Postpartum Balanced Diet - For Digestion For New Moms, its a tradition in Southern India to prepare a marundhu called Prasava Legiyum. This legiyum has lots of nutrition packed ingredients that helps the New Mom's in digesting their food. Some food the mom's take might not get along with the baby while they are still feeding the baby. So this legiyum helps the mom to digest their food so that the baby feels good with the mom's milk. Thats the main reason, we have a tradition to follow a balanced diet postpartum.
But now doctors are not recommending the diet we followed for years. My mom strictly followed the Pathiya Samayal (Postpartum balanced diet). I believe that these strict diet are surely having a positive effect on new mom. But again, its individual belief and trust. Its always good to get organic ingredients just to make sure we have good quality ingredients to make this Legiyum. Whatever the mom eat's its going to directly impact the babies if they are breast fed. So more care has to taken to prepare balanced diet. But no need for second thought on this Legiyum. The ingredients we are using is quite available in all of our pantry and we know its nutritional benefits too.
Along with the Ingredients, I specified here, we also use "Parangi Pattai", "adhimadhuram (licorice). Some of the these ingredients are hard to get outside India, so I have given with the ingredients that are usually available anywhere so that the New mom's around the world can really get benefitted with this Legiyum. This legiyum, not only for new moms', its good for everyone. After eating heavy food, sometimes we feel so full and feel like its not getting digested, so at those time, if we have this legiyum, we can take a small gooseberry size legiyum and consume for easing the digestion.
If you are interested in Postpartum recipes, there few recipes listed in
Prasava Legiyam | Postpartum Balanced Diet For Digestion | Marundhu for New Moms
Ingredients
- 100 gms Coriander Seeds
- 25 gms Cumin Seeds
- 25 gms Pepper
- 10 gms Dry / Fresh Ginger
- 50 gms Ajwain / Omam
- 4 Pieces Cardamom
- 15 gms Arisi Thipili / Long Pepper
- a Pinch Nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon Turmeric Powder
- 1.5 Measure Grated Jaggery For 1 Measure of ground paste, we need to take 1.5 measure of Grated Jaggery
- ¼ Cup Ghee / Sesame Oil
Instructions
- First gather all the ingredients other than jaggery and ghee and add water and soak it together for 2 days. Keep the soaked container in refrigerator for 2 days
- After 2 nights , take out soaked container from refrigerator and using a ladle or spoon take the ingredients and add it to mixer jar. Do not discard the soaked water. We can use it for grinding the soaked ingredients and even for cooking.
- Grind all the soaked ingredients to a coarse paste. Add the soaked water and grind it. Let the consistency be thin as we need to cook it first before adding jaggery. Also let the paste be coarse. If the paste is smooth, cooking with jaggery makes it chewy
- Once the paste is ready, measure the paste. I got 2 full cups of the ground paste. For 1 measure of the paste, we need to take 1.5 measures of grated jaggery. For example, if you get 2 cups of ground paste, we need to use 3 cups of Grated Jaggery.
- Take the grated jaggery in a sauce pan, add ½ cup of water and allow the jaggery to melt completely.
- Heat another pan, add the ground spice paste. If the paste is thick, add a cup of water. We can use the leftover soaked water also. Keep the flame in low and cook the ground paste for about 5 minutes
- Then strain the jaggery juice and add it to the pan. Now the legiyum mixture will become diluted again. Cook the legiyum till it becomes thick like a porridge
- When the legiyum becomes like a porridge consistency, add ghee and again cook in low flame till it becomes more thicker like a pudding consistency. Switch off the flame. Instead of ghee, we can also use sesame oil. Sesame oil and ghee both helps to cool down the stomach.
- Store the Prasava Legiyum in air-tight container and refrigerate to retain the freshness. New mom's can take a small gooseberry size legiyum after they eat which will help in digestion. In fact its not only for new mom, its very good for digestion for anyone.
Video
Method:
- First gather all the ingredients other than jaggery and ghee and add water and soak it together for 2 days. Keep the soaked container in refrigerator for 2 days
2. After 2 nights , take out soaked container from refrigerator and using a ladle or spoon take the ingredients and add it to mixer jar. Do not discard the soaked water. We can use it for grinding the soaked ingredients and even for cooking. Grind all the soaked ingredients to a coarse paste. Add the soaked water and grind it. Let the consistency be thin as we need to cook it first before adding jaggery. Also let the paste be coarse. If the paste is smooth, cooking with jaggery makes it chewy
3. Once the paste is ready, measure the paste. I got 2 full cups of the ground paste. For 1 measure of the paste, we need to take 1.5 measures of grated jaggery. For example, if you get 2 cups of ground paste, we need to use 3 cups of Grated Jaggery. Take the grated jaggery in a sauce pan, add ½ cup of water and allow the jaggery to melt completely.
4. Heat another pan, add the ground spice paste. If the paste is thick, add a cup of water. We can use the leftover soaked water also. Keep the flame in low and cook the ground paste for about 5 minutes
5. Then strain the jaggery juice and add it to the pan. Now the legiyum mixture will become diluted again. Cook the legiyum till it becomes thick like a porridge
6. When the legiyum becomes like a porridge consistency, add ghee and again cook in low flame till it becomes more thicker like a pudding consistency. Switch off the flame. Instead of ghee, we can also use sesame oil. Sesame oil and ghee both helps to cool down the stomach.
7. Store the Prasava Legiyum in air-tight container and refrigerate to retain the freshness. New mom's can take a small gooseberry size legiyum after they eat which will help in digestion. In fact its not only for new mom, its very good for digestion for anyone.
