Simple Healthy Detox Recipes What To Eat Post Holiday Dinner Or Feast

I hope you all had a great time with family and friends this Diwali season, along with good mithai or sweets, chaats, and dinner. We really had a great time this year and loads of fun with our kids. For bloggers, Diwali, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas starts a month early than others. I hope all bloggers can relate. This year has been a blockbuster for me, guys. Thank you Thank you 🙂 And now, right after the holiday, all we crave is some light, fresh and healthy lunch or dinner that we can prepare with minimal effort. This is how one of my simple meal plans looks like - detox or infused drink, fruit salad (fresh fruits), and curd rice with cucumber (yogurt rice with cucumber).

I must say this is a comfort meal for us and this is what we prefer after every holiday dinner or after we had a big feast 🙂 Out of 3 recipes, 2 of them involve zero cooking. For curd rice with cucumber, if you have leftover cooked rice, it just needs tempering, which takes less than 5 minutes. The meal below is planned, keeping in mind easy cooking and cleanup. The meal is also a healthy, refreshing, and ideal body cleanse (sattvic) recipe. Let me explain the benefits of each recipe here. Do read this to know their benefits.

Cucumber Lemon Lime Infused Water or Detox Drink

A significant benefit of this drink is that it aids in digestion, alkalizes the body, and is high in vitamin C. It also boosts your energy levels, delivers antioxidants, promotes hydration, supports weight loss, etc. I can go on.

Fresh Fruit Salad

A salad containing fruits is something that not only keeps you full, it is delicious too with a combination of different flavors and colors. It also has a power-packed dose of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. As you all know a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower blood pressure and is good for weight management.

Curd Cucumber Rice or Yogurt Cucumber Rice or Dahi Chawal

Curd Cucumber Rice helps to restore healthy microbial balance, which in turn helps for good digestion. It keeps you cool and refreshing too. It boosts immunity and acts as a stress buster. For South Indians, eating rice is very important and is their staple food. So a day you skip rice, you feel you have not had a proper meal (whether it is lunch or dinner). But if your dietician recommends you skip rice in your meal, then this recipe may be an ideal way to train your mind and body to get accustomed to a smaller rice intake. The recipe substitutes half of the rice portion with finely chopped cucumber, thereby tricking our mind of having consumed a regular meal. In this way, you are satisfied that you have eaten rice but are actually reducing the rice portion by adding cucumber. The addition of cucumber gives you additional benefits of detoxifying your body, keeps your body cool, helps keep the body hydrated, relieves constipation, and is rich in vitamin K.

My detox meal plan after a heavy lunch, dinner, or holiday party is very simple: Infused drink or Detox water drink - flavors that I add may keep changing Fresh Fruit Salad - a combination of fresh seasonal fruits available that day in my pantry Cucumber Yogurt Rice or Cumcuber Curd rice

How to make Cucumber Lemon Lime infused water?

In a drinking glass, add 3 to 4 slices of cucumber, 1 slice of lemon, and one slice of lime, and pour water. Drink as needed. You can make this in a pitcher and sip throughout the day.

How to make the best fresh fruit salad?

Use the combination of fruits that you love and simply toss it with any fresh fruit juice (pineapple, apple, or orange). You can serve immediately or for better flavors mix and keep in the fridge for an hour or so.

How to make curd cucumber rice or yogurt cucumber rice?

1 tablespoon Oil ¼ cup Raw peanuts or Groundnuts 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds 1 tablespoon Urad dal 1 tablespoon Chana dal 3 Dry red chillies 10 Curry leaves 2 to 3 cups Cooked rice or leftover rice 1 Cucumber, medium sized finely sliced ½ teaspoon Salt, adjust to taste 2 cups Yogurt or Dahi (500 ml) ¼ cup Pomegranate 1 tablespoon Coriander leaves or Cilantro 2 Green chilies, finely chopped I had leftover rice from our previous dinner party, and I am using the same. You can cook any preferred rice of your choice and use it in the recipe. Just make sure rice is at room temperature. In a pan on medium heat, add oil. Once hot, add peanuts and roast it on a medium flame for about a minute. To this add mustard seeds, urad dal chana dal, red chilies, curry leaves, and saute till peanuts are roasted and urad dal and chana dal becomes golden in color. In a large bowl, add cooked rice, thinly sliced cucumber, salt, yogurt or dahi, prepared tempering, pomegranate, coriander leaves, and mix until combined. I have reserved a portion for my kids and then finally added green chilies. If your kids eat spicy food, then you add it with all ingredients. I generally mix all this and keep it in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving. We like it, and it tastes the best when served cold, where the flavors are also combined If you feel the rice curd mixture is dry you can add water or more curd and adjust. But if you are keeping it in the refrigerator, wait till you are ready to serve as cucumber will leave some water.

Always taste the cucumber before you add it your infused drink or to the curd rice. Some variety of cucumber may be bitter. This is a very flexible recipe. You can adjust all ingredients to your taste. All three recipes can be ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator. In this way, you spend less time in the kitchen, relax one day 🙂