A one-stop colorful and flavorful Mexican meal that combines your carbs, veggies, protein and yogurt together. It is great for training time, when you need to cut your salt. The sweet flavors from the charred vegetables in this dish along with cumin and lime more than make up for lack of salt. The best thing about this meal is that you can weigh each component separately and mix and match to suit your taste buds.
Rice
Red, yellow, and green bell peppers
Onions
Corn kernels
Purple cabbage
Fresh lime juice
Fresh lemon juice
Cilantro
Olive oil
Cumin powder
Pepper powder
Thick yogurt
Yogurt seasoning - a blend of onion powder, garlic powder and dried herbs of your choice
Vegetables
Wash the whole bell peppers and char them on a grill on medium flame until the skin is charred. Keep turning them to get an even char. Peel the outer skin of the red onions, but keep the onions whole. Wash and char these too on the grill.
Scrape off the outer skin of the bell peppers and onions with a knife to remove the burnt skins. Cut the bell peppers and onions into bite size cubes. Add cumin powder and lemon juice (to taste) and set aside.
Chop one red onion and toss it in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Once the onion has softened add the corn kernels and mix with the onions and sauté till the corn gets soft. Add a dash of pepper and cumin powder and mix. Top with chopped cilantro for color.
Purple cabbage adds a bit of more color, but regular cabbage works fine too. Wash and shred the cabbage into long and thin pieces.
Yogurt Sauce
Use thick, low fat, plain yogurt. Add some dried onion powder, garlic powder and herbs like parsley and mix well.
Rice
Wash the rice and soak it in water for 10 mins, drain and keep aside. Use a 1:2 ratio (rice: water) and bring it to a boil. Add the soaked rice to the boiling water and give it another boil. After the second boil, turn the heat down to medium and allow the rice to cook. Gently stir the rice in between boils to make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the rice is cooked (around 8 – 10 mins) strain it to remove any excess water and set aside for 5 – 10 mins to cool it down.
Mix the rice gently with lime juice, olive oil and chopped cilantro and set aside.
Protein
Marinate a protein of your choice (for example chicken or fish) in lemon juice, cumin powder, garlic and onion powder and grill it.
Serving Suggestion:
Measure your rice and veggies as per your diet plan.
In a big bowl start with a layer of rice, followed by the veggies. To make it eye-catching you may want to layer one veggie at a time. Add the protein and top it with purple cabbage and the seasoned yogurt and it's ready to eat. To make things a bit tangy you can sprinkle it with a dash of Tabasco.
ABOUT RADHIKA
Radhika is a self-proclaimed foodie who loves to cook for her family.
She is currently doing Kenzai Body 1 and she is busy reinventing her old recipes or discovering new ones to make the family meals healthier and wholesome.
When not in the kitchen, she enjoys spending her time painting, baking and traveling with her husband and twin boys.