Mudakaruthan Keerai Soup / Balloon Vine Soup

Hope you all have celebrated Pongal in a grand manner and got to meet all our near and dear ones,had feast together and had fun. Pongal season brings us lot of fresh seasonal veggies and also raw turmeric and ginger rhizomes(botanically turmeric and ginger are underground horizontally growing stems which are referred to as Rhizomes). Its always a good option to use fresh turmeric in our recipes during this season.

We always celebrate Pongal in our native home at Thanjavur in a traditional way. When I saw the lush growth of Mudakaruthan Keerai/ Balloon Vine in our home garden, thought of whipping up a soup recipe with home grown fresh greens, turmeric and ginger rhizomes. A flavourful and highly medicinal soup which has innumerable health benefits and a best recipe to combat Cold and Cough. 

Benefits of Fresh Turmeric Rhizome: 

Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant. It is used effectively in treating Arthritis and Vascular Thrombosis. A number of research studies on cancer cells have shown that curcumin does have anticancer effects. It seems to be able to kill cancer cells and prevent more from growing. It has great effects on treating breast cancer, bowel cancer, stomach cancer and skin cancer cells.

Benefits of Mudakaruthan Keerai/ Mudakathan Keerai 

Commonly known as Balloon Vine Plant is a climber that bears trilobed balloon like fruits, hence the name. It is very effective in treating Joint Pains.Not only that, it cures bad cough and cold, ear pain and menstrual cramps.  

Here you go for the unique medicinal soup recipe :

The Ingredients

Step By Step
 

 The Recipe 

Hope you loved this recipe. Will be glad to receive your feed backs on trying this. 

Happy Cooking :) 

Kodampuli Kollu Chaaru / Kodampuli Kollu Rasam

How about a diet/ medicinal/ weight loss recipe for this week's Organic Kitchen??? Yes, am happy to share a very healthy Rasam/ Soup recipe made with Kodampuli / Malabar Tamarind / Garcinia, that too from home grown trees..(yes I get Kodampuli from our Uncle's place in Mavelikara where they have this tree at their home garden).

Kodampuli (Cambodgia) / Malabar Tamarind is a natural Anti Oxidant and is often used as an alternative medicine for its admirable anti-colic action.

Cambodgia also popular natural weight loss aid, because of its rich content  hydroxycitric acid.
It suppresses appetite naturally and improve metabolic rate of the body. It controls the blood sugar levels and hence beneficial for diabetic patients. It also strengthens our digestive system and is used to treat gastric ulcers.

Now for the recipe:

The Ingredients

Step By Step 

The Recipe

Happy Cooking :) 

Curry Leaves Soup / Kariveppilai Soup

Its Thursday...and here is what I have for today in my Organic Cooking Series. This is another miraculous plant which offers enormous health and medicinal benefits. Yes, It is none other than our simple, humble, " Curry Leaves (Called Kadi Patta in Hindi).

It is mainly used as a flavoring agent and is an integral part of South Indian Cuisine and is also used in Siddha/Ayurveda Medicines to treat various ailments.

Curry leaves are known to have several medicinal properties such as anti-diabetic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and protects the liver from damage.

Curry Leaves have abundant of  carbohydrates, fiber, calcium, phosphorous, irons and vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E. It helps in better functioning of heart and promotes hair and skin health.

It promotes hair growth, repairs damaged hair root cells, reduces hair fall and strengthen the hair follicles.

Here's a simple yet flavourful Soup recipe with goodness of Garlic and pepper. The Dhall makes it a complete meal by itself.

Happy Cooking :) 

Spring Onions Rasam

Spring Onions are the young onion plants that are harvested before the bulbs bulges. The Greenish tubular leaves as well as the pearl white bulbs, both are edible and you can see every other Chinese dish will have these Spring Onions. It not only adds a unique flavour to the food but also offers a lot of health benefits.

They are rich in antioxidants and the Vitamin C in abundance helps in reducing blood Cholesterol levels and the Sulphur reduces the risk of Coronary Heart Diseases. It also helps in reducing Blood Sugar Levels. Its a very good appetizer and aids in digestion. It also helps in improving bone density.

Wanted to try Rasam with Spring Onions and it really turned out to be good and quite flavorful. It can be served as Soup as well. A new recipe to my Rasam Series :)

Happy Cooking :) 

  

Drumstick Greens / Murungai Keerai Soup

Drumstick Greens which is called Murungai Keerai in Tamil is one miraculous greens which is not much valued by us even though we know the amount of health aspects it provide us with. It is a power packed green with lot of nutritious elements. Even a recent report published showed that it has the ability to cure 5 different kinds of cancer. It has more amount of Iron than Spinach and bountiful amount of calcium when compared to milk.It also offers a good amount of Protein, Vitamin A (Beta Carotene) and Vitamin C.

It has excellent antioxidant, anti inflammatory and tissue protective properties. It helps in controlling Sugar Levels in Diabetic Patients, good for Cardio Vascular Health and also beneficial for liver health.

Here is a Soup Recipe made with this amazing green to harness the huge amount of benefits that it offers.

Cook Healthy :) Eat Healthy :)