5 easy and healthy recipes for summer vegetables available in India

There are several vegetables that have become native to India and grow only in the summer season. While consuming vegetables have their own benefits depending on the type of vegetable and its nutrient constituency, having seasonal vegetables is way more beneficial: it is grown organically, is loaded with nutritions, is cost effective as it is abundantly grown in the particular season, has a better taste as it is harvested at the right time, and is also environment friendly.

In India, vegetables like bottle gourd, pumpkin, okra, are abundantly grown in the summer season.

Here are few easy to cook recipes of the summer vegetables found in India:

This is also known as lauki. Though not a favorite among kids, lauki is mostly cooked in Indian households due to the immense health benefits it provides the body.

Lauki helps in weight loss, it aids digestion, it is known to cure sleeping disorders and it also improves heart health.

There are several ways you can have lauki. You can grate it, steam it for a few minutes and after it cools down mix it with curd and have it as a raita.

Or else, you can make a lauki soup for dinner. To make lauki soup, pressure cook chopped lauki, onion, tomato and capsicum. Blend the steamed vegetables properly. In a pan take some butter, put some cumin and add the blended lauki paste and cook it for a while. Put some salt and black pepper.

Read: Foods that are rich in Vitamin B12 and B12 dense recipes that are easy to make

Many of us wait for the summer season, just to have the delicious parwal ki sabji for lunch. Parwal is a typical summer vegetable in India. It is known to delay aging, protects from frequent colds and also checks cholesterol.

While there are several parwal recipes, an easy one that can help in weight management is given below:

Take a few parwal, cut them into pieces, and shallow fry them. In the same pan take one tablespoon of oil, put some cumin, fry ginger and garlic paste. Add cardamom, cloves and other masala to it and fry it for a while. Add the fried parwal to this along with salt and turmeric and cover everything for a few minutes. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Who doesn't love spicy and tangy bhindi ki sabji? This summer vegetable is a favorite of many. Bhindi is a rich source of fibre; 100 grams of bhindi contain 3.2 grams of dietary fibres.

Bhindi is good for gut movement and is also considered to be one of the best vegetables that people with diabetes can have.

Here's a simple and tasty bhindi recipe that anyone can make.

Wash the bhindis, dry them completely and cut them into pieces. In a pan take a little bit of oil. Add some cumin, ginger paste, green chilli, garam masala and put the chopped bhindis to the pan and cook it for a while. Make sure you do not overcook the bhindi. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Cucumber is a summer vegetable that holds the highest water content among all the other vegetables found in the season. Due to its water content, cucumber is used widely in Indian households with meals during this season. It is also medically advisable to have cucumber in order to beat the heat waves.

The health benefits of cucumber goes without saying. No weight loss plan is complete without a mention about cucumber. This watery vegetable can be sliced, diced, chopped and added to your salad or curd. Cucumber does not have its own flavor therefore it absorbs flavours very easily.

These days brinjal is found round the year, but actually it is a summer crop. Brinjal is recommended to those with diabetes as its glycemic index is 15. Since it is low in calories it is also considered good for weight loss. Rich in antioxidants, brinjal has innumerable benefits for our body.

A simple brinjal recipe would require a brinjal, a tomato, ginger-garlic paste, an onion, a few chopped garlic, green chilli, salt and turmeric. In a pan take some oil, add cumin seeds, add ginger garlic paste and cook them properly. Add tomato and onion to this, add salt and turmeric and cook till tomato is cooked properly. Add the chopped brinjal and cover the pan with a lid. Cook, till the brinjal pulp has cooked properly.