Barbecues and salads go hand in hand. Being a vegetarian, I am always experimenting with flavour combinations for protein packed salads that are a bit more than tossing leaves from a bag. This is an interesting and easy salad which works well for school /work lunches.
Avocado, butter bean and celery salad
INGREDIENTS
2 x 400g tins butter beans, drained and rinsed well
2-3 large sticks celery, peeled and sliced at an angle
You can buy long beans or Asian beans from markets. They are very juicy and succulent about 20 – 24 centimetres long. Salad works well with regular beans too.
Kala chana or black chick peas are smaller than the white ones and readily available in any Indian store. The chick peas are actually dark brown and remain firm even after cooking that is to say they have a bite. Being rich in protein, they are a wonderful addition to any meal. Both recipes are great for snacking.
When soaking the chick peas, add a teaspoon of turmeric, that way they retain a rich golden brown colour. After soaking them in water for 8 hours or more, you need to cook them either on stove top (probably upwards of an hour) or pressure cook for 4 or 5 whistles. Make sure you add salt to the chana prior to cooking. A cup of dry black chana, would yield sufficient quantity for four adults.
SUNDAL
Sundal
This is a very popular snack particularly in South India.
Black chana are considered auspicious and sometimes it is made in temples as
prasadam too. (Prasadam is vegetarian food that is a religious offering in both
Hinduism and Sikhism.)
For the last few summers, I have been making this relish and it has been a super hit with the family. The sauce is sweet, spicy and so moreish. It can be used on cream cheese as a bagel topping or as a topping with crackers and cheese. Either way, I am sure it will be just as popular in your household as it is in mine.
It is best made with juicy, ripe summer tomatoes that are
bursting with goodness. You can adjust the number of chillies based on your
personal taste.
In northern India, these onion dumplings are called pakoras and in the southern regions they are called pakodis. In my opinion, pakoras have softer centres whereas pakodis are really crispy. It is a popular street snack in the South, where there is a stall around every street corner and the tired workers are drowning their tiffin of pakodis with hot masala chai. The smell of these dumplings being fried is equally tempting!
This makes an excellent accompaniment to slightly spiced roast meats or a fish meal or as part of a vegetarian / vegan spread. Choose compact small head with slightly tender outer leaves.
INGREDIENTS
1 cauliflower about (500 grams)
80 grams cashew pieces (soaked for half an hour in hot
water)
I feel mung beans are little pockets of goodness and feel so
virtuous when I have a handful of homemade mung bean sprouts for breakfast. This
is cooked but very satisfying and filling as a snack or part of a meal.
I tend to use a lot of alliums in my cooking, be it the humble brown onion or the very French of alliums – the leeks. I use everything in between as well. Coming to think of it, I use about ten different varieties of alliums!
I was tossing up whether I should include this recipe or not
but decided to write as it is a no fuss recipe, few ingredients already
available in the pantry and to top it off, it is so pretty on the plate.
Blooming onions
INGREDIENTS
4 medium sized red onions
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Blooming onions
METHOD
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Using a sharp knife,
trim off half a centimetre on the top. Trim the root. Peel the onions and cut
each onion into eighths, stopping about a centimetre from the bottom. Make sure
you haven’t cut it through as you want the onions to hold and stay intact.
Lay four large squares of aluminium foil on your counter
top. Place one onion root down on each foil piece. Drizzle the vinegar and oil,
then season well and fold the foil, pinching the edges to seal. Repeat with the
remaining onions.
Place the wrapped onions on an oven tray and roast for 30
minutes. Unwrap the onions and allow to cool slightly before transferring onto
plates for serving. If the onions don’t bloom naturally after you open the
foil, you can gently nudge and open the layers. Serves 4.
I am a great fan of vegetables and I am curious too. While
people walk past vegetables they don’t recognize the nerd in me is always
interested to know all the details of the said vegetables. Parsnip is one such
thing – agreed it looks like a white carrot but tastes nutty and it is so
versatile. I use it to make tray baked parsnip chips, in soups, in winter roast
vegetables and in gratin. Do give it a
try and you’d be glad you did. Anyway this is super quick and easy, and you can
eat on its own or serve as an accompaniment to a roast meal or steak.
