Healthy Home Made Fast Food

Fast food has got a very pretty press and stands for everything that is yum but unhealthy.  It need not necessarily be so.  One can make "fast food" meaning an all in one meal which saves one a lot of time and effort but is tasty all the same.

For example, make a pongal with all imaginable vegetables in it.  Or think of bisibele bhath, oats upma, broken wheat or bansi rava upma with all veggies in it.  One dish and you are done.  If you get fed up of the same things, you can try quinoa as a substitute for rice or rava.  Check out http://satchitananda-fromlifespages.blogspot.in/2012/03/vegetable-quinoa.html made in the same way as a pulao.  You could well add some cashewnuts and/or groundnuts to the dish.

Today it is vegetable quinoa pongal (khichadi) instead of pulao.  High on protein and vitamins.

Vegetable Quinoa Pongal

Ingredients:

(To serve 5)

Quinoa - 1 cup

Moong dal - 1cups

Beans - 5

Carrots - 1/2 a large carrot

Peas - a handful

Sweet corn - a handful

Capsicum - 1 small

Cauliflower - 3-4 florets cut into smaller pieces

Onion - 1 (optional)

Jeera / cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon

Dried red chillies - 2

Pepper corns - 5-10 (depending on how spicy you like your pongal)

Hing (asafoetida) - 1/4 teaspoon

Oil - 2 tablespoons

Turmeric - A pinch

Salt - to taste

Procedure:

Heat the oil.  Add the cumin seeds (jeera), red chillies, pepper corns and asafoetida (hing) and allow the cumin seeds to turn brown.    If you want to add onions, add them and allow to turn brown.  Then add the vegetables and the quinoa and saute it for a minute.  Transfer this to a large vessel, add 3 cups of water to it.  Add the turmeric and salt.  Cook in the pressure cooker.  Your vegetable quinoa pongal is ready to serve.

Serve it with raita, roasted pappad and vadu mangai (whole mango pickle) and I promise you will be unreachable for a while.  You will be with the angels listening to them playing on their harps. 

P.S.  If you wish to add carbohydrates to your meal, you could make some curd rice along with this.

A well balanced meal - quick to make and tasty as well