Tag Archives: Salads

Recipes: Carrot & Radish Salad

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I have been eating a lot of salads these days and try to make different salads so that we don’t get bored of eating the same thing every day.

I tend to use radishes a lot. Radishes are packed with nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants and are a great addition to your daily salads.

Radish contains phytochemicals that have anti-carcinogenic properties. Additionally, they have vitamin C which helps keep your body and cells healthy. They also have anti-hypertensive properties that help control hypertension or high blood pressure because of the potassium in it. Radishes are low on the glycemic index and high in fibre so it a great vegetable to incorporate for diabetics. Radishes are powerful when it comes to eliminating toxins. This helps keep your liver and stomach in mint condition.

Traditional thinking does say that people with diabetes should not eat carrots, but that is not really correct. Currently carrots have a GI of 41, which is not too bad and is at a moderate level. Carrots are full of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, and potassium.

This is a very easy salad to make, and takes just 10 mins to prep. Just remember to dress the salad just before eating as it becomes very soggy when the radish releases its waters when it comes in contact with salt.

Carrot and Radish Salad

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium sized carrots
  • 1 medium sized radish
  • 6 cashew nuts
  • 6 almonds
  • 4 walnuts
  • 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp honey
  • Handful of coriander leaves
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

  • Grate the carrots and radish and mix it together in a bowl.
  • Finely chop the coriander leaves and add this to the grated carrots and radish and mix it together.
  • Cover and refrigerate until its time to serve.
  • Chop the nuts into very small pieces and dry roast them in a dry pan until they are crisp and slightly brown.
  • In the same pan, add the sesame seeds when the nuts are almost crisp and stir until the sesame starts to pop. Let it cool and keep aside.
  • When you want to serve, prepare the dressing by mixing together the lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper into a smooth emulsion.
  • Drizzle the dressing on the salad and sprinkle the crisp nuts and sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Navratri Recipes: Sweet Corn Sundal

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Another Navratri sundal recipe. This one came about serendipitously. I actually wanted to make something sweet that day but became late to make the offering so thought of making something with sweet corn. I made it like any sundal, but changed it up a bit. It also makes a very healthy salad or as a side for your main meal. S loved it so much that he made me make it again the next day.

Sweet Corn Sundal

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups frozen sweet corn
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/2 tsp broken urad dal
  • 1/2 tsp white sesame seeds
  • 1/4 cup grated coconut
  • 1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
  • 3-4 curry leaves
  • 1 tsp green chilli paste
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Boil the sweet corn in a microwave for 5-10 minutes seasoned with some salt until the corn is soft and cooked.
  • Heat the oil in a pan and when it warms up, add the mustard seeds and let it crackle. Then add the urad dal and sesame seeds and stir for a while till the urad dal turns a golden brown colour and the sesame seeds start to pop. Don’t let them turn black.
  • Add the asafoetida and curry leaves and let the curry leaves become crisp.
  • Now add the green chilli paste and stir for a few minutes. Then pour in the cooked corn and let it stir for 2-3 minutes.
  • Check for seasoning at this point. If you are making this as an offering, then no tasting, please.
  • Drizzle the lemon juice and the grated coconut and switch off the flame.
  • Serve hot as a side dish or cold as a salad.

Recipe: Pasta Salad

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This recipe for Pasta Salad has been with us for a while now. I think I may have made it after seeing something similar some years back or even discovered it accidentally. Anyways, this is a go-to recipe for me when we are bored of Indian food and this makes a great lunch box idea for children and even adults when you want a no-mess lunch which you can eat on the go or at your desk.

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet raw pasta
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 2 bell peppers, chopped
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 cup frozen paneer
  • 1/2 cup sliced black olives
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 2 tsp cumin powder
  • 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

  • Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the pack. Let the pasta be al dente and not overcooked. Drain and keep aside to cool.
  • Heat up the frozen corn and when thawed, drained and keep aside.
  • Soak the paneer in hot water for 10 minutes, drain and chop into small pieces.
  • When cool, mix together the pasta, onions, bell peppers, olives, paneer and corn and mix well.
  • In a smaller dish, mix the spices, olive oil and lemon juice into a marinade.
  • Pour the marinade into the pasta salad and mix well. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves. Check for seasoning.
  • Cover and keep in the fridge for a couple of hours. Serve cool.

Recipe: Mango Salsa

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After the function, we had some extra mangoes. These were not the Alphonso mangoes which are super sweet, and so I was not very keen on making a milkshake out of them. We tried eating them, but since they were not very sweet, nobody was really interested in that. So instead of wasting them, I thought I’ll quickly whip up a salsa with the mangoes. The mangoes were sweet enough for the salsa, and the combination of the different vegetables was superb! Even S and BB, whom I thought would say spicy, loved it!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

  • 2 mangoes, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
  • 2 onions, chopped finely into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped finely into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 green chillies, sliced finely
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 tsp cumin seed powder
  • 2 tsp lime/lemon juice
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

  • Chop the mangoes, onions and red bell pepper into bite sized pieces and keep in a large bowl
  • Add the ginger and chopped chillies as well as the cumin seed powder, lemon juice and toss well
  • Add salt to taste, toss well and garnish with coriander leaves
  • Chill for a few hours if you want for a better infusion of taste

Recipe: Cabbage Salad

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Cabbage Salad 1I’m typing this from Yogyakarta, Indonesia where we are for our semi-annual holiday. We’ve been here for just a day now, but I love what I saw so far!

Before leaving, I wanted to finish off the vegetables in the fridge and saw this quarter head of purple cabbage. I decided to make a salad out of this and it was such a hit, I made it three times this week! I experimented with purple cabbage and green cabbage as well as other vegetables, and each variation was superb! Even S who would not eat a salad if he could was raving about it.

This recipe requires a bit of prep work beforehand, but it is completely worth it!

Cabbage Salad

Cabbage Salad 3Ingredients:

  • 1 half head of cabbage (I used purple cabbage in this photo, but you can also use green cabbage)
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

For the dressing

  • 3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsps lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a pinch of sugar
  • a handful of cashewnuts
  • a handful of almonds
  • 2 tsps white sesame seeds

Cabbage Salad 4Method:

  • Shred the cabbage (you can do this easily using a madolin slicer, otherwise, just shred finely with a knife)
  • Grate the carrots
  • Chop the onions and bell pepper lengthwise in fine strips
  • Chop the cashewnuts and almonds into small pieces or silvers and dry roast them in a pan till crisp. Remove from flame and dry roast the sesame seeds till they are slightly brown and crisp. Let this cool completely.
  • Toss and mix the shredded and chopped vegetables well. Add the coriander leaves and keep aside till it’s time to eat. You can pop it into the fridge till needed.
  • Around 15-20 minutes before it’s time to eat, remove the salad from the fridge and make the dressing.
  • For the dressing, in a small bowl, add all the dressing ingredients – olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper and stir well.
  • Pour over the salad and toss well. Add the chopped and roasted nuts and serve.

I also added grated radish to one of my versions, and that too tasted great!

Cabbage Salad 2