Peanut Chaat / Peanut Salad

I made this quick and easy salad when my best friend came over for lunch. It is full of protein and very tasty too. Me and my friend had planned some physical activity that day and this power packed salad did help us to keep going! But, this definitely is not the thing if you have peanut allergies.

A perfect snack or a meal by itself for you all to enjoy! One can add other vegetables of your choice like cucumbers, bell peppers, roasted corn, cubed and boiled potatoes. You can also add some paneer and crumbled feta if you are a cheese lover.

Get Ready

• 1 cup raw peanuts
• 1/2 mango peeled & diced
• 2 carrots finely chopped
• 3 green onions chopped
• 1/4 tsp ginger grated
• 1 tomato, remove pulp and chopped
• 2 jalapeños thinly sliced ( keep seeds if you want some heat)
• 1/2 tsp chaat masala
• Salt to taste
• Lots of chopped cilantro
• Lemon/ lime wedges to serve
• Thin sev for garnishing.

Go

• Soak the peanuts in water for 1 hr and pressure cook with little salt for 3-4 whistles. Once the pressure cooker cools, drain the water from the peanuts and set aside.
• Prep all your veggies. Chop them in the same size as your peanuts .
• In a bowl, add the peanuts, chopped vegetables, salt, chaat masala and toss them well.
• Adjust salt and chaat masala as per your taste.
• Cover and refrigerate .
• Before serving, squeeze a little lime juice from a wedge and garnish with sev, mint chutney or serve just like that and enjoy!

Fruit salad

Thanks giving is round the corner! All you peeps must be getting ready to have friends and family over to celebrate!

So here is an easy dessert that will be a crowd pleaser. The only work is chopping the fruits, but you must be having a lot of manpower in the household. So put them to use..!

A very easy make ahead dish and that will make you a rock star in any party!

Get Ready

• 1, 8 oz tub Cool whip lite
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 mangoes diced small
• 1/2 cup grapes cut in half
• 1 small tub blueberries
• 1 pear peeled and diced ( soak them in water mixed with lemon juice so they don't brown)
• 3 cups strawberries hulled and chopped
• chopped nuts like walnuts, almonds ( optional)

any other fruits that you have in hand  like oranges, apples, cantaloupe, pineapple and bananas

Go

• In a bowl add the cool whip, sour cream, sugar. Whip till the sugar is well incorporated
• Add the chopped fruits, toss them well

• Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate.
• Add bananas, apple etc at the end before serving so they don't change color.
• Serve chilled as a dessert.

Also check out my cranberry orange bread and Cranberry Salsa

Happy Thanksgiving!

Carrot Kosumalli / Carrot Kosambhari

Kosumalli is a light carrot salad, usually served in weddings. Crunchy carrots with a lemon juice, green chillies and spiced with asafetida and mustard seeds is sure a welcome taste amongst other feasts served in the weddings.

I used some moong dal to give extra crunch. It can be served as a side or main meal.

Get Ready ( serves 2 as a side)

• 1& 1/2 - 2 cups grated carrots
• 2 green chillies chopped fine
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp moon dal soaked in water for 20 mins and drained ( optional)
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• pinch of asafetida
• salt to taste
• cilantro ( optional)

Go:

• In a bowl add the carrots, salt, lemon juice, soaked moongdal and mix well.
• In a kadai, add oil, do the tadka with mustard seeds, asfetida and green chilli.
• pour it on top of the grated carrot, toss them all.
• garnish with cilantro.

Serve cold or at room temperature.



Cuke Poha salad

This is a very easy breezy cucumber salad recipe that my aunt used to make. Adding poha to the salad was very new to me. I tasted this many years ago and wanted to make it so badly now. My dear aunt now is old and lives in a senior facility. She used to be an excellent cook, but now she is  unable to cook a single meal. I dedicate this salad to her and her excellent cooking skills.

Get ready:

• 1 English cucumber, peeled and small diced
• 1/3 cup poha
• 1/3 cup unsalted peanuts coarsely ground
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 green chillies
• 1tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 1 tbsp coconut
• chopped cilantro

Go:

• Add the cucumber, poha, a little salt and mix well. let it sit for 15 mins so the poha will absorb all the water from the cucumber.
• Add the crushed peanuts, chilli, ginger, grated coconut, salt, sugar, lime juice, cilantro.
• Toss them all and serve.

Tastes good when served fresh.
sending this salad to bookmarked-recipes

Cranberry Salsa

Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving!!! I was away in Boston and New York visiting friends and family, and had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I was thankful to have such wonderful company! I missed you all and wasn't able to visit your wonderful blogs. But, here I come with an awesome salsa that I made with my friend in Boston. Our Thanksgiving lunch included cranberry salsa, vegetable dum biriyani, sweet potato fries, butternut squash with rosemary, and apple pie. It was SO DELICIOUS!!!
Cranberries are abundant around this time and especially in the New England area. They are tart and sour and are a kind of wild berries. They are mainly used as a sauce or a relish for Thanksgiving feasts. Try this spicy salsa and you would wanna stock up cranberries forever!!! :)

Get ready

• 2 cups fresh cranberries (Cut them in halves or quarters) 
• 1 1/3 cups chopped red onions
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons minced green chiles
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 5-6 tbsp. orange juice
• Salt to taste

Go!!!

• In a bowl, mix the cranberries, chili, onion, cilantro well. Add salt and sugar according to your taste.
• Add lime juice and orange juice; toss well.  The lime juice and orange juice can be adjusted according to your taste.

Serve as a side and enjoy!!!

Pretty easy, huh?

Again, happy Thanksgiving and ENJOY!!!

I'm happy to inform you that I am amongst the 5 selected in holiday eggless cookie contest hosted by Manjula's Kitchen. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT!!!!!! (:-)

Black eyed beans salad with Date & Tamarind Dressing

This is a very healthy, protein & fibre packed salad. Could be enjoyed any time! Even though the name sounds like a mouth ful, the salad dressing is similar to the sweet chutney one makes for bhel puri. Why not do we use it as a dressing? i did and am happy that I did it. If you will like the tangy and sweet taste with a kick of chilli at the back, you sure will like it.

Get Ready: (serves 2)

• 1/2 cup Black Eyed Beans (BEB)
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 cup chopped green and red bell pepper (Chopped to the size of the beans)
• 1 inch grated ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 3-4 dates
• 1 tsp jaggery/ brown sugar
• 1 small marble size tamarind
• 2 tbsp warm water.
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1  dried red chilli
• salt to taste

Go:

• In a pan add 1 tsp of oil and roast the black eyed beans for a few mins. By this you don't have to soak the beans for it to cook well.
• Once cooled, cover with enough water and pressure cook for 4 whistles. You can omit this step if you want to use canned BEB.
• Soak the tamarind and dates in water for 15 mins.
• Add the cumin powder, red chilli, jaggery, salt to the soaked tamarind dates and blend finely. This is our dressing.
• Toss the cooked BEB, bell peppers, ginger, cilantro and the dressing till the dressing coats all the beans & peppers.
• Refrigerate  or use immediately as a refreshing salad.

Curried Shell Pasta salad with Yogurt & an Award

The classic macaroni salad uses Mayo as the main ingredient in the dressing. Mayo has eggs and more calories to contribute!

So why not substitute mayo with yogurt? The Greeks and Lebanese use yogurt with pasta, so why not me?

So, I did it!  This  is an excellent, to die for pasta salad with home made yogurt. It was so creamy and did not fail in the taste. This salad tasted even better once chilled.
So here is a quick and easy pasta salad for any time of the day, for those busy bees out there! I also threw a hand full of black eyed beans left over from the previous day.

Get ready:

• 2 hand full of shell pasta (dry one), cooked aldente
• 1/4 onion chopped
• 1/4 red pepper diced
• 1/2 samll jalapeno
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp sambhar powder
• 3-4 tbsp low fat yogurt
• Cilantro 1 tbsp chopped.
• salt to taste.

Go:

• In a bowl mix the yogurt, cilantro and salt to taste. Keep aside
• Keep the cooked pasta aside.
• In a pan, add oil. When hot saute the onions and jalapeno till the onions are translucent.
• Add the red pepper, black eyed beans and sambhar powder and saute for a few minutes.
• Turn off the heat.
• Toss the sauted onion, pepper mix  into  the pasta and yogurt dressing .
• Serve chilled.

PS: You may also add some grated ginger or green peas as per your taste. the options are endless!

Akila of Learning to cook passed me this award. I am so humbled and would like to give her a big thank you. She has an excellent collection of recipes and please check it out.

I would like to share this with

 Food For Thought!!

priya mitharwal
Satya
Kiran
Ragini
Priya Suresh
Aipi
Prema
Jay
Sameena

Quinoa Herb Salad

In case if you have not heard of Quinoa (Keen wa) it's an ancient seed packed with protein which has been around for ages.

However I started using it since last year and I love it!

You can make Quinoa upma/ kichdi which I have posted earlier.

Recently I tried this salad and it was pretty good. There is no measurements for this. The only tip is wash the quinoa before you cook, so that the bitterness is removed. Bitter taste comes from the saponins on the outside of the grain.

What ever measure you use, add 1 & 1/4 cup water and pressure cook the quinoa.

Let it cool, as this is a cold salad.

Once cooled, fluff it with a fork.

Add any vegetables of your choice.

I used grated carrots, basil, mint leaves, cilantro, jalapeno and peanuts.

Add salt and lemon juice to taste.

Easy and yet nutritious salad for your lunch box is ready in a jiffy!

Enjoy & have a nice weekend!



Sprouted Moong and Bulgur Wheat Salad

Bulgur wheat and Sprouted wheat are packed with nutritious goodies. Both of them are also low glycemic foods. if you're wondering what that is any food that has a high Glycemic Index (GI), ie > 70 have been known to increase to sugar levels.
It's simple and satisfying salad and it's my lunch today!

I did not measure anything as I just threw in stuff that was available in my fridge.

2 hand full of bulgur wheat
1 handfull of sprouted moong bean
2 cup of water.
1 jalapeno pepper, cut into small pieces
1 small carrot chooped fine
couple of spoons of chooped tomato
salt
cilantro
lemon juice to taste.
1 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of Hing.

Boil water and add it to the Bulgur wheat. cover and let it stand for 30 mts. Drain the excess water.
add the moong sprouts, carrot, tomato, salt, cilantro and lemon juice according to taste.
In a pan add oil. Once hot add the mustard seed sand let it pop. now add the Jalapeno pepper, hing and saute for a few seconds.
Add this as a tadka to the salad.
So easy to put together in the morning

Now pack and off to work!
Sorry about the atrocious picture :((

I would like to send this to  and Siri's Corner

started by susan's MLLA


and also to priya's

Paneer Pasta salad with Grilled Veggies

Grilled veggies, Bread, Paneer Pasta salad

I saw this recipie in one of the food magazines and added my touch to it. It tastes wonderful and I am gonna keep making this for my lunch often. I basically used stuff that was on hand. I guess you can add as many veggies and other goodie stuff you want to this versatile salad.

This recipe has been in my draft for a long long time and never got published. This is very simple, but satisfying pasta salad.

Get ready:

• Corkscrew vegetable pasta 1/2 cup
• Yellow pepper 1/2 cut into length wise pieces
• Red pepper 1/2 cut as above
• 8 grape tomatoes
• 1/4 red onion cut lengthwise
• 8 cubes of paneer
• Olive oil
• 2 bread slices cut into cubes ( i used honey wheat)
• salt & pepper to taste
• sambhar powder to taste
• cilantro to garnish

 Go:

• Cook pasta as per package instructions, drain and toss with a little olive oil.
• Combine all the vegetables, onion, with olive oil, salt and pepper and a little sambhar powder.
• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non stick spray.
• Spread the veggies , paneer and bread cubes and bake for 20 mins till the peppers are done, tomatoes shrivelled.

Add it to the pasta and garnish with cilantro.

Time to dig in..... and bite into the wondeful colors and texture of this salad.