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Meals Kids Might Eat:
More Kid-Friendly Indian Food
by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the April 2006 newsletter
One of my older son’s favorite meals is a typical South Indian “comfort” dish: rice mixed with plain yogurt and eaten with salty, spicy pickled lime on the side. A South Indian meal is not considered complete unless you have eaten your rice with yogurt. He said, “Mom, you should write a column about this!”
I’m not sure non-Indians would appreciate this dish! However, the recipes today are sort of a dressed-up variation. Pulao is a mixture of vegetables and rice. In other cuisines, similar rice dishes are called “pilaf.” My mother’s recipe, featured here, is very mild and quick to prepare. Raita is simply cucumbers mixed with yogurt.
This meal is somewhat low in protein. If you want, you can add boiled, salted edamame (green soybeans) as a side dish. Buy them in the frozen-vegetable section. My kids prefer the kind still in the pod, so they can have the fun of shelling them at the table! After boiling the pods according to the directions on the package, we like to sprinkle salt on the outside of the pods. That way, as you shell, your fingers get salty and you can taste the salt as you eat your soybeans. The other way to eat them is to pop them directly from the pod into your mouth.
Other good accompaniments to these recipes: raw fruits or vegetables.
On another note, one of my greatest challenges in terms of feeding my kids is: sugar and sweets. My kids want to eat desserts all the time! And besides dessert, they want maple syrup on their pancakes, jam on their toast... It goes on and on. So in a future column I would love to include tips from other families in terms of what you do to deal with the sweets issue.
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, minced (about ¾ cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup long-grain brown rice (we like basmati or jasmine rice)
One 10-oz package frozen mixed vegetables (we like the Cascadian Farm California blend, which has broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and zucchini, but it’s up to you)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
Cilantro leaves, minced (optional)
Sauté the onion in vegetable oil until onions are translucent. Add the garlic and spice powders and stir for several seconds. Add rice, vegetables, water and salt. Bring to a boil, turn heat way down, cover pot, and let simmer until the water is absorbed – about 40 minutes.
The only tricky part with this recipe is making sure the rice cooks fully and doesn’t burn. I have the urge to constantly open the lid to check and stir things around, but every time I open the lid, steam escapes, so I often need to add a bit of extra water.
After the rice is cooked (taste a bit to make sure there isn’t a hard center), sprinkle with minced cilantro leaves if you like.
1 large or two small cucumbers
1 cup plain yogurt
½ teaspoon salt
Cilantro leaves, minced
Peel cucumbers and remove seeds. Grate cucumbers into a bowl. Add yogurt and salt, and mix. Sprinkle with minced cilantro if desired.
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