Green Pea Soup

Green peas are my answer to a healthy mind. Almost everyday I wonder if I've eaten healthy that day. Until recently, the answer was a nagging, painful no. Seeing as I would like to do as little as possible in order to eat more healthy, green peas have come to my rescue.

Here's how the green pea mind detox works.

Kale lemon lentil soup

Until recently, there was no such thing as my doing something with kale. I have a set of reasons that I have decided are completely valid. Quick recap of what I knew two years ago - I confused doughnuts and bagels, thought that there were only two kinds of bread( sweet and not sweet), three kinds of chips (salted, black peppered, red chili peppered), two kinds of cheese (one for pizza, one for everything else) and wondered what a zucchini was(was it an italian dish, a hairstyle, some place in antarctica, a breed of dog ?).

Fruit and nut cookies

A month ago, I was the proud owner of a newly reformed mind, body and soul. I had finally reined in my caffeine guzzling, starbucks pandering tendencies. A cappuccino in the morning and a hot tea was all I needed now. Life and other such grand concepts were faring well. I was happy. I didn't fluster easily. I concentrated better. My innards bugged me lesser. I worried less. I pitied myself less. I saved more. I was rearing to go.

And where do you think I went ?
 

Tomato Quinoa

Tomato rice and I go back a long way. It is the dish that my mom often defaulted to when she wanted to make something in a hurry. And it is the dish that my friends at school gobbled up leaving me with precious little. And it is to this dish that my mom and I came home in the evening. Far from the eyes of civil society, we would mix it up messily with some cold home-made yogurt and catch up on the day's gossip, barely able to hear each other over the noise of clanging metal trying to scoop out the last bits of rice and over the smacking of lips. Once I moved out of home in India to Pittsburgh, I couldn't get my tomato rice to taste the same anymore. Not knowing how to cook, guilt over white rice and missing my mom is certainly part of the story. But I suspect that the biggest contributor is my lack of enthusiasm for excessively thick and creamy store bought yogurt. It's a far cry from the lighter, sourer yogurt that I was used to at home. And eating tomato rice with huge helpings of cold yogurt is the only respectable way of eating the dish.

Lentil Chutney

On Saturday, my friend gleefully announced that he'd obtained the recipe of Lentil Chutney from his grandmother. I could swear that my heart dislodged itself from my diaphgram to do a little dance (Chandler Style). Ridiculously simple to make, it has earned its spot not only in everdayfare but in the most lavish of wedding meals. In stark contrast to most Indian cooking this minimalist dish is made with almost no spices.Of the many ways devised by vegetarian Indians for cooking lentils, roasting them is perhaps their finest achievement. A roast lentil is so filled with flavor that it is used with other spices as a final garnish to most dishes.

Alta Brussel Sprouts

It wasn't without hesitation that I began exploring the world of brussels sprouts. All I knew was that it was a vegetable of foreign lands. My somewhat limited cultural exposure (foreign shows on Indian TV) had informed me that it was detested by all children and some adults; that it was the polar opposite of fries and cheesecake and that if you went your whole life without it, you may have done yourself a favour. My ego however would only let me live on borrowed perception and catch-phrase opinions for so long. I had try it out for myself.

Wild rice and bulgur wheat pilaf

As it turns out you can't go wrong with wild rice cooked in vegetable broth. Which is why, eat'nPark, Pittsburgh's sole refuge of the entertained but hungry late night partiers put it on their menu.