Feeding Monks

Today we join Chinnu in the kitchen to see what he is serving up for Satguru and the monks today. Each day Chinnu comes to the Aaaheenam kitchen and prepares delicious, healthy food from our many garden vegetables.

For today's rice, Chinnu is making Tamarind Rice. If you'd like to feel like you're having lunch with our monks, here is a Tamarind Rice recipe from our monk's cookbook for you to make today:

Ingredients

2 cups rice
3 tbsp ghee
1 tsp mustard seeds
6 dry chilies, minced
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp channa dal
1 tbsp tamarind paste
curry leaves
salt

Directions

Soak dal in water for one hour. Steam the rice and set aside. Fry mustard seeds, chilies, curry leaves and dal. When the mustard seeds stop popping, add the tamarind paste, salt and turmeric powder (keep the pan covered until the seeds stop popping). Add enough water to the mixture to make a thin gravy and simmer for about 15 minutes or until sauce thickens. Add the rice to the sauce and stir well. Serves 3

Chinnu gives us his big smile as he cuts into a greenhouse tomato

Today we are having a mung bean sprout curry

With beans freshly sprouted by our monks

Our greens for today come straight from our hydroponic greenhouse

Chinnu makes fast work of a yellow onion (one of the few veggies here that we didn\

t grow)'

These might look store bought, but they are actually our own greenhouse tomatoes.

Chinnu adds them to one of our curries

Fresh pumpkins from the garden

A small one is more than enough for today\

s pumpkin curry. '

Some nutritious sweet potatoes from our garden. We\

ll be eating these on another day.'

Many, many eggplant

Don\

t forget our gourds! An example of the abundance you can create with a garden.'

Right now we are seeing ample harvests of some of our most sought-after fruit, the avocado

The bananas here grow year-round

Inside the kitchen, Chinnu has prepared some warming, vegetable soup. His way of keeping the monks healthy.

It is bright red from our tomatoes

Chinnu uses a variety of spices today

Turmeric

Fenugreek

Mustard seeds (with some urad dal)

Cumin

peppers

and a touch of chili powder

First he tempers the spices in oil to bring out their full flavors. He\

s added some curry leaves here, freshly picked from the tree just outside the kitchen.'

The aroma is intoxicating

later he adds moringa pods. Once those soften, he will add the dal.

Today\

s is split pea'

A close-up of today\

s rice which will become Tamarind Rice.'

Mikka Nandri Chinnu!

for giving our monks an abundance of fresh and wonderful food! Aum.

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