 Hello and welcome to Healthy Cooking 101 with the Sisters. Today we are here with Nicole and my name is Sharon and we are going to make a very interesting Indian meal. But just before we do that, Nicole, would you please pray for us? Of course. Let's bow down and believe and pray. Dear Jesus, thank you so much for the gift of life. Thank you for the gift of food and even the fact that we're able to eat and enjoy it. I pray that even as we learn this new recipe and teach it to your children, I pray that you may bless us, bless those who are listening as well. And Lord, we will be able to practice it to our learning and make our meals more interesting at home. In Jesus name, I pray, trusting and believing. Amen. Amen. So today we are making Palak Tofu. I know many people know Palak Paneer. Or where did you hear Palak Tofu from? Did you know Palak Tofu first or Palak Paneer? Palak Paneer. Yeah, Paneer is I think a kind of cheese. Yes, I prefer the cheese. Indians prepare it in a special way. Okay, so now we are doing a plant-based alternative for that. It is, we use Tofu instead of the Palak, instead of the Paneer. And Palak is just spinach in Hindu. So it's just spinach tofu. So Nicole will just lead us through the ingredients. So first, we are going to use spinach and this spinach, Sharon, what did you do to prepare it? Can you tell us? This spinach is blanched. What we mean by blanched is first we soaked it, we removed the stems and then we soaked it in hot water for about five to eight minutes. And then we poured out the hot water and then added in some cold water. It sat in it for a little bit and then we removed it and now that's why it looks semi-cooked because it's actually a bit cooked. The reason we put in the spinach in cold water is to stop the cooking process after we put it in the hot water. So your veggies don't turn into that ugly, sorry, ugly jungle green that veggies usually turn into when they're overcooked. Okay, so next we have tofu. And this tofu, if you've interacted with tofu before, you know it comes as a block. So once we got this tofu in a block, we pressed it to remove the excess water, cut it into cubes and oven roasted it and tossed it in oil, nutritional yeast and salt. Nutritional yeast is optional, but it always adds a little nice flavor. It has almost like a cheesy flavor, as you can see. Yeah, so that's what this tofu, we already did that. So we put it in the oven just for a few minutes for it to dry and firm up. So we have our trusted ginger and garlic mixture. We have chopped up processed onions. We have a bit of tomatoes. And this is cashews, right, Gora? Yeah, we could use cashews, but for this one we are using coconut. So this is coconut cream, sorry about that. And just a little bit of water. Just in case, we may not need it, but it's just good to always have water on hand when you're cooking, just in case things dry up a little bit. Yes, and as usual, salt is always needed for our ingredients, for our cooking. And then we have a spice mix, Sharon, would you want to tell us what's in the spices? The spice mix has gara masala, it has cumin powder and it has turmeric. Yeah, and then there's just a little bit of salt at the bottom, I had actually added some salt. Okay, and these are whole cumin seeds, whole cumin seeds. And just before we continue, I know many of you, if you've never interacted with tofu, I'm sure you're wondering what tofu is. So tofu is basically, it's made out of bean curd. So it's made out of cuddled soy milk and it's compacted and it's made into this block. And it's another way of eating beans. A different protein, yes. Yes, so that's what tofu is. It can be made at home or you can buy it from the store. Okay, so we get started. So we turn on the fire and let our pot get hot. And then we can add in some oil and then the onions. How many tablespoons of onions would you like? Maybe three, three would be good. Let me first put in the oil, then we can... So we put about a tablespoon to two tablespoons of oil and then the onions. You can already hear them starting to sizzle. Let me get something to stir that here. Oh, here it is. Yeah, you can go ahead. So you just let that sweat a little bit. We won't let it cook for too long because we are going to double cook it because we will blend everything together with a spinach. So we'll just let it cook just a little bit and then we'll add in the garlic and the ginger and then we shall add in the tomatoes. Sharon, I've heard you say before that we should always blend our tomatoes and just to clarify, why haven't you blended them? Because we will blend the tomatoes eventually. Once we have cooked the onions and the tomatoes, we are going to mix it in with the spinach and blend it, so we'll still blend it. It's going to end up being blended. Yeah, also the reason I didn't blend it even though I know I was going to blend it after was because if you blend it, then it makes it watery. And we don't want our watery, palak. We want something that's nice and thick. So you can add in the garlic, ginger paste. It's good enough. And the cumin seeds. So it's going to start looking like it's sweating a little bit. We'll give it about a minute and then we can add in the tomatoes. Maybe you can put in the tomatoes now and let them cook just a little bit. Yeah, so you just let it simmer for a little bit. And yeah, so Nicole, as you wait for the tomatoes to simmer, what other ways have you eaten tofu and which ones do you enjoy the most? First of all, even the way it is right now is really nice. So even preparing it like this and having it in a wrap so you can get the tortilla wraps that are usually in the store and then just have these veggies and a nice dressing. And it's really amazing. I've had tofu almost like a dry fry. I've had tofu in a curry. And I've had, if I can say tofu looking like scrambled eggs, like minced tofu. And I've had a good experience with all forms and the ways of eating it. In you, what's your favorite? For me, this is my favorite and I think that's why I'm really enjoying doing it. It's a favorite in my home. I find it's also a quick and easy way to prepare a meal because then you don't even have to do veggies on the side because you've made your tofu with the veggies. Yeah, so this is my favorite. And yeah, I've had all the ones you've had. I've also had one which has a cashew cream as a sauce. Yeah, so I think it's a very versatile ingredient. You can use it for different things. And funny enough, before I interacted with tofu, I had such, it has such a bad reputation. So people said how it was so bland and how it tasted awful. And I came in skeptical and having, I just believe anything can be awful. It just depends on how you prepare it. It depends on how it's prepared. So it's really important. And a reason I like bland food is because it's very easy to soak up all different flavors. Yeah, so that's why tofu is really good to prepare because just because it's bland, that makes it even better because it doesn't really have a strong taste. So it's easy to manipulate and make whatever you want. Also for people who want to do French toast without egg, you can use tofu. Yes, yes. So maybe we will do that recipe sometime soon. So I think that's good enough for now because we shall cook it again. So we can turn off the heat. And then in the blender, we can put in the spinach. So maybe you can start with, which one is a bit more liquidy? This one? Yes, yes. I think the pan is a bit hot. Let me help you. You can pour it in. So we'll just leave the pan here because we're going to use it again. And then now we can add in the spinach. I didn't go into cutting the spinach. You can cut it or pick it apart if you want. But we're gonna blend it anyway. So I'm just avoiding adding that extra liquid that was there. So that we have the thickest and the creamiest consistency in terms of our sauce. And also the water can be maybe a bit better because it was from already slightly, because it cooked a bit being in the hot water. So now when you move to the cold water, it may be a bit better if you try to use it to cook. So in case you go to blend and you find that it's not as liquidy as you'd like it to be, you just add in some fresh water. I don't think I clicked it anywhere. Yeah. The handle has to be on this side, I think. Yes. There we go. Our blender is not plugged in. Oh, sorry about that. There we go. I'll just give it a pause to help the blender so that everything gets mixed in well. I'll give it one more stir, stir. It's ready now. Yeah. Just to show you the consistency, we have almost, it's a little thick because of the spinach, but that's the consistency you're supposed to be going for. Yeah. So we'll go back to our pan and then we'll just add in just a little bit of oil just so that the spices don't stick to the bottom. So as you said, we have turmeric here, we have cumin powder, and we have garam masala. So you can put in some chilli if you want and we'll have some salt as well. So you can put in chilli if you would like. You can put in cayenne. Yeah. So you just toast the spices just a little bit in the oil and then now we can add in the spinach. Don't worry, it won't be this thick as we cook it. We'll add in a bit of coconut. So at this point we'll add in our coconut. You can see it's turning a bit creamy. So once it just starts to bubble a little bit, you can put in your tofu. Yeah, so it's starting to bubble. So you can put in the tofu before. Thank you. So just let it simmer and it's done. You can have it with rice, you can have it with naan, you can have it with chapati. Do you think it can be hard with the garlic? Ah, why not? We can try it, I mean... This is a whole balanced diet because all you need here is a starch. We have our veggie, we have our protein. Yeah. So even though I put in the salt, you can want to taste just a bit. Maybe just add, maybe just add up. Then maybe two pinches. That's fine. Yeah, so it just simmers just a little bit. You also don't want to keep stirring because tofu is very fragile and of course because it's soaking in the liquid, it's very easy for it to start to crumble. Yes. When I was young, younger, I used to feel like green was such a gross color. So when food was green, I would almost turn away from it. But trust me, this might be looking green where it's absolutely young. It's amazing. It's really, really nice. So let me just reduce that heat. And that's about it, right? Yeah, that's it. So Sharon, would you want to taste this? Yeah. So just get a spoon and we can put it in this bowl here. Actually, you should taste because it will give you a nice plate. Okay. Okay. You go ahead. It's the moment of truth. It looks good. I hope it tastes as good as it looks to you. I'm sure it will be. When you call you silent, most times the food is really good. So if you're eating with hands, you're talking maybe you need to check the meal. It's amazing. It's nothing short of amazing. And I know sometimes you can feel like the spinach would be bitter or anything. Or overbearing. It's not overbearing. It's just green and that's why the meal looks like this. And I hope you guys enjoy this session with us. Please, please, please don't just watch and sit on your couch. Get these ingredients and make this meal. And when you make it kindly take a picture and tag Nairobi Central on any of the platforms and be sure to ask any questions you have in the comment section and for any advice or even if you've made this before and you have a hack that can help any of us. Give us, give us those hacks. Thank you so much. Thank you Sharon for taking us through that. Thank you. God bless all of you and have a blessed day, evening, morning, whatever time it is you're watching this. Bye. Bye.