Tadka - Dressings

We have developed our taste buds for cooked food by use of spices. The taste governs our choice of food - dal makhani, dal fry or dal tadka. So I preferred using the word tadka to spice up our raw fruits and vegetables. Every home has a small accomplishment prepared with normal food to enhance the taste like pickles, papad and chutney. In the restaurant we have things like dressings, hummus, dips, etc. We will combine all these fancy names into one - Tadka.


1. Roasted and crushed walnuts, almonds, flaxseeds, sesame, pumpkin seeds, dried coconut, groundnuts, arhar dal, black gram, etc. Build your list as per your taste.

2. Chutney - This is my best tadka. One can blend any taste into it. These are some base ingredient

• Hara dhaniya
• Pudina
• Kari patta
• Moringa leaves
• Green chillies
• Red chillies
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Tomato
• Kabuli chana soaked
• Kala chana soaked
• Apple
• Carrot

3. Use any one of the above and mix ingredients as per your taste. The following are few suggestions.

• Dal chini
• Hari illaichi
• Kali mirch
• Kali illaichi
• Sukha dhaniya
• Lal mirch

4. Fruits - Eating fruits for one week is never a problem. The inhibition may start when you make shift to fruits only breakfast. Ideally we pick up four different colours of fruits and make a bowl. The following may be added.

• Soaked dry fruits.
• Nut milk.
• Dalchini powder.
• Hari illaichi powder.
• Fresh juice.
• Honey.
• Sesame seeds.
• Flaxseeds.
• Pumpkin or magaj seeds.

5.  Taste is an experience built by us to the right food. Since the taste is consciously developed by us, we can develop it again. At birth nature wants us to be greedy and eat more food to develop our body. Our body fully develops at an average age of 25 years. Now we need to stop being greedy and eat only for maintenance of our body. Tadka will help you to achieve this transition. The best Tadka is a Green chutney. Make it using any available green leaves. Simplest of all is, take a cucumber. Blend half of it in a blender and add the rest as small pieces.

6. Tadka for 7 Days

Dry Fruits - almonds -28, walnuts-14, raisins70, pumpkin seeds-70gms, flax-seeds70gms, groundnuts-100gms, sesame seeds-7 teaspoons, magaj-7 teaspoons, dry coconut grated-14 spoons.

7. Chutney - Choose your day. These can be the base and add tomato, garlic, ginger, green chillies, fresh lime and blend it. These ingredients are always part of our weekly purchases.

• Hara Dhaniya
• Nariyal
• Pudina
• Palak/available local green
• Red Chillies
• Garlic
• Ginger

8. Please finalise the menu for Tadka as per your palate and compile the shopping list. My recommendation for seven days-

• 1. Hara dhaniya - 7 small bunches.
• 2. Pudina - one bunch.
• 3. Ginger - 250gms.
• 4. Garlic - one pod.
• 5. Coconut (giri) - one and dry - one.
• 6. Lemon - 7.
• 7. Almond - 28.
• 8. Walnut - 14.
• 9. Dates - 21.
• 10. Magaj + pumpkin seeds - 100gms
• 11. Sesame seeds - 7 spoons required, 100gms as may be used for fruits and salads too.
• 12. Ground nut - 500gms.

(THESE ARE JUST A SUGGESTION)

9. Sprouts - Sprouts add a crunchy flavour to our salad. Best is moong beans sprouts. So today and tomorrow is the day. If you have whole green moong dal at home do it today or even tomorrow will be fine. Sprouting is very simple if you don't ask anyone.

• 1. Take a katori/bowl of moong dal. Roughly one handful is good for a week.
• 2. On first sight you may feel that one handful is less, this is natural. Don't increase the quantity.
• 3. Wash it thoroughly and soak it for 24 hours. Change water once after 12 hours.
• 4. After 24 hours strain the water and store it any container(if perforated available use it) and cover it with a wet cloth.
• 5. Keep rinsing and straining water as per your convenience every 6-7 hours.

That's it. Within 4-5 days you will have sprouts. If you smell something odd, rinse and strain is the magic that works.