![\"Spinach](\"\/mahanandi\/images\/moongdal\/mdspinachcopyrightedimage3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
My very young and impressionable cousins in India, who read my food blog, are curious to know why I don’t cook with \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccool\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d stuff like cheese. I like cheese, don’t get me wrong, but I rarely bring it home. Cheese is costly, caloric and full of<\/a> saturated fat. It is a well known fact that foods like cheese with little or no fiber are number one cause for constipation and flatulence, and that kind of diet is also responsible for several ailments from heart attack<\/a> to IBS<\/a> to colon cancer<\/a>. Cheese may look white and pure, but the color cover ups the harmful hormonal menace<\/a>. The hormonal effects from estrogen, progesterone, bovine growth hormone<\/a>, this is what cheese conceals, in addition to artery clogging saturated fat. It really takes time to understand how evil<\/a> the cattle industry, the source of cheese, has become. Thanks to the ad blitz sorcery and the sold-out food writers\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 cover-up of agro-globalization gallop, my cousins seem to know only the glitzy side of cheese-centric food. I try to explain to them all these things in a light-hearted manner. In a rush to englut the regurgitations, I am worried that they could become victims of early aortic regurgitation.<\/p>\n One way to prevent that from happening is packaging the traditional, nutritious food in a new way. This steam-saut\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00a9ed spinach moong dal, a recipe I have learned from a Gujarathi friend, is usually served with rice or chapati. But I stuffed it between two toasted crumpets<\/a>, squeezed some lime juice<\/a>, and for saturated fat touch, grated some fresh coconut. <\/p>\n Carbohydrates from wheat, protein from moong dal, organic, hormone-free fat from coconut, green leafy goodness from spinach and natural digestion aid from spices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This dal-wich actually tasted better than any one-dollar, mystery-cheese burgers out there. And, I am hoping that my cousins would take this homemade, all natural, cheese-free sandwich to the heart and consider it as \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccool\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d.<\/p>\n Recipe:<\/strong><\/p>\n Yellow moong Dal<\/a> – Half cup (soaked in water for one hour, and drained) Place a wide skillet on stove-top. Add and heat oil. For our meal today, I toasted two english muffins (crumpets) to brown, and stuffed them with steam-saut\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00a9ed spinach-moong dal. With a glass of chilled ruby orange juice<\/a> on the side, it was a good meal.<\/p>\n ~ Indira<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My very young and impressionable cousins in India, who read my food blog, are curious to know why I don’t cook with \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccool\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d stuff like cheese. I like cheese, don’t get me wrong, but I rarely bring it home. Cheese is costly, caloric and full of saturated fat. It is a well known fact that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moong-dalwashed","category-spinach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandyala.org\/mahanandi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Moong](\"\/mahanandi\/images\/moongdal\/mdspinachcopyrightedimage1.jpg\")
\nYellow Moong Dal, Rehydrated and Fresh Spinach Leaves<\/small><\/center><\/p>\n
\nFresh Spinach – One bunch, finely chopped
\nOnion – one, finely chopped
\nGreen chillies (Indian or Thai variety) – two, finely chopped
\nTurmeric – ¼ teaspoon
\nSalt – ¼ teaspoon
\nCumin and mustard seeds – ¼ teaspoon each
\nPeanut oil – 1 teaspoon
\nNutmeg and fresh coconut gratings – 1 teaspoon (optional)
\nLime juice – one tablespoon, or to taste<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nAdd and toast cumin and mustard seeds.
\nWhen seeds start to pop, add the onions and chillies. Saute to brown.
\nAdd the yellow moong dal. Sprinkle two tablespoons of water. Mix.
\nCover with a lid and cook the dal to tender soft on medium-low heat.
\nDal should be intact, but soft to bite. (Takes about 10-15 minutes.)
\nAt that stage, add the turmeric, salt, nutmeg and coconut. Mix.
\nAdd the spinach. Saute on high heat until the leaves collapse.
\nSprinkle the lime juice. Serve hot with rice or chapati. <\/p>\n![\"Dal-wich\"](\"\/mahanandi\/images\/moongdal\/mdspinachcopyrightedimage2.jpg\")
\n Spinach-Moong Dal Sandwich with a glass of Ruby Orange Juice<\/a>
\n ~ A Vindu for RCI: Gujarat at Mythili\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s<\/strong> <\/a><\/small><\/center><\/p>\n