Monsoon Season Specials – Millet Recipes by Millet Rambabu
During the rainy season, we have less digestive fire. That is why we have to consume easily digestible food and use healthy spices like pepper and ajwain to prevent the occurrence of monsoon seasonal diseases. One should consume a light and warm diet during this season. Let’s learn how to make a light and healthy soup that is easy to digest.
Millet Bottle Gourd Soup
A light and nutritious soup perfect for the monsoon season, Millet Bottle Gourd Soup combines the goodness of millet and moong dal with the hydrating properties of bottle gourd. It is flavored with healthy spices like pepper and ajwain, making it easy to digest and ideal for keeping monsoon illnesses at bay.
Ingredients
- Millet 100 grams
- Moong dal 50 grams
- Bottle gourd 100 grams
- Tomato 1
- Sesame milk 1 cup
- Pepper powder 1 tsp (adjust as per your taste)
- Ajwain/jeera 1 tsp
- Turmeric ½ tsp
- Chopped Ginger 1 tsp
- Lemon 1
- Mint fistful
- Fresh Coriander fistful
- Jaggery powder 2 tsp
- Ghee/coconut oil 3 tsp
Preparation
- Wash and soak millet and moong dal for 2 hours.
- Boil one liter of water and add the millet and moong dal. After 70% cooking, add the bottle gourd, tomato, and turmeric and cook till the bottle gourd is softly cooked.
- Turn off the stove. Separate the water and keep it aside.
- Allow millet and vegetables to cool. Once it reaches room temperature add mint and grind it into a smooth paste.
- Add this paste to the reserved water. If you want, you can add some water and make it thin.
- Add salt as per your taste and boil it for 10-15 minutes over low flame.
- Heat the ghee/coconut oil over medium heat. Add ajwain/jeera, and chopped ginger, sauté till it releases an aroma, and add this to the boiling soup. Add sesame milk and pepper powder.
- Adjust salt and pepper powder as per taste.
- Serve hot. While serving, add lemon water and chopped coriander.
Ayurvedic Insight: This soup not only nourishes the body but also supports the digestive system during the monsoon season, aligning with Ayurvedic principles of seasonal eating.
Digestive Herbal Tea
During the rainy season, it’s essential to maintain a healthy digestive system. A good kashayam, or herbal tea, can help improve digestive fire and prevent seasonal ailments. A soothing and warming herbal tea that helps improve digestive fire during the monsoon season, this Digestive Herbal Tea combines the benefits of cumin, fennel, cinnamon, mulethi, and other herbs to support digestion and enhance immunity.
Ingredients
- Whole cumin ½ tsp
- Fennel ½ tsp
- Cinnamon small stick
- Mulethi 6 grams
- Mint 5 leaves
- Ginger small piece
- Jaggery to taste
- Lemon juice 1 tsp
Preparation
- Dry roast cumin, fennel, cinnamon, and mulethi and crush them coarsely. (This can be made in batches and stored in a bottle for later use, as needed).
- Heat 1.5 glasses of water until it reaches boiling point.
- Add the above-crushed mixture to boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
- Add crushed ginger to the boiling water and boil till the water reduces to 1 glass.
- Turn off the stove and add mint leaves, cover the lid for 2 minutes.
- Strain and add jaggery powder and lemon while serving.
Ayurvedic Insight: This herbal tea enhances digestive fire (Agni) and balances your Prakriti, promoting overall digestive health during the rainy season.
Gojju Ambade Recipe
Udupi Sri Krishna Math in Karnataka in South India is historically, religiously, and culturally very famous. Udupi food culture is also very famous. Many prasads are regularly offered to Udupi Lord Krishna. All those prasads are to preserve the local food culture and biodiversity of Tulu Nadu and also a celebration of life. Among those are Amrutha pahla burfi, Dhanvantri prasad, Kushmanda halwa, Gojju Ambade, and many more. Now let us learn to make the Gojju Ambade, which is another kind of urad vada preparation in a coconut-based gravy called gojju that is both spicy and sweet at the same time.
Gojju Ambade Recipe
Serves: 4-5 Cooking time: 30-40 mins
Ingredients
For urad dal balls:
- Urad dal 1 cup
- Salt to taste
- Oil to fry
- Chopped green chillies 1/crushed pepper 1 tsp
- Chopped curry leaves 2 tsp
- Hing 3 pinches
For tangy gravy:
- Grated fresh coconut 2 cups
- Less spicy red chili 2 (Kashmiri chili/Byadgi chili)
- Jaggery 3 tsp
- Mustard 3 tsp
- Tamarind paste 2 tsp
- Turmeric 1 tsp
- Hing 2 pinches
For seasoning:
- Oil 3 tsp
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Red chillies 2
- Curry leaves 1 sprig
Preparation
- Wash and soak the urad dal for 2 hours.
- Grind the urad dal with a little water to make a fine paste.
- Add crushed peppercorns, chopped ginger, curry leaves, hing, and salt to the ground urad dal. Mix well.
- Heat the oil and drop small balls of urad dal into the oil and fry until golden.
- Remove from the oil and keep on tissue paper for 5 mins.
- Take grated coconut, red chilies, mustard seeds, tamarind paste, jaggery, and curry leaves, and grind them to a fine paste.
- Take this paste into a big vessel and add 3-4 glasses of water, turmeric powder, and salt. Allow it to boil.
- Heat the oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds, and split red chilies to it. When it starts spluttering, transfer this seasoning to the boiling gravy. Turn off the stove. Add a little hing and salt to get a yummy and tangy gravy. If this gravy becomes thick, you can add a little water to adjust thickness.
- Take a big vessel with water and dip fried urad dal balls for 2-3 seconds. Remove from the water, and squeeze lightly to remove excess oil and water from the fried urad dal balls.
- When the boiled tangy gravy comes to room temperature, add urad dal balls into it and allow them to absorb the gravy. Now it is ready to serve.
Ayurvedic Insight: Gojju Ambade supports balanced prakriti by combining urad dal, which provides protein and strength, with digestive spices like pepper and ginger. The coconut-based gravy offers cooling properties, making this dish suitable for promoting digestive health and overall well-being according to Ayurvedic principles.
Porridge for Post Delivery
A very powerful supplement for breast milk recovery and for relaxing the postpartum body, this nutritious and rejuvenating porridge is perfect for new mothers. It combines the benefits of red rice or barnyard millet with whole moong and methi, providing essential nutrients to support breast milk production and overall recovery.
Ingredients
- Red rice/barnyard millet 50 grams
- Whole moong 30 grams
- Methi 2 tsp
- Cow ghee 2 tsp
- Pepper 1 tsp
- Coconut milk 2 cups
- Chopped ginger 1 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Curry leaves 1 sprig
- Fresh drumstick leaves/drumstick leaves powder 1 tsp
Preparation
- Wash and soak red rice/barnyard millet, whole moong, and methi for 4-6 hours separately.
- Boil ½ liter of water and add soaked red rice/barnyard millet to it and boil until 60% cooked. Add soaked whole moong and methi, and cook till it becomes soft.
- Add coconut milk and turn off the stove.
- Heat cow Ghee, add chopped ginger, crushed pepper, and curry leaves. Sauté till it releases aroma and add this to the cooked porridge.
- Add drumstick leaves powder before serving. If using fresh leaves, add along with the whole moong.
Ayurvedic Insight: This nutritious porridge for post-delivery care is ideal for new mothers. It supports recovery and milk production, balancing prakriti with ingredients like red rice or barnyard millet, which provide essential nutrients and aid digestion. The inclusion of methi and drumstick leaves enhances lactation and overall well-being.