On March 27^th, 2018, our class had the opportunity to have Justin McGonigal, a promising nutritionist and  researcher  at MUSC, as our guest speaker who gave his presentation on sustainable nutrition. He advocated for plant-based diet heavily. He also stressed about the association between animal product consuming and cardiovascular diseases. He also explained why the atherosclerosis ( hardening of the arteries) has already begun and what to do to prevent coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and other heart related diseases. He also mentioned the effect of phytochemical, which only can be found in plants are so important to fight cancerous cell. After taking this class, I am now aware of my ecological footprint and I try to consume more vegetables than meat (especially beef) to not only for the sake of my body but also to lower my carbon footprint. I am inspired by Justin McGonial’s lecture so much that I’m almost every day cooking a plant based food that are rich in protein. Today, in this blog I am going to share one of my favorite recipes  from my kitchen.

We know that the protein is a macronutrient, which must be consumed to maintain cell function, growth and to build muscle. Amino acids are the monomers which make up the protein.  We need 20 different kind of amino acids, of which nine cannot be synthesized by the human body and needs to have them from the diet, and those nine amino acids are called essential amino acids. We get protein from meat, but the fact is we can also nourish our body and meet the need of protein simply from legumes, bean, lentils which are the excellent source of amino acids. But we have to keep in mind that the plant based protein are not complete protein so that various typed of lentils and legumes must be added in diet to meet the need. The following is the recipe I want to share:

Ingredients

¼ cup yellow lentils

¼ cup chana daal

¼ moong daal

¾  tsp turmeric powder

¼ chili powder (optional)

½ cup chopped cilantro

½ cup various kinds of bean( kidney, lima bean)

1/3 cup oil/ ghee

1 chopped onion

1 tsp cumin seed

Chopped garlic 2 clove chopped

Ginger chopped 1 tsp

1 bay leaf

1 or two whole green chili

Lime juice 1 Tbsp

Salt

Method:

1 Boil all the daals, lentils and bean in water. Put turmeric powder, chopped garlic and bay leaf, and cumin seeds and give it soupy look. Add salt according to your taste.

2. Heat the oil/ghee in a separate pan. Sauté or fry the chopped onion until it become brown. Careful to not burn the onion but make it brown to give the soup its rich flavor. And pour the boiled lentil-bean mix. Now reduce the heat and cook it on stove for 7-10 more minutes. You can add chili and chopped ginger now.
3. Garnish your protein rich soup with cilantro, if you want you can add few drops of freshly squeezed lime.
4. You can also add chopped potatoes, okra, tomatoes to make it more nutritious. In that case you will have to increase the amount of other ingredients (onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric) if you want.

All the ingredients are available in Bombay Bazaar, an Indian store, on Rivers Avenue. Turmeric is also can be found in Sam’s club and Whole Food market. Following is the picture of my cooking, “Delicious Daal”.