Category: Baby foods

Anna payasam

There are plenty of baby foods available in the market. But we prefer to feed the babies with home cooked foods alone at least for the first 6 months. Introducing solid foods to the babies is a ceremonious affair in our family. We prepare nutritious anna payasam and feed it to the baby in front of the deities at home or in a temple after offering the same to the deities. Afterwards, we gradually introduce idli, paruppu sadam, keerai sadam, paruppu payasam, or other easily digestible baby foods. You can find the recipes for all these traditional preparations in this archive.

Chinese Spinach

I am grateful to the creator of the well renowned TV series, The Popeye show, for motivating my son, a picky eater, to have a liking for an insipid spinach even at his tender age. Though he did not like to take spinach with rice, he enjoyed taking plain spinach just like his hero, the great Popeye, gobbled it up! This cartoon show successfully conveyed a profound theory, “we are what we eat”, even to the kids. Hence it made my job easier to convey the importance of taking all the greens including Chinese spinach.

Sweet corn soup

Actually, I am not a soup enthusiast as I remember taking soups when I fell sick during my childhood days. Besides, it is a hot & humid climate almost 75% of the days here, so I would like to take hot vegetable soup only during winter or monsoon. Nevertheless, I like the idea of serving simple yet wholesome soup & salad for dinner as it makes us feel absolutely satiated. Sweet corn soup with sprouted moong salad is one such hearty and healthy meal that can be prepared with little efforts.

Anna Payasam

Whenever I heard the word payasam, I was visualizing jaggery payasam (made using rice & lentil) aka anna payasam during my childhood days. It was a delicious staple dessert prepared in our family whether to treat our guests, or ourselves on our birthdays/ festivals, or simply to offer to deities at home on Fridays. However we gradually switched to other payasam made of rice adai, vermicelli (semiya), tapioca pearls (javvarisi), jackfruits, etc. Nevertheless we still follow the tradition of feeding the traditional anna payasam to babies in front of the deities at home or in a temple when solid foods are introduced to them for the first time.

Idli

Idli, an ancient South Indian delicacy, is now gaining popularity all over the world as a gut-friendly breakfast. Various studies conducted by renowned institutions across the globe state in unison that idli is one of the best breakfasts. Idli is a soft spongy steamed cake made using naturally fermented rice & lentil batter, and it is the most common breakfast in South India.

Tapioca Pearls Payasam

Indians usually celebrate every new beginning by distributing sweet boondi laddu. We follow a tradition of serving sweet boondi to our guests to celebrate the arrival of a new born in our family. I usually make a payasam during every festival and special occasions. On this New Year I follow the same tradition of serving tapioca pearls payasam garnished with sweet boondhi (chickpea flour pearls) to my family.

Classic Elixir – Chukku malli kaapi

Chukku malli kaapi is a classic South Indian digestive elixir prepared using dried ginger & other spices, herbs and palm jaggery. Siddha and Ayurveda recommend to take fresh ginger in an empty stomach in the morning & dried ginger later in the night for the improved digestion. So we usually take fresh ginger juice or ginger jam (lehium) before breakfast & dried ginger classic elixir after dinner. Besides, we can serve the same elixir as a home remedy for common cough, cold & sore throat after infusing it with appropriate medicinal herbs & spices.

Millet Payasam

Millets are tiny food grains (hence the name), so we can cook them quickly & easily. Though millets are tiny they are nutrients dense food grains. Hence they are increasingly popular among Indians nowadays particularly for the low glycaemic index. There are different millets like kodo millet, barnyard millets, little millets, pearl millets, etc. available in the market. You can refer to the table below for the nutrition data of commonly used food grains & millets. It is useful to compare their nutrients and choose the right one that meets our dietary requirements. Now I have prepared millet payasam using foxtail millets (thinai arisi) suitable for making payasam.