Tukmaria seeds (ocimun basilicum) are sacred in many Asian countries, due to their excellent nutritional properties. They are an ingredient used in Ayurvedic medicine in India, but also in Southeast Asian dishes, including desserts and drinks. Other popular names are falooda and basil seeds.
Although tukmaria has been part of a balanced diet in many countries for ages, it is almost unknown in many western countries. In part due to the success of their "cousin" chia seeds, they are now being discovered and gaining popularity in Europe and America.
Tukmaria seeds are very small (similar to poppy seeds), black and have a neutral flavor.
Soya beans (glycine max) are the most nutrient rich legume with the most food derivatives. It comes from an herbaceous plant that can grow from 50cm to 1m high and has about 10 thousand varieties. In China it was considered one of the five sacred seeds and held responsible for the very country’s survival due to its nutritional use as a source of protein.
This year is definitely the year of the chia seeds.
Across time seeds have preceded all agriculture. Seeds are a very rich and important food source since mankind started farming 11 thousand years ago. We are referring to corn, wheat, rice, legumes and oilseeds, all of them within the seed group, so familiar to us and part of our food pattern.
In the later years new seeds have become available, such as flax, sesame, poppy, chia, etc. However, they are not new at all: they have been used for many centuries by ancient people like the Maya and the Aztec and are now fortunately being re-discovered because of their nutritional value.
