Last week, I made these delicious South Indian Lentil Cakes and corresponding yogurt raita sauce using this recipe found in Bon Appetit.

Lentil Rice Cakes

I fed them to some friends, and they were a hit!

If you want a healthy, filling, vegetarian meal you have got to try these things! (Granted, they take a little time, but I find cooking to be therapeutic…play a little music or listen to a sermon while you cook to further expand the joy of the experience!)

Here are the changes / specific brands I chose to make an even healthier version:

1.) I used as much organic as possible. (That’s a given for me. After I went pretty much all organic in early 2008, there have been times when I’ve eaten non-organic food and could feel my body hurting the next day. What if chemicals and pesticides in food were causing a lot of the body pain I used to have? All I know is, once I switched to as near 100% organic as possible, my body pain levels dropped dramatically in about 40 days…that happened after starting the Maker’s Diet 40-day program, but we can talk more about that later.)

2.) I chose whole grains. As you’re probably starting to figure out, I try to use as many whole (non-processed) grains as possible. So I used brown basmati (rather than white) for the rice indicated in this recipe.

3.) Also, I didn’t have mixed legumes on hand, but I did have some TruRoots dried sprouted lentils, so that was my bean of choice. Sprouted ones are easier to digest, as you may recall from my post on sprouting, but you could also use dried, non-sprouted lentils such as those from the Whole Foods bulk bin section.

4.) Yogurt I used: the certified organic Seven Stars yogurt in plain flavor, which you can buy at Whole Foods. (And, hey! Their website says they welcome visitors! I want to go see their happy cows sometime!) Their website explains more about their biodynamic farming methods and their mostly grass-fed cows. When I purchase cow-related products, I try to find those coming from grass-fed cows.

Seven Stars Yogurt

5.) Other additions to the cakes and raita:

• a side salad – organic red leaf lettuce from Whole Foods, topped with organic farmer’s market veggies
• some sungold tomatoes from Wild Onion Farms (finger food)
• Naan (Indian bread) – I found some at the Carrboro market that includes whole wheat flour, and is also organic!!! (That was a great find supplied by Chicken Bridge Bakery, as it’s the healthiest I’ve found yet.) Or, if you want to try your hand at baking naan, here’s a whole wheat recipe (which indicates you can skip the refined flour altogether!)

Local Organic Naan

Bring it all together for an Indian-inspired, locally-supplied, seasonally rich, whole-foods-focused meal!

Indian Cakes & Sides