Mynoo’s Kitchen

Join Mynoo in creating some of her favourite recipes for delicious food that feeds the soul.

I’ll start by describing the basic ingredients that are always in my kitchen: the oils, the spices, the condiments, the garnishes and concoctions I like to keep ready.

I am mostly vegan, although I will sometimes use cow’s milk if I know that the cow is giving the milk freely. Occasionally, I’ll use goat’s milk. This is more on humanitarian than spiritual grounds; I believe that emotional distress is held in the cells of animals and passed to humans when we ingest them. This distress lodges itself in our organs, weakening them and making us susceptible to disease. I choose to minimise that risk for myself.

Wheat and rice are both inflammatory for me, so apart from the occasional spoonful of red rice, my recipes use alternatives that are both healthy and delicious.

I like my food to be colorful (I call it rainbow cuisine), and I like 60 percent or even 70 percent of it to be raw or just lightly sauteed.

I will share with you a number of dishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and recreate the meal combinations that I like to use.

Preparation

Cooking Oils:

  • Mustard Oil
  • Coconut oil
  • Ghee (Clarified butter)

Sauteeing Oils:

  • Coconut oil
  • Canola Oil

Oils for Salad Dressings:

Raw, organic, cold pressed varieties only, stored in the refrigerator.

  • Olive oil
  • Walnut oil
  • Avocado oil
  • Flaxseed oil
  • Hemp oil

Garnishing Oils:

Organic cold pressed varieties

Black cumin oil

  • Olive oil that has been stored with lightly crushed garlic, rosemary, lemon and chillies. I just use the oil.
  • Avocado oil with lightly crushed basil and whole black pepper.
Mustard Oil

Fats

For spreading on toast or crackers

  • Coconut oil
  • Peanut butter
  • Almond butter
  • Pumpkin butter
  • Cashew cream with mustard and marmite

Spices

Cooking spices:

  • Coriander seeds lightly roasted and ground into a powder
  • Fennel seeds lightly roasted and crushed
  • Garam Masala; a combination of dry coriander, clove, black cardamom, cumin seeds, bay leaf, cinnamon,black pepper. All roasted and finely ground.
  • Dry raw mango ground into a powder
  • Turmeric
  • Cayenne red chillies

Salt

Cooking salt:

  • Himalayan red salt
  • Celtic salt from France
  • Real salt from Utah
  • Freshly harvested unbleached sea salt from sea salt farmers you know

Raw food salt:

  • Sole, a saturated solution of Himalayan rock salt that has been blessed with sunlight for at least two hours.
  • I use the solution to taste. It’s as good as blood plasma and a small teaspoon of this in a litre of drinking water taken every day is very enriching.

Garnishing salt:

  • Black rock salt. (Has a strong smell and is very good for teh digestive system.)
  • Gomacio sea salt mixed with crushed sesame seeds
  • Salt mixed with crushed pepper and crushed roasted cumin
Coconut Milk

Lactose-Free MILK Replacements

Milk:

  • Coconut milk
  • Almond milk
  • Cashew milk
  • Hazelnut milk

Creams:

  • Coconut cream
  • Cashew cream
  • Macadamia cream
  • Walnut cream

Yoghurt:

I have not found a suitable non-dairy replacement for yoghurts but sheep and goat milk yoghurts are a good substitute for cow milk yoghurt.

Sour Flavorings

  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Grated raw mangoes
  • Cocum red. (Wash and soak and in water, grind into a paste and use as directed.)
  • Cocum dry. (Soak for a few minutes, wash and put into curries or lentils.)
  • Umeboshi plums or umeboshi paste
  • Tamarind
  • Dry mango powder. (Amchur or dry mango powder is often mixed with sawdust or other filler materials so I prefer to buy it in chunks and powder it myself.)

Spices

Garnishing spices:

  • Cumin seeds. (Roasted till dark brown then crushed.)
  • Crushed black pepper
  • Crushed red chillies
  • Black cumin seeds (kalonji or onion seeds)
  • Black and white sesame seeds
  • Roasted and crushed aniseed
  • Lightly roasted pine seeds
  • Lightly roasted cashew nuts (whole or crushed)
  • Lightly roasted peanuts (whole or crushed)
  • Dried and crushed mint
  • Dried and crushed oregano
  • Dried and crushed Fenugreek leaves
Spoons Spices

Spices to use with oil or ghee garnished with Indian foods:

  • Mixture of five seeds: fenugreek, mustard, cumin, black cumin, aniseed
Heat the oil or ghee as directed by the recipe and add a spoonful of the seed mixture until it splutters. Add a pinch of asafoetida and any other herbs the recipe requires then mix in the lentil or curry as directed.

Herbs

For cooking and garnish:

  • Cooked fresh or dried fenugreek leaves
  • Finely chopped coriander and mint
  • Thai Basil
  • Uncooked italian basil
  • Oregano, thyme and rosemary
  • Cooked and crumbled sage
  • Lemon rind
  • Orange rind
  • Lime rind

Herbs used as a condiment or added to curries when cooking:

  • Finely chopped mixture of garlic, lemongrass, green chillies and cilantro.
  • Crushed grated ginger, garlic, chillies and salt.
  • Crushed garlic, chillies, grated coconut, salt and lemon juice.
  • Finely chopped shallots, lemongrass, garlic, green chillies, lime and kaffir lime leaves.
  • Fresh coriander leaves, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, salt, chillies and lemon juice or grated raw mango ground into a paste.
  • Grated raw mango with crushed garlic, crushed roasted coriander seeds, crushed dry red chillies and salt.

Dessert Garnishes

  • Saffron soaked in almond milk
  • Cardamom
  • Cinnamon
  • Rose petals
  • Ginger candied in xylitol and dates
  • Crushed raw pistachios
  • Flaked soaked and peeled almonds
  • Scrapings from vanilla pods
  • Kewra grass soaked for several days in a few spoonfulls of distilled water. Rose petals in distilled water, soaked and refrigerated

Fruits you can eat include:

  • Bowl of pomegranate seeds
  • Two slices or a small bowl of papaya or pineapple with lime.
  • Two slices or a small bowl of mango slices.
  • Two slices or a small bowl of dragon fruit.
  • One small chikoo.
  • One chunked up banana with several black spots sprinkled with cinnamon.
  • One small apple, sliced.
  • One small pear, sliced.
  • Twenty four grapes.
  • Half a custard apple.
Wait 30 minutes after eating the last fruit before having your breakfast meal.

The breakfast meal:

  • Bircher muesli
  • Mixed grain porridge
  • Raw sprouted buckwheaties
  • Mixed sprouts
  • Savoury pancakes with white lentil or green moong or chickpea flour
  • Tapioca
  • Quinoa upma
  • Quinoa and Amaranth Khichdi
  • Millet, Onion seed savory upma
  • Adai
  • Tempeh marinated with garlic tomatoes and red peppers with potato cakes, avocado and wilted spinach
  • Poha

Breakfast Juices:

Add aloe vera to:
  • Green juice
  • Beetroot, carrot and ginger
  • Carrot, orange, ginger and lime
  • Grapefruit, cucumber, ginger and grape
  • Sugar cane, aloe vera, cucumber, ginger, lime and cayenne pepper
  • Fennel, cucumber, green apple, lime and ginger
  • Spinach, mint, cilantro, tomato, lime and ginger with sole and black pepper
  • Fresh turmeric, coconut, water, black pepper and sole
  • Pineapple ginger, turmeric, mango, black pepper and coconut meat

Breakfast Smoothies:

  • Soaked chia seeds, soaked flax seed, papaya, mango and vanilla
  • Chia, mango, moringa and orange
  • Custard apple, vanilla and saffron
  • Banana, passion fruit, coconut milk and orange rind
  • Mixed berries, flax seed soaked, maca root, bee pollen
  • Acai berry, mango, coconut cream and chia

Salads

  • Rocket, grapefruit segments, almond flakes and lecithin granules
  • Mixed greens, boiled chick peas, peeled tomatoes and ginger juice
  • Boiled beetroot, spinach, chickpeas and peeled tomatoes
  • Rocket, peeled tomato and avocado with grated pineapple
  • Grated carrot, beetroot, raw mangoes, finely chopped coriander and mint with boiled edamame and raisins
  • Mixed sprouts with finely chopped shallots, ginger juice, finely cubed cucumber, tomato and green chillies (optional)
  • Sweet corn, orange segments, mint, finely cubed carrots, finely cubed peeled tomatoes, marinated and finely cubed fresh turmeric, lemon juice from the turmeric marinate, and pomegranate seeds
Green Drink

Starters/Snacks

  • Pakoras with onion and potatoes
  • Crunchy spinach and aniseed leaf fritters
  • Sweet and savoury chat with sprouts and chickpea crunchies
  • Daikon summer rolls with herbs and cilantro dressing
  • Sabudana vada
  • Batata vada
  • Steamed bread
  • Vegetable crudites with dips
  • Medu vada
  • Dal vada

Lunch/Dinner Recipes

  • Macro indo stew
  • Mona’s bihari baingan
  • Dina’s khadi
  • Sindhi khadi
  • Punjabi khadi
  • Kokum khadi
  • Hyderabadi katti dal
  • Vibhas channa dal with loki
  • Toss it dal
  • Toss it curry
  • Sambhar
  • Allo simla mirch
  • Mangodi aloo
  • Methi allo
  • Beans with aniseeds
  • Palak with garlic and black pepper
  • Potatoes with ginger and peanuts
  • White cauliflower peas with ginger
  • Long beans with crushed red chilli and garlic
  • Kundru
  • Drumstick curry
  • Moringa potato curry
  • Tapioca leaf coconut curry
  • India Indo curry
  • Avial stew

Sign up to stay in touch with Mynoo Maryel