here is a great couple of recipes that I share.  Today is another cool day, I don't know what is going on with the 30 degree differences now, from 91-60 in just 24 hours.  Is this the new normal??? I am trying to eat according to the weather and the climate, but its a bit unpredictable now. I am telling you this because some foods just aren't enjoyed when the weather doesn't "match".

this is just about my favorite recipe of all time. I used to live in Encinitas CA where we had plenty of Indian food available through the restaurants and the Indian food stores.  I ate this once at a restaurant there, then looked up the word "kofta" found a recipe on line but doctored it up a bit to taste like the dish served at the restaurant. And Voila!  Its involved, its fun, its an adventure. But you have time..... Its Saturday!!  

Vegetable Koftas

 Sauce…………

1.Add all at once in a food processor until it becomes like a paste. Set aside.

one large onion
2 tbsp grated coconut
7 cloves garlic
2 green chiles
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp poppy seeds
 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
2 tbsp chopped cilantro

2.  Then heat 4 tbsp ghee in dutch oven or other heavy bottom  pot. Fry the paste  well (about 15 minutes on high )
3.  Add  1-3 cups of  pureed tomatoes, and 1 can of coconut milk to mixture. I remember starting with 1-2 cups of the tomatoes, due to the acidity I don't want to add too much. I prefer to add more coconut milk if you need more liquid.  Add salt to taste. Simmer til flavors are well integrated, about 40 minutes.
4.Before serving reheat and add ½ cup of heavy cream.  Do not boil at this point onward.

5.  Koftas…….

Mix ingredients below and form into balls around 1 inch in diameter then flatten slightly.

About grated veggies.  Some vegetables are very watery, like zucchini and potato.  I grate then squeeze out the water. This way the recipe does not call for too much of the binder like the bread crumbs or the gram flour.

4 cups of grated veggies (zucchini, carrot, sweet potato is a good mixture )
1 cup  fresh bread crumbs
4- 8 tbsp gram flour (besan or chick pea flour)
1 tsp ground ginger
sea  salt to taste
½ cup  cubed paneer ( a very mild soft cheese found in Indian food stores. You can substitute with another like Feta or Swiss if you like)
 ¼ cup cilantro
¼ cup raisins
 1-3 chopped green chilis depending on your tolerance level.  Dieters can see the benefit of chilis  in an increased metabolism.
6.  In mixing bowl  using your hands mix all the ingredients. Put some
oil (coconut oil if you have it or ghee) in a fry pan about ¼ inch deep 
Put flattened balls side by side and saute til brown on both sides .  Set aside  on absorbant towels til ready to serve. OR instead of frying you can bake in an oven for about 20 minutes at 350. Be sure to oil the cooking sheet first so they don't stick......

7.  Heat up the sauce and add the koftas at the last minute.  Heat thouroughly and serve immediately . Serve with brown rice and some Indian lentils (dal) if you like.

Dal. (spiced lentils)

There are a variety of lentil, not just the "green" variety we all know to make lentil soup with. There are red lentils and yellow and black too. I prefer the red ones as I like the color..... Actually they are orange and they become yellow when cooked.  But use what you have. The taste varies slightly but the spices make it taste good no matter what.

2 cups organic lentils
4 -5 cups filtered water
3 tbsp ghee or organic butter
1 large organic yellow onion chopped finely.
4 cloves garlic (yes organic is best but its garlic, so conventional may be all you can find) Chopped fine.
1-2 tsp each fenugreek, cumin, coriander, turmeric
1tsp himalayan, or celtic sea salt

Boil lentils in water, til soft. Doesn't take long maybe 30 minutes. In a large dutch oven or iron skillet( I love iron skillets but use whatever heavy thick pot you have)  Add ghee, saute the onions til soft. Add the garlic but be careful not to burn as the garlic becomes bitter.

Add the spices and stir so as not to burn. This step only takes about 5 minutes. I learned that fenugreek is bitter without heating first, so basically you can't skip this step by adding for instance, all the spices later to the recipe. Salt to taste.