A Curcumin Pongal.

 

Happy Pongal. A harvest festival when everything around is bountiful – fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers. An inevitable part of this festival is of course sugarcane and fresh turmeric. Needless to say that all our festivals are tied to both spiritual, religious and health factors. In fact, they’re timed and aligned to the changing seasons of the year, which makes a lot of scientific and logical sense.

Let’s delve a little deeper into the fresh turmeric, because it caught most of my attention due to its sheer richness in medicinal properties. Turmeric’s most active compound, curcumin — has many scientifically proven health benefits, such as the potential to improve heart health and even helps fight cancer. It's a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.

You don’t have to be an advocate of Ayurveda in order to begin including this wonder root in your diet – All it takes is to understand its internal body healing benefits, aside from it being a great skincare product of nature.

Here are a couple quick recipes with fresh manjal aka turmeric root.

Recipe1: Turmeric salad: it’s your direct dosage of curcumin.

Take about 5 full pieces of fresh turmeric. They look very similar to ginger. Peel the skin of it, either using a knife or a peeler – peeling fresh turmeric is akin to the peeling of ginger. As you begin feeling the surface of turmeric lying beneath its skin, you will see its bright orange shade, along with the fresh scent of the turmeric root that begins emanating, right from the start, not to forget the yellow color that it leaves on your fingers.

Once peeled, finely chop the turmeric, into tiny pieces. Add the juice of half a lemon into the chopped turmeric bowl, add required salt. Now for some seasoning, take a teaspoon of gingelly oil and temper it with mustard seeds, 2 chopped green chillies, a few chopped curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida. Once they are mildly sautéed, toss this into the bowl of chopped turmeric. Garnish with a sprig of chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy this fresh curcumin dose as it is, or with a few scoops of curd rice. You’ll definitely get a very native taste of turmeric though, which could be prominent right in the first spoon, however, that’s negligible when you look at the overwhelming health benefits that this root has to offer. So go ahead and enjoy this crunchy salad!

In case you develop an aversion towards the prominent taste of fresh turmeric, then you can also add a couple of finely chopped turmeric root to your regular cucumber salad. This way, there’s a mix of flavours, rather than just the turmeric flavour standing out.

 

 

 Recipe2: Turmeric pickle:

Turmeric powder is an inevitable ingredient in all pickles. This one, will have turmeric stealing the limelight!

For the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup of fresh turmeric – grated. You can alternatively cut the root into small pieces and pulse-grind it in a mixer so that it comes out in a grated format.

Salt – desired quantity

Red Chili powder – desired quantity

 Asafoetida – 1 teaspoon

Fenugreek powder – half teaspoon

1 cup of tamarind juice

Jaggery powder – one tablespoon

Coriander powder – one teaspoon

Gingelly oil – 1 to 2 tablespoons.

A sprig of curry leaf.

Heat 2 tablespoons of gingelly oil in a pan and add 1 cup of freshly grated turmeric root to it. Spread it evenly in the pan so the oil blends with the grated turmeric. Begin adding salt, red chili powder, asafoetida, coriander powder, fenugreek powder and jaggery powder, and sautee well, along with a sprig of curry leaves. Ensure the flame is kept at low so the contents don’t begin to get burnt. Mix well after adding these ingredients and then add 1 cup of tamarind juice. Blend well and cook on low flame until the raw smell of tamarind goes away and the turmeric mix begins to thicken. Check salt and chili powder levels to suit your taste. Add additional gingelly oil as needed. When everything is cooked well, you will see the grated turmeric, assuming a thick reddish orange blend – the oil thus begins to separate. Temper with mustard seeds and a pinch of asafoetida. You now know you have to turn off the stove and let it cool before you could bottle this away to store. This pickle can be stored outside for a day or two. If you decide to keep it longer, then refrigeration works best.

After thought:

Either ways, inclusion of this wonder root in your diet is a direct route to a disease-free health system. Thanks to our ancient tradition and festivities, which focus on health and spirituality in equal degrees. One cannot do anything without good health – no wonder health is considered wealth! Don’t wait to fall sick to begin eating healthy – so let’s get back to our roots...!

Note: The above recipes are part of my creative experiments in the kitchen.