Mushroom Methi Saag “Bollywood Style”

This week we welcome our guest post writer Anuradha Sawhney to inspire us with her vegan cookery. On her recent travels to India, Meg took a cooking class with Anuradha and we’ve adapted a recipe from her cookbook The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style.

“The inspiration for my cookbook Bollywood Vegan came about as the result of a life changing event in 2011. I learned the importance of a nutritionally sound and vegan diet, alongside light exercise, in reversing my recently diagnosed early onset heart disease. Routine blood tests already highlighted high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides and I was immediately prescribed medication.

I was flabberghasted! I had been a practicing vegan for 10 years and considered that was all I needed to do to stay healthy. What I found out was that it is important to eat the right kind of vegan foods. Eating no animal products was one thing but eating processed foods: chips; wafers; chidwas and samosas despite being vegan was in no way a healthy choice!

I continued my research by reading ‘Reverse and Prevent Heart Disease’ by internationally acclaimed Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. MD. He revealed that these foods I was so fond of commonly contain trans fats (bad fats) which raise bad cholesterol and I needed to quickly switch to a diet of whole foods and whole grains – the ingredients for good health! I started my fight against heart disease and impending diabetes and after 3 months I had brought my cholesterol, triglycerides and sugar down to within normal limits. In addition I had lost 7 kgs to boot!

To make the transition to veganism more attractive for the readers I included recipes in my cookbook contributed by top Indian celebrities from Bollywood, the world of fashion, television and music. The reality is that when a celeb speaks, the world listens. I have worked with all the celebs in my book while I was heading PETA India, and I approached them with a request to contribute a vegan recipe each to my book. These celebrities may not necessarily be vegetarian or vegan themselves, but they took time out to share their favourite vegetarian non dairy recipes with me.”

– Anuradha Sawhney

Diving into my first ever Vegan cookbook presented the zen of slow cooking with exciting fodder for experimentation. I chose Mushroom Methi Saag, the Saag meaning it’s a leaf based dish to be eaten with a naan or roti. This vegan recipe tolerates a slow and low cooking method while remaining faithful to the flavor without requiring any spice tempering.

When we cook Indian food from scratch at home, Graham and I typically prepare a couple of dishes each and this saag would be one of them. You will often find that an authentic Indian dining experience can include many different dishes served in small bowls (a thali.) Thalis vary by region and Meg frequently found a delicious eggplant satay appearing in hers while travelling, so look out for our recipe next week.

As a stand along dish, serve with warmed naan bread and your favorite chutney and yoghurt with mint.

Ingredients
1 tbsp light olive oil
4oz cilantro, chopped
4 oz spinach/mustard greens or fenugreek leaf *
2 inch piece ginger
3 large garlic cloves
1 green chili
3 tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
2 medium potatoes, chopped into 1 inch pieces
8 oz chestnut mushrooms, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup water

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• In a blender, put the olive oil, cilantro, spinach, ginger, garlic, green chili, tomatoes, salt, turmeric, chili powder and coriander powder and blend to a rough consistency so that the mixture isn’t a paste. You may need to pulse the blender to achieve this. * you can reserve some of the spinach to stir in before serving if you want a fresh taste.

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• Transfer this mixture into your slow cooker and stir in the potatoes, mushrooms and water.
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• Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3 hours.
• Follow Anuradha on facebook living and working in Pune.
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  -Deepak Chopra