Poha
This versatile dish makes for a delicious and nutritious breakfast, tea-time snack or light dinner item. Beaten rice flakes (poha) come together with potatoes, carrots and peas in a light and flavorful seasoning of onions, mustard seeds, cumin, asafetida and curry leaves to make this healthful and mouth-watering snack.
Ingredients (serves 4):
- Oil (1 tsp)
- Ghee (1 tsp)
- Beaten rice flakes (poha) (3 cups)
- Potatoes (finely chopped) (2 medium sized ones
- Onions (finely chopped) (1 small)
- Carrots (grated) (1 medium sized one)
- Peas (1/4 cup)
- Mustard (rai) seeds (1 tsp)
- Cumin (jeera) seeds (1 tsp)
- Peanuts (optional) (a handful)
- Ginger (optional) (1/2 inch cube crushed)
- Curry leaves (a handful)
- Coriander leaves (finely chopped) (1 tbsp)
- Green chillies (optional) (1 tsp finely chopped)
- Asafetida (hing) (a pinch)
- Lemon juice (2 tbsp)
- Sugar (1 tbsp)
- Salt (to taste)
- Fresh coconut (grated) (2 tbsp)
Method:
- Heat the oil and ghee in a wide pan on medium heat.
- After a minute, add the mustard seeds.
- When they sputter, add the peanuts and keep stirring until the peanuts reach a golden brown color.
- Add the cumin seeds, asafetida, onions, ginger, chillies, curry leaves.
- When the onions turn translucent, add the potatoes and peas. Cook covered with a little sprinkling of water on medium heat.
- At this stage, wash the poha in water and drain out the water completely.
- When the potatoes are completely cooked, add the grated carrots.
- After a minute, add the soaked poha, salt and sugar and mix well.
- After 3-4 minutes of stirring occasionally, your poha should be completely cooked. Add the lemon juice.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and grated coconut..
Tastes (Rasa):
Sweet (poha, potatoes, peas, carrots, sugar, coconut), sour (lemon juice), salty (salt), bitter (curry leaves, coriander leaves, asafetida, cumin seeds), pungent (chillies, ginger, cumin seeds, onions), astringent (asafetida, curry leaves, coriander leaves).
Doshic Influence:
Effect on the Mind (Gunas – Qualities):
If you want to make the above poha recipe more sattvik, skip the onions and chillies. You can substitute the chillies with a small quantity of red chilli powder. Using fresh ingredients, consuming within a few hours of preparation and reducing pungent, sour and salty tastes will enhance the sattva of the poha. The above recipe is also more or less sattvik in nature, but can also tend to be rajasic, especially if the spices are overdone. Using stale ingredients, storing in the refrigerator and reheating it on the next day increases tamasic qualities.