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“An Oil-free Diet Saved Me From A Lifetime Of Medicines”
Vandana Tiwari started her health journey by attending our Oil-free Cooking Class. She eventually made all the other changes and even reversed her 17-year-old hypothyroid issue!
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Healthy Non-Fried Batata Vada
Whether it’s raining or not, most people love batata vadas and the health-conscious either stay away or eat them with guilt. Well, it’s possible to enjoy them oil-free and guilt-free too! Check this recipe out and let us know how they turned out.
For the Potato Filling
Ingredients:
- 4 medium-sized potatoes
- 2 tsp hulled spilt black gram (urad dal)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (rai)
- 10 – 12 curry leaves
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 1½ tbsp finely minced ginger
- 1 tsp turmeric (haldi) powder
- ¼ tsp asafoetida (hing)
- 2 – 3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
- Unrefined salt to taste
Method:
Steam the potatoes (with the peel on) until thoroughly cooked. Mash them well. There should be no lumps.
Heat a pan. Add urad dal and sauté until fragrant and brown. Add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start crackling, turn the heat off and add the curry leaves, chopped ginger, chopped green chilli, asafoetida and turmeric and dry roast for a few seconds. Add this to the mashed potatoes. Add salt and coriander leaves. Mix together.
Make equal, medium-sized balls of the potato mixture that will fit into an appam pan, if you are using that. Keep aside.
For the Batter
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups Bengal gram flour (besan)
- ½ tsp turmeric (haldi) powder
- ⅛ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 cup water
- Unrefined salt to taste
Method:
Mix all the ingredients together to obtain a slightly thick batter. Thin batter will not work.
Making the Batata Vadas
Dip each potato patty or ball in the besan batter and coat evenly. Place in a hot appam pan. Turn over, once one side is cooked and cook again. You may also bake in an air fryer at 160 °C for 10 minutes on one side and then for a further 5 minutes on the other side, after turning over. Serve hot.
Serve with coriander-mint chutney and date-tamarind chutney.
Serves 4 – 5
Food For The Mind
FACEBOOK SUPPORT GROUP
If you love Facebook, then join us to be supported on your plant based journey. We are offering two possibilities
1. SHARAN India is SHARAN’s main Facebook page which you can like and follow for getting useful daily updates and news from the plant based health world. You will also get news about the latest SHARAN events, see testimonials, and more.
2. SHARAN’s Vegan Support Group is an open support group to know more about vegan/plant-based lifestyle. Here you can ask questions and share inspiring stories, tips, recipes, etc.
All our doctors and presenters will be here to answer your questions and give you tips. If you have attended our events join this group to be a part of our family.
Please like the main SHARAN page and join the group(s) applicable to you.
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It’s All About Your And Your Family’s Health
If you have ever had plain oil, you would have known it does not have any taste of its own. Yet, we continue to use it in our cooking. That’s because the industry has conditioned us to think – No Oil, No Taste! And this has been done to such an extent that we can’t even imagine cooking without oil. The good news is it is entirely possible to do so.
Our body does need a certain amount of fat, which is easily available in whole foods such as nuts, beans, seeds, avocados etc. When you eat coconut or peanuts, you get fat in a natural form, as opposed to refined oil, which is devoid of fibre, heated, and extracted with solvents! Your taste buds will adapt to oil-free cooking pretty soon, and your body will heave a sigh of relief.
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Let us help you to transition to zero-oil cooking with a few steps
1. Don’t keep cooking oil at home
When there is no oil at hand to use, you will realise how unnecessary an ingredient it is in cooking delicious food.
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2. Water is the new oil
To saute onions, heat a steel pan, and simply add them in. If they start sticking, sprinkle a few drops of water and that’s it! Another way is to sprinkle some salt, so the onions automatically release their own water. They will easily brown in that.
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3. Tempering
Remember mustard seeds have oil within. When you heat your pan to temper, simply add the seeds and they will begin to pop. The same can be done with cumin, curry leaves etc. If you are tempering with powdered spices like asafoetida, turmeric and others, turn off the stove to dry roast them to prevent them from burning.
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4. Oil-induced flavours
When you sprinkle peanut powder or grated coconut or roasted sesame powder in your dish, their fats release and add flavour to the dish.
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5. Baking or air-frying
For samosas, vadas, fritters and more, baking or air-frying is the ideal option. Simply add peanut butter in your dough and the magic is done! For cakes, replace oil with mashed bananas or apple sauce. For savouries or French fries steaming first and then baking or air-frying is the key.
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6. Peanut butter magic
To make dosas, pancakes and chillas, simply smear your iron tava with a muslin cloth bag filled with peanut butter. Even your parathas turn out delicious when you add peanut butter to the dough.
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7. Nuts and seeds
Add nuts and seeds to your salads, instead of their oils. Add fresh olives rather than olive oil.
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8. Think before ordering
While eating out, go for steamed options and avoid the deep-fried ones. Request the chef to use no oil, which he may not fully comply with, but at least he will be aware and reduce the oil.
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9. Shhhh…
The most important tip is not to tell anyone in your family that the food is oil-free! Simply cook without oil and offer it to them! With daily meals of vegetables and curries, they won’t even know the difference! That’s quite a lot of oil removed from your family’s system.
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