Seasonal Vegetables

Some vegetables for you all.

Hi readers, the winter is getting at its peak and along the way it is bringing us new ways to enjoy it. With winters comes the new varieties of vegetables and fruits that can be added to your daily food chart. And in this article we will be focusing on the super healthy vegetables that you can consume this season.

There are many vegetables that grow during this season for instance: carrots, spring onions, winter squash (Kaddu), Broccoli etc. These vegetables are really beneficial for health and are capable of making your food much more interesting.

What you’ll find ahead in the article?

Nutritional value, Dishes and other compatible vegetables to make and benefits of having the above mentioned vegetables.

• Carrots:

This vegetable is sweet in taste and thus when cooked, it makes the dish a little sweet in taste and that’s why those dishes are different and interesting.

Nutritional Value:

• Calories 41
• Total Fat 2 g
• Cholesterol 0 mg
• Sodium 69 mg
• Potassium 320 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 10 g
• Protein 9 g
• Vitamin A 334%

Carrot is a really beneficial vegetable especially for your eyes. It is recommended for people with poor eyesight to have carrots on a regular basis because if your eyesight is curable then it will definitely improve it and if it’s not curable then it will help it in not getting any worse. Following are some tasty forms in which you can consume carrots:

• Carrot Halwa – A bowl of hot carrothalwa is on every Indian’s must-eat list. Grated carrots are drained of all their water and infused with green cardamom, cinnamon and sugar. Then they’re cooked in desi ghee and condensed milk and finally topped off with a handful of pistachios and almonds.
• Carrot Juice – it’s one of the very common ways of consuming carrot and its very beneficial also. Some people cannot eat a raw carrot because it makes their throat itchy so for those people this is the way they can absorb the nutrients of carrot.
• Carrot Utthapam – this is specially for people who love to eat the South Indian form of every food. So read the recipe carefully and make the delicious utthapam for you and your family.

Recipe:

Idli/Dosa batter- as needed

Carrot- 1 (grated) (or use other vegetables finely chopped)

Idli chutney powder (Idli Podi)- 1 tsp

Onion- 1 (finely chopped)

Oil/ Ghee- for making dosas/ uthappams

Directions:

1. Chop all the vegetables and keep it ready. Also take sufficient amount of idli-dosa batter and keep it ready. You do not have to add water to the batter as we need thick batter for this.
2. Heat a pan on medium flame. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it lightly. Do not make it very thin.
3. Sprinkle some chopped onions to cover the entire dosa. You have to add the topping as soon as you spread the batter so that the topping gets stuck to the dosa.
4. Spray with little cooking oil on all sides or drizzle some oil around the edges. For non stick pan, little cooking spray is sufficient to make low calorie dosas. If you want the traditional crispy taste, drizzle little extra oil or ghee.
5. Let it cook for a min or so before flipping so that the bottom will be slightly browned.
6. Flip it carefully  and cook the other side for another 1/2 a minute. Remove it from the pan and serve immediately or store in a hot box (casserole).
7. Repeat the same process with carrot topping and idli chutney powder topping. You can try the same with chopped frozen spinach, grated beetroot, chopped tomatoes or chopped cilantro. You can also add cheese or beaten egg as topping along with the veggies to make it more tasty.

• Spring Onions:

These are nothing but premature onions. This vegetable has an absolutely different taste which is nothing like the regular onion. These are a great source of Vitamin K, C and A. The nutritional value of spring onions is given as follows:

• Calories 32
• Total Fat 2 g
• Cholesterol 0 mg
• Sodium 16 mg
• Potassium 276 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 7 g
• Protein 8 g

  There are many dishes with which you can complement the spring onions and their recipes are given below:

• Potato and Spring Onion – It is one of the most common dishes that people make in their houses and it does not take much effort too. all you have to do is chop some potatoes and spring onions. After this put 2 spoons of oil in the pan and after it is hot enough you can put some asafoetida (Hing) and cumin. Fter they are brown you can first put in chopped onions and fry them till they are light brown. At last you can put in the potatoes and cover the pan. Let it cook till the potato is soft and ready to eat.
• You can also put this vegetable while preparing Hakka Noodles, or anything exotic. The leaves of spring onion provides a great dressing to dishes.

• Winter Squash (Kaddu):

The seeds of this vegetable are sowed in summer and are harvested in winter. During this time, the flesh of this vegetable is yellow and the skin is hard. And therefore it is eaten after removing its skin first. The nutritional value of winter squash is given below:

• Calories 34
• Total Fat 1 g
• Cholesterol 0 mg
• Sodium 4 mg
• Potassium 350 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 9 g
• Protein 1 g
• Vitamin A 27%
• Vitamin C 20%

Recipe:

• 1 tablespoons mango powder (amchoor) 4 tablespoons sugar (cheeni)
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (hara dhania)
• 4 cups of sliced squash (kadoo)
• 3 tablespoon oil
• 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (dana mathi)
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder (dhania)
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground funnel seed (saunf)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (pisi mirch) adjust to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (dagi mirch) provides a nice color
• 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
• 4 whole red chili (sabut lal mirch)
• 1 tablespoon shredded ginger (adrak)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (nimbu ka ras)

Directions:

1. Peel and cut the squash into cubes.
2. Save about ¼ of the squash peel and chop them.
3. In a small bowl, mix the shredded ginger, coriander powder, funnel, red chili powder, paprika, turmeric, and ¼ cup of water to make a paste.
4. Heat the oil in a pan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if seed cracks right away oil is ready.
5. Add cumin seeds and asafetida after seeds crack add fenugreek seeds and red chilies and stir for a few seconds.
6. Put in the spice paste and stir-fry for a minute until spices start leaving the oil.
7. After that the squash, squash peels, salt, and ¼ cup of water. Mix well.
8. Cover the pan and let it cook on medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Squash will be semi mushy.
9. Make sure to stir gently every 3 to 4 minutes. Check if more water needed.
10. Lastly, add the mango powder, sugar and chopped cilantro. Mix everything and cover for a minute. Adjust the salt to your taste.

• Broccoli:

It is a cruciferous vegetable related to cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. It is a really beneficial vegetable and has a high nutritional value which is stated below:

• Calories 34
• Total Fat 4 g
• Cholesterol 0 mg
• Sodium 33 mg
• Potassium 316 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 7 g
• Protein 8 g
• Vitamin C 148%

Broccoli can be used in almost anything because it does not much of a very specific taste of its own so it compliments almost everything. It can be used in fully cooked dishes, salads etc.

There are so many other vegetables that come in markets during winter season. So, go on and explore the nearest market and pick some vegetables that suit this season the best. We at GoNirog Healthcare wish you the best of this season and hope that we are able to help you in any way possible.