Sunday, December 4, 2016

Lady's finger

Hopefully, you may have seen the lady's finger used in Sambhar (South-Indian special gravy) or as an ingredient in kadai vegetables curry.
This is a vegetable widely cooked as a gravy or a dry dish. Chemical name is Abelmoschus esculentus.  is referred as Vendakka in Malayalam, Vendakkai in Tamil, Bendakaya in Telugu, Bende in Kannada, and Pindi in Hindi. A small plant type, lady's finger can be grown as a potted plant at home.
It is generally known to improve brain abilities, in particular, analytical skills. Ensure that you include lady's finger in your diet weekly twice for better results.
Add it to any gravy you cook to improve the taste of the dish. It takes very little time to cook too.
You can quickly make a side dish using Lady's finger by heating a spoon of oil, adding the vegetable (cut or full), salt, and pepper to it. Cover the dish and let it cook on low flame for 5-10 minutes. The dish looks tenderly cooked and tastes yummy too.

Do you know that it is an integral vegetable that can prevent cancer and can help reduce the ill effects caused by cancer cells in our body. This also helps maintain blood sugar levels.
To maintain your blood sugar levels, soak two lady's fingers overnight and consume the water next day (you can eat the soaked vegetable too).

For additional benefits, you can drink the tea made out of nithya kalyani flowers Sadabahar flower (chemical name, Rosy Periwinkle or Madagascar Periwinkle) . Boil few flowers in a glass of water, wait for it to reduce half the original volume, and then filter it. Add a spoon of honey to the tea, if you want.
Disclaimer: This does not substitute tablets prescribed for diabetes. Do follow the regular medical prescription as per doctor's advice.