Potato Salad with a twist - Vegan Potato Salad

When you think Potato Salad, you think of the creamy, calorie rich version. Don't get me wrong. I loooooveee that version. But then, when it comes to a dish with potato, whatever you do will be a success. So why make a creamy, calorie rich salad when you can make the best ever one without all the fat?

Cabbage Sambharo - Warm Salad with Cabbage and Carrot - Gujarati recipe

Sambharo is a quick stir fry made of cabbage and carrots. It is flavoured mildly with chillies and spices. It works as a side dish as well. As with most Gujarati recipes, this also has a little sugar to add sweetness. You can skip it if you don't like it.

Kachumber - Simple Indian Salad

Kachumber is basically a very simple Indian Salad. The dressing is nothing but lemon juice. Just slices/chop the veggies, toss it with lemon juice and salt. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Another dish that I served with the Gujarati Thali



Ingredients

Onions 1/2 cup sliced
Tomatoes 1/2 cup finely chopped
Cucumber 1/2 cup sliced
Green Chilli 1 finely chopped
Lemon Juice 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Chop all the veggies as described above.

2. Toss it with lemon juice and salt. 

Spicy Sweet Potato Salad - Sweet Potato Podimas

Podimas literally means Crumbed. It is popularly made with potatoes or plantains (vazhakka). I have posted the recipe for Potato Podimas and Vazhakka Podimas before. I also made a version of Potato and Chickpeas Podimas as well. Do click on the links to check them all out.



I got inspired to try Podimas with Sweet Potatoes. This time instead of serving it as a side for Rice, I decided to make it as a Salad (main course). I have listed all the ingredients that I have used and the recipe below. But if you do not quite get all the Indian ingredients, I have mentioned a short cut method as well which will give you almost all the key flavours!! Try and find as many of the optional ingredients as possible for enhanced taste.



Ingredients (serves 3 as a meal)

Sweet Potato 3
Ginger 1 inch piece finely chopped
Green Chillies 1 finely chopped
Lemon Juice 2 tbsp

Oil and salt to taste

Optional Ingredients
Mustard 1/2 tsp
Channa Dal 1 tsp
Turmeric 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves few
Coconut 1/2 cup

Method of Preparation

1. Heat a pot of water. Peal and chop sweet potatoes. Boil till it is mostly cooked. Make sure you do not mash it. Drain and keep aside. Alternately you can even bake the sweet potatoes for enhanced flavour.

2. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When it sputters, add channa dal. When the dal starts to brown, add ginger, green chilli, curry leaf and turmeric. Just add whatever ingredients you are using.

3. When the chillies and ginger sizzles, add the cooked sweet potato and toss well along with some salt.

4. Add the coconut and mix well. Cook for a minute or 2. Switch off.

5. Add the lemon juice and toss everything together.

Palooza in a Pan picked Salads for the month of July. Stay tuned for 4 awesome Salads from me and my friends Anu and Radhika

Summer Salad

Made a simple Summer Salad. I have used a few ingredients that I had available. You can use your choice of ingredients. Aragula can be substituted with lettuce or baby spinach. Add shredded carrots or cabbage. You can use any bean like kidney bean or black beans (Protein component of your salad)! Use any light vinaigrette dressing.



After making a protein rich fare with lentils and legumes last month, Palooza in a Pan picked Salads for the month of July. Don't forget to check the Salads from me and my friends Anu and Radhika

Ingredients

Aragula/Rocket 2 handfuls
Cucumber 1
Avacado 1
Cherry Tomato 10
Chick Peas 1 can 400gm

Dressing
Mango Pink Pepper Corn Dressing 1/4 cup (or any any vinaigrette dressing)
Olive Oil 1/4 cup
Parsley 2 tbsp
Salt and Pepper



Method of Preparation

1. Chop the cucumber into small pieces.

2. Cut the Avacado into 2. Remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh. Chop that into small pieces as well.

3. Halve or Quarter the Cherry Tomatoes.

4. Drain and wash the chickpeas. If using dried chick peas, soak overnight and cook the chickpeas.

5. Prepare the dressing my whisking all the ingredients together.

6. Toss it all together!

Lemon and Basil Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad makes such a filling and refreshing meal. It does not have all the creaminess of the sauce, so it is quite light on your stomach. With fresh ingredients you can make a super healthy salad and yet not feel like you ate a salad. How amazing is that!



After making a protein rich fare with lentils and legumes last month, Palooza in a Pan picked Salads for the month of July. Stay tuned for 4 awesome Salads from me and my friends Anu and Radhika



Ingredients (Serves 4 as a meal)

Farfale (Or any type of Pasta) 300gm

Broccoli 1 head
Peas 1 cup
Cherry Tomato Quartered 10

Parmesan Cheese to serve

Dressing
Lemon 1
Olive oil 1/3 cup
Basil leaves a small bunch
Salt a pinch
Pepper a pinch

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the pasta as per the package instructions. (Boil water. Add salt. Add Pasta. Give it a stir. Cook for 10-12 min. Save some pasta water. Drain the water).

2. In the final minutes of the pasta cooking, add the broccoli florets into it and cook for 2 minutes.

3. Once drained, rinse the pasta and broccoli in cold water to prevent further cooking.

4. Steam peas in the microwave for a minute or 2.

5. Halve or Quarter the cherry tomatoes.

6. In a bowl add the juice of lemon, grated lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper. Whisk to mix well.

7. Add the pasta and broccoli to the salad bowl. Add the peas and tomato. Add the dressing. Sprinkle chopped basil leaves. Mix well.

8. You can either mix in the parmesan cheese to the bowl or add while serving. I added while serving.

You can serve this at room temperature or chilled if you prefer. 

Carrot Kosambari - Carrot and Moong Dal Salad

I had not tasted Kosambari until a friend of mine made it for our get together. I would never have made it cause of the raw moong dal in it. But after tasting what she made, I wanted to make it. But completely forgot about it. When Kalyani announced Magic Mingle with Moong Dal and Pepper, I decided to give this a shot. Usually Green Chillies are used to spice this dish. The problem with using green chillies in salads is that my little one will decide it is spicy. Mind you, he eats a lot of spicy dishes if he likes it. So the pepper was an excellent idea to add some spice to it without him complaining and it goes well with our Magic Mingle theme as well.



Ingredients

Carrots Shredded 1.5 cups
Split Yellow Moong Dal 1/4 cup
Pepper Powder 1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice 1 tsp
Coriander Leaves to garnish
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Soak the Moong Dal for atleast 1 hour. Drain and add to the bowl.

2. Grate carrots and add to the bowl.

3. Add pepper powder, lemon juice, salt and coriander leaves. Mix well and serve

Linking this to Magic Mingle #7
Linking this to Show me your hits - lentils and legumes. Event by Sangee, hosted by Nalini

Moong Sprouts and Carrot Salad/Curry

Sprouts have been making rounds in my kitchen and this is a cooked salad that I made with it. It can be eaten as a side for rice as well. This can be enjoyed  as a raw salad as well if you choose to.



Ingredients

Moong Sprouts 1 cup
Shredded Carrots 1 cup
Onion 1/2
Chilli Powder to taste
Lemon Juice 1 tsp
Salt to taste
A little oil

Method of preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Saute for a little bit.

2. Add the moong sprouts and cook for few minutes. You can sprinkle some water on it to help it going. I was not going for a fully cooked sprout. Just wanted to take the raw taste away.

3. Add the carrots, chilli powder and salt. Toss it well. Do not over cook the carrot. Just give it a minute.

4. Switch off and add the lemon juice. Mix and serve. You can garnish with coriander leaves if you want.



Linking this to Show me your hits - lentils and legumes. Event by Sangee, hosted by Nalini

Spiced up Peanut Butter Fruit Salad

Yes, you read it right... Spiced up... I am crazy about mangoes (everyone in our house is). When we buy it I rarely get a chance to make anything with it as there is so much demand to eat it as is. I grew up in Kerala and the mangoes are not so great there. So we used to look forward to our summer holidays in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) where my mom grew up and my grandparents lived. Mangoes were the highlight....

Though mangoes are not available in abundance here, a trip to the Indian store will get me some decent mangoes during the season. The Alphonsos they sell are usually very pathetic looking. So I always go for other mangoes. This time I found some which looked quite fresh. When I ate it, I was amazed by how sweet they were. I had almost forgotten how they tasted. But the downside, I am not used to so much sugar in my mango and after a day or two I found it too sweet.

That is when I decided to spice it up. I really liked this salad. You can use any fruit of your choice. Apples and bananas make a great pair with peanut butter.

You can skip the chilli powder if serving for kids. The cardamom and peanut butter will add nice flavour. But this is only very mildly spiced. My little one liked it.



Ingredients
Mango 1
Apple 1
Raisins 1/4 cup
Peanut Butter 1 tbsp
Chilli Powder 1/8 tsp
Cardamom 1/8 tsp
Salt a pinch

Method of Preparation

1. Cut the fruits into small bits and add to a bowl. Add in the raisins as well

2. In a microwave safe bowl, add the peanut butter and heat for 30 seconds till it is melted.

3. Add the chilli powder, cardamom and salt. Mix well.

4. Add this mix to the fruit bowl. Mix everything well.



Linking this to Lets Cook - Kids Special

Fresh Summer Salad with Sprouts

Husband was travelling last week. So I took the chance to eat what I want - read don't do any cooking. But does that mean, it has to be unhealthy week? Guess not. My little one made it easy for me as he decided all he wanted to eat this week was Rasam Sadam (rice) and Vendakka (Okra) or Potato curry.  His meal was ready in 15 minutes every day :-)

We don't eat raw vegetables as much as we should. This colourful and protein filled salad is a sure winner.



This can be served as a salad meal on its own as the sprouts and chickpeas make it quite filling. Other options to use it

• As a salad along with a subzi for rice/roti
• As a wrap - use a tortilla wrap or pita wrap. You can also melt add some cheese and heat it up for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese
• As a sandwich filling

Ingredients

Cucumber 1/2 cup chopped
Carrots 1/2 cups grated
Tomato 1/2 finely chopped
Moong Sprouts 1/2 cup (Use this raw or just steam in microwave for 2 minutes)
Chick Peas cooked 1/2 cup (Sprout this as well if you can)
Coriander Leaves to garnish
Lemon/Lime Juice 2 tsp
Salt and chilli powder or pepper powder to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Prep the vegetables and sprouts as mentioned above.

2. Mix all the ingredients to make the salad.

Linking this to Show me your Hits - Carrots and Beets. Sangee Event hosted by Anusha

Fruit Salad with yogurt

Fruit salad with yogurt is my favourite food for dinner on the day we have a heavy lunch. Its light on the stomach, pretty filling too and not to forget the heavenly taste. You can serve this as a desert as well. Oh do I need to remind you how healthy a breakfast this will make

You can play with the fruits and different flavours of yogurt.



Ingredients (for 2 big bowls)

Mango 1
Banana 2
Grapes around 15-20 big ones
Strawberry Yogurt 1 cup

Method of Preparation

1. Cut all the fruits into small pieces. I usually cut my grapes as well as it helps to mix in the flavours.
2. Add some yogurt to this. Toss well and serve. My fruits and yogurt were chilled, otherwise you can chill it for a hour before serving.

Optionally you can drizzle some honey or chocolate sauce over this. Other things to add flavour would be cinnamon poweder or cardamom powder. Toss in some chopped nuts and raisins as well.




Sending this to Healthy Diet - Breakfast - Priya's event hosted by me this month




Sending this to Lets cook fruits hosted by Radhika

Sending this to Bon Vivant - Fruit recipes