Ujwala's Delicacies

Indian inspired all natural kitchen.

Raw papaya halwa

Halva is nothing but dessert or sweet. Traditional halva was flour based, soft and gelatinous. Eventually, sooji (semolina), vegetables as carrot, pumpkins, squash and nut variations are called halva as well. Semolina and vegetable, fruit based halva’s are Indian’s favorite festival, special occasion desserts. A variety of raw/ripe veggies/fruits combinations as papaya, banana, jackfruit, and mango are used in Indian cuisine. Explore Indian cuisine for unique ways to cook vegetables. Benefit from papaya’s mild sweetness and versatility.

Let’s admit – we all have sweet tooth. If you are concerned about your ravenous sweet tooth and looking for ways to satisfy with healthy low-carb, low sugar diet? Then you are at right place. As an all-natural food blogger, I can help you. Satisfying your sweet tooth with halva made of raw fruits is a great way to keep yourself on clean, healthy low-carb, low-sugar and low-calorie diet. Flour, white sugar in baking goods is #1 culprit of high carbohydrates and calories. Your body will appreciate you keeping yourself away from flour, chemically filled white sugar.

Sweet potato, cashew stuffed steamed modak

Fresh sweet potato crop comes in fall, though they are available throughout the year. Perfect time for Ganesh Chaturthi, navarathri and Diwali. Sweet potatoes are rich source of vitamin A, several other essential nutrients including vitamins B-6, C, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate and pantothenic acid, as well as numerous minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium. This dish has no milk. Ghee can be substituted with coconut oil or other flavored oils. That makes it a perfect vegan dish.

Ganesh chaturthi is also festival of food. Lord Ganesh is said to be foodie. His favorites varieties of prasad are modak, kheer, puran poli, undrallu, kudumulu and list goes on. Foodies wait for mouth-watering food made of grated jaggery, coconuts and dry fruits.

Pumpkin, coconut stuffed modak

Ganesh Chaturthi is high spirit and enthusiastic celebration. Preparations start days before the festival. Preparations to make ganesh idol to buying new clothes and planning for food etc. Ganesh Chaturthi also known as ‘Vinayaka Chaturthi’ or ‘Vinayaka Chavithi’ is celebrated by Hindus around the world as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. It is celebrated on 4th day of Hindu lunar calendar month of Bhadrapada maasa. Which is usually in mid-August to mid-September. Ganesh chaturthi is also festival of food. Foodies like me wait every year for mouthwatering prasad. Lord Ganesh is said to be foodie. Many varieties of prasad as modak, kheer, puran poli, undrallu, kudumulu etc are made and offered to him. North Indian way of modak is deep fried. Flour dough is rolled, and closed with filling, then deep fried. In south india modak’s are steamed with filling and rice flour on top.

4 ingredient homemade whole-grain cake

A classic cake with all pantry ingredients. Skip store-bought pre cake mix. Go with your own organic ingredients or ingredients as stone milled whole grain flour, organic raw sugar or palm sugar. Know what you eat without missing the feel and flavor of cake.

No matter how many recipes you may see for “healthy” cakes, cakes aren’t healthy. However, some cakes are less unhealthy than others, and if you bake your own cakes, you can make substitutions to improve their nutritional profile. Choosing a homemade cake, substituting flour with whole-grain, white with brown or raw sugar for example, allows you to have a slice of cake without consuming the very high amounts of calories, fat, sugar and sodium found in many frosted cakes. Replace baking soda with Eno (fruit salt). Eno is available in Asian grocery stores. Eno is composed of 50% sodium bicarbonate, 15% sodium bitartrate and 35% free tartaric acid. It’s basic purpose is to get relief from acidity. Another way to use is in cooking as it causes the flours to rise and can be handy. Though it is marketed Eno as Ayurvedic fruit salt and healthy, it is not made out of fruit. Real health benefits are unknown. It contains 2.1g of sucrose per 5ml which makes not suitable for diabetics and low sodium diets.

While no cake is really healthy, you can make substitutions when baking to make the end result a little less unhealthy. If you aren’t making a white cake, use at least half whole-wheat flour, preferably whole-wheat pastry flour or white whole-wheat flour, to increase the fiber and micronutrients in the cake. Decrease the sugar by up to one-third, adding cinnamon or vanilla to bring out the sweetness of the cake while limiting the sugar it contains. Replace up to half of the fat in the cake with fruit or vegetable purees, like applesauce, pureed prunes, pureed beans or pumpkin puree. These will lower the amount of fat while increasing the fiber, vitamins and minerals in your cake. Choose a cake that doesn’t require frosting and top it with a sprinkle of chopped nuts, cocoa powder, powdered sugar or coconut for decoration.

Rava laddu with palm sugar

Rava laddu is south india’s common sweet made for festivals, weddings, gatherings, pujas.

Coconut palm sugar is a sugar substitute that seems to be gaining popularity in the market. It is made from sap that is extracted from the coconut tree. The taste of pure coconut palm sugar is similar to brown sugar. For cooking purposes, it has a very low melt temperature and an extremely high burn temperature so it can be used baked products in place of sugar.

Manufacturers of coconut palm sugar boast its low glycemic index, claiming it is a better choice for people with diabetes than regular sugar. Glycemic index (GI) is a measure of how a food raises blood glucose (or blood sugar) compared to a reference food (usually glucose or white bread). In the United States, we do not do official GI testing. So, GI numbers for the same food can differ depending on your source.

It is okay for people with diabetes to use coconut palm sugar as a sweetener, but they should not treat it any differently than regular sugar. It provides just as many calories and carbohydrates as regular sugar: about 15 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon. So, you still need to account for it when planning meals.

10 minute, 5 ingredient Dalia, brown sugar laddu

Celebrate your delicious style with this 10 minute recipe. As the festive season inches closer, the need to include sweetness and deliciousness in your life becomes inevitable. Dalia is made of chickpeas. They are nothing but roasted split chickpeas. Making of Dalia is an interesting process. Chickpeas are soaked for several hours. Then roasted on low flame for a long time in large barrels. At the end color changes to light yellow and texture is crunchy. Flavor is quiet enhanced by this process. Resulting Dalia is ready to eat. Make sure to use fresh ghee. Without realizing fresh ghee significantly enhances aroma and taste.

Enjoy and have a festive Diwali!

Diwali is upon us!

One of the holiest days in Hinduism, Diwali celebrates the victory of good over evil and is cause for the biggest celebration in Indian culture. As the Sanskrit word diwali literally translates to “festival of light”, celebrations across India (and, increasingly, the world) feature candlelight processions, fireworks, gatherings and food.

Of course, no celebration in any culture would be complete without food, and that’s where I come in. As Indian culture spreads abroad, more and more people (like you, for instance) are looking for healthy Indian recipes to make from fresh, never-frozen, never-canned ingredients. As a native South Indian, I grew up on truly authentic Indian food and continue to cook it for my family and friends. Just as I use only the freshest ingredients, I want to pass that on to the world; you’ll never have to open a package to cook any of my recipes. I am committed to using whole grains and natural ingredients in my recipes, and those looking for low-carb and low-sugar Indian food without sacrificing genuine Indian recipes will find a haven here.

I’ll be posting one recipe per day throughout the Diwali season to help you celebrate in delicious style. Whether you’ve come to my Indian cooking blog merely out of cultural curiosity or as a source for your next family meal, you’ll find nothing but the best Indian recipes.

Enjoy and have a festive Diwali!

Enjoy diwali recipes here – https://ujwalasdelicacies.com/diwali-recipes/

Spaghetti squash kheer

Kheer is Indian gods favorite prasadam (offering to god). It is essential sweet made at every puja, festivals, weddings and other occasions. Kheer has many names depending on region – payasam, payasa, Khiri, payesh and payox. The word payasam is derived from payasa, meaning milk and fereni in Persian.

Next time you make payasam, replace vermicelli with spaghetti squash for low card and low sugar alternative.

Kheer is a rice pudding made by boiling rice or vermicelli with milk and sugar garnished with cardamom, saffron, cashew nuts, pistachios or almonds. It is typically served during a meal or as a dessert. Also offered to god on festivals and pujas.

With cooking, spaghetti squash flesh falls away from the inner cavity into strands reminiscent of spaghetti. These “spaghetti” strands are crisp and mildly sweet in flavor. You can surprise and delight young children by showing them how this vegetable transforms with cooking.

Pumpkin, coconut halwa

Well… hello, fall.

We can thank the autumnal equinox for this shift from sultry summer to cozy fall. And while most of us are aware of when the first day of autumn lands on the calendar, there’s more to the equinox than meets the eye.

1. There are two equinoxes annually, vernal and autumnal, marking the beginning of spring and fall. They are opposite for the northern and southern hemispheres.

2. The autumnal equinox happens the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator, which is an imaginary line in the sky that corresponds to Earth’s equator. Every year this occurs on September 22, 23, or 24.

3. From hereon, the days get shorter until the winter solstice in December, when the light will begin its slow climb back to long summer days. Winter solstice is technically the shortest day of the year, while the summer solstice in June boasts the most sunlight. Hence, the four season, as illustrated below.

4. This year, the autumnal equinox arrives precisely at 4:21 a.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, September 23. Unlike an event like New Year’s midnight that follows the clock around the time zones, equinoxes happen at the same moment everywhere.

5. This year, the sun will rise at 6:56 a.m. EDT on the equinox and will set at 7:04 p.m., giving us 8 minutes of day over night. Although the sun is perfectly over the equator, we mark sunrises and sunsets at the first and last-minute the tip of the disk appears. Also, because of atmosphere refraction, light is bent which makes it seem like the sun is rising or setting earlier.

6. Exactly equal day and night won’t happen until September 26 with sunrise as 6:59 a.m. EDT and sunset at 6:59 p.m.

7. For the astrology-minded, the morning of the autumnal equinox is when the sun enters Libra … the sign of balanced scales. Equal day and night, balanced scales, seeing a connection here?