Salads: An evergreen recipe to stay healthy

Combination of fresh greens, vegetables, fruits, fragrant herbs, beans, sprouts, tofu, cheese, rice, pasta, meats, fish or poultry, nuts and seeds — salads can be a perfect accompaniment or a complete meal in itself. Not only does a salad add visual excitement, it also adds flavour, crunch and lends character to the meal. 

They can be served chilled or warm with sweet, spicy or creamy dressings. The key to a good salad is at least three primary colours and simplicity in flavour.What makes a salad such an integral part of healthy eating is that you can eat as much of it without worrying about calories. Depending on the other ingredients and the kinds of dressing, content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates vary.

Dressings usually are a clever balance between tangy and sweet. Always choose cold pressed oils like extra-virgin olive or sesame and for a sharper taste mustard can be truly magical.

Creamy dressings can be made lighter with hung curd and low fat mayo, ketchup and mustard. The tang can be provided with natural acids like malt vinegar, rice vinegar or the robust balsamic vinegar, or simply orange juice and lime. Throw in some toasted seeds like sunflower, sesame, flax and nuts to add the crunch.

Low on calories and loaded with fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, salads can help beat the flab without your the need to portion control. They can be treated as free foods, with the exception of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starches which need to be limited.

Salads provide certain vitamins and antioxidants, such as vitamins B and C and folic acid, which get destroyed when heated. They also provide special disease fighting plant pigments called phytochemicals, which have antioxidant properties. These chemicals protect us from chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cataract and ageing.

One of the major concerns of salads is their microbiological safety. Make sure that raw vegetables and fruits are thoroughly washed in salted cold water or potassium permanganate solution, if possible. Choose organic produce whenever possible.

 If you have a garden, grow as many fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs as you can, organically. Over-ripe or bruised vegetables and fruits can be a source of infection. Make sure that you do not leave cut fruits and vegetables for long durations. In general, avoid eating salads outside the house or in cheap eateries.

With endless varieties and novel combinations right from the good old Russian, coleslaw, tossed green and Caeser to the exotic ones like nicoise, Greek, salads are surely a recipe to good health.

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Big relief on subsidised LPG cylinders

Now you can buy more than one cylinder per month

Post government decision to raise annual quota of subsidised cooking gas, the Cabinet allowed consumers to buy more than one subsidised cylinder in a month. The government had raised the annual cap on supply of cheaper LPG from nine to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each. Therefore it paved way for one cylinder in a month.

These developments lead to a public unrest as they generally require more than one cylinder in a month. The Oil Ministry cleared a proposal for consideration of the Cabinet suggesting that consumers should have the freedom to book a refill after 21 days, within the overall cap of 12 subsidised bottles in a year.

According to sources the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister agreed with the proposal. The sources also added that raising the cap from nine to 12 cylinders will impose an additional financial burden of about Rs 3,801 crore per annum.

The government had initially capped the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to six per household annually in September 2012 which was further raised to nine in January 2013. Consumers who exhaust their quota have to buy LPG at the market price of Rs 1,258 per cylinder whereas; subsidised LPG costs Rs 414 per cylinder in Delhi.

In addition to the above mentioned developments, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) also decided to scrap the decision of making Aadhaar cards mandatory to get subsidy on domestic LPG cylinders. However, the decision to delink Aadhaar cards from the subsidy has not been implemented due to certain clarifications that are awaited from the Cabinet. Courtesy:PTI

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Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) fined for Rs 5 lakhs for not providing drinking water

The National Consumers Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has sent a strong message to civic authorities that often get into litigation for denying basic amenities to consumers by opposing their genuine complaints. Pulling up the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to failing to provide clean drinking water to residents to MGA Hisar, the apex court has imposed a fine of five lakh rupees on the authority.

“Public authorities spent more money on contesting cases than the amount they might have to pay to the claimant. In addition thereto, precious time, effort and other resources go down the drain in vain,” said the NDRC bench presided over by VB Gupta.

The residents of MGA Hisar had complained to the district consumer forum that even though plots in the residential area had been opened to purchase by HUDA, there was no supply of clean drinking water and no provision for waste management. The authority argued that they were supplying water in the morning and evening through tube wells, and there was no need to provide cannal water.

“The officials of the petitioner authority in the present case are bent upon not providing water that is for human consumption to the allot tees of the respondent,” the bench said.

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