Food Review: Vegetable Masala by Sara at Paddington Library

Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and a philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. Any individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. This cultural and lifestyle movement is proving very popular amongst our customers and even staff.

In celebration of World Vegan Month, my colleagues and I wrote food review blogs about the vegan dishes we have cooked and ate. As a meat-eater, having the opportunity to cook and eat vegan dishes intrigues and excites me.

To start, I chose a Vegetable Masala as my first dish- it is easy to prepare and cook- and includes a vegetable I am not fond of but wanted to eat again- Cauliflower. This recipe was from the cookery book Healthy Indian Cooking for Diabetes by Azmina Govindji & Sanjeev Kapoor- in association with Diabetes UK– which can be borrowed from Paddington Library or be bought from Amazon.

Yes, I know this recipe wasn’t taken from a vegan book, but I would say that anyone can enjoy this meal whether you are a curry-lover, vegan or like me; someone wanting to learn a new recipe, have a change from eating meat and want to include more vegetables in my diet.

As I said, I was excited to make this dish- all the ingredients or alternatives were sourced from Tesco, but you can go to any supermarket or local Halal or Asian store that sells what you will need, especially the spices. The preparation time was approximately 30 minutes and the cooking time 40-50minutes. The masala paste had a wonderfully earthy and warm aroma that came from the blender as I lifted the lid. The peel that was left over from the cauliflower could be used in another meal i.e., soup or as a side to the main course, but along with the carrots and ginger peel, it will be given to a colleague so they can add it to their compost heap. So, all in all, the vegetable isn’t going to waste.

Dinner was comforting and delicious; not spicy but creamy due to the coconut milk used instead of water. To serve the Vegetable Masala, I also bought plain rotis. The sauce was thin, which allowed my mum, brother and I to dip the rotis in- you could say, it was like having a soup. If it were thinker, I would have served white basmati or brown rice with it.

I would cook the dish again but reduce the amount of lemon juice added or instead, try it with lime juice as it is a smaller citrus fruit. I would also like to use aubergines and spinach next time and see if that works well with the masala spices. The leftover masala was frozen, so I could use for another meal and because I made plenty, I offered my colleague some as well.

Sara’s verdict:

Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Preparation Time: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cooking Time: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice level: ⭐⭐

I have included the recipe below for you to try at home. Alternately, there is another Indian cookery book called The Indian Vegan Kitchen by Madhu Gadia, which can be borrowed through our online resource- the Cloud Library app.

Now, get stuck in and enjoy!

The Ingredients and the alternatives

2 teaspoons olive oil or *pure coconut oil

1 medium sized onion, sliced

500g cauliflower, broken into florets (depending on the size of your cauliflower, you may need more than one)

25g peas (I put a whole tin- 175g- as I like peas)

1 medium sized carrot, diced or 3 small carrots (I preferred having them chopped)

5-6 French beans, chopped (I used a handful- so about 20)

1 teaspoon salt

½ tamarind pulp or *lime juice (I used lemon juice as I couldn’t a lime, but vinegar with a little sugar can do the trick)

2 tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander leaves or *dried coriander leaves (stir in before serving)

200ml of water or coconut milk*

*alternative ingredients

For the Masala

2 tablespoons of grated fresh coconut or desiccated coconut

½ tablespoon ground coriander

½ tablespoon of red chilli powder (All I could find was extra hot chilli powder, so I used ½ teaspoon measurement)

½ tablespoon garam masala powder*

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon minced ginger and garlic

*If you cannot find garam masala powder, there are substitutions- 2 of which are:

Option 1:

1 tablespoon Cumin powder and ¼ teaspoon Allspice

Option 2:

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 ½ tablespoon ground cardamom

1 ½ tablespoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Cooking Method

• Grind all the ingredients for the masala, adding water as required, into a fine paste
• Heat the oil in a non-stick Kadai or saucepan and sauté the onion on a medium heat until golden.
• Stir in all the vegetables one by one. Add the salt, 200ml water* and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender.
• Stir in the tamarind* pulp, the masala paste, then simmer for 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with plain rotis or whole-wheat rotis.

For more information about Diabetes visit the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetes/

For advice or for other health information, visit the Oneyou Westminster website.

The beating heart of your community (Why libraries are good for your health, part 3)

There has been a packed programme of health events happening in Westminster Libraries over the past month – alongside regular events there were quite a few topical events to tie in with various awareness weeks.

19-26 May was the 2013 Dementia Awareness Week and Paddington Library hosted a very well-attended talk from the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Memory Service on ‘Understanding Dementia’. There is sometimes confusion as to the difference between ‘dementia’ and ‘Alzheimer’s’ and people can hurl either at anyone who seems a bit forgetful. Dementia in all its forms seems to be on the increase and it is worthwhile getting hold of a copy of the ‘Living Well with Dementia’ guide (a new version for 2013) which has been painstakingly put together by Jasmine Scott, Dementia Advisor

Paddington Library hosts very successful and increasingly popular community health events on the last Thursday of each month. May’s event offered information on drug and alcohol services from the NHS Health Improvement Team as well as free tea, coffee, massage sessions and a lively craft session. June featured the Stroke Association taking people’s blood pressure, the NHS Health Improvement Team discussing healthy eating and nine Time Bank volunteers holding a craft event next to the free massage sessions. Tea and coffee were donated to the public by a private donor, and more than 50 people took part.

Even the weekends have their share of health events in Westminster. Queen’s Park Library was the venue recently for a very fruitful and lively partnership between Family Learning and the Health Information Project in the form of the Black and Ethnic Minority diabetes charity BEMDA. Aderonke Kuti brought information and resources to explain the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to the families who had signed up with the brilliant Micki Garvey for her recycled toys and stories session. It seemed to work so well because the whole family were involved. The idea is that older children can become Diabetes Champions and spread the word among their fellows.

For Carers Week 2013 (10-16 June) there was another health event at Queen’s Park Library – the bunting was up, the balloons were outside the library for a Carers Information event. The Westminster Carers Network teamed up with the Falls Prevention Service (Carers Week was immediately followed by Falls Awareness Week!) to make information available to the large number of carers in the Queen’s Park area. Charities Diabetes UK and Prostate Cancer UK also had stands and the whole event was well attended.

Last week saw a Well Wednesday Diabetes awareness event at Church Street Library, run by the NHS health improvement team and a dynamic volunteer from Diabetes UK. 

The ladies offered healthy eating tips and lots of information on preventing type two diabetes and/or living with Diabetes, type 1 and type 2. The session was held as the second of a two-part pre-Ramadan special at Church Street Library. Ramadan is when Muslims fast for a lunar month – no food or water passes their lips during daylight hours. Sometimes this can lead to some very unhealthy gorging during the night time period; thinking they are stocking up, people overload their bodies with carbohydrate and risk developing type 2 diabetes. 

Josefine the ‘volunteer’ Jack Russell, is due at the Westbourne Dementia hub for a demonstration of her ‘shaking hands’, ‘lying down’ and her new talent ‘dancing’ (though only backwards) – she will promote library services and has a special volunteer badge… pictures to follow.

Can anyone doubt that libraries are good for your health in a very obvious way?  Coming soon ‘the hidden therapeutic value of your library’!

[Kate]

Well Wednesdays

Church Street Library has had a whole month of health with four health events, one every Wednesday for four weeks.

The first Wednesday was a blitz on smoking with stop smoking kits from a local chemist, loads of helpful tips from the NHS Health Improvement Team and offers of complete overhaul from the Health trainers in the shape of Jose from the Raintrust organization who are sponsored by the NHS to give one to one personal health improvement plans.  The Church Street Community enjoyed grapes, satsumas and fruit juice and 60 people visited the health team’s information stand.  Tessa from Breath easy Paddington came with her wonderful hand-made cards and homemade cakes  with which she raised funds for the Breathe Easy charity .

The next Wednesday the focus was on healthy eating with a talk and a film delivered by Diabetes UK in the community space.  In the foyer juice and fruit was given out along with sensible eating advice by Health Trainers and members of the Health Improvement team. Gemma from Carers Network also turned up to give help and advice to the many people who are full time carers in the Church Street Area.

The third Well Wednesday was given over to de-stressing. The lovely Christine Burgess from ‘Calm and Inspired’ came and led two mindfulness meditations, one in the Learning Centre and then, later in the afternoon, in the main Church Street Library where members of the public joined in for an unexpected Stressbuster treat. Chamomile tea with honey and vanilla was served up to help the mellow mood and Tareq from Carers network  and Marian from the NHS were on hand to help with stress related questions and concerns.

The last of the series of four (but definitely not the last!) concentrated on physical activity and Jason from the Little Venice Sports Centre came to encourage the public to enter his prize draw. The Sports Centre donated a free month’s gym membership for three lucky winners. Marian from the Health Improvement team gave free hand massages and Siobhan, the physical Activity Co-ordinator for the NHS in Westminster, came to give advice and sign people up for a personal exercise programme. Lovely Sviatlana from Health Trainers dispensed free herbal tea and rich tea biscuits; it was freezing outside but everyone had a warm glow full of fragrant tea and full of health!

The next Well Wednesday will be on 29 February, 1.30 – 3.30pm at Church Street Library.

Kate (Health Information Co-ordinator)