“Who
moved my onion?”, “Onion may touch Rs.100/kg by Puja”, “Onion free with
purchase of tyres”, “Know your onions”, “Amid LOC firing, India plans to buy
onions from Pakistan”, “Soaring onion prices brings tears across India”-these
are all the headlines the humble onion is making in newspapers across India!
Get on to any social networking site and you’ll find
hundreds of ‘original’ teary jokes and see ‘rings’ with the onion taking the
pride of place instead of a diamond! So much brouhaha over the price of one of
the most essential ingredient in most menus seems justified. Jokes apart, yes,
they do make you cry when you have them and also when you don’t!!
I’m not a student of economics, but here’s a thought-if
the demand for onions falls, won’t the rates too take a dive? What if we all
use onions sparingly? Normally where you would need 2-3 onions/ day what if you
can make do with just 1 onion in two days? How???? For starters, try making
your regular dishes by reducing the amount of onions or even omitting the onion
altogether or the next simple alternative: prepare
dishes that don’t need onions!
Is that possible? Cooking Indian food without onions?? Of
course it is- there are many communities who make delicious food without onions
or garlic. Even Ayurveda advocates the ‘Satvik diet’ in which pungent foods
like onion, garlic, green chilli and others are not recommended!
Here’s what I do- make dishes that does not require
onions, simple! It’s not impossible-think about it. There are dishes in your menu books or that you regularly make which do
not require onions-just make these dishes till the onion prices fall, which it
will eventually. I’m sure most people are
already doing the same, for those at a loss here are a few dishes that you
can try out for the next few days:
Read more: Face the onion crisis with these 'No-Onion' dishes. Published in Citizen Matters (26th August 2013)
