Cool curd rice for summer:

Ingredients:
Rice: 1 cupr
Water : 3 cupsr
Thick curd: - 3 cupsr
Finely chopped coriander leaves – ¼ cupr
White grapes (slit into halves) – 1 cupr
Broken Cashews – ¼ cupr
Curry leaves – 15
Red chilly – 2
Mustard – ¼ tea spoonr
Asafetida – 1 pinchr
Sugar – ½ spoonr
Ghee – 2 tea spoonr
Oil – 2 tea spoonr
Salt to taste

Method: cook rice in a pressure cooker with recommended quantity of water. The rice should be cooked till it becomes soft. Take out the rice from cooker and spread it in a large bowl and allow it to cool. When rice gets cooled add finely chopped coriander leaves, curd, grapes, salt and sugar to rice. Place a ladle on stove and roast cashews with ghee and add it to rice. Heat oil in a ladle, add mustard to it. When it crackles add curry leaves, chilly and asafetida. Pour this on curd rice. Mix everything well.

Benefits of Ingredients:

Rice consists of lots of carbohydrates. This acts as an instant energizer and refreshes body and mind. It gets digested easily and quickly. It is an ideal health food for those who are debilitated and weak and require easy assimilation and quick energy. Texts of ayurveda recommend rice gruels along with buttermilk for digestive disorders such as diarrhea, dysentery, morning sickness, colitis, and jaundice.

Grapes: Grapes act as body coolant. They boosts memory power and act as a brain tonic. They help to relive constipation and promote digestion. These berries act as cardiac tonic and increase blood hemoglobin. Grapes are known to balance rakta (blood) and pitta. Hence they are very useful in gout and allergies. They strengthen the lungs and help in patients who are recuperating from tuberculosis, bronchitis and asthma. Grapes help in cystitis and burning micturition as they sooth the inner layers of bladder and act as diuretic. Fertility of men and women increases with the regular consumption of these berries. They strengthen the female reproductive system and increase the sperm count and sperm motility. Grapes play an important role in boosting immunity of skin and thus protecting it from various skin disorders.

curd:Intestinal infections like cholera, typhoid, amoebiasis etc usually surface during summer. Consuming curd daily during summer helps to increase intestinal flora (friendly bacteria present in intestine). These bacteria increase the resistance of our intestines to these infections. Hence curd is known as a probiotic.

Probiotics are the good bacteria that promote healthy digestion and build immunity. The most common friendly bacteria (probiotics) are lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. These probiotics are easily available in the form of curd (yogurt). Persons who cannot digest milk can digest curd easily.

Consuming curd rice daily especially during summer, keeps the digestion and intestinal problems away. According to ayurveda curd absorbs water from intestines (hence called as Grahi). By the virtue of this property it is widely used to treat diarrhea and dysentery. It mitigates vata dosha, increases kapha and pitta. Curd helps to increase quality and quantity of semen, strengthens the body, accelerates digestion (agni), stimulates taste buds and acts as an appetizer.Curd reduces irritability of bladder and helps in emptying bladder easily.