3 easy to make salad recipes

Hello again ! I know we are supposed to be meeting only June 1 but then who follows norms and who doesn’t like surprises? So we thought we will try to pre-pone our blog post. You would have already deduced that this post is about salads from the title, but they aren’t all green as we prefer colour.

Nobody likes a single colour salad bowl. We all get attracted by color as much as the aroma of food but the aesthetic  feel is not the only reason behind mixing up different vegetables and fruits in salads. The more the colour, the more the nutritional value you derive out of it. Besides, it also adds a dietary punch that helps avert the hard work that dieting is.

While you might have read everywhere about the benefits of having green leafy vegetables and  fruits, it just doesn’t go down well unless mixed with a penne pasta. Even then, the greens are for the waste bin. We discovered that making some simple salads is not only easy work but also fills you much more than you would have imagined. The ‘Noooooo’ feeling of seeing greens on your bowl quickly goes away if you can make your salads creative and top it off with some decent dressing or some crunchiness.

While we are still in the early stages of our target a few salads are a good way to bring variety into your daily food while remaining healthy. Here are three lip-smacking ones, ready to be experimented by you.

1. The beach salad

Haven’t we all enjoyed the boiled peanuts blended with mixed veggies from beaches. Well, I first had them from the Besant Nagar in Chennai and they tasted delicious. When thinking of healthy salad options, this one quickly popped up in our minds. We have added a few twists to the same. So, here goes…

Ingredients

Lettuce – a few leaves

Onion – 1 small

Mini  cucumber – 1

Violet cabbage – ¼ chopped finely

Carrot – 1 grated

Capsicum or bell pepper– 1 chopped

Peanuts – a handful

White channa – a handful soaked overnight

Tomatoes (optional) – ½  chopped finely

Almonds – 5-6 chopped

Boil the channa and peanuts for 3-4 whistles in a pressure cooker and keep them aside. We both do not quite like the raw taste of capsicum and so sauté them in coconut oil with salt and pepper. You could obviously add them raw if you like it that way. The onions can either be sauted along with bell peppers or added directly to the salad. Violet cabbage is slightly crunchy when raw and you could either  add them directly or sauté and add them in. Mix all the ingredients together and sprinkle some salt and pepper before giving a toss.

Buy almonds at discounted rates here

2. Fruity delight

This is the season of mangoes here and the King of fruits is one of our favourites. So a plain but delightful fruit salad is next on the list. Keep this one aside for a quick brunch or an evening snack. We are lucky enough to have two different varieties of mangoes in our respective homes – really sweet and ripe mangoes at my home and the slightly tangy mangoes in Divya’s home.

Ingredients

Frozen Ripe mango – 1, cut into chunks

Frozen Banana – 1, chopped finely

Frozen Green/Black grapes – a handful

Pomegranate – 1

Honey – a tablespoon

Mint leaf (optional) – a few leaves

There is no cooking involved in this one and so is quicker and easier to make. If the fruits are frozen, you could avoid making a splash on your favourite dining cloth as they will be stiffer and hence easier to slice. Mix all the fruits together and add a dressing of honey with a few mint leaves, which adds a unique flavour to the salad.

Buy a frozen fruit blender here.

3. Healthy peppy sprouts recipe

This is a sprout salad recipe shared by Divya’s friend, Jagriti. It is low on calories, yet high in terms of flavor and oozes health. I really hope you know to make sprouts in the first place. If not, give this a try:

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/making-moong-mungsprouts-at-home/

Go ahead and have this recipe as breakfast or a late evening snack.

Ingredients

some soaked sprouts – 1 cup

Wine tomatoes- 5-6 nos

Zucchini/ kheera- 1/2 nos

Paneer/ tofu – a small cube

roasted peanuts- a handfull

spinach – 9-10 leaves (chopped)

olive oil – 1 spoon

lemon juice – 1 spoon

salt – a pinch

seasoning herbs – a pinch

black pepper – a pinch (crushed)

honey – 1/2 spoon

chilli flakes – if required

chaat masala – a pinch

The salad mix : You might want to soak some moong sprouts over night for the salad preparation in the morning. Chop some wine tomatoes into 4 pieces, some zucchini (or some kheera) into tiny cubes , some greens like spinach, some roasted peanuts, some paneer (cottage cheese ) chopped into tiny cubes, some onions (avoid this if you want to take the salad out as it might stink) .

Buy a sprout maker here.

For the dressing : A table spoon of olive oil, a table spoon of lemon juice, some seasoning like dried thyme or sweet basil or Seasoned oregano, 1/2 spoon of honey, some chilli flakes, salt to taste , some crushed black pepper and some chat masala sprinkled on top .

You may mix everything in a bowl and carry it with you in a leak-free container. This will be a perfect carry out snack to fill you in whenever there is a temptation to munch on something while travelling or hanging out.