Spice up your Dishes!

Variety is the SPICE of Life!

Hi everyone, we are Ubaid and Safura, and we are here to give you a sneak peek of some of our favorite spices we like to use in our cooking. Comment below and tell us which one is your favorite.

In our kitchen we have a variety of different spices to make flavorful, whole foods plant-based dishes. Some, we use only occasionally; others, we use constantly. We want to share with you some spices we use on a regular basis in every dish to create some amazing flavorful and healthy plant-based dishes. Hope you enjoy them and use it to flavor your plant based foods for Meatless Mondays and try our linked recipes. Having plenty of spices on hand is important in helping create fabulous , healthy and tasty dishes.

Garlic and Ginger fresh or blended into a paste is a must! It gives dishes a slight garlic flavor without the texture, tastes delicious in soups, stews and almost any dish. Benefits of this super food are: effectiveness in fighting infections, preventing cancer and reducing inflammation, arthritis and so much more. We buy a big jar from Costco or indian grocery store and use 1 teaspoon in every dish we cook. Our favorite recipe is flavorful variety of hummus. Saffron is a colorful blend of orange, yellow and red threads. We love to add it this to rice pilaf (veggie biryani), baked veggies, and many other dishes. Health benefits of saffron include its ability to improve respiratory and digestive health and eliminate pain. Saffron has calcium, manganese, iron, selenium & magnesium. Turmeric is from the ginger family and has its origins in India. Its color is yellow, and we love adding it to all of our dishes, tea and smoothies. When used in chickpeas veggie omelette, it looks like the yellow coloring of eggs. Health benefits of turmeric include the following: Turmeric helps with healthy skin, weight loss, detoxification and so much more. Red Chili Powder is a very important red spice that we use in all of our recipes. Our everyday cooking involves a liberal use of red chilli powder. The capsaicin compound found in chili powder revs up your metabolism, which increases your fat burning. The fiery spice contains vitamin C, acting as an antioxidant to strengthen the immune system and heal injuries and infections. Our favorite recipe is Spinach greens and lentils. Cumin adds a spicy kick to many soups, baked vegetables and stews. It also has many medicinal purposes. The health benefits of cumin include its ability to aid in digestion, improve immunity and treat skin disorders, insomnia, respiratory disorders, asthma, bronchitis, anemia and so much more. Our favorite recipe to use cumin in is moroccan spiced whole cauliflower. Garam Masala, literally translates to “ hot spice” is a blend of dry spices. Following are some of the spices included in it: cumin, coriander, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg powders and mix together. We buy our spice from any indian grocery store Patel Brothers or you can make it yourself. Garam Masala benefits include: Fight disease and builds immunity. Relieve pain and inflammation. Slow the aging process. Relieve gastrointestinal problems, heartburn and also soothes the upset stomach. We use this in all of our cooking especially vegetable malai koftas (meatballs). Italian Seasoning is a mixture of oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, and garlic. We buy it already blended from Costco. We add this spice on salad, pasta, veggie lasagna, tomato sauce, pizza, and almost all our dishes.

Moringa Powder’s Benefits

Moringa plant is beginning to gain more popularity as a new “superfood” for its highly nutritious profile and powerful anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and tissue-protective properties among many other health benefits.  Moringa oleifera, also known as horseradish tree, ben tree, or drumstick tree, is a small tree from India, Pakistan, and Nepal that has been used for generations in Eastern countries to treat and prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, anemia, arthritis, liver disease, and respiratory, skin, and digestive disorders. Moringa has become popular as a natural leaf powder supplement, although the pods, roots, bark, flowers, seeds, and fruits are also edible.

Amla Benefits

This superfruit has a remarkable ability to help restore your skin’s radiant complexion while helping to nourish aging skin. The health benefits of Indian Gooseberry, also known as Amla, can be partially attributed to its high vitamin C content. Amla enhances foodabsorption, balances stomach acid, fortifies the liver, nourishes the brain and mental functioning, and supports the heart. It also strengthens the lungs, regulates elimination of free radicals, enhances fertility, helps the urinary system, improves skin quality, and promotes healthier hair. This fruit acts as a body coolant, flushes out toxins, increases vitality, aids in vision care, improves the muscle tone and, acts as an antioxidant.   Amla contains the highest level of antioxidants versus other fruits, and is one of the richest sources of vitamin C, amino acids and minerals.

When Carrie from the Girls Gone Green reached out to us to do a cooking demo at the NE Florida Veg Fest, we were super excited and made lentils and masala chai.  She also talked about No Meat March and if we would like to share some recipes for that.  Hope you enjoyed learning more about some spices that you can use to make your Meatless Meals more flavorful.  Continue eating plant-based beyond the No Meat March month.

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