you namaste I'm mala Melo and our theme today is glorious vegetables come join me as we prepare three colorful tasty dishes using an amazing variety of vegetables consuming three to five servings of vegetables every day is not hard when you cook them with flair today we are focusing on glorious vegetables we will prepare an exquisite vegetable kurma a delicious tomato rice enhanced with green onions and an intriguing okra masala sounds good let's get started first I'm going to prepare vegetable kurma a colorful blend of vegetables cooked in a coconut almond sauce here are our ingredients first I'm going to make a spice base for that I need 1/2 a cup of unsweetened powdered coconut 1 green chili pepper 12 to 14 raw almonds 1 tbsp poppy seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 a tsp fennel and about 2 to 3 thick slices of fresh ginger root and I have about 2 cups of hot water for cooking we'll be using 1 tbsp oil 1 tbsp butter spices wise I have 2 to 4 curry leaves optional 1 bay leaf 3 to 4 slivers cinnamon stick 1 TSP cumin seeds 1/2 a tsp fennel seeds 1/2 a TSP turmeric powder 1 TSP curry powder 1/2 a tsp salt 1/2 a cup of chopped onion 1 cup of chopped tomato 2 cups peeled and cubed potatoes 1 and 1/2 cups of cauliflower florets and I have 1 cup of frozen peas and carrots now I'm going to start cooking this is a to two-step process first I'm going to make the paste and I have a blender here so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the ginger it's a little bit thick so I'm just going to cut that in half so it will blend very quickly and so I'm going I'm putting the ginger because it's thick okay and then I'm gonna add the coconut I'm going to add 1 chili see this chili it's a Thai chili wanted chili will do and then I'm going to add the almonds poppy seeds poppy seeds are really good I have seen them in the bread and black poppy seeds or white poppy seeds it's used for flavor and also as a thickener for the vegetable kurma and then I have cumin seeds and fennel seeds so we put everything together and now I have about 2 cups of hot water but I may not use all of that I may just pour the hot water and I will try to and I'm going to use the towel and I'm going to put it in the low-speed and first I'm going to grind it like that and I'm going to pour the rest of the water in here I'm going to check the consistency it can grind some more so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna add some more water and we want that to be a smooth paste okay that's pretty good we'll leave it like that so I'm going to be using like about a tablespoon of butter that's all I'm going to use and then I'm going to use some oil oil and butter together when it is sauteed it gives a very nice taste so we wait for this butter to melt and I have a lot of vegetables here and I'm going to add curry leaves again if you do is curry leaves are very aromatic and flavorful if you cut the curry leaves fine if you don't have the curry leaves it's okay to it's optional now I'm going to add the bear the bay leaf and I'm going to add the cinnamon stick cinnamon stick adds a very sweet flavor to the dish and then I'm going to add the cumin the fennel so all these spices are getting brown and now when when the seeds are getting brown I'll be adding the onions okay so here we go when I have the onions here I will be sauteing the onions it's not really good vegetables are so inexpensive and it's very easy to buy these fresh vegetables I just added the tumeric and now I'm going to add the tomatoes and I'm going to keep half the tomatoes here because I wanted later okay and what I did was I started my dry spices and I added onions and tomatoes and now I'm going to add the parboiled potatoes which I cube you can use a russet potato or a Idaho Potato because when it cooks it still maintains its actual nice and warm okay and do you know that we can just do potato J's are just the same ingredients you can use the potatoes and the cauliflower and make a dish called algo B that is very very popular using almost the same ingredient but now I am going to you I'm going to make vegetable Karuma I'm going to close it for a few minutes and let the potato cook you can you can use the potatoes and you can add that curry powder curry powder is a mixture of many spices like coriander chilies black pepper cumin fennel so when you're talking your spices if you did not have the cumin or the panel don't worry about it because it's already there in the curry powder you can just close it add the salt and like the potatoes cook and make a nice potato dish which is really good and now I'm going to add the cauliflower see the cauliflower I cut them like a bite-sized feed I often see cauliflower used with a vegetable dip ayah I like cauliflower when you cook it with spices and with potatoes and you know with tomatoes onions it becomes really good at this point you can close it and you can say you're making an olive go be okay because it's potatoes and cauliflower together but we are going to do vegetable kurma so I'm going to let that cook for a few minutes now I'm using that kudamon sauce I'm going to stir this look at that isn't that beautiful the colors and the smell it's vibrant and when we as when we are told that we should eat colorful vegetables here you have it and I'm going to let the potato cook and then I'm going to add the carrots and the peas and while it's cooking I'm just going to increase the heat and I'm going to add the remaining tomatoes and then because when it's cooking with the tomatoes it adds such a great flavor and then I'm also going to add the peas and the carrots mmm that looks so good and this particular rice that this particular vegetable Karuma is made in India on special occasions and we serve it with rice or bread and by the way this particular dish is also gluten free okay and I'm going to add a little bit of water and let that cook for a few more minutes look at that beauty I can smell the ginger I can smell the potatoes and the cauliflower the cinnamon the bay leaf and the curry leaves together and we are going to let that simmer and that's the end of it it's a colorful blend of vegetables in coconut almond sauce now I will prepare a superb flavor tomato rice the green onions here are our ingredients I'll be using about a tablespoon of oil and tablespoon of butter and I also spice wise I have one bay leaf three to four slivers cinnamon stick half a teaspoon cumin seed quarter teaspoon turmeric powder half a teaspoon garam masala and half a teaspoon salt 1 cup cooked basmati rice 1/2 a cup onion cut lengthwise 1/2 a cup chopped tomato half a cup tomato sauce half a cup chopped green onion tops and half a cup roasted cashews so now we'll start cooking see the plasma tea rice here I cooked the plasma tea rice in a rice cooker and I kind of hold it so the grains are nice and fluffy and they are separate to make flavored rice dishes you can make the rice by using the rice cooker you take 1 cup of basmati rice add water to it and soak it for a while and you drain it and you take the drained soaked basmati rice put it in the rice cooker with 2 cups of warm water turn on your the switch for the rice cooker rice is done it's wonderful and it makes perfect rice every time I'm going to add a tablespoon just like a sliver of butter because the flavored rice dish will be really good when we use it and by the way this is gluten free dish also so I'm going to use about a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter when the oil is hot but not smoking I'm going to be adding the bay leaf and then I'm going to add the cinnamon stick cinnamon stick gives a nice sweet flavor to the dish so I have the cinnamon stick and now I'm going to add the cumin seeds cumin seeds are digestive spice and just about a half a teaspoon our quarter teaspoon of cumin seeds are really good and so you're sautéing the spices it's a very easy to prepare a dish now I'm going to take the onion and they're gonna saute the onion hmm not so good with the bay leaf and cinnamon and cumin you know you don't need anything else just add this rice and it's really good but today we are going to make the tomato rice although I'm making tomato rice you know there are in South India the staple food is rice and when I sit right in every meal a vice is served but we don't eat like mounds and mounds of rice it's usually like 1/4 cup of rice with a variety of vegetables several different dishes so you have the rice and lots of vegetables and yogurt and so it's really good and today I'm making the tomato rice but you can do bell pepper tomato rice or you can make tamarind rice you can make lemon rice you can make black pepper cumin rice the variety of rice dishes are amazing you will ask why am I not using the brown rice let me tell you I'm not using the brown rice because I'm using a lot of vegetables and all that and white rice with the vegetables is really good I do not want that to be too heavy so that's why I'm not using the brown rice see how I build it up you can even you can even stop at this stage remove that bay leaf and put it in a dish and serve it like a chutney people will really love it at this time I'm going to add the rice see how beautiful those personality Rises and it's really good and this particular rice when when you serve it with your baked chicken or fish or rice it is it's really good then you serve it with the western type of dinner you are going to mix this up and this particular rice is also good to pack as a in a lunchbox so I'm going to add some green onions on the top and I'm going to add some cashews okay we are told to have nuts for snacks so you can add nuts here and if you're allergic to nuts forget the nuts you can still make this amazing rice just with the tomato onions and green onions there there you go that's it and here I see the bay leaf okay bay leaf is already roasted in the oil and all the flavor is here although it is here for for decoration we can leave it like this but before you serve the rice you would want to remove that bay leaf so there you have it hi here we are in West Allis Farmers Market en West Allis Wisconsin it is so exciting to go into farmers market to see what vegetables we have in there we will pick some wonderful vegetables and cook some delicious vegetables that are easy to prepare let's go in and check out what we have there here we have the Swiss chard look at this this is a green Swiss chard and this is the rainbow Swiss chard and both are beautiful and you really cook the Swiss chard just like spinach leaves they are high in iron and potassium and nutrients and when I want to cook I like to pick the rainbow Swiss chard because of its beautiful color and when the sistered has a long thick stem and the tall thick leaves when the stems are really rough you want to chop off that part of the Swiss chard and use the rest of the stem and the leaves you really cook it like spinach Swiss chards are very it's really rich in iron potassium and other nutrients and when you buy the Swiss chard from the farmers market you may want to cook the bells right away within a day or two because it doesn't last very long in the fridge and you can season the Swiss chard with spices cook it with lentils and garnish with coconut and you have an amazing dish you will see even the kids loving the Swiss chard now I'm going to prepare okra masala here are our ingredients I'll be using two tablespoons oil spices wise I have quarter teaspoon of asafoetida powder one teaspoon black mustard seeds two teaspoons or Adal half a teaspoon turmeric powder half a teaspoon cayenne more if desired half a teaspoon cumin powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 a cup chopped onion 1/2 a cup chopped tomato 3/4 cup of tomato sauce and 2 cups frozen cut okra you can get fresh okra in the grocery stores are in the farmers market and I am not using the fresh okra today because look at this okra it's very thick fibrous and when I want to cook it it's not going to come out really good so if I try to pick something that is tender it's not going to make enough of it I can just by feeling and touching it I can say it's really like a hard okra so I'm going to leave it and the okra is are known as bindi when you have gone to the Indian restaurant in the menu you will find bhindi masala bhindi is a Hindi word for okra what did i buy then I bought the frozen cut okra there are about 2 tablespoons of frozen cut okra see I I like the frozen carto okra because it's all same texture same size and when I want to cook it it it's really good so that's what I'm using I'm just going to use a little bit more canola oil when the oil is hot I'm going to use because okra absorbs a lot of oil so it's better to add a little more than necessary and so I have the asafoetida I supported a is a very aromatic powder it comes in a little bottle and I added a supposed to the powder and I'm adding the mustard seeds and then the mustard seeds are bursting and I'm adding the mustard seeds and the worid see how beautiful it looks and mustard seeds and worid together gives a nice crunchy taste and I'm waiting for the mustard seeds to get thrown if your oil is too hot it will fly it well it will really burn the spices so this is really right see that's poppy okay now I'm going to add the onions it's it's so easy once when you learn to prepare vegetables this way when the vegetables are cooked it is really good for digestion now I added the turmeric now the cayenne Cayenne when it's added to the okra it's not that hot so depending upon how hot you wanted this you can add more or less cayenne and cumin together goes very well together this is only one way of cooking okra but I tell you you can cook okra so many different ways and when I say masala if you ask me what is masala masala can be a dry masala out of that masala like this it's just spices added and if it is a dry dry masala I wouldn't be using the tomato salt but I like my okra to be well coated with the spices and the tomatoes so it adds great flavor and it is very addictive and when you use when you cook okra like this believe it or not you can transform any vegetable hater to a vegetable lover and before I add the okra let me tell you look at this scrumptious delicious sauce you can take the sauce put it in a container and have it like a dip with any kind of bread or you can put it in a cocktail rye bread and just serve it like a burrito and so that is nice and now I'm going to be adding the okay this is only one way of cooking okra I know a lot of times I see Oh crud that is deep-fried well I have learned great deal to cook with vegetables when I was growing up in India that and then when I came to the United States as a young bride I did not know any cooking but the comfort food home-cooked food was where I was craning for that and that's what happened to me my mom came from India and she couldn't believe that I was cooking and doing classes publish cookbooks so it's kind of an amazing culinary journey for me and there we go and what I'm going to do is I'm going to really cook this really well and when it's all coated it is a wonderful bending masala see how easy it is here we have three wonderful dishes that we prepared today seasoning the vegetables will help all of us including children to enjoy more vegetables every day cooking seasoned vegetable is not complicated and is not time consuming vegetables can come alive and cooked with spices and legumes the result can be tasty aromatic foods that are hard to resist thank you for joining me today so long for now until next time with love from my kitchen to yours when I come to order copies of alamelu's cookbooks including recipes from this series or the DVD set of this cooking series visit mptv.org and click on store all prices include shipping and handling for more information about healthful indian flavors with allah Malou log on to mptv.org or find us on facebook at healthful indian flavors with allah Mahlon you