Tag: microgreens

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Recipes

Scrambled Eggs with Micro Greens

I have this thing for micro greens. They’re easy to grow at home, nutritious, delicious and fun to eat. My favourite are mustard micro greens, for the sharp hits of mustard they release. They’re also great for those of us intermittently fasting, given we need to derive a great deal of satisfaction in a limited eating window, as well as stay away from the carbs for most part.

I also like making meals with lots of little components in there, a bit of this and a bit of that and a dash of this and a splash of that; makes for very interesting and involved eating IMO. These eggs were part of a larger breakfast platter.

These garlicky, scrambled eggs with micro greens aren’t really worth a whole post over, given how easy they are to make. The sole purpose of this post is to say, “See, this is possible”, for some of us who I’ve noticed prefer seeing a positive result and then trying their hand at it; and I so want more of us to adopt micro greens.

Ingredients:

  • Eggs, beaten
  • Garlic, chopped, fried to golden brown, drained
  • Micro greens, snipped from mid-stem, washed, drained
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Butter to cook

Method:

  1. Heat butter on a gentle flame until it’s just beginning to separate.
  2. Add beaten eggs and using a spatula or spoon, stir, and keep stirring until the eggs begin to clump together.
  3. Season with salt and pepper and continue stirring. Remember to take them off the heat when they’re a little moist. If that isn’t the way you usually eat your scrambled eggs, try a spoon at this point, just to see how it tastes. :)
  4. Take off the heat, mix in or top with micro greens and the crunchy, toasted garlic.
  5. Serve hot on toast or as part of a breakfast platter.

Notes:

  1. Beat the eggs until they’re smooth, but not until they’re nothing but foam.
  2. Use as much or as little garlic as you like. We love garlic as a family.
  3. I prefer seasoning my eggs later and not adding salt to the beaten egg mixture. Your call.
  4. This is a great way to get greens into your kids. Doesn’t look like a salad at all.
Categories
Featured

Yogurt, Greens, Oil

Cherie was working late on her fine arts practicals portfolio, and while making a mug of hot chocolate for her, I thought I’d fix myself a little something too. We don’t usually have very many vegetables, snacks or leftovers in the house, buying and cooking fresh for most part. The only exceptions are meats in the freezer and perhaps a roast in the fridge from time to time. That, combined with my almost-obsession with lowering my carb intake, leaves very few snack options. And while there were three whole birds in the freezer, there was no cooked meat to munch on.

This was just a very late night / early morning (3am) snack that I put together and shared and had no intention of writing about it here. When I saw the post had garnered nearly 400 likes, I thought it might just be something that should be recorded. So, here’s probably the simplest recipe on this blog.

The result is a wonderfully aromatic bowl, both oils having their own distinct aromas, with the pepper oil being surprisingly floral. Each spoon is soothing due to the sesame oil and the salt, and there’s a bit of crunch and mustard sharpness from the greens.

Ingredients

Method

  • Pour yogurt into bowl
  • Top with the rest of the ingredients
  • Serve; mix well and eat.

Notes

  • If raw garlic is too strong for you, consider garlic powder or toasting the garlic prior.
  • Some may find this bland. Add a dash of Sriracha sauce if you like.
  • I found the Sechuan pepper oil at Majnu ka Tila in Delhi and couldn’t find any equivalent on Amazon.

Categories
Featured

Microgreens at Home

Ever since we first tasted mustard micro-greens, all three of us have been hooked on to their sharp flavour and crisp texture. Unfortunately, their commercial availability in most areas is limited and they’re expensive too – about 200 rupees for 50 gm from what I just saw on the net.

We’ve recently started growing them at home, and all we need are some seeds (I mostly use black mustard seeds), any containers you have lying about, kitchen towels and water.

The containers I’m using right now, are:

  • Teacups that don’t have saucers
  • Assorted lids
  • Assorted containers like cookie tins
  • Earthen containers (these dry out fast and need watering more frequently)
  • Others

The basic steps are:

  1. If using earthen containers, pre-soak them to prevent quick drying out initially. They’ll need watering more frequently.
  2. Use folded paper towels to line the bottom of your containers. The thinner the layer, the more frequently they’ll need water. I aim for a thickness of about 1 cm, and need to water every 2 – 3 hours. This isn’t necessary. They’ll grow just as well without the towels.
  3. Wet the towels and drain off excess water.
  4. Sprinkle a seeds all across the surface of the towels. Close together is fine; don’t overdo it.
  5. Spray the seeds with a mist of water, or press them down a bit to moisten them.
  6. Leave them alone and water every couple of hours. I add a generous bit of water, swirl it around, then pour the excess into the next container and so on. During the first couple of days, you might want to take care not to pour out seeds with the water.
  7. The first 2 days might see a white, cottony fungus like growth. I ignore this for two reasons. One, it goes away in a day or two. Two, if it does stay, the greens are in any case snipped leaving behind a couple of centimetres of stalk, so it’ll be left behind.
  8. When your greens are a 2 – 4 inches tall, snip them and use in salads, garnishes etc. This may take between 5 to 10 days depending on the temperature, consistency of available moisture, etc.
  9. Replant the container immediately, so you’ll always have a ready supply of greens. I’ve purchased a 500gm pack of mustard seeds to ensure there’s always some to plant.
  10. The black seed husks are sometimes attached to the plant and do not wash away easily. These are okay to eat.
  • Seeds on moist kitchen towels (tissues)
  • Initial growth in a day or so
  • 2 – 3 days
  • 5 – 7 days

You can experiment with different seeds, keeping in mind they’re likely to behave differently. I’m currently working with mustard, millets and fenugreek (methi). My favourite is mustard, due to it’s flavour and quick growth. Do share your experiences.