Colorful Black bean Salad

 Here is a very simple, hearty and delectable salad.

The only job, trust me is to chop a few vegetables in to bite site pieces similar to the black beans. One can use chick peas, red kidney beans or moong beans. I used canned black beans plus what I had in my refrigerator. fell free to play with any veggies that you may want to use.


Get Ready ( serves 4)

• 1 15 oz can of balck beans, rinsed & drained
• 1 small onion chopped ( red would be the best)
• 1 orange bell pepper de seeded and chopped
• 6-7 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 small mango chopped ( iused the one sliced from costco)
• 1 corn steamed and separate the kernels ( frozen will work fine too)
• plenty of chopped cilantro
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp chaat masala
• salt to taste

Go

Seriously nothing other than mixing everything and eating.

one does not even need a dressing for this salad. The juice from tomato plus chaat masala will be sufficient.

It is sweet, crunchy, spicy and wonderful!

Enjoy!

Zucchini Moor koottan / Zucchini moru curry

Zucchini / cougette is a type of squash available in summer in USA. I did not know that it is also called seemai sorakkai in India. I have never eaten in before I came abroad. I have made a simple vegetable dish with onion and channal dal which my kids love. Yes, sorry, i have never bothered to post that on my blog. Zucchini has a lot of water and can get easily over cooked which has happened to me ehile making kootu !

I have also made  Zucchini Rice which tastes nice which you can check it out.

This time i made a moor kootan with Zucchini and we all loved it. Here is the recipe!

Get Ready

• 1 zucchini washed and cut in big chunks
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt/ thayir whisked

To Grind

• 2-3 tbsp grated coconut
• 1/2 tsp rice
•  1/4 tsp jeera
• 1 green chili
• small piece of ginger ( optional)

To Temper/ tadka/ thallika

• 1/2 tsp coconut oil ( or nay oil)
• 1/2 tsp kadugu/ mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp vendhayam/ fenugreek seeds
• 1/4 tsp asafetida/ hing
• few curry leaves

Go

• In a bowl add 3/4 cup water, pieces of zuke, turmeric powder, salt and cook till zucchini is just soft. as I warned you it can get mushy pretty fast, so keep an eye on the cooking time.
• Grind all the ingredients under to grind with little water to a fine paste and set aside.
• add the whisked yogurt, ground paste to the cooked zucchini.
•  adjust salt to taste.
• Heat on low flame till the mixture gets frothy around the sides, turn the heat off
•  in another pan, add oil and temper with kadugu, vendhayam, asafetida, curry leaves and por it on the zuke curry.

Serve hot with rice, potato fry or as a side dish for idli, dosa or adai