Dal Chawal Cookbook: 85 Vegetarian Indian Recipes with Registered Dietitian Sapna Punjabi

Introduction to 'Dal Chawal'

• 📚 Registered Dietitian Sapna Punjabi introduces her new cookbook, 'Dal Chawal', featuring 85 vegetarian Indian dishes.
• 💡 The cookbook focuses on combining the staple ingredients of dal (beans/lentils) and chawal (rice), which are common in Indian pantries.

Earth Day Mung Bean Salad

• 🥗 To honor Earth Day, Sapna demonstrates how to make a mung bean salad, which she calls 'Earth Day on a plate'.
• 🌱 Mung beans are shown being sprouted overnight, a process that makes them softer and easier to digest.
• 🥣 The salad incorporates cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, cilantro, mint, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries, creating a balanced dish with all six tastes from an Ayurveda perspective.
• 🌿 The dressing is a simple mix of olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, pink Himalayan salt, and roasted cumin seed powder, with cumin being highlighted as a 'gut buddy' for digestive support.

Benefits of Sprouted Beans

• 💡 Sprouting increases the nutrient density of beans and makes them easier to digest.
• 💪 Beans are a high-protein food source.
• 🧊 Sprouted beans can be stored in the refrigerator in mason jars to slow down the sprouting process.

Cookbook Philosophy

• 🎯 The book is structured with chapters honoring different types of beans and rice, encouraging readers to explore and fall in love with specific beans.
• 🌶️ Sapna also offers a spice line of products and is a vendor at the Copel Farmers Market.
• 🗓️ She invites people to book signing events and the farmers market this Saturday from 8 AM to 12 PM.