More Dr. Oz "Forks Over Knives" and Anupy's Vegan Indian 3 Note (Black Lentils, Kidney Beans, and Chickpeas) Dal

Teen Taal Dal, Three Note Dal, or Black Lentils with Kidney Beans and Chickpeas.

Getting ready to be simmered to perfection with Anupy Singla's magical Indian Slow Cooker Book recipe. 

After Anupy's Awesome Magic......Finished Black Lentils with Kidney Beans and Chickpeas.

3 Note Dal.  Teen Taal Dal.  

The first 7 Minutes from Dr. Oz's "Forks over Knives" show.  Guess what?  Nearly every recipe in "The Indian Slow Cooker" fits the bill!  AND they are cheap, cheap, cheap to make!  Plus almost no work.  The most taxing part of Anupy's dishes (for me) is grating the ginger and mincing garlic.  The book won't put you out much more than 10 bucks and you will have a lifetime of healthy eating, if you use it.  I have, um, more cookbooks, and mostly "uncookbooks" (raw) than I need.  And I have used this book more than ANY of my other books! And it shows with it's tumeric tainted pages! It's a severe weakness of mine.  I am not a vegan that is blah about food.  I am vegan for ethics first, but being vegan has allowed me to actually eat as much as I want and not really show it.  Because I love food so much, I am always looking for foods that I truly don't need to "limit".  I went through a tofu cheesecake period where I swore I found the Holy Grail.  Protein, lowfat cheesecake.  Now I would replace that Agave with some Coconut Sugar or Date Syrup, but I just wasn't going to accept a life that I had to limit my piece of cake to one.  

Just Sayin'.....if you were intrigued by Dr. Oz's "Forks Over Knives" show, and you either love Indian Food, or you want to try something new, then you really must get her book!  Most of the dishes have ZERO oil, meat, or dairy.  So to do it "Engine 2" like, then skip any oil, skip the meat dishes, and either skip the milk or substitute a nut or soymilk instead.  The eggplant dishes call for some oil, but I was thinking you could probably replace with just a little bit of water instead (if you are using zero oils).  Plus no bitching about how is it so expensive to be vegan.  Her dishes cost very little and feed an army.  And have all of Dr. Oz's favorite spices like tumeric, ginger, garlic, chilies, onion, cilantro, and cumin.  And Beans basically fight everything evil in the world.  The best part?  No soaking required.  So for busy folks, you score.

Indian Bay Leaves??  Figured since I bought them in the Indian Store, they were the right ones!

Well, 3 note Dal (this sounds like a John Adams piece or something?  Or Philip Glass?  Who apparently is Veganish) really makes a meal. A Meal with meaty Black Lentils, Chickpeas, and Kidney Beans.  Remember, Black Lentils are called Kaali dal, Sabut Urad, Whole Black Gram, or Whole Matpe Beans.  They aren't the same shape as our "Lentils".  I encourage you to find the right beans, because they really do impart more of an Indian flavor.  The Chickpeas and Kidney Beans are just the plain old dried beans you can find in bulk at Whole Foods or wherever you find your dried beans.  

Indian Bay Leaves and Green Cardamom

Making a paste from Onion, Ginger, Garlic, and Chiles.

Roasting Cumin and Coriander Seed in Cast Iron Skillet.

Saute the Onion & Chili paste first.  Then add the Cumin-Coriander blend, tumeric, red chili, and salt.

Mixture after cooking for several minutes.

Adding all ingredients to CrockPot (aka slow cooker).  And the tomato Paste. Push the button.  Run errands, go to work, go to bed.  And when you wake up.......OMG, an Indian Lady wandered into your house in the middle of the night and cooked  for you!  

Most of Anupy's dishes carry a fair amount of spice.  However, all you have to do to tone it down, is reduce or remove whatever your body won't handle!  If your gut isn't taking to the onions, garlic, or chili, then there are enough other spices that aren't as bold, like bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and coriander, that the dish will still taste great.  And she uses Course Salt, so if you are using finer salt, then you will need to reduce it.  I cut the salt in 1/2 for all of the recipes because I am using Sea Salt that is not course.  It's easy to add what you want at the end, but impossible to take it out once it's in there!

So Anupy's dishes pretty much naturally fit the bill for the "Forks Over Knives" diet.  Just ditch the handful of meat recipes at the end of the book (she's really a veggie girl anyway), skip any minimal amount of oil she might add (try water for the eggplant, or veggie broth), and use nutmilk if there is milk present.  Most of the recipes need no adaptation.  There is NO reason to take fiber pills folks, not if you eat plants!  Don't believe those idiotic commercials where the chic is running on the treadmill eating apples.  That's just people trying to sell you something you don't need (unless you are doing some serious colon cleansing, then you can just buy psyllium in bulk from Mountain Rose).

This dish is super yummy.  Sort of a very filling Indian Chili with lots of spicy flavors and textures creating a very in tune 3 Tone Dal.  This isn't any dissonant dal, nope, 3 gleeful tones, all saying "Eat Me."  

Buy The Indian Slow Cooker Book




"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to beasts as well as man it is all a sham."  -Anna Sewell, Black Beauty




And Dr. Oz, you really need to get this chic on your show.  Cut the salmon shit and get Anupy to come wow you with some Rockin' Rajmah.  Ain't no BPA's or Mercury hiding in her food, nope, she's the real deal.