Green Food Guide

Eat one raw meal a day. It’s the best service you can do to yourself. Create it with nine ingredients (well,10,if you insist) — tomatoes,beans (boiled or semi-boiled),green and yellow capsicums,green peas,broccoli heads,spinach and boiled tomatoes. If you must add a cooked bit to it,try boiled rajma or chhole and add seasonal fruits such as watermelon,grapes,musk melon or pineapple to the riot. The flavours will form a tasty blend. A raw meal is accessible,convenient,budget sensitive,toxin-free and good to push your daily green agenda. “It is high in dietary fibre,iron and calcium phytochemicals,Vitamin C,carotenoids,lutein,folate,magnesium as well as Vitamin K,” asserts Mehrotra.

Experiment,Minus the Fuss

“Slow cook greens with minimum fuss to retain their goodness. Green salads needn’t be bland but the trick is to keep them crisp and light,steamed and sauteed,” advises Haueter of The Imperial. To mark World Environment Day early this week,the hotel organised a Green Luncheon as part of its “eco-initiatives”. The chef recommends beetroot and pumpkin in meals to break the monotony. Lightly cooked spinach with garlic and soy sauce isn’t just delicious but is also high in nutrition. Incidentally,spinach can be grown in home gardens,watered by recycled or sewage water,without harming its organic value. Haueter rates Thai and Vietnamese cuisines as the healthiest choices when dining out.

Puree Them,Gobble Them

Add greens to your meals as purees or as finely chopped companions to favourites such as potatoes and onions. Options: spinach puree with onions; the puree of sweet gourd with sauteed potatoes,spiked with fresh pomegranate seeds; liberal amount of sun-dried mint in raitas or mango pannas and dried mustard leaves in gravies.

Where Are My

Greens From?

American journalist and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,Michael Pollan suggests people must make it a basic point to find out where their greens come from and how they’re grown. Indian chefs,too,are beginning to subscribe to this practice. Says Chef Rajdeep Kapoor,executive chef,ITC Maratha,Mumbai,“Most of our ingredients come from within a 100-km radius of Mumbai. We know vendors we’re working with and how they grow their produce,as also the process in which it’s handled.” If your greens come from farms within a three-km radius of a river or the sea,in all likelihood they are not “organic” because pollutants from the sea enter deep into the soil and seep up in farming alongside. The farther a farm from a sea or a river,the more organic is the produce.

Seasonal Is Simple

Instead of including frozen or tinned greens,keep your meals seasonal. “To eat healthy and be environmentally conscious,one must eat seasonally,when fruits and vegetables are at their best and high in vitamins and iron,” says Mumbai-based nutritionist Pooja Makhija. Choosing vegetables with protective layers such as onions,potatoes,carrots and cucumbers is a good idea. “Nutrients are lost in harvesting,transport and handling processes. Vegetables with a protective layer (that can be peeled off before cooking),are the best options,” she says.

Green Add-ons

An oft-heard fact but worth repeating. If you can start your day with one green drink: wheat grass,amla or aloe vera juice and end it with cup of green tea,half the battle is won.