Turnip and mustard green curry

This curry is one of the healthiest things you can eat.  Turnip and mustard greens are both very high in vitamin k as well as in vitamins c and a, and contain folate and calcium in high quantities.  Hence, they have excellent anti-cancer properties, and are detoxifiers.  According to the website World’s Healthiest Foods, one specific benefit of mustard greens is that they bind to bile acids in the digestive tract, making the acids easier for the body to eliminate.  Since bile acids are made from cholesterol, eliminating them means a reduction in the body’s cholesterol levels.

A turnip with its greens

In any case, the recipe before you is a very, very tasty one.  Turnip and mustard greens are an excellent combination that will leave you feeling energized and healthy.  This recipe makes use of red daal lentils as a base, so you will need to have a soup made from them as part of the preparation.  The soup is simple: just boil some red lentils in water for about 45 minutes.  The proportions should be 1/3 daal to 2/3 water.  When the lentils have attained a creamy texture in the water, the soup is ready.   Personally, I make it a practice to buy daal every time I go to the grocery store and always have some prepared for times when I am hungry.  It is very easy to heat it up and add something to it once it has been fully cooked.

Thus…the ingredients are as follows: mustard and turnip greens, garlic, olive oil, curry powder, cumin powder, a jalepeno pepper, lime juice, and coconut milk.

Begin by heating up some olive oil in a sautee pan on a low flame to which some curry and cumin powder has been added along with a seeded (to reduce the heat) jalepeno pepper.  When the powders have been suitably roasted and have flavored the oil, add the daal soup, mixing the oil into the soup.  The daal should contract somewhat when it hits the sautee pan, so the next step is usually to lengthen out the consistency of the daal.  Once it is thinned out enough, add the chopped turnip and mustard greens and allow to cook for about 3-5 minutes.  The mustard greens need enough time to cook-they have an initial smell and taste that needs to be cooked out of them for best results.  Moreover, they are both hearty vegetables and will maintain their color for quite a while after the cooking process has started.  It should be emphasized here that all steps in the process involve a low flame.  

The finishing touches are to add some coconut milk and lime juice.  A dash of garam masala may also be put on top for extra spice.

Bon Apetit!