Sattva

"What's in your tiffin today?

Nandita Iyer — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 07:00:03 GMT

“Let’s see what’s in your tiffin today!”

And a teacher (?) goes on to name every kid in her class (possibly 6-7 year olds) and shows the contents of their lunch box. The video I’m talking about has around 14.5 million views at last count. This Instagram content creator is posting one a day, given that this one says ‘Day 27’.

In these reels/videos, most kids’ lunchboxes have some version of ultra-processed food in their tiffin, like biscuits or store-bought cake or Maggi. Some have fruits. And the comments are full of people passing nasty remarks on the parents / mother for sending such a ‘lazy’ lunchbox. “The parents didn’t even try.”

And then there are some sane comments on why such videos are being made, using children with no agency of their own to create content. Videos that indirectly shame them and their parents for the contents of their lunchbox, with a possible intent to ‘correct’ or improve the nutritional value of their lunch box.

I feel strongly about children’s privacy online, and I am also troubled about the food young children are eating. But these kind of videos trouble me even more. Posting videos of young students calling out their names and the contents of their lunchbox to entertain the internet at large is terrible on so many levels.

In times where parents use their kids as content material without a second thought, often to promote their own account or business with increasing engagement levels, how can we expect others to be mindful of children’s privacy online? That said, I do expect schools and teachers to do better.

Some schools share awards and achievements of their students on social media and hopefully after taking consent from parents. Some schools ask concerned parents to opt out of using media involving their kids on their social platforms. While I appreciate that, it should be more of an opt-in feature than an opt-out, and the school should not get rights by default to make content featuring the kids.

Why is this not safe?

Beyond the immediate public shaming (which can erode a child’s self-esteem and make them anxious about what’s in their tiffin), the bigger danger is the permanent digital footprint created without the child’s consent. When videos show faces, names, schools, and even lunch details, it hands over personally identifiable information to strangers worldwide. Research from sources like the American Educational Research Association and privacy experts highlights real risks: predators or stalkers could use this to identify and target children; facial recognition tools scrape public posts to build profiles; images can be misused for deepfakes, identity theft, grooming, or even child exploitation networks.

Reports from child safety organizations, including insights from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner back in 2015, have shown that a significant number of innocently shared family and social-media photos (sometimes estimated as high as half on certain examined sites) have ended up being collected and shared on inappropriate forums. While the exact numbers have evolved since then and are hard to pin down precisely today, the core risk remains: once images and personal details are online forever, they can be misused in ways no one intends, from unwanted attention to more serious privacy breaches, even more so in the times of generative AI we live in.

In India and globally, “sharenting” (and here, “school-sharing”) robs children of agency over their own image and data—information that persists forever, potentially affecting future job prospects, relationships, or safety. Even if the teacher’s intent is “helpful,” the platform amplifies harm without safeguards.

You might have seen the hard-hitting ‘Pause Before You Post’ campaign from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. It powerfully illustrates how everyday shares can create lasting risks. If you haven’t, I urge you to watch it.”

What can parents do?

Time poverty for working parents is a real thing. Instead of judgment, let’s focus on gentle, practical support for families. Ultra-processed foods in lunchboxes (high in added sugars, salts, unhealthy fats, and low in nutrients) are linked to higher risks of childhood obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, poor gut health, and even mental health concerns in growing kids—issues that compound over time when they displace whole foods.

Parents can make small, realistic shifts using the examples given below.

Involve kids in choices: Let them pick 2-3 healthy options (e.g., “apple slices or grapes?”) so they feel ownership and are more likely to eat it.
Prep simple swaps ahead: Batch-prep veggie sticks with hummus, prepare veggie-protein patties to make quick sandwiches/rolls, energy balls with millets, dates, some seeds and nuts (modernised laddoos) for a sweet treat, homemade granolas with grains, seeds, nuts, dried fruit for a snack box
Add colour and variety: Aim for half the box in fruits/veggies (carrot coins, cucumber stars, berries), a protein (boiled egg, paneer cubes, nuts), and a whole grain (roti bites or rice balls), add veggie purees like carrot/beet/ pumpkin/spinach to rice and rotis for added colour and nutrition. Pack a fruit instead of a chocolate or packaged dessert.
Start small: Replace one ultra-processed item per week (e.g., biscuits → homemade energy balls or fruit) to build habits without stress.

What can schools do?

Have a talk with the parents who are consistently sending biscuits or Maggi in the lunch box and give them some easy-to-make healthier options, even make-ahead options.
Conduct a nutrition session for parents and kids together so everyone is made aware of what the current lunches lack and how it can be improved in simple steps.
For a small extra fee, school can provide a healthy meal cooked on site to all the kids so that one of their meals in the day is balanced and healthy. Younger kids also eat better when they see their classmates eating the same healthy meals, in a way inspiring each other.

Parting thoughts

Ultimately, improving children’s nutrition starts with empathy, not exposure. Schools and teachers should never use their students as unwitting props for social media content - especially when the framing publicly critiques or shames what kids bring in their lunchboxes, all to boost the school’s own online profile or go viral. This is exploitation in the guise of concern.

Let’s protect their privacy first—because once a child’s name, face, school, and daily habits are out there forever, the risks (from digital footprints to potential misuse) far outweigh any short-term “teaching moment.” Then, and only then, can we guide families with genuine concern that includes practical support and non-judgmental resources.

What are your thoughts on these viral lunchbox videos? Have you encountered them, or do they make you uneasy too? Share below. I’d love to hear your perspective.

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feb 2025-01

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 13:36:09 GMT

Of bookshelves and dust

I’m a 70s Kid.

I have never owned a Barbie doll or a Lego set. My aunt’s father-in-law gifted me a wooden Scrabble set when I was around ten, and I was hooked. Anyone who visited HAD to play—and lose—at least one game to me. I had plenty of books but no real toys to speak of.

When my aunt from the US sent me a plush teddy bear—the kind I had only dreamt of—it was promptly wrapped in plastic and locked away in a showcase. I still remember its sad little face staring out through layers of plastic and glass, trapped in its two-layered prison. Because outside the plastic, it would "gather dust." I longed to hold it, to play with it, but it remained untouched—a beautiful thing, denied its purpose.

Yesterday, I rearranged my bookshelf. Naturally, I shared a picture on Instagram. And, of course, the most common response to it was—What about the dust?

As someone who’s been blogging since 2006 and on social media for just as long, I’m no stranger to this pattern. There will always be kind, encouraging people, but there will also be those whose first instinct is negativity.

📚 Share a pic of your bookshelf—Oh, but what about the dust?
🪴 Share a pic of your plants—Oh, but what about the mosquitoes?
🕯 Share a pic of your incense sticks—Oh, but what about cancer?

We deny ourselves the good in life with this relentless “but what about…”

If a glorious sunset unfolds before you on a beach in Goa, don’t go “Ugh, this humidity.”

When beauty presents itself, let yourself enjoy it. Don’t let a stray negative thought steal your moment of joy.

That, right there, is the best way to live.

This is also on my Instagram in a different format - do look it up.

What are your thoughts on this?

Dust If You Must

A lovely reader (@hereandafter) shared this poem with me in response to my post on Instagram. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading it and feel inspired to make time for the things you love—rather than always prioritizing the endless list of mundane must-dos.

The best of Indian craft chocolate 🍫

The Indian bean-to-bar chocolate scene is thriving! Recently, I asked for recommendations on artisanal, handcrafted Indian chocolates (not the mass-produced factory kind), and the responses poured in.

So, here’s a curated list of some of the finest Indian craft chocolate brands. Save this post for when you're craving a truly good bar of chocolate—or need the perfect gift. And if you’re someone who associates Valentine’s Day with chocolate, consider this your ultimate guide to gifting (or indulging yourself).

Top Indian bean-to-bar chocolate brands

Manam (Hyderabad) – Working directly with farmers, they offer 300 varieties across 50 categories. Their website is a treasure trove of unique flavors like pistachio fudge and raspberry-rose.
Mason & Co. (Auroville) – One of India’s bean-to-bar pioneers, they have incredible flavors like rosemary-sea salt and sourdough-sea salt—a dream for savory chocolate lovers.
Paul & Mike (Kochi) – The first Indian brand to win Gold at the International Chocolate Awards, known for their milk chocolate-coated salted capers and the unique brunost cheese milk chocolate.
Darkins (Delhi) – Specializing in single-origin bars up to 95% cocoa, with intriguing flavors like Sanikatta salt (a variety from Uttara Karnataka), pineapple-paprika, and khus-scented bars. Bonus: Their packaging features beautiful artwork.
Naviluna (Mysuru) – Handmade in Karnataka, their stunningly packaged bars include flavors like Tres Bale (featuring three types of local bananas in 72% dark chocolate), Tokai coffee, and pineapple. They also have a café!

More Brands to Explore

🔸 Kocoatrait
🔸 Anuttama
🔸 Chitram
🔸 Soklet
🔸 Kuruvinakunnel Tharavadu Farms
🔸 Horaco
🔸 Chocolate Philosophy
🔸 Pascati
🔸 Bon Fiction

Most of these brands have their own websites—just a quick Google search away! You can also find them at local fairs, vegan markets, and handmade craft events. If you're in Bengaluru, keep an eye out for events like The Indian Cacao & Craft Chocolate Festival (which took place in November 2024)—a great place to discover and shop for these brands.

A quick note: When ordering online, these chocolates often come with extra packaging, including cooling packs to prevent melting in transit. Be mindful and recycle responsibly.

Have a favorite brand that I’ve missed? Drop it in the comments so more readers can benefit! 🍫✨

jan 2025 - 02

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 01:26:44 GMT

make hosting great again

In June of last year, I wrote about dining table loneliness and why are not hosting anymore, on my Instagram and the response to my post was overwhelming. Never had I seen such an outpouring of responses in my comment section. And in the new year I still feel strongly about it enough to make it the topic of this edition of Sattva.

2025 is the year we’ve decided to make home entertaining cool again.

We used to host a few gatherings a year. Then Covid happened, and like any unexercised muscle, the entertaining muscle atrophied. Even during those times, I dreamed of house parties. I created two Spotify playlists—“House Party” and “House Party 1”—hoping that someday, social distancing would be a thing of the past, and we’d have friends over again. It gave me something to look forward to.

In 2023, we hosted two massive Diwali house parties: one with 60 guests and another with 80. We managed okay, which gave us the confidence that if we could handle big crowds like that, having 8-10 people over would be no big deal. Yet, by 2024, we lost steam and didn’t host much.

Cut to 2025.

We’ve decided to host small groups of friends at least once every 2-3 weeks. It’s the best way to build social connections, have diverse conversations, experiment with new dishes, give the house a quick spring cleaning, and introduce friends to new people to expand their social circle.

Yes, it’s a lot of effort. It’s a lot of planning. Whom to invite to ensure a good mix of people? What to cook? What to shop for? Where to shop? Place orders, make payments, plan the cooking schedule over a couple of days to avoid overwhelm, add little home decor touches…and then deal with inevitable last-minute cancellations.

I often ask myself if it’s worth it.

Wouldn’t I be better off cuddling with my dog and watching the latest series on OTT? In December, we hosted one gathering (50% cancelled at the last minute) and another last weekend (again, a few cancellations). Afterward, I asked my husband, “Are we crazy to be doing this?” If there’s one thing I dislike and am not good at, it’s logistics, and house parties come with a fair share of them.

But we’ve decided to keep going. Eventually, we’ll end up with a small list of people who genuinely enjoy hanging out together.

I’m not the only one talking about this.

Yesterday this tweet was going viral - ‘There’s no law against dinner parties. You can just ask your friends to come over for dinner.’

Someone on X asked me why I prefer hosting at home rather than meeting at a restaurant. Here’s why: the noise levels in most restaurants aren’t conducive to meaningful conversations. Even if the noise isn’t an issue, a sit-down meal restricts your interactions to the people seated next to or across from you. Mingling with everyone is tough.

A park picnic is another fun way to gather outside, but given how unfriendly our park authorities are, you don’t want to get into trouble. Plus, alcohol is strictly off-limits in public spaces.

I hope this inspires you to call a few friends over. If you’re my friend and reading this, I’d love it if you invited me! I’m the most non-picky eater. Even if it’s just Maggi, a cheese sandwich, and a beverage, it’s the company that counts—and the playlist, which I can happily supply :)

party menu

I promised my Instagram audience that I would share my party menu in my newsletter and he it is.

A good formula is something like this - just enough without being over the top. Customise the dips and dippers as per the rest of the cuisine. For example, Indian cuisine can use yogurt based or curry sauce like dips with potato chips or khakhras.

2 dips
2 items to use as dippers (crackers, sliced and toasted baguette, veggie sticks)
1 finger food like a croquette or kabab
1 main dish + 1 side (pasta + salad or Indian curry + rice)
1 dessert (you can ask a friend to get this too)

Here’s what I made last Saturday

ricotta rosemary honey dip

Ricotta rosemary honey dip - Whisk 250g ricotta with a splash of milk or cream and a pinch of salt, until its soft in texture. Transfer it to a shallow bowl or platter and smoothen it out. Take 4-5 sprigs of rosemary. Strip the leaves off two stems and chop finely. Sprinkle over the ricotta. Heat up to 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and fry leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary until crisp. Let this steep for 5-10 minutes. Toast a few walnuts and chop roughly. Top the ricotta with the rosemary and olive oil, walnuts and 2 tbsp of good honey. You can also add chilli flakes for some heat. This recipe is so simple and yet so luxurious and rich in flavours, you will absolutely love it.
Inspired by this video on Instagram.
Beetroot and Feta dip - this one never disappoints, I had it in a pub in Manchester and I’ve been making it ever since. Fully documented on my blog
Peas and paneer kabab - Boil 500g fresh peas in salted water for 3 minutes. Drain and blend together with 250-300g paneer. Add enough bread crumbs to the mix. I added ginger, green chillies, parsley, black pepper and salt. This can be prepared the previous day. Refrigerate overnight or for few hours. Divide into tikkis, shape and press down on seed mix. Cook low and slow on a heavy greased pan, until golden on both sides. Inspired by this video.
Store bought crackers, and sliced baguette, toasted
Baked pasta shells - prepared the sauce the previous night and cooked pasta, assembled on the day of the party and baked just before serving (Alison Roman recipe)
Double beans salad - Soaked double beans overnight, cooked in salted water, drained and tossed in plenty of lemon juice, olive oil and a cup full of finely chopped basil. Add any other seasonings as per your liking. (Try this salad recipe)
Macerated strawberries and mascarpone - The previous day or few hours in advance, chop 3 cups of strawberries (sliced or roughly chopped). Toss in 5-6 tbsp of sugar and keep in a box in the fridge until ready to use. Whisk 250 g mascarpone cheese with 2-3 tbsp powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of cream until smooth. Keep chilled. Just before serving, spoon the mascarpone mixture in a shallow platter and smoothen out. Top with macerated strawberries. Top with a tiny sprinkle of salt.

Our friend, Tilak, made an extremely boozy decadent chocolate rum pudding and brought it along.

how to host (almost) effortlessly

start small - Have 3-4 people over instead of a crowd. Smaller gatherings are easier to plan, more intimate, and less stressful.

begin with close friends - Start with your inner circle. You don’t need to impress them with a fancy menu or decor, and you can even ask them to chip in with food.

keep a handy guest list - Maintain a running list of people you’d like to invite. These could be interesting folks you met at a friend’s party, someone who did you a kind gesture, or someone you’d like to reciprocate an invitation to. It’s easy to forget names when planning a party, so having this list to refer to can make it easy.

send out a save the date early - Give your guests at least 2-3 weeks’ notice. Even then, some cancellations are inevitable, but this allows you time to invite others from your list. Don’t forget to send a reminder 1-2 days before the party. Use this as an opportunity to ask about allergies or dietary preferences.

keep the menu and drinks simple - You don’t need a multicourse meal to impress. Store-bought chips, peanuts, and chakli work perfectly as starters with a drink. Focus on dishes that can be prepared in advance and either served cold (like dips) or reheated (like curries and baked dishes).

mix and match the serveware - Don’t stress about having a perfectly matched set of plates or bowls. Mismatched serveware adds charm and doesn’t affect the taste of your food! You can also rent serveware or use eco-friendly disposables—both are easily available on quick-commerce apps.

get help for clean up - If you’ve invited a bigger crowd, consider hiring help for post-party cleanup. It’ll make the experience a lot more enjoyable for you. There are apps that connect you with one time help for such occasions.

From past issue: A home fragrance I’m addicted to

Amazon shopping list for a home that smells amazing

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jan 2025 - 01

Nandita Iyer — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:58:18 GMT

two many cooks spoil the rasam

In the last two years, I did something I thought I would never do: hire a cook. Twice. Both times, I had to let them go. Reasons? Well, let’s just say some stories are better left untold on a public forum.

But from my grand sample size of two male cooks, I’ve come to a few conclusions about them:

They’re not as efficient or intuitive as women cooks. (Sorry, men.) They need way too much hand-holding.
Their attitude? Let’s just say it’s easier to bend steel than get them to adapt to new systems or techniques—even when you’re willing to teach.
Resourcefulness? Non-existent. They can’t whip up a meal from the odds and ends in the fridge, like most women can do in their sleep.
Instructions? Required daily, even if the meal is on repeat. (inlaws’ menu usually is)
Despite repeated explanations, they insist that dal needs a dozen whistles in the pressure cooker. Why? We’ll never know.
Everything is cooked on the highest flame possible. God forbid one nanogram of heat-labile vitamin survives in the dish.
All utensils will be compulsorily blackened and damaged beyond redemption.
To top all this, a barrage of WhatsApp messages that read ‘X khatam ho gaya hai!!!’ where X is not my favourite social media platform, but any ingredient that has fallen to half its level in the jar.

So, I’ve sworn off cooks for the foreseeable future. Instead, I’ve recruited my existing domestic help (a smart young lady) to assist with ingredient prep and basics. Hallelujah! The kitchen is mine again.

If this feels like a cook-rant… well, it is. If you have a gem of a cook, please light a gratitude candle and never let them go.

back in the kitchen, baby

With the kitchen reclaimed, I’ve splurged on a couple of nice solid pans, a new mixer-grinder, and a decent chef’s knife. I am back to bookmarking recipes in my ‘Must Cook in 2024’ playlist (yet to change the year on that) and Pinterest board.

Useful discovery: I realised that I have been making theplas wrong all my life. Got some of the techniques straightened out thanks to this video and now I’m rolling them out like a Gujuben. It’s methi season and you must try these out. I also made a stack of them and took it along for our Goa road trip (like a pro Guju again).

Current obsession: ‘s Home Movies on YouTube. I made her cauliflower pasta last week and my son, who is a UNESCO-certified pasta connoisseur, gave it 5 stars.

zero-alcohol bev reccos

The husband and I have been alcohol-free for over a year and a half (him 100%, me 99%). Our fridge is now stocked with interesting low-sugar, non-alcoholic drinks. Perfect for Dry January, cutting back, or hosting alcohol-free soirées.

Here are some of our favourites - none sponsored, although such brands are welcome to email me to strike up a sponsorship :P

Local Ferment Ginger Ale
Local Ferment Mango Chilli kombucha
Vaum tonic water (Elderflower Rosemary is my favourite)
Tipsy Tiger Ginger Ale
Tipsy Tiger fresh lime soda
Mossant does some amazing low-cal kombucha, tonic waters and other beverages
Atmosphere is another brand we have been stocking up on lately for kombucha
My kombucha brewing experiments faced an untimely death due to fungus (the bad kind) - I plan to start new batches either from Bombucha’s unflavored kombucha or by borrowing some home brewed kombucha from a sweet neighbour (with or without scoby, doesn’t matter)
For brewing tips, check out my column in Mint Lounge. You’ll find a detailed recipe on how to brew your own batch.

darshini drops in Whitefield

From ‘we don’t have a single place for good dosa’ in Whitefield a few years ago (ok, there was just one MTR in a small neighbourhood mall, but even they shut shop), we now have nearly a dozen in our republic. These businesses seem to think, if Whitefield is good enough for The Rameshwaram Cafe, it is good enough for us 😂

Here’s the round-up -

Asha Tiffins in AECS layout - the masala dose is the perfect size, small enough that you don’t feel like you are choking on ghee and you can order one more dish like khara baath or idli along with the dose. You may or may not find a place to sit depending on the day and time. Most wallet friendly place, plus they offer free parking in the adjoining plot.
The Rameshwaram Cafe - everyone on the internet knows they are synonymous with ghee. While I did sing paeans in the glory of their open butter masala, I don’t think I can handle it more than once in 3 years. I like sitting cross-legged on the stone ‘thinnai’ and enjoying my food or coffee here. Finding parking is a nightmare, sometimes they have a valet. Eat responsibly.
The Filter Coffee - this is my husband’s favourite place to hit after a long run. I can eat here even without a run. I do like their relatively less greasy dosa, but the size is huge enough for 2 people to split and then order another dish on the side. We love their homestyle upma too. Table service is top notch and you always find a place to sit. If you go early enough, you’ll find a place to park right outside the restaurant.
Davanagere Benne Dose - we’ve been here a few times in the last couple of years. Family run hole-in-the-wall place, neat and clean set up, the usual benne dose with the chutney is fab. True to its name, lots of butter. I love the smell of the burning wooden logs on which the stone / tava is heated. Small parking lot next to it.
TMC - The Mysore Cafe - popped in a couple of times in the last two weeks. Excellent paniyaram, idlis and filter coffee. A solid parking lot adjacent to the restaurant.
Cafe Amudham - the latest one on the block. I loved eating the thatte idli and sweet pongal in their Lalbag outlet a while ago and was thrilled to see them open in the neighbourhood. Thatte idli, upma and coffee are good. Masala dose seems to be competing with The Rameshwaram Cafe in the quantity of ghee used. Idiyappam stew was also tried, it was okay-ish. They also top it with a cute heart shaped smol blob of butter, which makes it very Instagrammable. Lots of seating, well lit and you do find parking as of now.

Spotted by not tried:

The Kalki Cafe which you can try out and let me know.
Real Fresh Dosa Corner in AECS layout for excellent dosas

I know this list is highly niche for a certain much-maligned area in Bengaluru. (Oops we are not even allowed to call it Bengaluru!) But if you know people who live here, share this email with them for good dosa karma.

Thanks for reading Sattva! This post is public so feel free to share for good dosa karma.

If you enjoyed this free newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

❤️ Buy me a coffee

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This newsletter may contain affiliate links for some products. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission if you purchase something by clicking on my link, at no extra cost to you. It helps support the newsletter.

None of the products mentioned are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

A post from Goa

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 05:29:41 GMT

Hello, my dear reader,

I know it’s been a LONG break from the newsletter. I thought it was not more than a few months, only to realise it was 7 months long (my last post from Kolkata in Jan 2023). Not surprised given how fast 2023 seems to be running away. With columns, other writing projects, a new home to set up, music class homework to submit, working on brand campaigns, and trying to squeeze in some time with my son during his holidays, the newsletter was the only thing that I could let go for a while to get a breather.

Today is August 1st and I thought it is a good day to start afresh with 5 months left in 2023 and 10 issues of Sattva that I can send out. Let’s pray I stick to that.

Goa home news

You might have heard from me on this if you follow me on Instagram and have seen some behind-the-scenes pics in my stories.

We bought a second home in Goa and its completion and delivery got delayed due to the pandemic. But it’s finally ours.

After a lot of internal debate to the point of mental exhaustion on whether we should outsource the decor to a specialist or just do it ourselves, we chose the latter. I can tell you now that setting up a house when you are not in that city is way too much trouble.

One might think online shopping is a breeze. This is so not true when it comes to selecting and buying furniture for your home. A time came when my eyes were bleeding images of furniture from the 50-odd websites I was scouring to score the best pieces at the best prices. We had a limited budget to work with, so it was all the more a task to find sturdy and aesthetic pieces that did not break the bank.

As someone who is madly house-proud and rather private, it has come as a shocker even to me that I’ve agreed to put our Goa home up on Airbnb when it is fully up and ready. It helps that we have a friend who is already in the Airbnb management business and is a super host who manages a few properties with rave reviews. This also means that the house needs to be stocked up with everything from a safety pin to a clothes dryer and everything in between.

I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

We were there for all of last week and it rained non-stop. The sound of rain was a constant in the background, like the auditory equivalent of a hug. Monsoons in Goa is a real vibe. I realise non-monsoon Goa is going to feel very pale and non-romantic in comparison to monsoon Goa.

I will be sharing with you the details of our Airbnb when it is up and ready, most likely sometime next month, both on my Instagram and here on Sattva. It is a small 8-apartment complex built in a Spanish hacienda style, located in North Goa, Assagao to be precise. We are on the ground level and every window has a green view. The house has a living-dining area, 3 bedrooms and an open kitchen + a strip of garden in which there is an open-air jacuzzi. I’ve done up the home with some Spanish-style touches in greens and blues, green for the greenery of Assagao and blue for the beaches of Goa. It’s very different from my Bengaluru home of 12 years and yet very similar because it’s all me and the aesthetics I love.

I can’t put it better than the Asian Paints ad that said “Har ghar kuch kehta hai ki andar isme kaun rehta hai”.

Our home is just that-simple, grounded and beautiful and I hope it will bring joy and calm to everyone who stays here.

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Goa food scene

The fine dining scene in Goa is exploding and in my very rough estimate, much more than any city in India. All the top chefs and brands want a piece of the Goa pie and that of all the tourists who throng the state all year round. Would you believe me if I told you that at lunch hour on a Monday off-season, popular restaurants are running full?

In my last three recent trips to Goa, I’ve eaten out a fair bit as I did not have the bandwidth of cooking at home. Here’s a list of places I’ve tried and the dishes I liked there. All restaurants are located in Assagao except Hosa, which is in Siolim

Bawri - Started by Chef Amninder Sandhu who is famous for her open-fire cooking, this is a stunning space full of greenery and macrame. We went in the early days and the place was already buzzing, but the food did not have the oomph and the smokiness of wood fire or open-fire cooking. Not even the bharta. The charred paneer was not charred by a mile. The smokey cocktails we ordered had to be replaced with something else as the smoking machine wasn’t working that day. I will still try this place at a later date as I understand that niggling issues affect a restaurant when it has just started. What I liked - Yogurt kababas, Stuffed Bhavnagari chillies and in desserts, the black and white gajar halwa with nolen gur ice cream and wild honey. Bonus marks for very attentive service.
Gunpowder - This restaurant needs no introduction, which is probably why it felt like their staff were doing us a favour by letting us in on a Monday afternoon. Ya guys may be famous, but the attitude definitely needs some toning down. Decent south Indian food but the stand out for me was the mushroom pepper fry, which made me want to eat the whole dish myself without sharing it with my husband.
Jamun - This is the closest restaurant to our home (3 min walk) and I will highly recommend this place to the guests. It’s as famous and fancy as Gunpowder, but the staff are warm and hospitable. Their music playlist is entirely shazam-worthy and every single dish was spot on. We tried the dal makhani, pudina paratha, malai broccoli and tandoori mushrooms. I’m told their Jamun cocktail is a must have. I stuck to my Martini Rosso here, but I plan to try the cocktail next time.
Jackfruit Tree Cafe - The perfect neighbourhood cafe in Assagao, right next to Jamun, with a friendly owner Savio is perfect for breakfast (9.30 am onwards), lunch or early dinner (last orders at 8pm). This is probably the only cafe / restaurant in Assagao which wont burn a hole in your pocket. Freshly brewed coffee, organic eggs (if you ask for them) from the owner’s hens, nice simple salads and local dishes like xacuti are delicious. Do NOT miss the garlic poi (local Goan bread) that I’m still salivating in memory of. If you are scared of dogs, then this place is probably not for you, as they have 3-4 indies as pets that keep going around the cafe.
Hosa - Hosa means new in Kannada and this restaurant aims to do a south Indian fusion cuisine. The decor is outstanding compared to the rather casual, just thrown-together decor in most of the fancy restaurants in Goa. The plantain pepper roast served with nool parotta was repeat order worthy. Their podi appams had barely a speck of podi on them and the stew was gluggy thick and way too sweet, as was the alasande-potato curry (beans-potato curry with a dosa). Do try the kesari bath served with saffron sorbet and grilled pineapple. Oh, their cocktail menu is a like a directory (with drinks listed for the time of the day, like raagas) and their food menu a one-pager :)
Kefi - Started by a gentleman who spent all his life in Lebanon, I like the food here, but the seating could be made much more comfortable, given that they are not a cheap restaurant. Their eggs kejriwal, freshly made pita and red bell pepper soup were all delicious. The broccoli almond soup is now my husband’s favourite. The souvlaki wrap (veg) is also hearty, stuffed to the gills and tastes great cold too.
Neighbors Cafe - Their tagline is coffee by day and cocktails by night, which I think is interesting. As we went in for an early dinner, we were given the cafe menu. My son ordered their ‘smoked shroom sando’ and while it was $$$ at Rs 500 plus taxes, it was one of the best sandwiches I’ve eaten in a while, something I even tried to replicate at home today. Their sharing platter Neighbors Chips and Dips was flavourful too. My only grouse here is for the prices they charge and it’s Goa for god’s sake where anything grows into a jungle, having plastic hanging plants is unforgivable. Pardon me, I’m nit-picky like that when it comes to plants.
Mustard Cafe - Excellent Bengali food along with the usual continental fare. I’m in love with their Shorshe Bata Jhal made with veggies and their desserts are to die for. Their raw banana kababs were melt-in-mouth. I felt a sticker shock for basic vegetarian pasta dishes that were priced at nearly 500 for rather small portions, but that apart, great tasting food and good service.

Shopping list

Online shopping is no cakewalk. Of course, it saves you the time and effort of driving to multiple shops and lugging back the stuff, but finding something online that actually looks and feels like the pictures posted, is sturdy and matches your need is a big deal and that takes a lot of effort. In this case, online shopping made it possible to shop for so many items sitting in Bengaluru and getting them delivered to Goa without much hassle and nothing beats Amazon in that.

I’m sharing with you a list of some of the things we bought for our Goa home from Amazon that I am happy to recommend if you are looking for something similar. This is mostly for smaller decor items around the house, except for a two-seater sofa.

Amazon shopping list link

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On morning routines, winter cooking and hello Kolkata

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 03:25:00 GMT

Is there a downside to morning rituals?

AI-generated image by Chatpoint in response to “a painting of a woman doing her morning routine”

Morning rituals are one thing every productivity guru advocates, to set the tone for the day. It is believed that having a consistent routine at the start of the day leads to greater focus and motivation in everything we do in the day.

I don’t know if it is because I’ve clicked on a few of these vlogs, or if it is just the sort of thing the Youtube algo seems to love that I get a lot of morning ritual videos in my recommendations. There’s a standard template to these videos - perfectly clean, aesthetic rooms, still dark outside the windows, soothing background music, petting the pets (no vlogs without pets), drinking warm water, meditating, journaling, a walk/run or yoga session, coffee time (it’s always from the beans, nothing else will do) and then drawing the curtains to let in the sunlight.

I wonder if all this is just to make a beautiful film or if people manage to do all this every single day. It is possible that you get that kind of uninterrupted time if you live alone with no other responsibilities for anyone else, but for someone with a family to manage, I doubt it is very practical.

Watching these videos makes you feel warm and cosy for sure, but they also make you feel a tad inadequate for having such a hasty morning where you are just rushing to get things done – a few deep breaths, squeeze in a walk, a few moments with your kids before they are off to school and then get on with the day. Even these would be a luxury for working moms.

If you list down too many things to do as a part of your morning routine, you could be starting your day on a stressful note. You might feel that the morning ritual takes up too much time from the premium morning hours. Even if you have some routines that you absolutely want to stick to, not being able to follow it on some days for whatever reasons, should not stress you out or frustrate you. Move on with your day the best you can and try not obsess over it.

It is important to find the right routine that works for you and your lifestyle. Everyone's needs and schedules are different, so it's important to find activities that suit your life.

It is more likely that you can stick to a routine if it’s simple. In all probability, you already have a routine. See what you can add to tag along to your existing routine. Just one small thing. Let that settle in and then think of what next you want to add instead of adding a whole new list to your mornings all of a sudden.

I have just 3 things for my mornings and even if I can do 5-10 minutes of each, I’m going to be happy with myself. Meditate or practise some deep breathing, get out in the sun and read a few pages of a book. That’s it!

Do let me know what’s on your list and what’s the one morning routine you swear by.

A no-recipe recipe for saag - winter greens

Photo by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash

Sarson ka saag which is one of my winter favourites, dare I say, even more than gaajar ka halwa. If it is also your favourite, then I have just the thing for you minus the complex time consuming process.

The one thing you do need for this is LOTS of peeled garlic, so if you can get ready peeled cloves of garlic, then do so. Because it is the only flavouring used in this recipe, you cannot afford to skimp on it.

Also traditionally, the saag is cooked in a pot that could well take an hour of cooking and mashing to get a smooth puree. I use the pressure cooker for this weeknight recipe and it takes just 10 minutes to cook. Adding a pinch of baking soda breaks down the fibres well and retains the green colour. If you are someone who freaks out over the use of baking soda, avoid it and increase the pressure cooking time by 3-4 minutes.

Here’s how I make it. Take 500 grams each of spinach and mustard greens. Use only the leaves and the tender stems. Wash well and place in a large pressure cooker with minimum required water. I use less than ½ cup. After one whistle (full pressure) reduce the flame and cook for 5-7 minutes.

After 5-10 minutes release the pressure and let the cooked greens cool for a bit. Transfer to a blender and blend to get a smooth puree and return to the cooker or a pan. Taste and add salt accordingly as the greens as inherently a bit salty.

In a pan, take 2-4 tbsp of butter (salted Amul is fine). Add the generous quantity of finely chopped garlic and fry on a low flame for 5-6 minutes. Towards the end, you may add finely chopped green chillies, as per your liking. Transfer this over the pureed greens and bring it to a simmer. Serve hot with rotis.

Some additions to the saag could be a handful of boiled peas or small diced paneer.

Winter Saag

Take a kilo of mixed greens - mustard + spinach, and separate out the leaves and tender stems.

Wash and pressure cook this (one whistle followed by 7-8 mins on sim) with ½ - 1 cup of water and a pinch of baking soda that helps break down the greens and retains the bright colour.

Remove and puree in a blender. Return to the pan.

Fry 3 tbsp of finely chopped garlic in 3-4 tbsp of butter on a low flame for 5 mins or so, transfer over the puree. Salt the dish as needed. Bring to a simmer and serve.

Winter specials from my latest book The Great Indian Thali

Gajar Gobhi Shalgam achaar to preserve the freshness and flavour of winter veggies in a jar, great with plain parathas or with curd rice :)

There’s a make-along with me Highlight on my Instagram or watch the video here

Sindhi Sai Bhaji - a one pot dish with lentils, greens and seasonal vegetables
Yellu sadham - Tamil style sesame rice
Mallika’s special Rajgira Halwa

Get these recipes and more seasonal vegetarian recipes from around India in my book The Great Indian Thali.
India - local bookstores, signed copies in Higginbothams bookstore, MG road
India - Amazon
India + International - CMYK bookstore online

Instagram post spotlight

Make time and spend money on things that are important to you. Our mind works in crazy ways. We think nothing of spending 4-5K on a regular dinner but think 100 times before buying a new appliance or investing in some good piece of clothing for the same amount, when the latter two can be used over and over again for years. Put your time and money where your priority list is.

Events

I’m excited to visit the city of joy after over 3 decades.

Kolkata friends, I’m in your city for the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. My session is a panel on how to stay positive and it is at 2.30 PM on 14 Jan / Saturday at Park Mansion. I would love to see you there. Come say hello and buy signed copies of my books or just come say hello.

Get the schedule of the litfest from 12 Jan - 14 Jan here and follow TheAKLF on Twitter for live updates.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

❤️ Buy me a coffee

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Thank you for reading Sattva. Please share the post and help me reach out to newer audiences.

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

23 simple rules for a healthy lifestyle in 2023

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 06:55:29 GMT

TRINNNNNG. Buy an old-fashioned alarm so you don’t reach for your phone first thing in the morning.
Read for 15 minutes in the morning when your mind is not cluttered with information.
Go for a walk for at least 15 minutes upon waking up. Walking in the fasted state will burn fat and get your metabolism up and running first thing in the morning.
Tune into your body. Understand your hunger cues. So you can eat when you are hungry and stop when you feel almost full.
Eat home-cooked meals 80% of the time. It's ok to eat for your cravings and emotional needs and eat your favourite comfort foods 20% of the time. That way you won’t binge eat the treats or comfort foods when you lay your hands on them.
Stock up on good quality fresh produce and nutrient-rich groceries. This means whatever you cook with them will have nutritious building blocks and they will be good for you.
Meal prep a few healthy ingredients to speed up everyday cooking times. For example, peeling pomegranates, cooking 1-2 kinds of beans, 1-2 whole grains, washing and drying green leafy veg and a few condiments/sauces/chutneys will reduce your time in the kitchen when you put together these meals at home.
Chalk out a rough weekly menu plan. It helps ensure that your meals are a good balance of complex carbs, proteins and fats, and using a variety of seasonal produce.
Balancing your plate is more sustainable than counting calories and logging all the foods eaten every day. Eating should not become a chore.
Eat s l o w l y. Chew every mouthful until it is liquidised. You don’t have to count to 32 or 42, just let this process happen mindfully. It will automatically slow down the eating process. Research has shown that fast eaters are twice as likely to gain excess weight and slow eaters have a lower level of the hunger hormone ghrelin and higher levels of fullness hormones.
Eat the healthiest foods on your plate first so you will be up with high-quality calories at the start.
Make room for treats as a part of your diet. Abstaining from foods that give you joy will lead to unhealthy cravings and binging. Sit down and enjoy the treat giving it your full attention to experience the maximum joy of it.
Keep a check on added sugars, salt and processed foods made using refined oils.
Eat socially whenever possible – eat with family, friends or co-workers instead of eating by yourself. Research has shown that those who eat socially are happier and more satisfied with life. They are more trusting of others, engaged with their local communities and have a network of people they can rely on for support.
Tackle mindless snacking. We always do this for reasons other than hunger, such as boredom, loneliness, stress, anger etc. Tune in to the root cause and address it with non-food tools. Food should not be your only coping mechanism.
Exercise or movement need not be restricted to running or the gym. Choose whatever makes you happy such as games, dance, yoga, walking your pets etc.
Be out in the sun for at least 15-20 minutes every day for vitamin D and to regulate circadian rhythms. Solar recharge yourself.
Practise a hobby. Check out my book This Handmade Life, your perfect guide to getting into a hobby.
Journal, whenever you can, to externalise any feelings of hurt, anger, confusion, or anxiety. You can learn about journaling from a coach or YouTube, or even find several journaling prompts from Pinterest.
Build strict boundaries at work to not spill over regularly into your own time, thereby upsetting your work-life balance.
Make time for family and friends. You are replaceable in your workplace, but your family and true friends will always be there for you.
Practise good winding down routines to enjoy good quality sleep every night. A warm shower, no gadgets at least an hour before bedtime, dimmer lights, softer sounds, and possibly a relaxing slow-paced walk once it is dark, all of these help produce sleep hormone (melatonin) secretion in the brain leading to a smooth transition between wakefulness and sleep.
Give back to the community. Research in the field of neuroscience and psychology has proven that helping others makes you happy. Engaging in community help or volunteering not only develops values of empathy and kindness in us but also releases the feel-good hormone endorphin. This phenomenon is called a helper’s high.

May 2023 be the best year for you and your loved ones, full of happiness, good health, prosperity and fulfilment. Lots of love, Nandita.

If you want to dig a little deeper…

If you enjoyed this newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

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None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 31 - The Diwali Edit

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 10:39:50 GMT

Diwali is almost here and so is the Diwali Edit of 2022. I spent happy hours putting together this issue as a pre-Diwali gift for you. I hope you enjoy reading it and find it useful.

Dressing up for Diwali

The easiest way to be Diwali-ready, if you ask me, is to drape a Kanjivaram saree, put on a gajra and dab my favourite perfume. But there are quite a few trends that I’m loving these days, and who knows I might even try one out this Diwali.

Pair a silk, Banarasi or gota work lehenga or Indian handloom skirt with a white linen shirt or a satin blouse and a choker and maang teeka for a perfect Indo-Western fusion look.
A gold-tinged skirt or palazzo worn with a crop top and a long-line jacket
Colour blocking with a bright coloured saree and a contrasting equally bright long line shrug or jacket

I asked my friend, Puja Nadhani who is a designer, consulting stylist and mom of two, to give her tips on festive dressing. Here’s what she shares with us.

1. If heavy embroidery, brocade and weighty fabrics don’t fall in your comfort zone while performing puja or running errands, go for bright and bold colours like fuchsia, purples and reds. Colours will work their magic in your outfit.
2. To avoid shopping for too many outfits, buying separates in bold colours and pairing them creatively on different functions will give completely different looks on each occasion.
3. Another trick to make an outfit look completely different is draping your dupatta or a saree in a different than usual style. You could bunch up/fold the fabric or spread it while draping it depending on how much you want to show the drape.
4. If you like wearing simple clothes but want to look Diwali-ready, go heavy on the accessories. Stack up bangles, wear big earrings, and add some chunky neckwear or hair accessories. All this can make a simple outfit festive.
5. To create a striking look, you could wear a blingy outfit with matte accessories or vice versa. Play with contrasts.

Photos: Srishti Nadhani - fashionista & style ambassador, Instagram: @outlansrish

Share this post with friends and share the joy!

Festive ingredients for Diwali

Look up easy-to-make Diwali recipes on my blog

Khoya – It is a shortcut ingredient to prepare any number of Indian sweets from barfis to Parsi mawa cake, but also adds a ‘shahi’ touch to gravies and patties. I’ll be sharing two delicious khoya recipes in my column in Mint Lounge this Saturday.

Makhana – Roast and use in savoury snacks, gravy dishes along with peas and kheer

Pomegranate pearls – Add pops of ruby red colour that give a festive touch to any dish. Use in salads, raitas, fruit salad / old-fashioned fruit custard.

Edible flowers – Flowers add prettiness wherever they are used and this includes your special festive dishes. Use as a garnish on almost anything as they add colour and not much of flavour. Petals of desi flowers like rose and marigold can also be strewn all over the table runner around the dishes to add to the beauty of the tablescape.

Dried rose petals – This is my favourite garnish on almost any dessert. Good quality dried rose petals have a delicate fragrance as well that enhances the eating experience.

Chopped pistachios – The fluorescent green of sliced pistachios makes for a beautiful contrast with the red of the rose petals or even by itself makes for a festive garnish on desserts.

Diwali ki Decor

Whether I dress myself up or not, I absolutely love dressing up my home for Diwali. Some of my festive decor favourites are:

Vintage brass, copper and bronze to keep diyas, candles, flowers
Fuchsias and reds for throws and cushion covers
Diyas and lanterns inside and outside the house
Desi flowers like marigold, roses, mogra and rajnigandha
Camphor and essential oils in diffusers

Just typing all this feels so heady and happy!

Check out my Diwali decor shopping list on Amazon.

Photos courtesy Sonali / @_.yahvi._home

I recently stumbled upon Sonali Prasad’s Instagram and loved the vibes she creates using brass and flowers. There is something about the contrast between the hardness and everlasting nature of metal and the softness and short life of flowers that is so appealing to the senses.

Sonali is a self-taught fashion designer by profession and an Indian decor lover by passion. Here are some of the tips she shares with us for a rooted-in-tradition theme decor this Diwali.

Focus on adding colours and textures to corners. Use brass pots, pickle jars, antique silver or earthen diyas in decor with lots of flowers. Pull out the brass/pital dabba from your grandma's kitchen use it as a part of the decor. These not only create beautiful compositions but also make great conversation starters. The essence of ethnic decor is in its raw and rustic look.

The essential Diwali playlist

What’s a festival without music? If you want to create a festive ambience at home, be it for the puja or for your Diwali party, just hit play on my curated Spotify playlist. It’s got just the right raags and songs to make Diwali feel extra festive and auspicious, not to mention, make you come across as rather knowledgeable about Hindustani classical music (wink!).

You can also check out my house party playlist which is a work in progress with lofi and lighter versions of raag-based songs.

Diwali gifting guide

I’m sure none of our friends need any more boxes of sweets and dried fruit piled on them this festive season. While gifting is highly personal, here are some conscious, Sattva-style, gift ideas.

Please allow me to kick off this list with my brand-new offering, The Great Indian Thali – Seasonal Vegetarian Wholesomeness. My fourth and latest book published by Roli Books has 70 wholesome recipes picked from around the country, served in tune with the seasons. Colour photographs, seasonal playlists, seasonal menus and an incredibly stunning cover make it the perfect gift this festive season. I’ve been telling my friends to gift my book instead of a bottle of wine, which will be drunk and forgotten in one evening.

Here are my other Diwali gifting recommendations in alphabetical order.

Absolutely none of this is sponsored. None of these brands even know that I’m featuring them on my list.

You’ll love the items in the home décor and accessories section from Amala Earth not just for gifting but also to buy something for your home.
Check out the diya catalogue and the Diwali hampers from Amogh Trust, which is a skilling centre for adults with special needs, located in Bengaluru.
Choose from any of these festive gift packs from Biobasics, an organization committed to organic whole foods, consumer health, decent livelihoods for farmers and the preservation of our environment. You can also choose from their range of lesser-known varieties of rice.
My regular readers will know how much I love Ekam’s fragrance oils and candles. Their 3-wick candles make a beautiful gift. Temple bloom and Sandalwood sound perfect for Diwali.
I love the incense cones and havan cups from Nirmalaya. You can also check out their range of home fragrances.
Old Fashioned Gourmet is a small home-grown company that knows its pickles and spices as the heirloom recipes and techniques come from the late founder Smt. Shyamlata Sihare. I absolutely love their Aloo Dum masala and all of the pickles that I have tasted. The pickles come in reusable Mason jars, so that’s another plus.
P-TAL aims at reviving the dying craft form of the indigenous Thathera community of Jandiala Guru, Amritsar, who have the distinction of practising India’s only UNESCO-listed craft form. Check out these brass diyas or cheese platter that make for lovely festive gifts.
Pure and Sure is a brand I trust and love for its organic products. They can customize a Diwali gift box for you to fill with spice mixes or any other ingredients.
I’ve been a long-time user of Wild Ideas, be it their soaps, body wash powder or ready-to-fry elai vadams. The organization supports over 100 disadvantaged women from 15 villages around Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Their palm baskets are aesthetic and sustainable ways to pack your gifts.

Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy Deepavali.

Love, Nandita

Banner image: Ladies Playing with Fireworks, school of Mir Kalan Khan, Lucknow, circa 1780.

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❤️ Buy me a coffee

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Dussera special - An announcement

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 14:15:07 GMT

🌸New book announcement 🌸

Happy Dussera to all my Sattva readers!

On the auspicious occasion of Dussera, Shubho Bijoya and Vijayadashami, I am excited to share the news of my fourth and latest book, The Great Indian Thali - Seasonal Vegetarian Wholesomeness published by Roli Books.

It is a hardcover, all-colour book with 80 recipes from around India divided by the seasons (cover photo attached). It also has write-ups on seasonal cooking in India, and seasonal music playlists to listen to while cooking and entertaining.

It is out on preorder now and you will receive your copy before Diwali. The book, beautifully produced by Roli Books, will make for a memorable Diwali gift for yourself and your friends. I would love to personalise your copy or the copies you buy as gifts (if you are in Bengaluru).

Preorder your copy here.

I’d love it if you shared this post with a couple of your friends and help support my work❤️

Thank you for your love and support.

See you in the Diwali edit of Sattva.

Warmly,
Nandita

Sattva: Issue 30

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 11:34:33 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Through this fortnightly newsletter, I want to bring to you all things good, which will make your life better. My focus will be on topics such as mindfulness, productivity, slow living and sustainability, accompanied by genuinely useful recommendations of products, books, music, links to read, and of course food and recipes. Through these, I hope to instil some Sattva in your life.

2 bomb condiments you must make at home

1. Chilli flakes

Chilli flakes sold in bottles is dead stuff. It’s best made at home in small quantities and stored in a small airtight jar.

Take a hot variety of dried red chilli like Guntur (two handfuls). You can throw in a few Byadagi or Kashmiri variety for colour and reduce the heat level of the chilli flakes.

Remove the stems. Cut it into small pieces using kitchen scissors. Be mindful of your hands touching your face/eyes or wear gloves while handling chillies. Discard any seeds that fall off while snipping the chillies.

Place a heavy-bottomed pan on the lowest heat. Dry roast the chillies on very low heat for 4-5 minutes. We don’t want to brown or smoke the chillies. Roast just enough to crisp it up so it can be ground to flakes easily.

During the roasting process, a lot of seeds will settle at the bottom of the pan. Remove the roasted chilli pieces to a dish to cool and discard the seeds.

Transfer the cooled roasted chilli to a mixer jar or a spice grinder. Use the pulse function 3-5 times until the chillies are ground to flakes. Don’t run the mixer continuously or you will end up with chilli powder.

Where to use: Pizza, pasta, salad dressings, sauces and in the bomb condiment recipe that follows. You can also use this in all curries and tempering where you don’t want people to remove the whole red chillies and decorate the sides of their plate. All of the flavour, zero waste.

2. MamaK’s super addictive spice mix

MamaK cooked this delicious meal

Earlier this year when I was in Delhi, I had the pleasure of spending a day with my friend Kishi and her mum Bala ji (better known as MamaK on Instagram). She cooks the most delicious and memorable food with all her heart. As a part of the large spread, she served dahi bhallas which had cloud-like bhallas immersed in creamy dahi. The key thing about this dish was MamaK’s special spice mix, which was unforgettably lip-smacking.

It is the kind of spice mix that can elevate any dish, not just dahi bhallas, raitas or chhaas. My husband tasted it yesterday and promptly announced that it would make the perfect ‘touchings’ with his drink. For those of you wondering what it means, in the South, it is the word for any small snacks that you eat alongside your drink. It could even be pickles (insane, right?). When I gave him the eye roll, he settled for ‘I’ll add it to my next gin cocktail.” Now, that’s not a bad idea at all.

For this spice mix, the first ingredient you need is chilli flakes, the process I’ve shared with you here. The next flavour bomb ingredient here is bhuna jeera or roasted and ground cumin seeds. There’s no denying that cumin is a flavoursome spice, but when you patiently roast it until its dark brown, the flavour multiplies exponentially. It almost becomes a hulk version of the raw cumin seeds. Smoky, slightly bitter and intensely aromatic, these are enough reasons for you to prepare bhuna jeera at home. Make just enough to last a week as the longer it sits in your kitchen, the aroma will be lost. And for heaven’s sake NEVER EVER get store-bought bhuna jeera.

To prepare this spice mix, in a small bottle mix together:

2 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp roasted cumin powder (bhuna jeera)
½ tsp black salt (kala namak)
½ tsp regular salt
¼ tsp compound asafoetida (hing)

Where to use: On dahi vadas and dahi bhallas as a garnish or finishing spice, in chaats made from potatoes, chana etc., raitas, buttermilk, potato subzis, dry chana subzi, and yes, if you are adventurous, rim your cocktail glass with this spice mix. YUM!

These 120 ml glass jars sold with labels and a funnel are perfect to store homemade spice mixes.

Navratri tip: Try adding this to your black chana or kabuli chana sundal. Add the (unsalted) cooked chana to a tempering of cumin seeds in ghee. Sprinkle this spice mix and let it coat the chana. Garnish with lemon juice and coriander leaves.

10-minute Microbreaks

I read this recently on the Fortune Well website and the title instantly had my attention. I, for one, can plod through an intense 50-minute work period if I know that I have something interesting to do at the end of it.

Have you heard of the Pomodoro Technique? It is a time management system invented in the 1980s in which you work for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break or work for 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. This helps people focus better and get more work done. You’ll be surprised at how much you can get accomplished in 25 minutes of undistracted time.

Here are a few ideas on how to make the best use of these microbreaks.

Walk around the house (If you read my edition on walking, you’ll know the benefits of this.)
Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea.
Play with your pet.
No pet? Check on your plants - water, prune, wipe them down, sing to them.
No plants? Pick up a book, an old favourite or a new one and read a few pages.
Watch a couple of videos from your ‘Watch Later’ list on YouTube. Do remember that you have a hard stop in 10 minutes though.
Think of what dinners you want to cook or order for the next few days and make a list.
Go to a window or a balcony and look into the distance. This is very important for the eye muscles especially if you face a screen all day during your working hours.
Do a few breathing exercises or stretches, especially for your neck and shoulders.

Diwali Shopping Dhamaka💥

(not sponsored!)

All the e-commerce websites are trying their levelest best to turn you into a shopaholic, if you are not one already, that is.

I’m sharing with you some of my finds and buys.

AMAZON - I came across an amazing offer on the Kuving’s Nutri Blender (like a Nutribullet), in which the appliance is at an 80% discount, for a steal price of Rs.3990 (The original price is around Rs.22,000). A brand well known for its cold press juicer, this is a great deal, and possibly one of the only not-to-miss deals in the Amazon sale fest. The deal ends 8 hours from now (Thursday midnight). I’m sorry if it is not available by the time you read my newsletter.

P.S. If you already have a mixer that does all the mixing, grinding, blending jobs well, then this appliance is not a must have. Although I do feel it is a good addition to the kitchen at this price, especially if you do a lot of heavy duty cooking at home.

What you are reading below is a newsletter exclusive – shopping recommendations that I haven’t shared anywhere else yet (see, there are benefits of being a Sattva subscriber!)

AMAZON - I loved this range of bath and body products called Pharmacopia that I first used in a hotel some years ago. I looked for it online and it wasn’t available then. I’m glad it is finally available on Amazon now. The fragrance of their Argan Oil range is out of the world.

AJIO – I have always loved the ethnic wear on Ajio, much more than Myntra for its better quality and curation. Their Indie Picks range is my favourite.

The Indie Picks Ikat pants in various colours are currently available at around 500Rs. These work as kurta bottoms as well as pants to go with shorter tops. It’s got a nice waistband, pockets on both sides and a little embroidery detailing along the waist and pockets. I’ve got a few of these and I am going to wear them fairly regularly.

MYNTRA - Check out the kurtas under the brand Taavi, for both women and men. High quality and great design make it a sure winner. I bought a white Chikankari (can never have too many of these) which has proper hand embroidery and not some machine embroidery masquerading as Chikankari (blasphemy). I also bought a green-blue block print kurta from Taavi which has me in love with ethnic wear all over again.

EK by Ekta Kapoor -Did you know that the media mogul has launched her own lifestyle brand that sells clothes, home linen and wellness products? I didn’t until my search for table linen on Google showed me this brand in the search results. I haven’t yet bought from this brand but I found the collections quite refreshing and they seem to be of good quality (hopefully appearances aren’t deceptive in this case). For example, how lovely is this Off White Bedsheet Set? It is sold out or else I’d be seriously tempted to get it even though I have no need for yet another bedsheet set.

Let me know if you like this kind of shopping gupshup in the newsletter and I’ll make sure to keep your feedback in mind for the future editions.

The next issue of Sattva will be the Diwali edit. It will include Diwali gifting ideas (DIY and buying reccos), Diwali recipes, Diwali ethnic chic dressing ideas and more! Do not miss it J

If you want to share with me your gifting ideas, recipes or Diwali looks, email me on saffrontrail at gmail dot com. If it goes with the aesthetics of my Diwali edition, I shall include it in my newsletter.

Check out my Diwali decor idea list that I curated on Amazon last year.

If you like this newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

❤️ Buy me a coffee

❤️ Buy my books

❤️ Join my Instagram family

❤️ Share my newsletter with a friend

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Resources:

10 ways to spend your 10-minute microbreak to stay productive at work

Chilli Photo by Bulbul Ahmed on Unsplash

Taking a break Photo by Dylan Hunter on Unsplash

Shopping Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Sattva: Issue 29

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 04:08:30 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Given how long a break it has been since my previous issue, it is safe to say that this is Season 02 of Sattva 😄

Hopefully, I won’t stay so uninspired for so long and will be back with regular editions each fortnight. Thank you for sticking around and to those who regularly enquired with me about when my next edition will be out. Let’s get cracking!

I’ve Been Meal Prepping

I have been packing my son’s breakfast and lunch for school for the last few months. It means cooking breakfast and lunch first thing in the morning. Although I am very much an early morning person, I like to spend the early hours either writing, walking, or learning something new. Pottering around the kitchen at 4:30 AM is not my idea of fun. To make life easier, I have resorted to doing some meal prep at the start of every week, which not only takes care of the lunch boxes but also some of the meals of the folks at home.

Meal prep for me is keeping ready a bunch of individual components so quick meals can be put together and not cooking entire meals and eating the same thing all week.

I did a detailed post on one of my weekly meal preps on Instagram which got a lot of love from the readers. The components, as well as the meals I prepared from them, are documented in the post as well as this highlight.

Lemons stay fresh for weeks when kept in water in the fridge

Here are some of the items when prepped and kept in the fridge make life much easier. You don’t obviously have to stock up on everything. Choose from the list as per your / your family’s food needs.

Cooked chickpeas (or any other kind of beans)
Cooked sweet potatoes or potatoes
Cheese grated or crumbled (don’t laugh, this is a big time saver)
Curry base [recipe here]
Tomato puree (recipe follows)
Quick pickles (either purple cabbage, pickled onions or beets or radishes or a mix of all) [Pickled Purple Cabbage – recipe]
Salad dressing
Washed and dried lettuce / salad greens
Shredded cabbage-carrot mix (cole slaw mix)
A kind of chapati dough (plain or masala)
A kind of batter (any combination of grain and lentils)
Green chilli-ginger paste (adds a ton of flavour to curries, masala roti dough, and breakfast dishes like upma)
A bottle of something lactofermented such as chillies, bell peppers, radishes or onions.
A spread or a dip like hummus or made with hung yoghurt and spices

Also read:
Meal prep salads for a whole week (vegetarian and vegan ideas)
My weekly shopping basket and meal prep ideas

The equipment

Some of the equipment that I find very helpful for meal prep are the multipot, my OXO mandolin slicer, electric kettle, salad spinner, spice grinders, mason jars or any other recycled glass jars, glass boxes with airtight lids, masking tape and marker pen.

I cannot emphasise this enough. Always label the food you prep and keep in the refrigerator so that you can easily identify what the contents of the jar are (you’ll be surprised at how some bottles look just the same) and you can also keep track of how many days old the jar is.

I have made a Meal Prep Helpers list with these useful items on Amazon for you to check out.

The all-purpose tomato puree you need in your life

Why make tomato puree when you can easily pick up tetrapaks from the supermarket? (lol, does anyone go to supermarkets anymore? – this is a topic for another discussion for sure.)

The tetrapak tomato puree tastes far too sour and does not add any actual tomato flavour to the dish. It is also rather watery. The tomato paste I had written about in my earlier issue is a better option if you want to keep something on hand to add an intense tomato flavour to dishes. But let’s be honest, even though it is a great product, it does not come close to the taste of real tomatoes.

I picked up this recipe to make tomato puree from Punjabi cooking YouTube channel. I’ve made this a few times and I am happy to report that it is versatile, tastes great and stays good for two weeks in the refrigerator.

Homemade Tomato Puree

Take a kilo of tomatoes. Slice off the top end. Cut into quarters and make a coarse puree in the mixer. Do this by using the pulse function often rather than running the mixer continuously which will grind the tomatoes to a thick juice. A few small chunks are fine.
Take this prepared puree in a large heavy saucepan or pateela with high sides. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and let it come to a boil. Keep it partly covered with the lid if it is splattering outside the pan. Let it continue to simmer on a medium flame for around 15-20 minutes.
At this point, add 2-3 tbsp of either mustard oil (great for Punjabi curries) or any neutral flavoured oil (if you want to keep it more multipurpose) to the puree. Stir in a tablespoon of Kashmiri chilli powder, which gives the puree a brilliant red colour. Both the oil and salt act as preservatives.
Continue to simmer this for another 7-8 minutes until the oil separates out and the puree has turned thick with very little residual water.
Pack this in an airtight glass container and refrigerate. This stays good for 10 days.

6 ways to use this tomato puree

The puree has salt so do be careful to adjust the salt added to the dish accordingly.

Add a small ladle of this puree to dal tadka or dal fry instead of adding chopped tomatoes and cooking it down.
To make a super quick pasta, cook pasta according to pack instructions. In olive oil, saute chopped garlic and add 2-3 ladles of the tomato puree. Stir in crushed dried herbs. Toss in cooked pasta and top with grated parmesan cheese.
To make curries, in oil, saute grated ginger in oil. Add the prepared tomato puree along with powdered spices like turmeric, coriander, cumin and red chilli and add any vegetables, or beans such as cooked rajma or paneer to this. It will make a thin ‘jhol’ (thin sauce) like everyday curry.
To make pizza sauce, add some crushed garlic, olive oil and dried herbs to the puree and cook down for 1-2 minutes in a bowl in the microwave.
To make tomato rasam, bring dal water, tamarind water, salt and tomato puree to a boil. Add rasam powder and let it simmer. Temper cumin seeds and curry leaves in ghee. Add it to the rasam.
Add cooked beans, tomato puree, cumin powder, oregano, smoked paprika, chilli powder and you have a delicious Mexican bean mix to be stuffed into quesadillas or to top nachos.

Festive gifting

With Ganesh Chaturthi, we have declared the festive season 2022 open. The next few months are going to be a blur, catching up with family and friends (with renewed vigour this time to make up for the loss of the last two years), celebrating at home, and sharing goodies and gifts. And then it is time to wish happy new year.

Talking about gifts, I’m not sharing a gift reccos list just yet but thinking aloud as to what constitutes a good gift in our current times. [You can check out last year’s The Conscious Diwali Gifting Guide]

I don’t think anyone is excited anymore by a stack of sweet and fried snack boxes staring at them at the end of the festive season. And being a conscious person, the least I want to do is to gift things covered in miles of plastic or any other single-use packaging that adds to the trash generated.

My criteria for a good gift are-

not a sweet or savoury box
nothing perishable
something that does not come wrapped in plastic
something that is zero-waste
something that will stay for months if not years, making the gift worthwhile and memorable
something that won’t be discarded soon
supporting a small business
something that serves a purpose in the receiver’s lifestyle

If you haven’t checked out my book This Handmade Life yet, this is the right time to get your hands on it. Out of the 52 projects detailed in the book, a lot of them make excellent handmade gifts. If you want to make your own soaps, fermented hot sauces, crochet gifts etc. now is a good time to start.

What are your criteria for an ideal festive gift? Do share in the comments below along with any recommendations of category or brand, so I can check them out and compile a list of the best and most interesting ones in the next newsletter.

If you like this newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

❤️ Buy me a coffee

❤️ Buy my books

❤️ Join my Instagram family

❤️ Share my newsletter with a friend

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Resources:

Meal prep helpers - Amazon shopping list

Tomato puree pic -Photo by Anshu A on Unsplash

Gifts pic

Punjabi Cooking - Tomato puree video in Punjabi (no subtitles)

Refika’s best hummus recipe video

Sattva: Issue 28

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 17:15:35 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

How safe is the clean part of mouldy bread?

Good old sliced Wibs or Modern bread used to be bought at home once in a while, when I was growing up. Bread is a staple at home these days. It is something we reach out for to make a quick breakfast or snack or lunchbox for our kids.

That’s reason enough to focus on buying better quality bread without any additives or preservatives. Artisanal sourdough bread and home-baked loaves, while they are great for the zero additives, zero preservative and better-tasting food experience, they also catch mould very quickly. More so in the monsoon months. I have a Mumbai monsoon joke that I can’t resist sharing here. (I would often say that during the monsoons if anyone in Mumbai stood in one place for 2-3 hours without moving, they would catch mould.)

Most of us hate to throw away or waste food. It is a dilemma when you spot mould on the surface of the bread. Should we throw away the whole loaf or can we cut out the part including a safety margin and eat the rest of the bread?

As per an article in IFLscience, fungi or mould develops roots or hyphae into soft foods like bread easily making the mould spread from the surface to the inside, even though it may be visible only on the outermost surface. The spores and hyphae are invisible to the naked but they have already invaded your bread. It is why discarding the outer slices of a loaf and salvaging the slices that look clean is not a good idea.

Mould releases a kind of mycotoxin, that when ingested has been linked to ill effects such as immune deficiency and a trigger for some cancers. There are hundreds of known strains of mycotoxins out of which around a dozen have been studied in-depth due to their common occurrence in food and severe ill effects on our health. Inhaling the spores can trigger an allergy in some people. While most of the population has eaten mouldy bread at some point, be it out of poor lighting in the kitchen or plain laziness, and has come out unscathed, it is a pointless risk to take.

Mould on cheeses or dry-cured meats is safe to eat though.

Youtube comment gold: Truth is that every mould is edible, some only once.

Preventive measures

Examine the fruits, veg and bread before you add them to your shopping cart. If you buy online, check the products on delivery and return anything that looks like it has mould on it or has soft patches. Most online grocery stores have a no-questions-asked return policy.
Keep foods at the right temperature- bread in the freezer, vegetables in the crisper drawer etc.
If you are against plastic wrap, use beeswax wrap to tightly wrap up cut pieces of vegetables or bread and store them in the fridge or freezer as the case may be.

Mac and Tofu - a 15-minute recipe

From the unappetising topic of bread mould, let’s move to something more appetising.

I rarely ever make an ‘authentic’ pasta recipe. Pasta has been my son’s favourite since always which is why I ensure I add some protein to pasta every single time. Either hard-boiled eggs, hard cheese, beans (white beans are my favourite to add to pasta), chickpeas or Mexican-style beans and pasta.

Check out some of the simple pasta recipes on my blog.

My current favourite addition to pasta is tofu. Instead of mac and cheese, try mac and tofu. To start this recipe, drain the water from the tofu by pressing it in between clean cotton towels and keeping a weight on it (like a heavy pan), for 30 minutes to an hour. This is the most important step to making tofu taste delicious.

Mac and Tofu - Serves 2

1 cup macaroni (or any short pasta)
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced
200 g tofu block
Salt, crushed black pepper, dried herbs
2 tbsp tomato paste
3-4 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (omit to make vegan)

Method

Cook the macaroni as per pack instructions (with salt).

Heat the olive oil in a flat pan. Saute the garlic for a few seconds.

Make sure you press out all the water from the tofu as described earlier. Cut into large pieces. This makes the pan-frying process easier.

To the oil in the pan, add the tofu pieces. Season with salt, pepper and herbs. Let one side brown for 1-2 minutes on medium flame and then flip over to the other side.

Add the tomato paste and 1-2 spoons of pasta cooking water. Stir on high heat until the tomato paste coats the tofu well.

Drain the pasta and add it to the pan.

Toss everything together gently so that you don’t break up the tofu pieces.

Divide between two bowls. Top with grated cheese and some extra black pepper.

Try this out for a quick weeknight dinner and tag me @saffrontrail if you post it on your ‘gram :D

Also, try the two tofu recipes from my latest column in Mint Lounge (link in resources).

My secret powerhouse ingredient

The above recipe is incomplete without telling you a bit about tomato paste and why it is one of my favourite ingredients.

Tomato paste is not the same as tomato puree. Raw tomatoes are pulped, the skins and seeds discarded, and this mixture is heated to get a concentrated tomato paste.

It is usually three times thicker than puree, as the name suggests, of a paste consistency while the puree has more water content. The paste can stand in for the puree by adding some hot water and whisking action, but the puree cannot be used instead of the paste. To get one cup of tomato puree, whisk together 1/3 cup tomato paste with 2/3 cup of warm water.

Tomato paste has an intensely concentrated tomato flavour that comes from the long cooking process. A small quantity packs a big punch. It is the best way to add a savoury tomato flavour to any dish without adding any extra moisture. Tomato paste is also less sour than puree. Tomato paste also has a longer fridge life once opened as compared to tomato puree. A few Italian brands are available in tubes which make it very convenient to use and store.

I’ve been using this local brand of tomato paste for quite some years in all kinds of dishes. It has no added sugar, salt, preservatives or artificial colours or flavours.

Mix a spoonful of tomato paste with olive oil, herbs and salt and make an instant pizza sauce.
Add a bit of tomato paste to dal water, along with rasam powder to make tomato rasam.
Add a spoonful of tomato paste to your basic onion-tomato gravy base for curries or dal for a rich tomato flavour.
Tomato paste mixed with a bit of water and added to idli/dosa batter or to upma gives a lovely colour and flavour to our everyday breakfasts.

New stuff elsewhere

Blog | Keoti dal - a recipe for a hearty dal from Western UP

Blog | 10 cake stand decor ideas you will love

Food from scratch - my piece in Deccan Herald

This video I loved making for Bhava Coffee

I was invited to be a part of the IKEA Bengaluru pre-launch and I made some fun videos from my visit. The preview | what I bought | my top picks from IKEA

I made ratatouille for dinner last weekend.

If you like this newsletter, here are some of the ways you can support me.

❤️ Buy me a coffee

❤️ Buy my books

❤️ Join my Instagram family

❤️ Share my newsletter with a friend

Resources:

Mouldy bread on IFLScience

Never eat the clean part of mouldy bread | Science Insider

On kitchen experiments with tofu and other stories - My Mint Lounge column

Indira’s tomato paste

Bread image - Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Tomato paste image - Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 27

Nandita Iyer — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:34:24 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

You can catch up on all the back issues here.

A taste of Swedish hospitality

AI-generated art by Wombat Art

The country that gave us life lessons like Lagom and Hygge to aspire to and fall in love with, recently came under the spotlight for something not so aspirational. #Swedengate took the internet by storm, and it got people talking about hospitality cultures from around the world.

It started with a tweet (a screenshot of a Reddit post) that went crazy viral. The responses to this tweet were an eye-opener into various cultures and why they prefer to not feed a guest or feed a guest until their belly explodes.

Almost every publication worth its salt has had opeds published on this topic. A piece in NPR quoted Richard Tellström, a food historian at Stockholm University who explained this Swedish culture of not feeding guests. “That's because some Swedes think feeding a guest creates a sense of obligation. And in a society that values equality and independence, people don't want to put a burden on someone or feel like they owe someone something.” He also adds that there has been a change in this do-not-feed-guests attitude since the 1990s. Although some others quip in that it has not completely vanished either. Krishnendu Ray, a food studies professor at New York University says that the strong moral imperative to feed others in cultures such as the Indian culture possibly comes from the memory of poverty and hunger and that makes us overcompensate with our hospitality. That is some food for thought indeed.

I was examining my own thoughts on this subject. I love cooking for friends and family. When I someone over, I think about the menu, shop for the ingredients and slave in the kitchen for a few hours. I lay out all the food on the table and expect my guests to take as many servings as they want without me having to force-feed.

There’s also another side to me. Off late I’ve realised that the anxiety of planning the perfect party, the menu and then cooking a lot of food often makes me put off having friends over. Recently, on a quiet weekend evening, I called my neighbour/friend over at 6.30 pm without having a single snack in the cupboard, not even nuts. We had a couple of glasses of wine over some fun conversations and they went back to their home for dinner, which was already cooked and ready.

This lack of pressure to cook an amazing meal enables me to meet friends more often and enjoy the company and conversations, which I have come to cherish a lot in the post-Covid world. Once in a while, it is ok for us to take our focus off food and deeply connect with friends in a setup not cushioned by platters of food. Or just order in pizza and serve it on nice plates with cloth napkins.

I loved what Prof Ray had to say to sum up #Swedengate, "People are just having fun piling on to the Swedes because the Swedes almost get everything else right,"

Link to the NPR story

As A Black Woman Who Lived In Sweden, #Swedengate Is All Too Familiar

A musical rabbit hole

A musical rabbit hole - AI-generated art by Wombat Art

It all started on Sunday with my Guruji Shri Mahesh Kale posting a video of his recent concert in Pune in which he was performing Raag Jog. The combination of an addictive raag along with Mahesh ji’s incredibly soulful singing meant that I was listening to it all day. Jog has a very pleasing nature and one can’t help but feel enchanted when listening to it. The meaning of the word ‘jog’ given in the book – A New Hindustani-English Dictionary by S W Fallon is ‘Union with the Supreme being by means of abstract contemplation or a religious meditation’. This is the best explanation of the experience I feel when I listen to Jog.

From the Jog state of mind, I went back to an old ~~favourite~~ obsession which always reminded me of Raag Jog. The song Sadaa from the Marathi movie Shala ( I had written about it in Issue 11), composed and sung by Mohan Kannan of Agnee band and the female version sung by Calcutta K Srividya who is his sister, are both very close to my heart. I need to listen to them at least a dozen times in a row to feel like I have done a bit of justice to these brilliant compositions.

When you absolutely love a series, don’t you scour the internet to read more about it?I did the same for this song. An article in The Hindu explained that it was composed in the rare Carnatic ragam Shekhara Chandrika, which is the popular Gujri Todi in Hindustani. Gujri Todi is one of my favourite raags in Hindustani music. It was no surprise that ‘Sadaa’ hit all the right spots in my brain, turning into a dopamine fix.

(This is a bit of a complex concept, so skip it if it’s not your cup of tea.) In both Hindustani and Carnatic, there is the concept of pivoting one raag into another by converting one of the notes into the Sa. This is called murchana in Hindustani and Grahabhedam in Carnatic. It is a superimposition of a scale on another scale to arrive at a different raag. It is explained with much clarity by Siddanth Pruthi, in a video in my playlist. A knowledgeable follower on Instagram pointed me to the video where the brother-sister duo used this concept of grahabhedam on the song Sadaa by exploring it in both Shekhara Chandrika and Kadyutha Ganthi.

This led me to this utterly beautiful finale of the rabbit hole, in which the brother-sister duo and their violinist/musician/composer mother Smt Vasantha Kannan performed a thillana in the ragam Kadyutha Ganthi, composed by Smt Kannan.

The journey through this rabbit hole gave me many hours of musical bliss.

While all this raag-talk and concepts may sound heavy-weight, there is enough musical aesthetic and beauty in all these songs to simply sit back and enjoy the sounds, without getting into the technical aspects of it.

I’ve saved all the tracks in a single playlist for your listening pleasure.

Musical rabbit hole playlist

Stuff to read

Life hacks for 2022 – loved this list, especially the one that says ‘Take photos of things your parents do every day. That’s how you’ll want to remember them.’
What explains Indians’ love for churan?
10 everyday moments you should never take for granted
Twitter thread: Cognitive distortions are common thinking errors that can contribute to anxiety and depression. Here are some of the most common cognitive distortions:
Deep purple in the produce aisle
Easy to cook, masoor is your go-to dal
The ultimate jazz playlist

The view from Harry Bosch’s patio

I recently watched the series, Bosch. (Yes, very late to it, but consumed all of it quite quickly.)

The series was utterly binge-worthy for its plots and acting, but the icing on the cake for me was the music and the view. I love how Bosch and his daughter would have take-out dinner at night on a neatly laid-out table. They would then have some quiet time on the patio with the most stunning view of nighttime LA, with jazz streaming out of his turn table. I was hoping to find a ‘jazz on Bosch’ playlist and the internet did not disappoint. I found these playlists on both Spotify and Apple Music - 4+hours of the most delightful jazz that you can play in the background for work or relaxation mode. I’ve been hooked to this playlist on most evenings. I don’t have the LA view but I make do with some beautiful candles and soft lighting, and channelise some magic into my evenings.

The Music of Harry Bosch | Spotify

Bosch | Apple Music

Also, check out the monsoon playlist I had curated for Issue 12 of Sattva.

This Handmade Life

Available now on Amazon (Prime delivery) and in your local bookstores
Catch my Instagram Live with Vasudha Rai, author of Glow, on 12 June, Sunday at 6 pm on @saffrontrail
Instagram Live with kitchen gardening expert @meenakshi_arun on 18 June at 6 pm. Meenakshi is one of the experts featured in my book in the chapter on kitchen gardening.
My interview in HT Brunch - Being creative with food and life
This mini review by my friend Prats Rajesh warmed my heart

If you have bought my book and read it, do share your thoughts about it on social media. I’d be most grateful if you took a minute to rate and review it on Amazon.

P.S.

A limited number of signed copies of my book, Everyday Superfoods are available for Bengaluru folk on the Healthy Buddha website.

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Thank you for reading Sattva. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Books: This Handmade Life | Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 26

Nandita Iyer — Thu, 26 May 2022 06:01:25 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome to my space.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Schedule joy

Our calendars are used to schedule or note deadlines, work meetings and other important life events like parent-teacher meetings or birthdays. The must-do stuff. No one associates calendars with fun unless you are a page 3 person and socialising and having fun is part of your ‘work’ calendar.

I recently came across this profound tweet that says it all.

We need slivers of joy to soften the pressures of work and life. And what better way to ensure we find them than by scheduling them in our calendar. You don’t need to finish the work on hand or wait until the end of the day to enjoy something little that will boost your mood and make you happy.

Add 5-10 minute slots in your calendar a few times a day for things that you love and the things that bring you joy. Practising happiness consciously, just like any other skill that needs regular practice, is the best way to build the habit of being happy.

Some ideas on how to schedule joy in your everyday calendar. This is what I plan to do. You may have your own list.

Making and sipping tea
Savouring a piece of dark chocolate
Reading a few pages of my favourite book
Having a video call with a loved one
Play my favourite song and walk or dance around, depending on the mood and where I am
Playing with my pet
Watch a video from my favourite Youtube channel
Plan my next holiday using these little slots of time
Browse Pinterest for a new recipe to try

If you have any favourite bite-sized things that bring you joy, do share them in the comments. Let’s do this and let me know how it goes for you.

Use up the last scraps in the jar in your fridge

Call it being sustainable or being frugal or plain kanjoosi, it’s time to deal with the many jars occupying precious real estate at the back of your fridge or on your pantry shelves.

The benefits are threefold.

You get to make interesting things with these bits of leftovers.

You get a bunch of empty bottles for use.

You free up space in the fridge.

Let’s get cracking!

All these ideas are for the last bits or 1-2 spoons of leftover condiments.

Pickle - Pour a bit of hot water into the jar, cover with the lid, shake well and add to cooked dal for an achaari flavoured dal.

Jam or marmalade - Add extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and chilli flakes and shake well to get a creamy fruity salad dressing

Add 3-4 tablespoons of oats, milk of choice or yoghurt, cinnamon sprinkle, give it a stir and refrigerate overnight for a delicious breakfast of overnight oats.

Chilli crisp - add some sesame oil, vinegar, palm jaggery and sesame seeds to get a delicious dipping sauce or dressing

Mustard - add some mayo and honey to get a delicious dipping sauce for fries

Peanut butter - Got this delicious idea from Refinery29. Add some cooked noodles, a couple of spoons of hot water, a bit of hot sauce, vinegar, and sliced spring onion greens to the jar. Give it a good shake and your noodle salad is ready. Garnish with sesame seeds and toasted peanuts.

Nutella - Add a bit of warm milk and give it a good shake. Add ice, a sprinkle of cinnamon powder and more milk to fill the jar three-quarters of the way and shake well to get Nutella flavoured milk.

If you have a glass Nutella jar, add milk, cocoa powder and a touch of sugar, and stir well. Microwave this for 45 seconds or stir well to get delicious Nutella hot cocoa.

Hot sauce or Sriracha - add tomato juice, some wasabi paste and ice, and give it a good shake. Add a stick of celery and have yourself a nice virgin bloody Mary.

Honey - add a bit of warm water, a bit of ginger grated and squeezed to get 1 tsp of ginger juice, juice of half a lemon and 1/2 cup of water. Shake well to make your ginger honey lemon juice.

New on my YouTube Channel

This high protein mixed bean salad is perfect for lunchboxes or as a part of a brunch.

A healthier version of sabudana khichdi - Given all the hype over sabudana khichdi in the last few months, here is my way to make it way more nourishing than using the highly processed tapioca pearls or sabudana. It tastes as delicious and you can eat this more frequently, knowing that it is good for you.

9 decor ideas using a cake stand. None of them involves cake.

If you have a pretty cake stand or two sitting in the cupboards because let’s face it, we aren’t baking cakes every day, it’s time to bring it out. There are many creative ways to put a cake stand to use that do not involve any cake. Here are my favourites.

Display your favourite books on a coffee table or sideboard. If you are an author, then display your own books. After all, shameless self-promotion starts at home.
As a plant stand - If you have a few water plants in small bottles, keeping them together on a cake stand makes a more impactful display than keeping these bottles as a stand-alone. This also works with tiny pots of succulents.
3. To organize perfume bottles on your dresser

4. On the dining table for your condiments - Place a lazy Susan on top of the cake stand and place your everyday condiments such as salt, pepper, pickles and herbs on this arrangement for easy access while eating.

5. In a corner of your kitchen counter to hold bottles of oils, vinegar etc.

6. As a table centrepiece with tealights in pretty glasses that gives it height

7. To hold a glass or wooden bowl full of seasonal fruit

8. A multi-tier cake stand can be placed on a console table to keep keys, wallets, cards etc.

9. Multitier cake stands also work great in bathrooms or on a dressing table to hold nail paints and small items of make-up.

If you want to check out some cake stands that you can use in home decor, I’ve curated some in my Amazon store.

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Check out my books here.

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 25

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:33:05 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

My book #3 This Handmade Life is out!

Writing a book is a gruelling process fraught with self-doubt and anxiety as the deadlines approach. My mood swings between detachment and excitement when the book is about to release. Detachment, because I tell myself that I have done my best and there is nothing more I can do right now. The excitement stems from the fact that work of many months or years is finally coming to fruition. And to add to it, there is always an undercurrent of stress on how the book will perform – whether enough people will embrace it and whether it will talk to the readers in the way I expect it to. This is that time for me.

My new book (book baby number 3), This Handmade Life has been out on preorder since 7th April. The copies will be out on 9th May and I am waiting for the date eagerly when the preorders will be fulfilled, and the first feedback will start coming in. If you follow me on social media, you might already know what the book is about. But allow me to tell you a little bit about it.

This Handmade Life is about seven skills that will enhance your life – these are baking, spices, fermenting, soap making, skin and hair care, kitchen gardening and fabric arts. All of these are skills that are useful to create things that we use every single day in our life. These skills make us more self-sufficient and our lifestyle more sustainable in the long run. It is the first time I have written a lot of personal stories in a book while talking about my journey into each of these creative pursuits.

Here’s what Krish Ashok, author of Masala Lab had to say about This Handmade Life.

For most of humanity’s history, the ideal of being interdisciplinary and multi-skilled was the default. We are Sapiens not just because of our outsized brains. It’s because we use our hands and brains to make everything from beautiful art to rockets that leave the solar system. The trend towards ignoring hobbies and focusing on becoming specialists in a rat race is a relic of the industrial revolution. Nandita’s beautiful book is a gentle yet persuasive reminder that mindfully making things with your hands is what we need in a world that is obsessed with short attention span consumption and instant gratification.

Even if you are not a maker, this book will inspire you to pick up little creative projects that are mindful, joyful and fulfilling. The book is about calming the mind as much as it is about making things with our hands. I love that the total number of projects I have shared in the book is 52, one for each week of the year. Once you get into the handmade way of life, it will have you hooked.

Order my book here or look it up in your local bookstores after 9th May. Please support your local bookstores, as they could do with all our support post the pandemic. It makes the perfect little gift for yourself and your loved ones. I will have some book signing sessions in Bengaluru once the book is out. I shall keep you updated via Instagram.

Preorder link on Amazon: https://amzn.to/35WeQnc

A home fragrance I am addicted to. And you will be too!

My kitchen has a mesh window in addition to the glass window, so while cooking I often keep the glass open, and the mesh closed so that there is some breeze coming into the kitchen.

Sometimes, the most beautiful aromas (not food smells) would waft into my kitchen from my neighbour’s direction. I would often wonder what this intoxicating aroma is, and I would always forget to ask her when I met her.

A month or so ago, I went to check in on her as she was packing to move out of the country. And I could smell the same aroma in her living room. Her home smelt divine. Not the sharp headache-inducing smells, but deep and delicious rounded notes that you cannot get enough of. The diffuser was burning at the entrance, and I could not resist asking her what was in it. She not only shared the name of the brand and the fragrance with me but also sent me home with a small bottle of the same. As soon as I went home, I went to their website and ordered a 100 ml bottle of the same fragrance immediately lest it goes out of stock or something.

I’ve been using this in my home almost every day since then and I’ve been in heaven. I also ordered another home fragrance, some candles, and a perfume, going by the reviews on their site. It feels like I have struck gold. I won’t be looking at any other home fragrance in a while. Enough of suspense, right?

The home fragrance is Teakwood from Ekam. The other fragrance that I ordered because of a very key review I read on the site (home smells like an expensive spa) was Noir and man, it is sensational. I later realized that my neighbour had gifted me a sandalwood candle on my birthday from the same brand. I can’t wait to light it when the days turn a little cooler.

Links to all the products I bought are at the end of the newsletter.

If you’ve been a regular reader of my newsletter, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for beautiful smelling homes and spaces. I’ve written about using camphor in diffusers as well as Desi Gulab and Oudh from Song of India in my earlier issues.

A fab place to eat in Gurgaon

It’s not the ideal thing to go ga-ga over a place by just going there once and trying out 3 dishes. But what the hell, I’m going to do that anyway.

One, I haven’t eaten out at any exciting places recently. Two, I cannot take my mind off the most delicious salad I ate there. To be cliched, it was love at first bite. I’m talking about this Vietnamese place, Vietnom, in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon where I stopped by for a quick lunch with my publisher, Milee, a few days ago.

I was already impressed by the beautiful vibrant wicker-rich décor, a profusion of indoor and outdoor plants, super chilled AC (which is a must-have in that weather) and the courteous staff. Each of the 3 dishes we ordered was so on point that I cannot stop recommending this place to anyone who will listen.

The papaya and pomelo salad was a burst of flavours in every forkful. The ingredients were super fresh (this I can tell even in my sleep when restaurants make salads with ingredients that have seen better days).

The crispy tofu had the softest and clean tasting tofu with a crunchy coat and a perfectly balanced sauce. A small minus here was that I could taste the powdery cornstarch in the coating, but given how it fared well in all other departments, I could totally ignore this.

The glass noodle dim sum was a fine choice for the textures of the filling inside the chunky dim sum. I could easily eat a dozen of these, but I had to make a good first impression on my publisher 😆.

We wanted white wine sangrias, but they did not have it, so we settled for some Martini Rosso (vermouth) on the rocks, which was most refreshing on a hot day. If you are in and around Gurgaon, definitely give this place a try.

My YouTube channel is back

I decided to shake off my inertia and fear of being in front of the camera after some solid push and encouragement from my parent network – India Food Network. The first lot of videos have been shot in their studio in Mumbai, which was my first post-pandemic flight in March. I am posting millet recipes and high protein vegetarian recipes to start off and the response has been encouraging. Do subscribe to my YouTube if you haven’t already.

You can check out the latest videos uploaded.

1. Super soft and thin jowar rotis, easy and foolproof method

2. One-pot weeknight dinner – Bajra khichdi

3. Foxtail millet tabbouleh salad

4. High protein: Korean style tofu and broccoli rice

5. High protein: Black bean burgers with no potatoes or breadcrumbs

Resources:

(I’m sharing the links for your convenience. Nothing is sponsored or affiliated.)

Here’s what I bought in my first order from Ekam and I rate everything as 10/10.

Ekam Teakwood fragrance oil

Noir premium fragrance oil

Royal Oudh candle

Fresh Cotton candle

Adele Eau De Parfum

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 24

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:35:29 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Solar recharge yourself

Outdoor mornings with Ida

In a day, how many hours do you spend outdoors? How much time do you spend in the sun? I recently came across this article in FT titled ‘Why I switched to solar time’ on how people are taking a break from their urban lives to live in eco-cabins in the middle of nature to spend their days guided only by the sun.

Given how humans have always lived in sync with nature - the sun, the moon, the seasons and the nature surrounding us, this phase of being completely disconnected from nature is a mere speck in the entire history of humanity. Humans are not meant to be in closed spaces all day. The FT article quotes ultra-endurance athlete Tony Riddle, “we have normalised spending a whopping 21.76 hours of our day inside. Yet when it comes to our wellbeing, sunlight is no different to movement, food and quality sleep.”

Two years of the pandemic have worsened the numbers. People with desk jobs rarely get to be outdoors in the daytime on weekdays. In the case of homemakers in cities, the house chores keep them busy during the day and any free time goes towards some much-needed rest and recuperation. Also, for women, the lack of free and open safe spaces like parks to walk around without feeling threatened keeps us indoors. In most cities, the only place that a family can go to on the weekends is a mall.

One of the main reasons to be out in the sun every day, if possible, is vitamin D. Our body synthesizes vitamin D on exposure to sunlight, and being closeted indoors leads to this deficiency even among Indians, despite having an abundance of sunlight all year round. Lack of adequate sun exposure also manifests as a depressed and moody feeling, aches in the bones, weight gain and bad sleep rhythm among other physical and mental effects.

On some days with writing deadlines and a general dull mood, I do not step out of the house all day, without realising that the dull mood may well be because I did not expose myself to solar power. I am sure you have experienced this too.

Being out in natural light is also important for our circadian rhythm.

Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioural changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark and affect most living things, including animals, plants, and microbes.

We underestimate the power of circadian rhythms. Humans, the so-called most intelligent species on planet earth and are the only ones who spend our lives defying nature’s rhythms. One of the best ways to align our schedules to our body's circadian is to wake up with the sun and step out, even if it is just for 10 minutes. I wrote about it in my issue on walking. If you are unable to step out, open all the curtains and let the natural light inside. Our brain reacts to the light streaming in by cutting off the melatonin secretion (melatonin signals to the brain that it’s night time and time to sleep) and vice versa when it is dark.

I hope this inspires you to spend more time outdoors. We don’t have to rent eco-cabins in the woods for hundreds or thousands of pounds a week to restart our relationship with the sun. Do some research on natural spaces, parks and lesser-known places in and around the city where you live, and spend your free days being out and about. If you know of any such places around your city, do share it in the comments. Let us solar recharge ourselves!

Super soft idlis, every time! #WorldIdliDay

Early this morning, my kitchen was buzzing. I was steaming idlis, toasting dals for molagapodi and preparing a curry leaf tadka for coconut chutney. I was feeling the stress of multitasking when my son walked into the kitchen to fill his water bottle for school. He stopped for a moment and said, "this smells like India." His words made me pause and savour the meaning of what he said so instinctively.

Turns out, today is World Idli Day. For a long time, I was scared of making idlis from scratch because I don’t have a wet grinder. I could be the only south Indian food blogger without a wet grinder in her kitchen! The wet grinder makes the urad dal so much more fluffy and aerated which is essential to get soft, mallipoo-like (mallippoo =mogra in Tamil) idlis. You also need a lesser quantity of urad dal to make the batter when you use a wet grinder.

In its absence, here are some tips (none of which include ENO), to get soft idlis using your regular mixer. Do note that the mixer should be around 750 watts which allows you to grind these batters without the motor burning out.

10 tips for soft idlis in the mixer-grinder

Use a minimum of 1:3 ratio of urad dal and idli rice. Use the whole round urad dal (skinned). A better quality of dal allows you to go up to 1:4 ratio i.e. one part urad dal for 4 parts of idli rice.
The addition of a small quantity of poha along with the dal helps get softer idlis even if you grind the batter in the mixer.
Soak the rice for 4-6 hours or even overnight if that is convenient for you.
Do not soak the urad dal overnight as longer soaking prevents the dal from aerating to its full capacity. I have seen this from personal experience. Soak the urad dal along with the methi seeds and poha for just one hour.
Urad dal soaks in a lot more water while grinding the batter. Rice does not soak as much water. Urad dal needs to be ground to a very soft fluffy consistency while the rice batter can be kept a little coarse. It is therefore important to grind the two batters separately and then mix them together.
The mixer heats up the contents when it is kept running for longer. Use iced water to add to the contents of the mixer while grinding the batter. When the batter gets heated while grinding, a lot of bacteria and wild yeast in the urad dal, methi seeds and idli rice will get killed, not leaving enough population for proper fermentation of the batter. This will lead to harder idlis without the much loved mildly tangy flavour.
Don’t load the mixer with the entire batch of rice or dal. Grinding in smaller batches allows the space for better aeration of the batter. A larger batch will also take longer to grind thereby heating up the mixer.
The mixing of the two batters is a very important stage for optimum fermentation. Take the required quantity of rock salt in your hand and mix the batter well with your hands. The bacteria on the surface of our skin (even clean washed hands) get into the batter, aiding fermentation.
After 8-10 hours of fermentation (faster in hot weather), the batter should have risen well, with plenty of air bubbles inside when you take some out with a ladle. Never beat the batter vigorously before making idlis. Stir gently and ladle the batter into oiled idli moulds.
Always save some of the fermented batter in your fridge to add to the next batch for faster fermentation.

Try this: My recipe for omega-3 rich flaxseed molagapodi

Microgreens in a sieve

The best thing about Instagram for me is that you get to learn little things from each other. There’s always an inspiration waiting in your feed. I grow crunchy bean sprouts using Maangchi’s method but never thought of extending that to growing microgreens. Neha Pol’s post on Instagram was just the perfect inspiration to start doing it.

This is the most fulfilling gardening activity you can do in just SIX DAYS!

What you need

Whole green moong
A sieve with slightly larger holes
A cover for the sieve
A vessel that the sieve fits on

Day 0: Soak whole green moong in a bowl of water.

Day 1: Drain moong and spread it out on a sieve. Place the sieve in a bowl and cover the sieve with a plate. This is to make the moong sprout.

You can wash the moong once during the day if the weather is very hot.

Day 2/3: By now, the moong would have sprouted. Continue same as day 1 - wash the sprouts in the sieve by showing them under running water. This is to prevent them from turning slimy/smelling bad/clumping and catching fungus.

Day 4: Once the sprouts have turned longer into tiny roots, fill the bottom bowl with drinking water such that the roots at the bottom of the sieve just touch the surface of the water. Keep the sieve covered on the top.

Day 5: By now, you will see green shoots come at the top and the roots have grown longer. Change the water in the bowl below. Uncover the sieve. Keep this whole set up on a window sill or in the open air in a balcony but not in direct sun.

Day 6: From day 5 to day 6, you will see a big growth in dark green tiny leaves, longer roots and it is time to harvest. Tug the stems lightly to remove them from the sieve. Air dry on a plate. Trim off the ends of the roots (this could be more fibrous), save them in a paper-lined box and refrigerate. Use in 2-3 days.

Methi Microgreens

I did the same with matki (moth beans). They took two days longer to harvest, so that’s 8 days to harvest. My methi greens are already on day 6/7 and it is a joy to watch them grow on the patio table.

Matki Microgreens

How I use these microgreens

Delicate microgreens are best used as a garnish on toast or salads or just to make any plate Insta-pretty.
Slightly larger microgreens can be tossed as a part of a salad.
Much larger microgreens like moong and matki can be used in theplas or as a stuffing in paratha or omelettes. I made a garden uthappam using the moong microgreens and I was surprised at how pretty it turned out.
If nothing, you can always blend it into a smoothie to get all its health benefits.

Resources:

Circadian rhythm definition
Solar repowering in FT
Neha Pol’s microgreens video on Instagram
Read my column on microgreens in Mint Lounge

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 23

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 17:56:52 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

This issue of my newsletter is going to be slightly different - a bit personal. I want to share with you how my last few weeks have been.

Even though I loathe the term ‘crazy busy’ and I have written about how it is not a good thing to be, it is what I have been these past few weeks.

I continue to be in that somewhat flustered state even now.

The month started with me visiting Mumbai, taking my first flight since October 2019. I almost felt like someone going to the airport for the first time. Quite a few things had changed with respect to check-in and baggage rules. I even forgot the PIN to my debit card when I had to swipe it for something, having used only Google Pay for the longest time.

The Mumbai trip was to resume shooting episodes for my YouTube channel. We shot for two whole days. It did take me some time to warm up to the camera after what seemed like ages but it got progressively easier and better. If you have already subscribed to my channel and have taken me for dead on YouTube, I am resurrecting that :D, so please come back. If you haven’t subscribed, then please do, so that you can watch me do the thing I am most uncomfortable with - i.e. putting myself in front of the camera. Bonus: You’ll have a new recipe video every week, starting in April.

Once the Mumbai work was done, I came back to Bengaluru with my mum and my sis’s family as we all had a family wedding to attend. It was so much fun to travel together as a family, hang out in the airport, check out the shops with my sister etc. The pandemic has made us grateful for each of these little things we took for granted all along.

Last week, we drove to Chennai for the wedding. It was my first long road trip with my mom in a long time and I enjoyed the time with her thoroughly. The wedding was a beautiful affair. Getting ready and being in the company of loved ones (NOT in a screen) was a surreal feeling.

All through this, I had work on two big projects happening in the background. I am a terrible multitasker. I do the jobs well, but my mental health suffers a lot when I have to focus on multiple work deadlines and social commitments, along with the usual day to day chores.

The constant buzz of deadlines in the background all through the days kept me a bit anxious and high strung. To add fuel to the fire, a few of my posts on social media went viral during this period, which got picked up by radio stations, websites and newspapers.

You might think, ‘whoa, this lady even has a problem with going viral’.

Actually, I do.

A large number of responses, the more than usual attention, the fair share of trolls (no viral post without trolling), all of this contributes to stress, even though I don’t check the responses after a certain limit, just to keep my sanity. I even ended up giving an interview and writing a column on one of these viral topics for the magazine, Brunch, in the middle of the wedding and other deadlines. It will be out this weekend.

Drinking tea with Amma in the morning, going for small walks with her in the complex, asking her to make my favourite dishes, talking to her about distant relatives I’ve never met, were my stress busters over the last two weeks.

After we came back from the wedding, the whole of Monday I was locked in my room, ticking off things from my to-do list. Things got a little better yesterday. I woke up very early and got most of the work done so I could spend more time with her before she left.

Today, she has left for Mumbai with my sister and her family. This is what I had tweeted the last time she went back after visiting us.

And this is what I tweeted today.

I absolutely hate goodbyes. While I may not openly cry or show emotions, the first few days after we say goodbye to our parents are always tough. We are reminded of their affection, their simplicity, their caring and their idiosyncracies and of our own impatience and shortcomings.

I type this with a lump in my throat.

It was never my intention to get too personal in my newsletter. But this is the state of my mind today and today is the deadline for the newsletter and I must be true to both. I’m hoping I get to spend more leisurely time with Amma soon, free of any deadline pressures. Forget hoping, I want to make it happen. ❤️

🎉Everyday Superfoods turns ONE

My second book turned one on 15th March 2022. My heartfelt thanks to all those who bought my book but also to those who did their bit in promoting it among their family and friends. The generosity of such recommendations is what helps non-celeb authors like me sell a decent number of copies such that publishers are happy to work with us.

You can read more about my book and check out the reviews in this Twitter thread. If the Covid pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that our health is our biggest asset. No single supplement or food can boost immunity overnight. Eating to maintain good health is a lifelong pursuit and my book is about just that. Do check it out on Amazon and consider getting a copy if you want a dependable partner for a healthy lifestyle.

Also read: Spring-time issue of Sattva from 2021 includes cleaning routines, uses for gulkand, spring-time playlist and sun-dried stuff.

Retail therapy

I bought some interesting stuff last month. You know how vloggers do a ‘shopping haul’ video on YouTube? Well, I’m no vlogger, so I shall share this retail therapy stuff with my newsletter reader friends. P.S. None of these mentions are paid for.

My top buy is a massive chopping board, 21 inches in length from Westside Home that I plan to use as a cheese board or an appetizer tray. I wasn’t planning on getting anything from the home section this time but the sweet staff at the billing desk told me I was eligible for a birthday discount so if I want to get anything else, I should. Very few brands beat Westside in the combination of design, durability and pricing. Their caddy with a rotating base, perfect for storing pens and other stationery (or cutlery) is one of my favourite buys from earlier.

I’ve been a fan of the tea tree face wash from the UK brand Superdrug, even though my skin is dry and tea tree is better for oily skin. I love it for its amazing aroma. When I saw that Superdrug body washes are available on Nykka for a steal, I bought a bunch of them. Tea Tree and Mint is hands down my favourite variety (I almost said flavour lol). Also, check the lime variant which is my second favourite.

I have never worn hoop earrings. Not even the tiny gold hoops a lot of girls wore as kids. I was always a stud-earrings person. For the family wedding I attended recently, I decided to wear golden hoops with the dhoti pants and kimono outfit (Biba), that my friend Janaki convinced me to get. It was nice to find something moderately sized (not a bangle kinda hoop), a simple and classy design that pairs well with both Indian and Western outfits. These are the gold-toned hoops from Myntra.

On Women’s Day, I did a pro-bono collaboration with The Indian Motif, founded by a lovely lady from Bengaluru, Swetha Sunder. Their website has sarees listed by weaves from various parts of India. They are going to have a sale at the end of the month which I will also share on Instagram closer to the date. Meanwhile, browse through the beautiful original handwoven weaves and bookmark your favourites. Mine was this Kutchi Bhujodi saree in off-white and black in kala cotton. They are also on Instagram.

I have bought quite a few blouses from Umbara designs in Bengaluru over the years and have worn them with many of my sarees. For the collaboration with The Indian Motif, Umbara designs stitched a beautiful blouse with Himachali fabric as a border. That reminded me to contact them to get a blouse stitched for the wedding and they did a lovely job, all of this on the remote. They ask you to send a set of body measurements and they do a good job to get the blouse fitting right. It was fun planning the fabric and the design with them on Whatsapp. Do check them out on Instagram.

Did you buy anything fun or is there something in your shopping wishlist you wish to share with me and your fellow readers? Tell me in the comments below.

Holi Salad - an edible rangoli

I made this holi-inspired colourful salad today with kala chana or brown chickpeas as the main ingredient. Using vegetables of different colours gives this salad a vibrant look and you can’t resist digging in. If you read my thoughts on ‘chopping therapy’ you will know how meditative is to finely chop a pile of ingredients, which is the only thing you need to do for this salad.

Serves 8

Ingredients
2 cups cooked kala chana, drained (brown chickpeas)
1 red bell pepper, deseeded, finely chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, deseeded, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled, finely chopped
1 large cucumber, deseeded, finely diced
2 onions, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped coriander
1 cup cooked sweet corn

Dressing:
1/2 tsp lime zest
1-2 tsp green chili-garlic paste (grind 2 green chillies and 4 cloves garlic to a paste)
2 tbsp cold-pressed coconut oil
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

2 tsp powdered jaggery (optional)

(blend all the dressing ingredients in a small mixer jar)

Take all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss well. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

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None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 22

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 09:07:49 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

The first issue of Sattva was out on 3 Feb, 2021. It’s been a year of committing to finding all things beautiful and comforting to share with you. In one year, the Sattva community has grown to nearly 5000 strong highly engaged readers, many of whom tell me that this is the one newsletter they never fail to read.

If you have enjoyed these past issues, may I request you to please share this with a few of your friends who would like it too. If you haven’t subscribed yet, then please do so you don’t miss a single issue.

13 Desi Salad Things

Summer is almost here and you’ll be wanting to eat more refreshing salads. I’ve written a ton of posts around salad recipes and salad making tips and tricks on my blog. Today, I’m sharing with you all about desi salads.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot add a desi flair to your salad. These ingredients are easily available in our kitchens adding familiar flavours that we love to our salads.

Here are 13 of my favourite desi things to add to salads.

Pluck out the leaves from a bunch of methi. Wash and dry thoroughly. Use in salads for a unique mild bitter flavour. Combine with other greens or leafy vegetables like shredded cabbage.
Use a julienne peeler to make noodles out of desi vegetables like bottle gourd or chow-chow (chayote squash). Steam for a couple of minutes and use it to make low carb noodle salads.
Roasted chana is a uniquely desi ingredient. Use peeled roasted chana as is, or coarsely crushed in salads. You can also use roasted chana powder in a salad. This absorbs all the released liquids and prevents the salad from getting soggy.
A spoonful of sev, gaathia or mixture can be added as the final garnish (you guessed it right, just like in a chaat) to add a fun crunch element to your salad.
Leftover idlis cubed, tossed in a little ghee and air fried until crunchy - irresistible in a salad
Use tamarind paste in salad dressings as the sour component. It also gives body to the dressing, making it thicker.
Pickle oil is a flavour bomb. Use it as the oil component of the dressing.
A pinch of garam masala, roasted cumin powder, black salt or pani puri masala added to the dressing reminds you of your favourite Indian foods while making the dressing much more flavoursome.
All kinds of podis, be it molagapodi / gun powder or paruppu podi (lentil powder) or dry peanut chutney add incredible flavour and texture to your salads.
Mor molaga (curd chillies) or sandgi mirchi are chillies marinated in sour buttermilk and salt and sun dried until crisp. These when deep fried or microwaved after a light brushing of ghee turn into super delicious morsels with an addictive flavour. Mor molaga is typically eaten along with curd rice in Tamil cuisine, to add a punch to the bland dish. Crush these fried chillies on top of a salad for a wow effect.
Boris are sun dried lentil based dumplings in Bengali cuisine. These are called vadams (for example, karuvadam) in Tamil. Bori or vadam can be fried in a little ghee in the small tadka ladle, crushed and added for a super crunchy texture to your salads.
Nothing like a desi tadka to jazz up any dish, including salads. Use a flavourful oil like coconut, mustard or sesame and use ingredients like crushed dried red chillies, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, chana dal, chopped green chillies, ginger, sliced garlic and curry leaves (choose 2-3 from this list) in the tadka. Add this tadka as the finishing touch to your salad.
The bomb desi thing to add to a salad is fried curry leaves - looks pretty, adds oomph and of course the much-needed crunch.

Bonus: Coconut! Either freshly grated or thin slices baked in the oven until brown and crisp, the kind they add to chivda. Just the ultimate garnish!

P.S.1 How to make an Indian salad platter and 13 best ingredients for summer salads

P.S.2 On my IGTV: All about Desi Salads

Now get all creative and show me your desi salad creations on Instagram :)

4 tips to make walking more effective

I love walking. Some days I walk for 2-3 hours listening to podcasts or music or talking to my loved ones. You can break down your daily step goal of say 10,000 steps into 3-4 parts so that you don’t need a large chunk of time to spend walking. Walking to the kid’s busstop, walking the dog or walking to a nearby shop, all of it counts. Somedays I don’t have the time to step out for a walk and I’m surprised how at the end of the day I have walked nearly 8000 steps just by moving around the house and outside for chores.

I want to share with you some science backed tips that can make you get more bang for buck i.e. burn more fat from your walks.

Always walk first thing in the morning on an empty stomach even before you have your tea or coffee. When you wake up, your body is in a fasting state overnight with low insulin levels. Walking in the fasted state gives you a better chance of burning body fat. Even a 20 minute walk is beneficial. You can think about your plans for the day while you are walking or listen to some calming music to start the day on a positive note.
Try and grab a 5-10 minute walk just after lunch and dinner, even if it just means a couple of rounds around your building. After a meal, your blood sugar increases and with that the insulin levels also increase. Sustained increase in insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) causes insulin resistance which eventually leads to chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes among many others. So what happens when you walk after a meal? Walking uses up some of the blood sugar so the levels don’t spike as much, and in response to the reduced blood sugar after a meal, the insulin release is also moderate, both of which are a win-win to keep our metabolism in good shape. A study showed that if we do not exercise just after a meal, then the glucose increase after the meal is about 275% of the glucose increase with walking just after a meal. This is also excellent for pre-diabetics and diabetics. Walking right after a meal was shown to be much more effective than walking an hour after the meal. So plan your walk accordingly.
Given that many of us are still working from home, it is quite possible that you are stuck to your work desk for hours on end. Make sure to move around every hour at least for a couple of minutes, which helps contract and stretch your muscles making them more insulin sensitive. You could check on your pet, grab a glass of water from the kitchen or take a small stroll in your balcony. Studies have shown that even these tiny movements every hour make a huge difference to your metabolism.
Walking outdoors instead of the gym has certain physiological benefits too. Natural spaces are rich in negative ions that improve serotonin levels (mood elevating neurotransmitter) and reduce levels of stress hormone cortisol. High cortisol levels are one of the reasons for belly fat. Walking outside post dinner when it is dark outside sends signals to your brain that it is night. This releases the sleep hormone melatonin in the body leading to good quality of sleep. This is the exact opposite of sitting facing a blue screen like a laptop or iPad or phone at bedtime which leads to poor sleep quality. Good sleep is of utmost importance to improving your metabolism.

I share my walking updates often on Instagram stories, so follow me there if you aren’t already.

My new finds for happy feet

It’s been over two years since I went for a pedicure.

I’ll be honest. Even pre-Covid I was never a regular at salons. The salon staffs’ attitude of always pulling women down saying - “Oh you have pigmentation, let me give you a new skin for your face!”, or “You have SO much dead skin on your sole, you should have come for a pedicure every 3 days.” has always been super annoying. It is the reason I have even stopped threading my eyebrows. I’m happy that they are pretty much zero maintenance. And not to mention, avoiding the pain that is almost as bad as labour pain when someone pulls out the hairs from the most delicate skin around your eyes. Nope! Not missed that one bit.

Given that I mostly walk around my home and garden bare feet, and I generally am up on my feet a lot all day, my feet aren’t lady like at all. They are a working woman’s feet. I do like to have pretty feet though and so I decided to take this pretty feet matter into my own hands this month.

Here are the things I bought and used. I am happy to say they are working well. You’ll find links to all the products in the resources section at the end.

‘Foot peeling mask’ - When I read this for the first time, I went WHOA! FOOT PEELING?! Not just skin peeling, but foot peeling! The name is pretty apt. This is a Korean product (as expected). The pack comes with a pair of large plastic socks with an inner mesh and tubes of liquid that you pour inside each sock once you have worn it. The pack comes with tapes to fit these socks snug around your legs. And now you sit around for 90 minutes. Read a book, watch a movie, write a newsletter etc. and let the stuff in the product act on your feet. After 90 minutes, remove the socks and wash off your feet with water. And now forget about it for 7-8 days. The skin of your soles and the top of your feet will start peeling after 7-8 days. You will almost feel like you are losing a kilo of dead skin, no kidding. I was literally running the Deebot 5 times a day in my room to collect all the fallen peeled skin.
And after the 4 odd days of the peeling phase, the soles of my feet are like a baby’s soles.
The product has a bunch of chemicals, but I trust the Korean product companies to do all required tests before unleashing them on humanity. Do a small patch test if you are the types whose skin is super sensitive.
If this sounds like something that would be useful to you, try it out but please do so at your own risk.
P.S. Please do not do it at a time you have to attend any events wearing open footwear. I assure you your feet will look scary in the peeling phase. Be ready for 2-3 weeks of foot-hibernation if you use this product. The end result will be worth it.
Foot cream - If you love the smell of sandalwood and clove and you like your feet to feel luxuriously moisturized, check out Vaadi Herbals Foot Cream. I’m surprised at how reasonably priced it is, given how nourishing it feels and how good it smells. They have a smaller sized jar in case you want to try it out before buying a bigger jar.
Battery operated pedicure device - A friend, Harini, recommended this pedicure device on her Twitter. It is a battery operated cordless foot scrubber to remove dead skin and calluses, that is rechargeable and comes with three heads for varying intensity of scrubbing. I have not personally used this, but as someone who likes to use the manual Scholl’s foot file once in a while, I’m sure the electrical foot scrubber leaves your feet soft and dead skin-free.
Foot lotion - Another product I’ve bought and used recently is the Natural Foot Cream from The Moms Co. With peppermint essential oil and argan oil, it smells great and leaves your feet feeling moisturized and yet not greasy. This is a much lighter product as compared to the Vaadi Herbals foot cream.
If you have any tried and tested product recommendations for foot care, do leave a comment below so all readers can benefit from it.

Feel like reading more of Sattva? Binge read all the issues here like some of my new readers do and then tell me about it in their emails. See you in March.

Resources

Mor Molaga / curd chillies | Urad dal bori

TONYMOLY Shiny Foot Super Peeling Liquid (Nykka / Rs.553)

Vaadi Herbals Foot Cream (150g / Rs.166)

Agaro Callus Remover (Rs.1099)

Natural Foot Cream from The Moms Co. (50g / Rs.174)

Walking image by Josh Hild on Unsplash

Study on walking after a meal

I would love your feedback on my newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva: Issue 21

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 10:12:00 GMT

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

The master of mindfulness: Thich Nhat Hanh

Vietnamese monk, Zen master, Bodhisatva and a spiritual teacher to millions, Thich Nhat Hanh, passed away on 22 Jan 2022. His teachings will forever guide the seekers of mindfulness. In today’s issue, I would like to share with you some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on mindful consumption and mindful listening.

There are two kinds of food we consume. One is the obvious edible food and the other is sensory impressions. Sensory impressions come through what you read, what you watch, what you listen to, the company you keep and so on. For example, it is not necessary to click every link that comes our way on social media or to let videos autoplay on your feed. We do not have to reply to every comment or question that is popped to us on Twitter, or watch every new series that is released. We must exercise a stronger choice on our interactions and what we consume by way of content.

The zen master taught that even conversations are a form of sensory impression and they can be toxic. If a friend or relative is constantly bombarding you with negative and stressful conversations, you must tune out or distance yourself from such situations in your own interest. Sometimes, due to loneliness or anxiety, we allow all of these stimuli to reach us unfiltered without attempting to stop them and this takes its toll on our mental wellbeing.

Even therapists who listen to their clients' problems for several hours a day can get affected by this in the long run and face severe burnout. They may need to see a therapist themselves if they take on more clients than their minds can process.

Thây (“teacher” in Vietnamese and what the master was called lovingly), said that we need to consciously install gatekeepers in front of each of our senses such as eyes, ears, mouth, nose and skin so that we consume only what is good for us. Be selective about the films you watch, articles you read, the people you meet and the conversations you have, so that you will not add toxins to yourself.

The Fifth Mindfulness Training, Nourishment and Healing, says (in part):

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will make every effort to consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and mind, and in the collective body and mind of my family, my society and our Earth.

We have different types of conversations - social media messages, chat, phone calls, in person meet ups, and almost all of us find it difficult to listen, let alone listen deeply. We hear the opposite person’s words and parallely try to process what we hear, giving our own responses immediately, often interrupting the person who is speaking. This is something I had written about in Issue 04 of Sattva - how to listen well. Deep listening is something we can all learn about and put into practise in our lives.

Thich Nhat Hanh on deep listening or mindful listening:

Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less. If you want to help him to correct his perception, you wait for another time. For now, you don't interrupt. You don't argue. If you do, he loses his chance. You just listen with compassion and help him to suffer less. One hour like that can bring transformation and healing.

The above words were from an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The usefulness of the useless

Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful but no one knows the usefulness of the useless. - Chuang Tzu

Great ecstasy comes from doing something useless.

One of the rare times I was browsing through the newspaper, I came across this headline in the Speaking Tree section that made me stop and read. The piece was an excerpt of Osho’s teachings.

When you compare the useless with the useful, it seems like a no brainer of a comparison, right? Why would anyone choose useless over useful? Osho’s writing on this matter was an eye-opener.

What is the usefulness of the beauty of a rose or the calm that you achieve from meditation or the feeling of being utterly moved when looking at a magnificent painting in a museum? There is no tangible value to these things and yet they are invaluable.

The article explained how the useful is only useful to some extent. It has a certain utility, but the useless has no limiting factors. We size up people and things by how useful they are to us, but the real joys of life come from seemingly ‘useless’ things like poetry, paintings, love, meditation or music. These are not utilities in the true sense of the word but they enrich life more than any commodity possibly can.

Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, who was a follower of Lao Tzu, wrote several parables praising the virtues of the useless and this is one of them. It is entertaining as well as thought provoking.

Carpenter Shi was on his way to the state of Chi. When he got to Chu Yuan, he saw an oak tree by the village shrine. The tree was large enough to shade several thousand oxen and was over a hundred arm spans around. It towered over the hilltops with its lowest branches 80 feet above the ground. More than ten of its branches were big enough to be made into boats. There were crowds of people as in a marketplace. The master carpenter walked past it without a second look. When his apprentice finally got tired of admiring it, he caught up with carpenter Shi and said, “Since taking up my axe to follow you, Master, I have never seen a tree of such fine material as this! And yet, you don’t even deign to look twice at it or pause beneath it. Why?” Carpenter Shi said, “Stop! Say no more! This is worthless lumber! As a ship it would soon sink, as a coffin it would soon rot, as a tool it would soon break, as a door it would leak sap, as a pillar it would bring infestation. This is a talentless, worthless tree. It is precisely because it is so useless that it has lived so long.”

Back home, Carpenter Shi saw the tree in a dream. It said to him, “What do you want to compare me to, one of those cultivated trees? When their fruit is ripe they get plucked, and that is an insult. Their large branches are bent; their small branches are pruned. Thus do their abilities embitter their lives. That is why they die young, failing to fully live out their natural life spans. They batter themselves with the vulgar conventions of the world — and all other creatures do the same. As for me, I’ve been working on being useless for a long time. It almost killed me, but I’ve finally managed it — and it is of great use to me! If I were useful, do you think I could have grown to be so great?” Moreover, is either of us in a position to classify and evaluate the other? How could a worthless man with one foot in the grave know what is or isn’t a worthless tree?”

The Taoist philosopher would often tell his disciples to learn from the tree and how being useless saved it. In this context, useless meant not turning ourselves into a commodity that people will try to own and use. Being non-commoditised allows you to live your life just as you want to.

A mindful wardrobe

This is the third year into the pandemic and it may be a good time to update our fabulously unfashionable wardrobes of faded t-shirts and pajamas. And while we are at it, put some thought into it. Here are some tips on how to build a mindful wardrobe.

Don’t let brand emails trick you into buying stuff you don’t need. Unsubscribe to all the shopping emails. One moment you are checking work email, and another moment you click a link in the email and you are on a shopping spree for the things you never wanted in the first place. Instagram ads are also notorious for this by the way.
Do not buy something just because it is on sale. It is useful to keep an ongoing list of some specific items you want to add to your wardrobe - for example, a pair of black jeans, a jacket. When do you visit the store or when a sale comes up, you can pick the stuff you actually need Vs stuff that you buy because it is simply there. Trying out clothes in a store and buying them intentionally is also more mindful than online shopping.
Buy forever in trend pieces that will not go out of style for years to come. I have worn some kurtas and shirts for 15 years and gave them away only because I got bored of wearing them and not because they went out of style. I’m talking about pieces like straight cut solid kurtas, unembellished t-shirts, solid linen shirts, standard jeans, handloom sarees and so on.
Invest in slightly premium clothing which will not look worn out after a dozen wears or washes. The temptation of buying something at a lower price always lurks but the economics of buying a better quality piece works out cheaper in the longer run.
Let me share a pointless piece of information at this juncture. I once won the third prize in a needlework competition in school. There is nothing uncool about doing minor repairs on your clothes like letting it out or taking it in, sewing up tiny tears or missing buttons. Do not trash clothes at the first sign of a small problem with them. I’m so glad that my school taught us some of these life skills, that make me a better consumer today.
On my birthday last month, one of my dear friends gifted me her 30-year-old well-preserved cotton saree that was soft as a baby’s skin. She had worn it once and I had told her how much I loved it. Normalize giving each other items from our wardrobes in good condition especially if you know that your relative or friend will love it.

Quite a few second hand (okay, you may call them pre-loved if you insist) stores on Instagram are doing a great job of reducing fashion waste. Apps like Poshmark that sell second hand clothes and accessories are also making their way into India. Buying from vintage stores is quite a hep thing to do among fashionistas around the world and it keeps clothes from going into landfills.

Some of the staples the mindful wardrobe I am working on are a white linen shirt, a white chikankari saree, black jeans, white sneakers and a couple of black dresses.

*Do let me know your thoughts on this and what are your favourite wardrobe staples.

What to cook in Feb

Green beans or haricot beans are in season. I’m talking about the dark green, tender, stringless variety that is perfect for poriyal or a salad. Try both the salad and the simple subzi with soaked yellow moong. I hope you managed to enjoy some fresh strawberries this season, which is almost drawing to an end. Make the most of fresh strawberries in the two delicious tea-cakes. The cherry tomato vine in my kitchen garden is full of tiny pops of red, telling me that they are in season now. Use them in salads or if you happen to have plenty on hand, make gojju, a lipsmacking curry from Karnataka. With all the winter veggie scraps, make yourself a large batch of vegetable stock to use in soups. All it takes is 30 minutes.

Easy 5-ingredient green bean salad
Light and nourishing steamed green beans with yellow moong - sabzi
Strawberry Yogurt Cake (eggless)
Easy strawberry cake (all time favourite)
Cherry tomato gojju
Tea cake with red carrots and sesame seeds
Vegetable stock in 30 minutes

I would love your feedback on the newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Resources:

Minfdulness: Photo by Carlos de Miguel on Unsplash

Speaking Tree / Osho

Tree: Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

Mindful wardrobe: Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash

Sattva: Issue 20

Nandita Iyer — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 06:20:44 GMT

Hello! If you are new to my newsletter, a warm welcome.

Sattva (सत्त्व) is a beautiful Sanskrit word that has many meanings—spirit, true essence, good sense, wisdom, quality of purity, energy, consciousness and mind, among other things.

Birthday week reflections

It was my birthday last week. I don’t do anything special on my birthdays but I do tend to be more reflective on this day - on how the past year was and how I want the coming year to be.

I started my day by writing down all the things I want for myself in my 46th year. While some things are too personal to share on a public platform, there are a few diary entries from my birthday I would love to share with you.

Some of the (Notes to myself)

Don’t stress over the little things. You do this a lot. Kid not gone for his shower or kitchen in a mess - it is not worth losing your sanity over these things.
Don’t assume bad faith. If you don’t like the way someone has behaved with you, give them the benefit of doubt and move on without lingering on that negative feeling. They may have done wrong by you, but lingering on that feelings makes you take a bigger brunt of that wrongdoing, first at the instance of the bad experience and then reliving it over and over. Keep moving.
Plan your day. But with plenty of free time built in. The free time should be the non-negotiables around which you build the rest of your calendar. Free time isn’t a bad thing. It is the space you offer yourself to nurture your creativity, to think, to reflect, all of which is as important as taking the time to create or work.
Enjoy more beauty. Appreciate a piece of music, art or poetry every single day. Follow more poetry and art accounts on Instagram for little doses of beauty in the day. Look at the scenes around you with the aim of finding beauty. Enrich yourself every day.
Be more connected. The biggest lesson in year three of the pandemic is that lives are fickle. People we love don’t last forever and then all we are left with is regret. Call family and friends more often. Leave voice notes of the silly funny things you experience in a day. Find ways to stay connected.
Take more pictures of pup

Morning pages

Have you watched this gut-wrenchingly emotional mini-series called Scenes from a Marriage? It reflects the pain of a breakup between a married couple, from an ultra close up lens. I first came across the term ‘morning pages’ in this series. The lead actor (the husband) has been asked by his therapist to write a brain dump of three pages as soon as he wakes up in the morning before he does anything else.

I was intrigued.

A few days later, my friend called to wish me on my birthday and we got talking about the books we were reading. She told me about ‘The Artist’s Way’ written by Julia Cameron, who created this concept of morning pages - an approach to journaling as a way to unleash creativity. I read her book The Writing Diet last week and it was fascinating. While the latter parts of the book were all about practical eating tips, the first part about the morning pages helping people eat better was an eye-opener. I now have a grand 4-day streak of writing my morning pages. I’m still too early in the process to advise you on how to do it but I am convinced about how good it is for me.

Here are general tips on how to go about writing morning pages.

Just start. If you have never journaled before, it may sound intimidating at first. Just start anyway. There is no one to judge how you are writing or what you are writing. This is for your eyes only. I’ve found it similar to meditation. When you start meditating, you find a whole bunch of random thoughts flying through your mind but the second you try to focus on any single strand of thought, it goes away from your reach. Similarly, a brain dump may sound easy, but when you start to write, you may find your mind to be empty. Sit down to write anyway and you will find that your mind is more accepting of you looking into it and plucking away on the strands of thoughts, with a few days of pursuing the habit.
Do it first thing in the morning. If you think your mornings are already rushed, wake up 15-20 minutes earlier to find a spot of undisturbed time to do this exercise. Don’t check Twitter (note to self) or Instagram or give in to external stimuli before your morning pages. Think of it as a meditation, keeping yourself as undistracted as possible.
Use a pen and paper. If you are not used to writing anything more than a shopping list or filling a form, your fingers and hand will protest at the process of writing three whole pages. Eventually, the muscle memory of writing exams for three and four hours in school and college days will kick in and it will be less painful. You can never write as fast as your thoughts so there’s no scope for analysing or editing, which is the purpose of morning pages.
Make it something to look forward to. Light an incense stick or candle that you love. Buy yourself a nice notebook and a comfortable pen that can ease you back into the process of writing by hand and loving it.
Keep with the flow. A common question that you may have is what do I write for three pages? Just anything and everything that crosses your mind. Don’t worry about good writing or grammar or the order of things. There’s no need to edit your writing or censor any thoughts. Just do it every day.

So what does writing morning pages do for us?

It sets off a discipline in us that we may find helpful with any other pursuit like exercise, writing, eating healthy etc.
It helps clear our mind, like talking to a friend or a therapist, just more no-holds-barred because you’re sharing this with yourself.
Certain events of the day weigh heavily on our mind - something stressful, rude, stupid etc. but when you write it down, it cuts the event down to size, not allowing it to loom over us. It makes us realise that these things weren’t that big after all for us to rue over.
It is especially helpful to writers and artists who constantly face self-doubt. It makes us more accepting and less critical of our work.

Would you like to embark on this journey of morning pages? Have you done this before? Do share with me!

To read

As someone who is very new to having a pet, this poem made me cry in the middle of the day. Not just mildly choked but big tears running down my face. It made me want to run to my pup and hug her tight, much to her annoyance. I’m typing this right now with her fluffy soft belly under my feet and I can feel the rise and fall of her breathing as she takes her morning nap. Even if you don’t have a pet, please read this poem, How to be a dog by Andrew Kane.

I am a big advocate of hobbies. I love to fill my free time doing things with my hands such as gardening, soap making, crochet etc. My next book (talking about this for the first time!) is going to be centred around this. How hobbies infiltrated American life.

With much confusion about pretty much everything around Covid, an article like this offers some solace to people who are frustrated with others not masking up properly. One-way masking works

Inspiration: Pastry Chef Has a 1000-Plant Farm on Her Terrace With Seeds From London, Arizona - This feature on The Better Life is about my friend Kishi Arora and her beautiful terrace garden.

My friend Krish Ashok writes on a subject close to my heart, sustainability but with a practical approach - The key to planet-friendly food choices

Cooking black-eyed peas for better times - my column in Mint Lounge, with recipes for Cowboy Caviar and Garam Lobia Chaat.

Resources

Scenes from a Marriage, miniseries on Hotstar.

The original Swedish series Scenes from a Marriage (1973) on Youtube

My shortlist of journals and planners

The Artist’s Way - Julia Cameron

The Writing Diet - Julia Cameron

Morning pages photo on Unsplash

I would love your feedback on the newsletter. If you like what you read, please share it with your family and friends. I am grateful for your help in reaching my newsletter to a wider audience.

Books: Everyday Superfoods | The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian

Blog | Amazon store | Twitter | Instagram

None of the product mentions are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

Sattva

"What's in your tiffin today?

“Let’s see what’s in your tiffin today!”

Why is this not safe?

What can parents do?

What can schools do?

Parting thoughts

feb 2025-01

Of bookshelves and dust

Dust If You Must

The best of Indian craft chocolate 🍫

Top Indian bean-to-bar chocolate brands

More Brands to Explore

In case you missed it!

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jan 2025 - 02

make hosting great again

party menu

how to host (almost) effortlessly

This newsletter may contain affiliate links for some products. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission if you purchase something by clicking on my link, at no extra cost to you. It helps support the newsletter.

None of the products mentioned are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

jan 2025 - 01

two many cooks spoil the rasam

back in the kitchen, baby

zero-alcohol bev reccos

darshini drops in Whitefield

This newsletter may contain affiliate links for some products. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission if you purchase something by clicking on my link, at no extra cost to you. It helps support the newsletter.

None of the products mentioned are sponsored unless explicitly mentioned.

A post from Goa

Goa home news

Goa food scene

Shopping list

On morning routines, winter cooking and hello Kolkata

Is there a downside to morning rituals?

A no-recipe recipe for saag - winter greens

Winter specials from my latest book The Great Indian Thali

Instagram post spotlight

Events

23 simple rules for a healthy lifestyle in 2023

If you want to dig a little deeper…

Sattva: Issue 31 - The Diwali Edit

Table of contents

Dressing up for Diwali

Festive ingredients for Diwali

Diwali ki Decor

The essential Diwali playlist

Diwali gifting guide

Banner image: Ladies Playing with Fireworks, school of Mir Kalan Khan, Lucknow, circa 1780.

Dussera special - An announcement

Preorder your copy here.

Sattva: Issue 30

2 bomb condiments you must make at home

1. Chilli flakes

2. MamaK’s super addictive spice mix

10-minute Microbreaks

Here are a few ideas on how to make the best use of these microbreaks.

Diwali Shopping Dhamaka💥

Resources:

10 ways to spend your 10-minute microbreak to stay productive at work

Chilli Photo by Bulbul Ahmed on Unsplash

Taking a break Photo by Dylan Hunter on Unsplash

Shopping Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Sattva: Issue 29

I’ve Been Meal Prepping

The equipment

The all-purpose tomato puree you need in your life

Homemade Tomato Puree

6 ways to use this tomato puree

Festive gifting

Sattva: Issue 28

How safe is the clean part of mouldy bread?

Preventive measures

Mac and Tofu - a 15-minute recipe

My secret powerhouse ingredient

New stuff elsewhere

Resources:

Sattva: Issue 27

A taste of Swedish hospitality

A musical rabbit hole