recipe of pickled radish and making paratha meals healthier | radish leaves stir fry on the side

Pickled vegetables may be the way you can include more vegetables in your everyday diet with much ease possibly. This is for those who hate eating vegetables normally.

You do consume a bit of salt along with pickled vegetables but you can adjust the salt at the time of serving by adding a few elements to balance.

Normally pickled vegetables shouldn't make the staple vegetable intake but since pickling in certain ways causes fermentation and makes the pickle probiotic by lacto-fermentation, it is worth adding some pickled vegetables as a side dish or even in salads to bring some punch.

What is more interesting to know that this way you get cheap home cultured probiotics and once you use some fresh vegetables and whole grains in the meal you feed some prebiotics to your gut flora too. A healthy gut flora is the key to good health.

Moreover, you can pickle almost all vegetables you get in any season and pickling can be an all year activity on your kitchen counter. Each season has something delicious to pickle. I will definitely keep posting more recipes of probiotic pickles for you all.

Right now the winter months bring these gorgeous red radishes and I love pickling them in so many ways. The mustard pickled radish is one of the favorite way to pickle the mature radishes, the tender ones go into this brined pickle that I love heaping my plate with.

You know this way one can balance the meals. I usually make methi paratha using millet flours (mostly a mix of sorghum, amaranth and barley flour) or I add some whole chickpeas flour to the mix sometimes. The paratha is always made in ghee and is served with some full fat home cultured yogurt.

See how in this platter I have combined the paratha meal with a roasted tomato and coriander leaves chutney, some yogurt, some amla subzi (recipe will be shared soon) and loads of pickled radish.
 

Paratha is anyways healthy if served rightly, but this millet paratha meal has so much vegetables and fiber from whole grains packed into one meal that it makes the meal low glycemic and safe even for those who want to manage diabetes or weight related goals.

Don't worry about the apparent lack of proteins in this meal as sorghum, amaranth and chickpeas are quite a good source of proteins for normal people. Yogurt of course fills in.

Recipe of red radish brined pickle 

ingredients 

3 large radishes (preferably red) almost 600 gm
500-700 ml water (quantity of water used depends upon how you chop the radishes and how packed they are in the jar)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp whole peppercorns

procedure

Clean, wash and chop the radishes in batons. The batons can be according to the size of the jar you want to stack them into. Or slice them if you like. Stack the batons into clean sterilized glass jars.

Heat the water with the rest of the ingredients till it boils for a couple of minutes. Cool down to room temperature and pour over the radish batons stacked in jars. You may need more water if the batons are packed loosely.

Cover the lid and let the radishes pickle on your kitchen platform for at least 24 hours before serving. The taste and texture stays crisp for about 2 days but it depends on the temperature so refrigerate as soon as the radish batons start getting too soggy. It will still be edible when it gets soggy though.

Serve this radish pickle on the side of an Indian meal or with burgers if you like or inside sandwiches or any which way you like. You might end up munching on them as is.

A great way to consume this radish pickle is to add it to some salad. The pickling liquid will serve as a nice dressing too is mixed with some olive oil etc.

The leaves of the radish make wonderful stir fry that we love as stuffing to our parathas or chapati rolls. The recipe of the radish leaves stir fry is simple.

Recipe of radish leaves stir fry 

Just heat some mustard oil (or use any other oil you wish) and tip in some ajwain seeds (Omum seeds), broken dry red chillies and chopped garlic to it. Let them sizzle and then add the chopped leaves of radish. Add salt, mix, cover and cook till the volume is reduced. Then stir and cook for a couple of minutes till the stir fry gets a little dry. 

Add everything to taste, the mustard oil brings much flavour to this stir fry we call mooli ki bhurji. The best taste of this bhurji comes when you use red radish leaves but any radish leaves are good. Add some bits of radish too if you want more of this bhurji to savour.

All such leafy greens are great prebiotic foods and if consumed with whole grains and some proteins they make balanced meals.

You see when such parathas are made using alternative flours they can be a meal in itself. And when these paratha meals are served along with some of these probiotic pickles, some full fat yogurt and may be some more vegetables or chutneys or dips on the side they make a satiating and filling meal that keeps you full till the next meal and you don't end up snacking on nonsense things in between.

Oh and the leftover parathas once quartered and reheated on the griddle make nice tea time snack if you wish. eating healthy is not much of an effort if you plan ahead and keep the ingredients clean and simple.

So make your paratha meals healthier with these probiotic salads of the season. Add more vegetable in every meal and see how your body thanks you in return. Say yes to a big paratha meal any day.

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fermented foods | amla or Indian gooseberry in brine | the best way to make brine fermented pickles

I have been using the Indian Gooseberry aka Amla or Aonla as it is called in Hindi, a lot these days. Amla starts appearing in the markets in the autumn season and keeps coming till the winter lasts. As if to provide immunity towards winter ailments in the country where winter can be really harsh and there are no central heating in homes. Winters are short but come with a few ailments thanks to lowered immunity during this time. Amla helps boost immunity but there are many people who don't like the taste of amla and completely ignore this seasonal bounty of nature.

While we love the boiled amla chutney and instant amla pickle (amle ka achar) along with random green chutneys made with coriander and mint greens and a few amla berries thrown in, there are people who detest the slightly astringent taste of amla. This amla coconut chutney is one where nobody has detected presence of amla as yet, the chutney is served with idli and dosa.

Some readers on my facebook page (Healthy Living With Sangeeta Khanna) asked me how to make brined amla so everyone in the family can eat it regularly and I was reminded of the brined amla I had tasted at a Maharashtrian friend of mine. Those were small amlas, brined whole in heavily salted brine that they serve to start with the meal as a palate cleanser and digestive.

Later I tried with segmented raw amla and sliced raw amla and both ways it was a great pickle to have on hand. I still have a kilo of brined whole amla in my pantry and use those slightly darkened berries to make green chutney sometimes. But the sliced amla works really well for salads and sandwiches or served as it is on the side just like you serve pickled jalapenos, vinegared onions or pickled gherkins etc. Sliced amla makes the brine pickle more versatile in use as you can throw a few slices in any chicken, boiled egg, tuna or sausage salad along with other greens.

You can actually make brined pickles of any vegetables you wish. Cucumbers, cabbage, ginger and garlic behave really well along with grapes, radish, turnips, carrots, beets, knol khol etc. try with any of these vegetables and add slice jalapenos, bell peppers or any other sharp spices if you wish.

How to prepare the brine? 

Brine is just a solution of 30-35 gm of table salt and a Liter of filtered water. No heating required. Just mix both till the salt dissolves.


Now you can use any vegetables sliced in bite sized pieces and pour the brine over them. Just make sure you pour enough brine to cover the vegetable slices to make sure the fermentation in anaerobic and no contamination happens to the floating slices of vegetables.

The vegetable slices start getting sour by the next day, it means the fermentation has started. Watch out for the desired sourness and once you get your kind of sourness and softness of the vegetables, just refrigerate the brined pickle and use it for a month** or so.

** the longevity of the brined salad will depend on the vegetables used. Cucumbers get really soft and loose texture after souring for 3-4 days on room temperature but stays well if refrigerated after a day of souring. But will stay good only for a month or so. Amal will get perfectly soured and free of astringent taste within 3 days and will keep well on room temperature for a year or more. So it all depends on how well the vegetable slices behave with souring and softening the tissue. Amla slices remain firm and crisp all the while.

This is how amla looks when freshly brined along with a few slices of ginger..

Ginger gives a nice pink colour to the brined pickle. See how it looks after 4 days of fermentation. This colour stay for about 6 months and later it started darkening a bit but the taste and benefits remain the same.

Few points to keep in mind when brining the vegetables..

1. Use sterilised glass jars or ceramic jars for brine pickling.
2. Use as much vegetables as you wish but do not fill the jar to the brim. Keep some space for the brine.
3. Wash and clean all vegetables being used really well. Clean the knives and chopping board properly before chopping the vegetables on them.
4. Pour the brine solution just after chopping the vegetables. Do not keep the cut vegetables open for long. 
5. Most vegetables keep submerged if you pour enough brine over them but some vegetables like cabbage or mature radish etc may float to the surface and keep exposed to the air, put a small sterilised bowl or plate above the brined pickle to keep all vegetables submerged. This is to provide anaerobic fermentation condition to the pickle.
6. Open the lid once a day to check contamination and taste the pickle about sourness and desired softness of the vegetable being pickled.
7. Refrigerate once the pickle is fermented enough for your liking.
8. Note that brined Amla doesn't need any refrigeration.
9. You can even brine raw mango slices, Amda (Hog plums), sour plums and even small sour apples this way. All these can be used to make salads, chutneys, pesto and as a souring agent for curries and stews as desired. 
10. Add seasoning and spices as desired.

For the above cucumber brined pickle I just sliced cucumbers and jalapeno peppers (bhavnagri mirchi) and poured brine over it. There is a kick of chilly heat in this pickle that everyone likes.

The tall bottle in the background is store bought pickled capers. We don't get capers here but you can make your own pickled capers too following the same recipe and method discussed here or just like this blogger does.

Some people make brined amla with boiled amla but that is not the best way to bring out the flavours and that is not a probiotic pickle as well. I recommend this brined pickled amla for multiple health benefits.

See this apple and red cabbage pickled salad I make with home made vinegar of different types. The probiotic benefit from all these pickles is similar but the taste and longevity of the pickles will be different depending on the vegetables/fruits and pickling solution used.

This is the season for amla to be brined so go ahead buy some amla and slice them fine. I even added the remaining stone of the amla along with some remaining flesh after slicing to the brine and the pickle is being picked up on the dining table quite frequently.

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probiotic foods: pickled salad with tart apples, summer carrots and red cabbage

Pickled salads are nothing but salads marinated with some spiced vinegar for a while. Any crisp fruits and vegetables can be pickled with a spiced vinegar and stored for a couple of days till the salad remains crisp or can be kept longer if the salad is intended to get softer. Cucumber or cabbage pickled salad would taste great even if the vegetables become softer after a prolonged pickling.

In this pickled salad I used small apples from the hills that were slightly tart. Small pears and hard sweet and tart peaches also taste great in this salad so please go ahead and pickle some salad and see if you like it. Always use naturally fermented vinegar for the probiotic benefit. I will keep updating this post with more pictures as I have already made a few versions of it, more pictures are there in my home computer and I am writing this post from Te Aroha where this salad has been included in the menu too, using tart apples from their own orchard.

ingredients

apples 1 kg (sliced or chopped into batons)
purple cabbage chopped in small shreds 200 gm
carrots chopped in batons or slices 200 gm
star anise 6
cloves 10
dry red chillies 3-4
black pepper corns 20
salt 2 tbsp
sugar 1 tbsp
water 1 L
natural vinegar, apple cider or sugarcane vinegar (I used coconut vinegar) 1 cup

preparation

Boil the water with the spices, sugar and salt for 5 minutes. Cool and add vinegar to it.

Sterilise a few jars and fill the copped apples, carrots and shredded red cabbage in them.

Pour the spiced vinegar in the jars and let the salad rest for at least 2 ours before serving.

The leftover liquid from the salad can be used to pickle baby onions once or can be had in shot glasses as a probiotic supplement.

You can cook the spices in just 100 ml of water and reduce the water further before cooling it down and adding vinegar to it. This will make just enough 'dressing' for the salad to soak in well and there wont be much leftover liquid once the pickled salad is consumed. This method works well if you want this salad made regularly at home.

Use this fermented/pickled salad along with chicken or boiled eggs or sausages or cheese etc to make salads or just serve this tart pickled salad on the side with burgers, sandwiches etc. A tbsp of this pickled apple and red cabbage will be really good in your daily smoothie as well.

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