Zucchini Apple Salad

The word Salad sounds boring to many. And then there are some i know who only survive on Salads, who make special Salad diet plans, not just for the purpose of diet or to lose weight but simply for the love of eating fresh. I myself was never a salad person, like i would never order a salad when at a cafe or restaurant. The reason also being, most of the "usual" restaurants here served only cucumber,tomato and onion as salad. Its off late that people are exposed to different types of salad ingredients and the sauces and dressings. Moreover, the easy availability of these fruits and vegetables has also helped a-once-termed-exotic-salad reach everyday menu in homes.

Cost factor : Buying broccoli, zucchini, baby corn, purple cabbage or even coloured peppers as everyday buy for a middle class person was not affordable a while back. But the same veggies are available at Farmer's market or wholesale markets these days, for nearly the same price as french beans or lady's finger. 

Exposure due to Internet :Social media and Google has also helped a lot of good salad recipes made available for women to try at home apart from just Garden Salad. There are so many good YouTube videos and blogs available showing easy, less time-consuming and tasty recipes of salads.

The love of trying something new : People these days are willing to experiment, have a taste of different cuisines and try different palates. This love and curiosity has upped Salad's position from "Oh, so boring" to "It looks delicious". Not to mention all the health benefits that eating any fresh vegetables or fruit provides us. So, all in all, it's a win-win situation that people are enjoying eating raw.

Last evening, this bug of "trying something new" bit me too. I had fresh zucchini and fruits at hand. So, made this easy-peasy salad for dinner and it turned out great. I didn't use any sauces or any difficult dressings and the simplicity of it made it more tasty. At times, dressings overpower the salad taste, so i used just 5 basic ingredients and let the taste of veggies and fruits remain. 

Moreover, it's a quick meal. Just chop, assort and mix. That's it. No sauteing, no crushing, no tossing.

Ingredients:

Zucchini - 1 medium sized

Apples - 2

Yellow bell Pepper - half

Red bell pepper - half ( You can also add onions or green capsicum but i didn't)

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Pepper - to taste

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp ( Substitute with honey if preferred )

Vinegar - 1- 2 tsp ( Use apple cider or red wine vinegar )

Herbs of your choice - I did sprinkle oregano and dried parsley on top but it's optional

Method:

Chop zucchini, apples and peppers and combine in a bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, pepper, salt, vinegar and sugar. Pour this dressing over the zucchini-apple mixture.

Toss and sprinkle herbs of your choice

Please note: Serve this salad immediately after tossing. Don't let it rest for long.

Happy Cooking :)

 

Beetroot chi dahyatli koshimbir : Beetroot Yogurt salad

Koshimbir forms an important part of a balanced Maharashtrian meal. These salads, usually eaten during lunch or dinner mostly consist of two versions :

1. Vegetables mixed with yogurt

2. Vegetables topped with phodni (tadka)
Sometimes they are even eaten plain with just an addition of cumin powder and chilli powder.

The vegetables here can either be chopped, grated or diced. These salads are most easy to prepare and are simple too. No sauces, no fancy dressings or no cooking. Maintaining the health factor, at times, peanuts and coconut are added which are popular in Maharashtrian cuisine. 

Dahyatli koshimbir is basically Raita as we popularly call in Hindi, where the vegetables are mixed in yogurt dressing. I have already posted recipe of Kakdichi Koshimbir and Tomato chi koshimbir in the Koshimbir special . My mother makes grated beetroot salad with phodni (spiced oil or tadka), but here i am posting Beetroot salad with yogurt. This salad can also be served without yogurt, or at times by skipping the tadka and simply adding cumin powder, chilli powder, salt and sugar.

Recipe adapted from : "The Essential Marathi cookbook"

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 2 medium

Onion - 1 (optional)

Yogurt - 3/4 cup whisked

Sugar - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 and half tsp (you can also use ghee)

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Green chillies - 1-2 sliced lengthwise

Corriander leaves - a few to garnish

Recipe:

Boil the beetroot till soft. It takes about 15-20 minutes. After it cools down, peel it and grate it.

Chop the onions finely. Mix them with the grated beetroot.

If the whisked yogurt is too thick, add in 4-6 tbsp of milk or water. Add salt and mix well.

Add this yogurt to the beetroot-onion mixture.

Heat oil in a pan till smoking hot.

Add cumin seeds and let them pop. Add the green chillies. 

Now mix this with the beetroot mixture.

Garnish with corriander leaves.

Happy Cooking :)

A bowl of goodness

Salad is a very important part of a diet. Every nutritionist or a dietitian would advise you to include raw vegetables, fresh fruits and nuts in your diet. A very interesting book that i am reading now by the name of "Curry" talks about how food culture evolved in India. Though there was a significant influence of the Portuguese who invaded the southwest India, the Great Mughals who invaded the North of India and the British Raj who ruled us, the importance of "Ayurveda" and "vegetarianism" was very much rooted in the country who preferred and ate "Saatvik" food. Saatvik food is basically "pure food" - that which doesn't impure your body, and is hence able to improve your thoughts making you more kind, generous and calm. It was also believed that growing vegetables or fruits and eating them raw was much more beneficial, as it captures the essence of the soil and water and connects you to your roots.

So, a normal saatvik diet would consist of seasonal foods, fruits, vegetables, oil, dairy products, nuts, whole grains and legumes - basically a non-meat diet. It becomes a little difficult to follow a saatvik diet when we are overpowered with the cravings of eating "masaaledaar" and "lajjatdaar" food :) But to maintain a balance, having a salad is always helpful. Even if one or two fruits a day, and a simple cut vegetable salad is added to our meals, it balances out all the sinful cravings that we indulge into otherwise. 

Normally, i always have a koshimbir in our meal. Some of the koshimbir posts from before : Kakdichi koshimbir, Tomato carrot koshimbir, Fruit salad .

But at times, i make a wholesome salad which serves as a complete meal. Here i have added boiled peanuts and boiled chana, but you can get as creative and replace/add/reduce the nuts and other ingredients according to personal preference.

Ingredients:

Peanuts - 1/2 cup

Kala chana (Black chickpea) - 1/2 cup

Lettuce leaves - to garnish ( or you can even chop them and add to the salad)

Walnuts - 3-4 chopped (optional)

Almonds - 3-4 chopped (optional)

Onion - 1 small chopped

Tomato - 1 small chopped

Green chilli - 1-2 chopped

Red chilli flakes - to taste (Add red chilli powder if you don't have flakes)

Oregano - to taste

Black salt - to taste

Pepper - to taste

Lime juice (optional) - 1/2 tsp

Pomegranate - 1/4 cup (optional)

Recipe:

Wash the black chana and soak it overnight.

Drain the water, pat them dry and keep it in air tight container at room temperature or in refrigerator if you want them to sprout. 

Even if they are not sprouted, they taste great.

Wash the peanuts.

Boil the black chana and peanuts till they become soft. The peanuts will start losing colour and become pale. Alternatively, you can also pressure cook them for one whistle.

In a mixing bowl, mix the boiled chana and peanuts. Add the chopped tomatoes, onions, green chillies, salt, pepper, pomegranate, walnuts, almonds and mix it all well.

Line the serving bowl with washed lettuce leaves. Add the salad into the bowl. Now sprinkle oregano and chilli flakes and finish it with some lemon juice.

Mix it all well and enjoy the bowl of goodness as one wholesome nutritious meal.

Happy Cooking :)

Koshimbir special

Maharashtrian cuisine is full of flavours and spices, and a thali (a meal for the day) includes all the nutrients in a balanced way. Since childhood, having koshimbir on the side was always a part of meal. Though served in limited quantity, this was what i loved, especially the kakdichi koshimbir. Kakdi is cucumber and koshimbir is salad. But it's not just about cutting or chopping fresh vegetables, but they are always topped with green chillies, corriander leaves, peanut powder and sometimes with curd and at times with Phodni (Known as tadka). The one made with curd is popularly known as raita. But you can do variations by adjusting the amount of curd and see the magic!! The taste changes dramatically and what you get is different flavours each time.

Salads are always healthy, as they are fresh, raw and light. But at times, they would get boring. So, my mother usually makes tons of varieties, sometimes by adding sprouts, sometimes by mixing two vegetables, sometimes grating them or at times chopping them. And every time the taste is different.

So here i am presenting two different types of koshimbir. Both are made with Phodni (Tadka), but you can skip adding the tadka and add curd instead. Or add tadka and add little amount of curd. Choice is yours.

Kakdichi Koshimbir: (Cucumber salad)

Ingredients:

Cucumbers - 2

Peanut powder - 3 tsp (If you don't have this, you can even add crushed roasted peanuts for a cruncy effect)

Green chillies - 2
Onions - 1 small (optional) 
Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt - to taste
Kadipatta (Curry leaves) - a few (Optional)
Lemon juice - about 1/2 lemon

Recipe:

Wash and slice the cucumbers. Now you can either chop them into small pieces or grate them. Either way tastes great and different i would say. Leave them aside for 15 minutes or so, so that they leave water. 

Squeeze out all the water from the cucumber and take them in a fresh bowl.

Chop the onions and green chillies and add them to the cucumber.

Add the peanut powder. Mix well.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add asafoetida and cumin seeds. After about 10 seconds, add in the curry leaves and take off heat.

Add this to the cucumber mixture. Mix well. Add salt and lemon juice at the time of serving as it would make the salad watery (Cucumber leaves a lot of water).

Healthy koshimbir is ready :)

If you want to add curd, just add a spoonful for a different taste.

Tomato Carrot Salad (Tomato chi koshimbir) :

 

Ingredients:

Tomato - 2 medium

Carrot - 1

Rest all the ingredients are the same :

Oil - 1 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Peanut powder - 1-2 tbsp (optional)

Salt - to taste

Recipe:

Wash the carrots and tomatoes.

Chop the tomato. Peel the carrot and grate it. 

Take the tomatoes and carrot together in a bowl.

Now heat oil in a pan. Make Phodni by adding mustard seeds, asafoetida, cumin seeds and curry leaves.

If adding the peanut powder, add now.

Add this to the carrot and tomato. Mix it well. Add salt according to taste.

Isn't this easy?

You can change the taste and flavours by adding lime juice, or sometimes curd, sometimes not adding fodni and adding only curd or at times, just adding salt, pepper and lime juice. 

Whichever way you make it, it tastes great :)

Happy Cooking :)