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Quick fix recipes: Beetroot rice

We bring you first in the series of easy-to-cook recipes for your lunchbox

If you're a young working professional not living with your parents, chances are your mornings are crazy busy.

And whatever that famous nutritionist may have said about your meals, you're probably skipping one or two of them just to get to work on time.

But fear not! There are several breakfast and lunch dishes that can be tossed up in a matter of minutes and packed up.

I've learnt that, especially after my wedding!

Every other day, I call up Amma and ask for her secret quick-fix recipes.

As part of a weekly series, I will be sharing some of them.

Let's start off with this interesting recipe of beetroot rice that my colleagues have fallen in love with.

Beetroot rice

The beetroot is an amazing vegetable with loads of health benefits.

Besides its high carbohydrate and sugar content, it is a great source of folic acid and manganese, which helps increase haemoglobin in your body.

When I was young, beetroot was one of the few vegetables I disliked.

Amma would slice them and serve it along with cucumber and carrots; sometimes, she'd even stuff them in the sandwich.

Despite the sweetness, I hated the red colour it left on my lips and tongue when it was eaten raw.

Undeterred by my lame excuses, she'd would coax me into eating it raw saying it would make my cheeks and lips pink because it could help produce more blood in the body.

She once mixed cooked beetroot with rice and I ate it all up without saying a word. That's when she realised that I liked it cooked.

If you like to eat them raw, you may include it in your salad or make a sandwich with sliced cucumber, carrots and tomato just like my Amma did or make a juice out of it and have it in the mornings.

However, like me, if you prefer it cooked, here's an easy-to-make recipe for you to try at home:

Ingredients

• 2 cups steam-cooked rice
• 1 cup beetroot (grated)
• 1/4 cup coconut (grated)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 tsp chana dal
• 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
• 4 to 5 curry leaves
• 2 to 3 dried red chillies
• Salt to taste

Method

• In a deep bottom pan, heat some oil.
• Lower the flame and add chana dal and keep tossing it for few seconds so that it doesn't burn.
• Add curry leaves, ginger and dried red chillies.
• Add the grated beetroot and mix well.
• Add salt and cook for up to five minutes on medium flame.
• Add steamed rice and mix well on low flame.
• Garnish with grated coconut and serve hot.

Reader invite: Dear reader, do you have an interesting quick-fix breakfast/lunch recipes that you'd like to share with us?

Email us your recipes along with a photograph if possible to getahead@rediff.co.in (Subject line: Quick fix recipes) and we'll publish the best ones right here!