Green garlic (also called young garlic or spring garlic) is simply garlic that hasn’t fully matured. It's the natural result of farmers thinning their garlic stock, but an increase in popularity has turned green garlic into a crop in its own right. Green garlic is pulled from the ground before the clove and bulb skins dry out, so you might see green garlic at various...
Bathua Bhaji | Cheel Bhaji Winter is here and there are a number of green vegetables that have started hitting farmer's markets and grocery stores. It's important to eat green vegetables during the winters, in order to protect your body from cold and flu. Winter greens are an essential for a healthy diet and there are a number of options for you to experiment with....
What is jackfruit? A relative of figs and breadfruit, jackfruit grows in tropical areas of Southeast Asia, Brazil and Africa. While it is technically a fruit, its consistency is similar to that of chicken or pork. It has a fairly neutral taste when young, so it takes on the flavor of whatever sauce or seasoning you pair it with. It has a stringy consistency that...
Sweet potatoes are nutritious and delicious root vegetables. The sweet potato is creamy and soft enough to be an ingredient in several pie recipes, and most people think of the vegetable as merely a dessert ingredient. However, scientists have found that sweet potatoes are among the best sources of Vitamin A (1). Sweet potatoes are also naturally packed with vitamin B5, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and...
Suran, or Elephant yam, is the edible bulb or corm of a very unique looking single-stalked, flowering plant. After a year underground, the corm develops a unique flower with a central flowering stalk encircled by one large, maroon petal and topped with a similarly colored bulbous knob. The stalk can reach up to one meter in height. Once the flower dies, the corm produces one...
Coconut water is the liquid that pours out when you crack open a coconut. Older coconuts (the ones that are brown and hairy) generally provide better coconut milk, which is made from the flesh of the coconut. Younger, green coconuts produce better coconut water. This beverage has a salty-sweet taste that can be divisive, but it does provide fewer calories than most fruit juices, along...
Dry coconut is known as “Copra” in India and is made by removing the husk of the mature coconut and cracking open the kernel, exposing the meat and liquid within. The meat is then dried using either of two methods: dried out in the air and sun or hot air drying.
Dill is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is the only species in the genus Anethum. Dill is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food. A 100-gram serving of fresh, raw garden dill provides about 43 calories. A serving of the herb also provides 3.5 grams of protein and just...
Asian Best Fresh Tamarind | Sweet
A tropical fruit native to Africa, the sweet tamarind comes from the evergreen tamarind tree, scientifically known as Tamarindus indica L. from the Fabaceae family of plants. The tamarind tree produces long, curved brown pods that resemble large over-mature green beans.
Keerai Thandu Kootu – technically made with thandu keerai…. Matured amaranth greens are thandu keerai (tandalja bhaji) and thick stemmed amaranth at times and we normally discard thinking its way too thick… not anymore. They take a little longer to cook but completely edible and highly nutritious too. Here’s what we did… leafy parts went into keerai poriyal and those thick thandu went into kootu making...
Sapota is a delicious tropical fruit that belongs to the Sapotaceae family that goes with the scientific name Manilkara zapota. It is a native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean island. Sapota is clad by other names such as chickoo, chikoo, lamoot, sapodilla, sapodilla plum, nose berry and sapoti. In India, it is widely grown in Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and...
What is a Burro banana? Burro bananas also known as Orinoco, Bluggoe, Horse, Hog and Largo bananas are also considered wild bananas. Origin to the Southeast Asia region and cultivated in Mexico. It is considered a main food source where they are cultivated because they have the ability to grow all year round despite the season and are also very wind resistant. Burros are an alkaline fruit....
Papayas are a mildly sweet, soft, greenish/yellow fruit shaped like a large pear, weighing in at about 1 to 2 pounds. Due to their sweetness, you may be confused as to whether or not papayas are a healthy choice. Luckily, papayas are high in fiber and loaded with key nutrients like vitamin C and A. Papayas add versatility to recipes and can be puréed for...
Gongura is a plant, Roselle, grown for its edible leaves in India. These leaves are used in south central Indian cuisine to impart a tart flavour. Gongura comes in two varieties, green stemmed leaf and red stemmed. The red stemmed variety is more sour than the green stemmed variety.
