Changing seasons are beautiful to witness and enjoy, but sadly they often come along with a bout of common viral diseases. Young children, senior citizens and even healthy adults often fall prey to common illnesses like cold, cough, fever etc. These viral conditions make one miss school or work or make the household tizzy.
While changing seasons cannot be controlled, one must find a way to combat common illnesses. The best way is to improve one’s natural immunity, such that we stay healthy and fit and our natural immunity can ward off common pathogens, that would otherwise cause illnesses in the person.
How does one improve their immunity? Certain food products when consumed can help boost one’s immunity. It is important to incorporate such ingredients and dishes in one’s daily diet, to naturally boost your immunity. Here are some curated recipes that can help boost immunity.
Chicken Mulligatawny Soup
This is a Western soup inspired by India. This recipe is prepared using chicken and whole spices that are known to boost immunity, along with other ingredients, the overall recipe includes a high dose of Vitamin A, which is known to improve your immune system. The soup naturally creates warmth in the body and keeps viral infections at bay.
Total Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 medium-sized onion, thinly sliced
- 1-2 green chillies with a lengthwise slit
- 2 small celery stalks sliced
- 1 medium size carrot, thinly sliced
- 1 medium potato chopped into medium pieces
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander seeds powder
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- ½ tsp black pepper powder
- 2 bowls of chicken stock
- 1 apple peeled and chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup masoor dal soaked for 1 hour
- ½ cup soaked rice
- Salt to taste
- 2 tsp freshly chopped coriander
Method:
- Take a large-sized kadhai, add the olive oil and put it on medium flame. Once the oil is hot, add the onions, green chillies, celery and carrots and cook sauté them well. Next, add the ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell wears off.
- Now add the chopped potatoes, and stir-fry them as well. Add the salt and garam masala and mix well. Add the spices like turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and bay leaves and mix everything well. Cover and cook for a minute on low flame.
- Now add the tomato puree and let it cook until the edges of the kadhai leave some oil. Once everything is well cooked, add the chicken pieces and add pepper to season it well. Stir fry until the chicken is well cooked.
- Now add the chicken stock and dilute it slightly with water. Once the water boils, add the apples, masoor dal and rice and mix well.
- Cover the kadhai, and let everything cook on a medium to low flame for about 30 minutes. Once the rice and dal are well cooked and become soft and mushy, remove them from the flame.
- Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with some fresh curd.
Ven Pongal with Coconut Chutney
Ven Pongal, simplified as white savoury Pongal is not just delicious but is packed with all things good! Prepared using rice, split yellow moong dal and ghee it helps to provide energy as well as proteins to strengthen the muscles and bones. It is also packed with natural immunity boosters like ginger, cumin, curry leaves, pepper etc.
This meal never fails to pack a healthy punch!
Total Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 3 servings
Ingredients:
- ½ cup soaked rice (preferably short rice variety)
- ½ cup yellow moong dal
- Salt to taste
- 3 ½ cups of water
For Tempering:
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 10 cashews
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- ½ tsp lightly crushed black peppercorns
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 4-5 fresh curry leaves
- 1 green chilli slit lengthwise
For Coconut Chutney:
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 2 tsp fresh coriander leaves
- ½ tsp tamarind
- ½ tsp ginger
- 2-3 green chillies
- Salt to taste
Method:
- To make the coconut chutney, add all the ingredients into a mixing jar and blend into a fine paste. Add some water if needed. Once the required consistency is achieved, remove the chutney and keep it aside.
- In a kadhai, add the yellow moong dal on low flame, and dry roast it until the dal becomes fragrant. Take care not to over-roast or make the dal brown. Remove the dal, add the rice to it and wash 2-3 times. Now add 3 ½ cups of water to it, transfer the contents to a pressure cooker, add salt and pressure cook for 3 whistles, till the rice and dal become nice and soft.
- To make the tempering for the Ven Pongal, heat a small pan on low flame, add the ghee to it and let it melt. Add the cashews (you can even split them lengthwise) and fry until they are light golden. Remove the fried cashews and keep aside.
- In the same pan, add the crushed black peppercorns, cumin seeds, slit green chilli and grated ginger. Saute it for a few seconds and let the spices splutter a bit. Finally, add curry leaves and let that splutter until it becomes nice and fragrant. Optionally, you can add a pinch of turmeric and hing as well.
- Pour the tempering inside the cooked rice and dal. Mix the tempering into the Pongal and let that simmer on flame for a minute.
- Serve hot with coconut chutney as a breakfast or lunch.
Tomato Carrot Beetroot Soup
Nothing soothes the soul better than a warm bowl of soup, and it is even better when it’s great for your health and boosts your immunity. Tomato is full of antioxidants that help to improve your body’s immunity and keep germs away. Carrots contain Vitamin A and Vitamin C, which aid your body in building antibodies and strengthen your immunity. Beetroot is high in fibre which helps your digestive tract remain healthy and keep bacterial infections away.
Total Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 3 medium-sized tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 medium size carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 beetroot peeled and roughly chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp ghee
- 1 tsp corn flour
- Water 3-4 cups
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
Method:
- Take a medium-sized saucepan, transfer the chopped tomatoes, carrots, beetroot and garlic cloves in it, add 3 cups of water, cover the lid and allow it to boil for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables soften.
- Once the vegetables are nicely boiled, use a blender and blend the contents well. Using a strainer, strain the soup, and get rid of all unblended pieces.
- Take a kadhai and add some ghee to it, heat it on medium flame. Transfer the strained soup to the kadhai and allow it to boil, season with salt and pepper.
- Make a simple cornflour slurry, by adding water to the cornflour and make sure no lumps remain. Add this slurry to the soup, so that the soup thickens slightly.
- Transfer the soup to a serving bowl and serve hot.
Tomato Pepper Rasam
This delectable rasam is primarily an accompaniment with rice but is also an excellent immunity booster that can be enjoyed as it is. It contains tomatoes, which are rich in antioxidants and also contain lycopene which is linked to reduced chances of cancer and heart diseases. Black pepper also contains active compounds that boost the production of white blood cells that help your body fight external bacteria and viruses.
Try this rasam at home and enjoy.
Total Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 tsp tamarind extract
- 2 green chilli
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 whole dried red chilli
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- ½ tsp turmeric
- Salt to taste
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup cooked toor dal (arhar dal)
- 2 tsp chopped fresh coriander
Method:
- Take a heavy mortar and pestle, add garlic cloves, whole cumin seeds, black peppercorns, and green chilli and pound everything well.
- Using a blending jar or a masher, mash the tomatoes until they are pulpy and mashed, and keep them aside.
- Take a kadhai, place it on medium flame, add the oil, now temper it using mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dried red chilli, turmeric and asafoetida. Keep on low flame, until the seeds splutter, now add the mashed tomatoes to it, and mix well. Now stir in the tamarind extract, add salt and cook the mixture till the raw smell wears off. Now add 4 cups of water and allow everything to boil well.
- Once the mixture comes to a roaring boil, add the cooked dal and mix well. Adjust the water consistency.
- Add the pounded pepper and spice mix and mix well. Allow the rasam to boil for a minute.
- Remove from flame and garnish with fresh coriander.
- Serve hot with steamed rice or simply enjoy it as it is.
Bajra Raab
This simple yet hearty recipe is often the ‘go-to’ recipe for when one is unwell, as it naturally boosts one’s immunity. So obviously this can be consumed as an immunity booster as well.
This recipe includes bajra or pearl millet, which is rich in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and Vitamin B complex and is great for immunity and overall health. This should be included especially to stay healthy and illness-free during winter.
Total Time: 5-7 minutes
Serves: 1
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp ghee
- 1 ½ tsp bajra flour
- 1 tbsp grated jaggery
- ¼ tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
- ¼ tsp dried ginger powder (saunth)
Method:
- Take a small-sized kadhai, place it on low flame and add melt the ghee in it, Add the bajra flour and roast it on low flame, until it becomes light golden and fragrant.
- Add 1 cup of water and gently add jaggery to it. Stir gently so that the jaggery melts well, cook it for a minute.
- Now add the carom seeds and dried ginger powder and mix well stirring continuously.
- Once the raab thickens slightly, transfer it into a serving bowl and serve immediately.