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The solution is to consume lightly fermented, steamed, or roasted items over deep-fried foods that take less time to digest.
Made with finger millet flour (ragi), onion, curry leaves, and green chillies, this dish is rich in iron and key nutrients in the monsoon.
Monsoon brings with it cravings for delicious food items alongside a hot cup of your favourite beverage. Although this is the season of refreshing, the swamy, gloomy days are also often associated with digestive issues, waterborne illness, cough, cold, flu and many others. Hence, the solution is to consume lightly fermented, steamed, or roasted items over deep-fried foods that take less time to digest. So, without much ado, delve into the ultimate recipe book featuring a range of vegetarian South Indian dishes for the monsoon season –
Ragi Dosa / Ragi Adai
Made with finger millet flour (ragi), onion, curry leaves, and green chillies, this dish is rich in iron and key nutrients in the monsoon.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour)
- ½ cup rice flour
- 1 small onion, 2 green chillies, and a handful of fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- Salt to taste
- Water as needed
- Oil for cooking
Instructions:
- At first, prepare the batter by combining ragi flour, rice flour, and salt with water in a bowl to form a smooth, thin batter, and leave it for at least 15 minutes for a bit of fermentation.
- Then, prepare the stuffing by cooking the chopped onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and cumin seeds on top of it.
- Now, cook the dosa on a tawa, drizzle oil around the edges and add the stuffing masala in the middle.
- Finally, fold the dosa and serve it hot with coconut chutney or sambhar.
Vegetable Upma
You can make the sooji upma packed with the nutritional properties of seasonal veggies and spices like ginger and black pepper to combat the issues of this season.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup semolina (rava/suji)
- 2-3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon oil or ghee
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon urad dal (split black lentils)
- 1 teaspoon chana dal (split Bengal gram)
- 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing) – optional
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
- 1/2 cup mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, beans, etc.)
- 1-2 green chillies, chopped
- 1-inch ginger, grated
- Curry leaves
- Salt to taste
- Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
- A handful of peanuts/cashews, and a few drops of lemon juice
Instructions:
- Heat the pan and roast the semolina on medium-low heat until it turns slightly golden and aromatic. Remember to prevent it from becoming sticky.
- In a separate pan, prepare the tempering by heating oil or ghee alongside mustard seeds, urad dal, and chana dal, followed by curry leaves, and chopped green chillies.
- Then, sauté the chopped onions until they are slightly tender.
- Add 2-3 cups of water to the pan, followed by salt as per taste, and gradually add the roasted semolina. Continue stirring to prevent lumps for about 5-7 minutes until the semolina is fluffy.
- Finally, while serving, garnish the semolina with chopped coriander leaves, a handful of peanuts/cashews, and a few drops of lemon juice.
Vegan Sambar
Use seasonal vegetables like ash gourd, carrots, drumsticks, or pumpkin to prepare a lovely side dish to savour.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Toor dal (split pigeon peas)
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing
- Salt
- 1.5 tbsp Tamarind pulp
- 1.5 to 2 tbsp Sambar powder
- ½ tsp Jaggery
- 3-4 Vegetables like Drumsticks, pumpkin, brinjal, carrots, beans, okra, radish
For Tempering:
- 2 tbsp of Coconut oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp Fenugreek seeds (methi)
- 2 broken dried red chillies
- 10–12 Curry leaves
- 1 pinch of Hing (asafoetida)
Instructions:
- Cook the rinsed dal with 2½ cups of water, turmeric, and a drop of oil until soft. Then, mash the cooked dal well and keep it aside.
- Cook the chopped vegetables with a pinch of salt and boil until tender. Also, add the tamarind pulp and boil for 5–7 minutes, until the raw smell disappears.
- Combine the mashed dal with the mixture, add sambar powder, jaggery, and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Now, prepare the tadka by adding the ingredients in a pan with hot oil and pour the tempering over the simmering sambar.
- Stir well and simmer for another 2 minutes. That’s it, you can garnish the sambar dal with chopped coriander before serving it with steamed rice, Idli, dosa or brown rice.
Aval (Poha)
It is a versatile, light-weight dish which can also be filled with the goodness of jaggery and coconut.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of aval (poha/flattened rice)
- 1 medium-sized, finely chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1-2 green chillies
- Curry leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 cup peanuts or cashews (optional)
- Lemon juice for garnishing (optional)
Instructions:
- Rinse the flattened rice to remove excess starch. But remember, this shouldn’t be soaked for too long.
- Then, add the peanuts or cashews in a pan to roast them until golden brown, followed by chopped onions, green chillies, and coriander leaves.
- On the other pan, temper the spices by adding mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and asafoetida in hot oil. Then, add the tempering to the sautéed vegetables and mix well.
- Add the rinsed poha to the pan and gently mix and cook everything together for a few minutes.
- Finally, add the roasted peanuts or cashews, chopped coriander leaves, and a squeeze of lemon juice on top of it before serving it hot.
Sukku Kaapi (Dry Ginger Coffee)
It is a caffeine-free herbal drink with dry ginger, tulsi, black pepper, and coriander seeds. You need to boil water and tea leaves alongside the other ingredients until cooked properly, to boost digestion.
You can also prepare other herbal teas by boiling water with spices like ginger, black pepper, cumin, ajwain, turmeric, Tulsi leaves, cinnamon and other ingredients alongside the tea leaves. That’s it, you can savour them an hour before sleep or even during various times of the day. They help in boosting digestion and immunity, and prevent cold & flu.
The other suitable options are like Moong Dal Pesarattu, a green gram crepe served with ginger chutney, Karuveppilai Sadam (Curry Leaf Rice), Kanchipuram Idli made with pepper, ginger, and curry leaves, the immunity-boosting and spicy Pepper Rasam (Milagu Rasam) or the spiced and simmered Puli Kuzhambu (Tamarind Curry), among others, during monsoon.
About the Author
Nishad Thaivalappil is a Lifestyle and Entertainment Journalist with almost a decade-long odyssey in the realms of movies, music, culture, food, and travel. He leads the Lifestyle desk at News18.com. Besides ha…Read More
Nishad Thaivalappil is a Lifestyle and Entertainment Journalist with almost a decade-long odyssey in the realms of movies, music, culture, food, and travel. He leads the Lifestyle desk at News18.com. Besides ha… Read More
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