Tag Archives: Whole grain

Ragi Idli

Ragi Oats Idli

Ragi Oats idlys with roasted red pepper chutney was our lunch today. I wanted to have idli with out rice, so tried ragi along with oats and it was just perfect. There are so many instant recipes with ragi oats in various blogs but I wanted to include urad for the protien content. Because of urad dal these idlies need to ferment like traditional ones. Since I live in cold climate, batter didn’t ferment properly, so I added Eno fruit salt just before steaming. As I wanted they turned out soft and pluffy and with the combination of roasted red pepper chutney they were awesome.

Barley Chakkara pongali

Barley Sweet Pongal ~ Barley Chakkara Pongali

Before Diwali I was checking my pantry for grains and lentils which need to be finished before I take a long vacation to India. Barley, which I bought last year from Amazon caught my eye. I posted few recipes with this grain earlier like pesarattu, stew, adai and katte pongali. Recently I had rice chakkara pongali  at my cousins place and thought of substituting rice with a whole grain. So for Diwali naivedyam I made chakkara pongali with Barley. My guests for Diwali said it was little different in texture, but tasty and of course healthy and guilt free. You can substitute barley with any wholegrain like brown rice , quinoa, cracked wheat or oats. I will post more recipes with this wholesome grain barley.

Saddula bathukamma prasadam

Quinoa Pulihora

Quinoa (pronounced as keen-wah) is a pseudo-cereal which is not technically grain or cereal, but in general we consider it as a wholegrain. When compared with white rice, quinoa has very good amount of protein and less carbohydrates. The protein in quinoa is considered good protein since it has all nine amino acids. Quinoa is a very good source of protein and is gluten free and so it is a healthy option to consider for people who are intolerant of gluten.

Brown Rice Pulav

Brown Rice Vegetable Pulav

Vegetables are integral part of our meal. It is recommended to have 2½ cups of vegetable serving per day for a person with a daily energy requirement of 2,000 calories. But as a south Indian I used to have lots of  white rice with small amount of vegetable curry along with stew and yogurt.  In my weight reduction program, I made it a habit of eating lots of vegetables with minimum carbohydrates and good amount of protein. In this recipe you can observe that I used equal measurements of cooked rice to vegetables.

Oats Daddojanam

Oats Daddojanam ~ Spiced Curd Oats

I use oats almost every day as hot cereal in my breakfast or oat bran in Wholegrain Roti , but using oats in Indian recipes is not common at my home. So, Yesterday I wanted to include this whole grain in Saddula Bathukamma prasadam and tried simple recipe with rolled oats, low fat yogurt and seasoned with Indian spices. Next time I will try more Indian tiffins with oats.

Bulgar wheat Sweet Pongal top view

Bulgar Wheat Sweet Pongal ~ Goduma Rava Chakkara Pongali

When I considered Bulgar wheat as one of the options in 5 whole grains prasadam for Saddula Bathukamma, I immediately thought of doing sweet dish with it. But rather than making it regular Kesari with wheat rava, I wanted to use mung dal in this recipe similar to rice sweet pongal recipe. I was not sure about the outcome but when I tasted it, I decided to make this sweet pongal instead of rava kesari from now on. Adding Mung dal gave different flavor and taste and it was so Yummmm!!! It is FAT FREE as no ghee or oil are added in this recipe.

Barley Katte Pongali

Barley Pongal ~ Barley Katte Pongali

When I was thinking of 5 whole grain prasadam , I remembered that I bought hulled barley recently. I made barley, sprouted moongdal soup couple of times, it goes well with beans/ dal’s in soups. From there I got the idea of semi solid savory pongal with mung dal.

After making this dish, I searched in web for Indian  barley recipes and got few more interesting ideas . I will try those ideas and hopefully will come out with some interesting and healthy recipes with this high fiber ingredient.