Detox Day 2

Berry Smoothie

Day 2 of Detox seemed a little challenging, all I could see was food around me, my mother in law decided to make lentil ‘Kachoris’ – deep-fried yellow mung lentil balls (will share the recipe soon). The aroma filled the whole house and all I could think about is biting into that lovely crispy spicy kachoris. It took a lot of will power to stick to my soup.

As the famous saying goes ‘what you resist, persists’ so the more I tried not think about eating the I hungrier I got. Has that ever happened to you?
I did not however give in to my temptation, but instead decided to save the lentil filling of the kachori, which is not fried but spicy boiled lentils, for dinner. That kept me going.
Am I depriving myself, I wonder…. What do you think?
I started my day with a berry smoothie

Ingredients

Handful of strawberries
raspberries
Cranberries
Baby spinach leaves
Half an Apple
A couple Mint leaves

In a nutribullet I blended it all with half a cup of water. Tasted so good

Tomato, Carrot and Beetroot soup with roasted garlic and cumin
For lunch

This is a simple soup I made with tomato, carrot and beetroot boiled and blended. To add a different flavour to it, in a pan I put half a tea-spoon of oil and roasted one clove of sliced garlic and cumin seeds.

After blending with a hand-held blender and sieving it, add salt, pepper and a teaspoon of jaggery for flavour.

Curried Azuki Red beans
for Dinner

These are known as red Chori beans, and are of the same family as green mung beans, similar size, has a sweeter taste and takes longer to cook. As with all beans and lentils, this one is also a good source of protein and is packed with nutrients. I love these beans with steamed rice or with plain yogurt.

Ingredients

1 cup dried red chori beans
1 tlb spoon oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 Dried red chilli
2-3 cloves garlic – minced
1/2 tin of pureed tomato or can use fresh tomatoes
1 tbl spoon dhana jeera powder – cumin and coriander powder mix
1/2 tbl spoon turmeric powder
half a lemon squeezed
handful of chopped coriander leaves
1/2 tsp sugar/jaggery (I prefer jaggery)
chilli powder and salt to taste

Method
Boil the chori beans with 3 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt in a pressure cooker. Let the steam out 5-6 times making a whistling sound.
In another pot, heat oil, when hot add the cloves, cinnamon stick and dried red chilli.

As soon as you get the aroma of the spices add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them crackle while adding the minced garlic, ginger and chilli paste.
immediately add the tomato and mix in all the dry ingredients except salt. Sprinkle chopped coriander.

once the tomatoes are cooked add the chori beans and the water.
Mix it all and taste before adding salt as chori beans were cooked in salt.

cover with a lid and on low heat let it cook.
Enjoy with rice, chapatis or in my case I had it with yoghurt and salad.