Radish usal

 

 Week 9 - Amma's salad

Ingredients

• 2 cup boiled and shelled peanuts (can be replaced with dried white peas soaked overnight and pressure-cooked or fresh green peas or cooked chickpeas)
• 1/2 cup tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped spinach, blanched
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped (none for Darshu)
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 tsp chaat masala
• Salt and pepper

Method

            Mix everything and enjoy.

Carrot and peanut raita

2 carrots
1/4 cup, roasted salted peanuts
1 small flake garlic, coarsely chopped
1 green chili, coarsely chopped
salt to taste
1 cup thick curd
1 tsp sugar
coriander leaves, to garnish

Peel and grate carrots. Crush peanuts coarsely with a rolling pin. Mix garlic, green chili and salt and crush to a pulp. Beat the curd until smooth and stir in the garlic mixture. Add carrots, peanuts, coriander leaves and mix well. 

Sago Pachadi

I got this recipe from Meenakshi Ammal's Cook and See. I added chili powder instead of green chilies and I seasoned the pachadi with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Sago Pachadi
(from Meenakshi Ammal's Cook and See)

1 tbsp sago
1 cup curd
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
chili powder, pinch
salt
oil

Fry sago in 1 tsp oil till reddish brown in color. Keep aside. In a bowl, add curd and salt and whisk well. Add the fried sago, and chili powder. In a small kadai, heat oil. Add mustard seeds. When it starts bursting, add curry leaves and then turn off the gas. Season the pachadi with this. Chill.

Shredded Radish, Coconut and Carrot Salad

Another simple and refreshing salad from Yamuna Devi's cookbook.

Shredded Radish, Coconut and Carrot Salad

1/2 cup shredded radishes ( I used white radish but we can also use the round pink ones)
1/3 cup shredded fresh coconut
1/3 cup shredded carrots
salt
1/4 tsp paprika ( I did not have paprika so I added pinch of chili powder to spice up the salad)
2 tbsps chopped fresh corainder
1 tbsp ghee
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds

Combine the radish, coconut and carrot in a bowl. Add salt, paprika and coriander leaves. Heat ghee in a saucepan. When it is hot but not smoking, add the ajwain, fennel and cumin seeds and fry until they darken. Pour the seasoning into the salad and toss well.

Cucumber and White Radish Salad

I made this salad today for the first time and absolutely loved it. This recipe is a keeper and I will be making this salad quite often.

Cucumber & White Radish Salad (slightly adapted from Yamuna Devi's cookbook)

 1 medium sized cucumber, peeled and coarsely shredded
1 small white radish, peeled and coarsely shredded
1/4 cup yogurt
12-15 almonds, coarsely powdered
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps coriander leaves, chopped
1/2 tbsp cumin powder
2 tbsps dry-roasted white sesame seeds
pinch of chilli powder

Place the shredded cucumber in a strainer and sprinkle with salt. Keep aside for 1/2 hr. Then, drain out excess liquid. Combine the cucumber, radish, yogurt, almonds, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Add the toasted sesame seeds and cumin powder and mix once. Sprinkle chilli powder on top. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Spinach Cucumber Peanuts Salad

Sprouts Salad

Crazy about salads

I love salads. Earlier, I used to have a salad and soup day every week and I made it a point to make something new every week. These days my salad just consists of sliced or diced cucumber! It's just that the vegetables we get here are really bad in summer and you don't feel like making salads with it. But no more excuses! I have decided to make salads more frequently with what is available.

Spinach Cucumber Peanuts Salad

Today, I made spinach cucumber peanuts salad. Mom buys lot of Tamil magazines and the special issues usually come with a recipe booklet. She collects them all and I got the salad recipe from one of the booklets. We should actually use boiled peanuts (raw peanuts boiled in salted water) for this salad but since I did not have raw peanuts at home, I used roasted peanuts. The salad was excellent but I am sure it will taste even better with boiled peanuts.


2 cups of spinach, finely chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsps roasted peanuts
For the dressing - juice of 1/2 lime, salt, pepper, 1/4 tsp jeera powder, 1/4 tsp amchur powder

Blanch spinach. Drain and cool. Meanwhile, cut cucumber and tomato into small pieces and mix in a bowl. Add the roasted peanuts and spinach. Add all the ingredients for the dressing to this and mix well. Serve chilled.

Sprouts Salad

Another salad I make frequently is the sprouts salad. The main ingredient is the sprout (duh!) and I change the other ingredients depending on what is available at home. The last time I made it, I used the below ingredients-
1 cup Green sprouts
1/2 cup Frozen Green peas
1/2 cup Frozen Corn
1 Green apple, chopped
1 Cucumber, chopped
For the dressing - juice of 1 lime, olive oil, salt and pepper


Blanch sprouts in hot water for 2 minutes. Blanch peas and corn in hot water for 3-4 minutes. Drain and cool. Add chopped green apple and cucumber to this. Add the ingredients of the dressing and mix well. Serve chilled. Whenever I feel like snacking, I eat this salad and thus try to control my diet.
Variations: 1) Indulge yourself once in a way by tossing in some sev/bhujia.
2) Add pomegranate seeds.