Sassy Spoon's Chef Irfan Reveals The Five Ingredients You Need For Healthy Meals

 

 

Who said eating healthy has to be boring? Listed here are my absolute favorite ingredients to work with when dishing out a healthy meal. Not only do they taste great, but add loads of nutrition to your meal too.

I love it more for its texture than for its nutritional value. That being said, it is high in fibre, full of antioxidants, it is gluten free, high in protein and has a low glycemic index which is good for diabetics. You can boil it or toast it. Toasting it with a little jeera and kala namak is super as a snack. Feel free to add some other homemade masalas or even herbs. Boiled quinoa can be used as a cold salad or even sautéed and used as a warm salad.
Quinoa is easily available nowadays at supermarkets and stores. You can pick up some from Patel Stores in Bandra, Crawford Market, Foodhall at Palladium, Nature’s Basket and you can also purchase organic quinoa online from here.

What more can I say about this? You see it all over being roasted over coal and served with a squeeze of lime. That smoky flavour just takes it to another level. But roasted in the oven or even boiled is also super. Full of antioxidants, vitamin A and very high in fibre, sweet potato also makes for an amazing snack for the kids.
Sweet potatoes are easily available at any local vegetable vendor. You can also order them from various online grocery suppliers like Grofers and Big Basket too.

Kale is part of the cabbage family, and we bet you didn’t know that. It has been around for some time, but has become very popular in India only in the last six to nine months. Again, full of antioxidants and vitamin C, kale is superb for cholesterol, especially if steamed. I personally like it in tarts or sautéed as a substitute for spinach. It tastes good even as a juice together with some celery. You can also make Kale chips in the oven {they’re great as a snack and are super healthy}.
Good quality Kale can be purchased from Trikaya Farms or Nature’s Basket.

It doesn’t taste like anything, but if there is one thing wheatgrass has, then it is a lot chlorophyll. Wheatgrass has many many benefits, but I’m just going to briefly talk about one – chlorophyll. It neutralises toxins, purifies the liver, improves blood sugar problems and prevents the growth of bacteria. So drink up! Having wheatgrass shots, smoothies or adding it to a salad are the best ways to consume it.
Wheatgrass is not very commonly available, however, you can get wheatgrass juice at Juhu Chowpatty, Worli Seaface and Marine Drive.

This one’s my favourite, especially because it is one of our signature dishes at The Sassy Spoon. Couscous contains less calories than quinoa or rice, and is a good source of carbohydrates. One cup of couscous constitutes about 1/3 of your daily recommended intake of carbs. It’s a very good source of protein, too. It has some amount of fat, but it is very very little. No secrets will be shared on how I cook my couscous {the warm, lemony couscous at the restaurant is what you need to try}.
Couscous is easily available at Patel Stores, Crawford Market, Kings Plaza at Cuffe Parade and Nature’s Basket.

Check out Irfan Pabaney the Owner & Head Chef of The Sassy Spoon at The 360 Super Food Festival this Sunday, February 5 at the Radio Club, Colaba. Click here for more details.

Featured photo source: Llez via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), Nsaum75 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) and Pixabay