Grandma's Kitchen:
Beet Root and Daikon Winter Rice Pullao

Winter makes me want to cook, and brings out my love of warming spices. Today I wanted rice and vegetables and all I had in the house was a large red beet-root and a daikon radish. So I made Beet Root and Daikon Winter Rice Pullao, a really simple and delicious dish.

Vegetables are both medicine and food. Each and every vegetable has some kind of medicinal property—from anti-oxidant to digestive to just the value of the fiber content.

Daikon is famous in Japan for its properties as a digestive, especially raw. Beets are high in anti-oxidants.

One of the things my Indian mothers and grandmothers have taught me about mixing vegetables with rice or lentils is not to overdo it. A dish should have a particular look, and part of the aesthetic here is to complement the rice, rather than overwhelm it. Please keep that in mind when adding vegetables like beans, peas, carrots, and daikon to a rice dish. I don't use measuring cups, but I would estimate that in the end there are two to three parts rice for each part veggie.

The other thing is that Indians, especially South Indians, like to chop their veggies into small bits so that they blend well with the rice. I am a bit lazy, so I don't tend to go as small as they do, but I still cut the beet and daikon into roughly 1/2 inch chunks. Another issue is that if you don't cut them small enough in a dish like this they won't cook through by the time the rice is done.

The other two ingredients are Cinnamon bark and Cumin seed. I like to use the dark brown rough cinnamon stick/bark from the Indian market for a dish like this, though you could use cinnamon powder. Actually what I am using is Cassia, not true Cinnamon. (Please see note at bottom.) This dark stuff has a more intense flavor/aroma that holds up better with spices and veggies. It is different from the lighter colored smooth cinnamonthat comes from Sri Lanka, which has a more subtle light flavor and aroma and is great in hot cocoa or sweets. Either way both are sweet and warming, and promote digestion.

Cumin is of course a famous digestive spice and goes so well with rice. It's a bit "sharp" or rough, so it balances well the sweetness of the cinnamon and beet.

This dish ends up being a lovely red-colored rice from the beets. The smell of Cinnamon will fill your kitchen and it was shocking just how good the cinnamon was with the beet. I guess it makes sense since beets are sweet and cinnamon goes well in sweets. Along with the Cumin it keeps the beets from being cloying. And beets are a bit spicy too, not just sweet. (Just try drinking plain beet juice to see.) It's wonderful with a side dish of beans or green veggies. I had mine with Fava beans and Fenugreek Leaf Subji, and some plain Yogurt on the side, Indian style.

Ingredients

• White Basmati rice: Around a cup
• Water: 2 and 1/2 cups or more
• Cinnamon bark: Around four pieces, around an inch long
• Cumin seed: 1 to 2 teaspoons
• Beet root chunks: Around 1/2 cup
• Daikon radish chunks: Around 1/2 cup

Recipe

1. Wash the rice well until the wash water runs clear.
2. Boil water.
3. Add all the ingredients at once.
4. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the flame to low-medium.
   I find the larger the pot I use, relative to the rice, the more fluffy the result. Pretty simple, huh?
   

This is a real simple home dish. No fat. No salt. (There was salt in the side dish, but when I had the left-over by itself I added a little good sea salt).

If you want to make this for guests, you could sauté the spices with some onion in ghee, to bring out the flavor of the spices.

How Ayurveda and Your Dosha Relate to This Recipe

This is a pretty Tridoshic dish, meaning it is suitable for all three Ayurvedic doshas. Basmati rice, beet, Cumin, and Cinnamon are all tridoshic. Daikon can aggravate Pitta in excess.

Vata
This is especially a Vata pacifying dish with the warm sweet spice, sweetness of rice, and sweet and warm vegetables.

Pitta
This is also a good dish for Pitta. A Pitta in an aggravated state, however, might want to avoid or reduce the ration of Daikon, or could add some cooling Cilantro, Ghree, or both on top or cooked in to compensate.

This is an important example of how to go beyond dietary "lists" some Ayurvedia practitioners give out. These lists cannont talk. A healthy dosha can tolerate small amounts of what is aggravating, and all the more so if you balance it with something that counters it.

Kapha
The only issue here for Kaphas is to not overeat. Too much rice and too much sweetness aggravates the already sweet earthy watery Kapha. Though the dish is slightly sweet, it is also slightly spicy, balanced by the pungency of the Beet and Daikon, and Daikon in particular pacifies Kapha, so Kapha can enjoy it in moderation, but might want to add some black pepper. A Kapha might also cook this dish with less rice and the addition of some kidney or green beans. Good weight loss strategy, too.

Warning: Cassia is high in natural Coumarin, which is a blood thinner. While small amounts could be good for some of us, if you are on blood thinning drugs, such as Coumarin, please use real cinnamon, which comes from Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Obviously, no one should eat large amounts of Cassia, but who could?

Namaskaram and bon appetit!

Eyton J. Shalom, M.S., L.Ac., has been in private practice in San Diego since 1992. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of UCSD, he began his study of yoga in 1972 with Kriya Yogi S. A. Ramaiah. The next 12 years involved intensive Yogic practice, including three years in India and Sri Lanka, where he also began his study of Ayurveda. Eyton became licensed in the practice of Chinese Medicine in 1992, and has been the owner of the BodyMind Wellness Center in San Diego since 1997.

Eyton offers individual Ayurvedic consultations, as well as Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. He is an expert in the treatment of disease with diet, nutrition, acupuncture and herbal medicine.

He can be reached by email or at 619.296.7591.

Also, be sure to visit his website and blog and read his past articles.

© Eyton Shalom, San Diego, CA.

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