Winter is the time when a lot of vegetables flood the market. Since we still have some time to spend with the winter months, we can think of rearranging our food bowl to nourish our body to the fullest by including the season’s best offers.
Potato
Only potato lovers know and identify the love associated with spotting new potatoes. New potatoes, you ask? Yes, the ones which have a flaky thin skin. So thin that a rough scrub is all it takes to remove the skin along with the dirt. Potato, also the most misunderstood vegetable, enjoys a love-hate relationship from many quarters of its consumers. The infamous term ‘couch potato’ is enough to talk about how this vegetable is most hated. Critics will do their job, but does that stop us from seeing the better side of these new peeling tubers? The new potatoes have a lower starch content, so they cook faster, and are by far much tastier. They are the best to make the mash and to get the flaky meat when popped in the oven. Try them; they are also supposed to be a good source of vitamin C.
Guava
Avoid the big, cricket ball-sized ones and go for the ones that are small. The bigger they are, the more likely they are to be identified as high-breed. The local ones are sold on the streets — low on cost but high in taste. Why guava, one might ask? The answer is that guavas are high in Vitamin C: almost thrice the amount that an orange provides. The best way to enjoy them? Wash, cut and season with chilli and salt; or if you are confident of the strength of your teeth, then just ditch the knife and bite straight into one.
Amla
There’s something about winter and Vitamin C: apart from oranges of all sizes flooding the market, there are also the amla s — or gooseberries. Amla isn’t good for just your hair as a hair tonic. These green, juicy, tiny marble-sized fruits can also keep that cold and cough at bay. Amla is also known to improve the health of your skin. Once again, relish with a sprinkling of salt and chilli.
Green peas
Another great winter gift. Drop some into your soup, throw some in your curries or sauté them with some garlic and rice and make your lunch extraordinary with the least effort. Apart from reducing bad cholesterol, green peas also slow down fast digestion of sugar, since it is high in fibre content and protein. The carbohydrate content in peas are natural sugars. The best way to preserve them for later use is to peel and store them in airtight containers in the freezer, without washing.
