Pan-Tossed Carrot and Gobi Recipe

"Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s." — James Chapman

This pan-tossed carrot and gobi is a simple everyday dish that we have made healthy. Both carrot and gobi are crunchy vegetables and retain some of their texture when one doesn't overcook them. Also, both these vegetables have lovely flavours that compliment one another, often we can't taste individual vegetables because of our otherwise high sugar and high salt diet.

Get ready to feast of some delicious, semi-crunchy carrot and gobi cooked in aromatic spices. It's simple to make and pretty much all of us will have the required ingredients at home.

Simple, Step-by-step, and practical upgrades towards achieving perfect health.

Pan-Tossed Carrot and Gobi Recipe

Course: Course 2: Vegetable Dishes, Meals: Lunch & Dinner, Side dishes
Cuisine: Indian, North Indian
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 2 people

INGREDIENTS

Main Dish

1. 2 Carrots Medium-sized
2. 1/4 Head Cauliflower
3. 1 Onion
4. 4 pods garlic
5. 2 tbsp Coriander Leaves Chopped

Masala

1. 2 tbsp Bengal Gram Dal
2. 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
3. 1/2 tsp Pepper Powder
4. 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
5. 1 tsp Garam Masala
6. 1 tbsp Almonds
7. 1/2 Lemon Peeled
8. Miso Paste to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Masala

1. Dry roast bengal gram dal until slightly browned, on low flame. Do not allow to turn dark brown or brown too much. Remove bengal gram from the vessel.
2. In the same vessel, add mustard seeds and dry roast until they start popping. As soon as they start popping, remove from the vessel into a cup. It is important to roast them only as little as required. If possible, avoid roasting them altogether.
3. Finely grind peeled lemon and miso paste to a smooth paste. Add roasted bengal gram, almonds, pepper powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala, and grind to a coarse powder. Remove from mixie and mix in roasted mustard seeds. Masala is ready.

Main Dish

1. Peel and chop onions into long, thin pieces. Chop carrots into thick, medium sized pieces. Chop cauliflower into small florets. Peel and crush/grind garlic to a paste. Keep aside for ten minutes before cooking.
2. Take 1-2 tbsp water in a thick bottomed pan / wok / kadai and add onions. Switch on the stove and stir continuously until cooked.
3. Add chopped carrots and cauliflower, mix, turn the stove to sim and close with a lid/plate.
4. Once garlic paste has rested for ten minutes, add to the vegetables and continue cooking with a closed lid.
5. While the vegetables are being cooked, prepare masala as explained above.
6. When vegetables are cooked just enough, remove from stove and mix masala.
7. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve fresh!

Nutrition Science Highlights for WFPB Pan-Tossed Carrot and Gobi Recipe

1. Why miso paste? Miso paste is fermented & salted soya bean paste. Maximum recommended salt intake is 3 grams per day per person. In addition to helping us restrict salt intake, replacing salt with miso paste also helps by neutralising the negative effects of salt by soya phytonutrients. You can easily make fresh miso paste at home by mixing 100 grams of cooked soya paste with 10 grams of salt, or 10 tablespoons of cooked soya paste with 1 tablespoon of salt. If making at home, ensure to use immediately, or freeze in batches to use later.
2. Why mustard seeds? Myrosinase, an important enzyme in cruciferous vegetables such as knol kohl, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, and broccoli, is essential to form sulforaphance, a powerful anti-cancer compound in the body when we consume these vegetables. However, when they are cooked, myrosinase gets deactivated and sulforaphane does not get synthesised. By adding raw or slightly roasted mustard seeds, or a little of any raw cruciferous vegetable to the dish after cooking, we can add myrosinase back into the dish and protect the powerful anti-cancer functions of cruciferous vegetables.
3. Why crush garlic and wait? When garlic is chopped, crushed, ground or bitten into, two chemicals stored in different parts of garlic's cells combine in a chemical reaction to form allicin. This is a slightly bitter compound that deters insects, but happens to be very beneficial to our health. Allicin helps reduce blood pressure and protect the heart and other organs, fight off lung infections, and reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, cooking destroys one of the enzymes required to form allicin. This can be overcome by crushing garlic and keeping it aside for ten minutes while the chemical reaction takes place. Once allicin is formed, it is heat stable and can be safely cooked. Alternatively, some raw garlic can be added after cooking, to a dish that has cooked garlic in it.
4. Why not tadka? Tadka, thaaLippu, oggaraNe. Tempering spices in oil is quintessential to Indian cuisine. This practice may have started as a compromise when whole nuts were unavailable, and indeed, is more common in inland, drier areas where nuts do not grow easily, all year round. You can enjoy the taste and fragrance, though, by just dry roasting the spices you require, without the oil, or even better, mixing spice powders directly into your dish!