Potato Rosemary Pizza

Potato on pizza sounds like a complete abomination, but if it's good enough for David Rocco, then it's good enough for me. I find the crust of store-bought pizza breads too thick, so for this one, I just cut it horizontally in half to make two thin pizza bases.

Potato Rosemary Pizza

• 1 pizza crust
• 1 potato
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree/pizza sauce
• Handful of rosemary
• Teaspoon of garlic powder

To make:

• Spread the tomato puree on top of the pizza crust.
• Thinly slice the potato into horizontal discs.
• Arrange in overlapping circles on the pizza crust.
• Sprinkle some garlic powder and fresh rosemary leaves.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.
  
  
  
   

Spicy Pineapple Salad

I saw this amazing Watermelon Jalepeno salad recipe on PETA's website a few days back. But not having watermelon, and instead having some leftover pineapple, I decided to make a pineapple and jalepeno salad instead. My pineapple slices were precut and were paper thin, which was a bit of a downer - Coz I would have preferred to cut them into chunky square cubes. No matter.

If you are using canned pineapple, do remember it's sweet, and double the amount of jalepenos.

Spicy Pineapple Salad

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of sliced pineapple
• About hald a cup of sliced jalepeno peppers
• 2-3 sprigs of rosemary

To make:

• Combine the ingredients.
• Let it rest in the refrigerator for a while.
• Seve chilled.

Fennel, Peppers, Lettuce Salad

I had this salad for brunch yesterday sitting in our office canteen, in a rather conspicuous location next to the water cooler. Two girls at work (one a total stranger) asked for the recipe, saying it smells so good (Thank you, rosemary), and two guys commented on the fact that seeing a Parsi girl eat vegan raw is as rare as well, seeing a hippo in Alaska. Just not the normal run of things. And that eating tofu (not in the below recipe) and raw veggies is just needlessly putting yourself through torture.

Fennel, Peppers, Lettuce Salad

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of baby/lolo lettuce
• 2-3 cups of roquette lettuce (arugula)
• 1 cup of fennel bulb and leaves
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 red pepper
• 3-5 pickled cucumber
• 5-10 black olives
• 2-3 sprigs of rosemary
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

To make:

• Wash and chop up your veggies.
• Make a sald dressing of chopped up rosemary and olive oil.
• Pour over the salad.

Mixed Veggie Salad with Rosemary and Sumac

A very simple salad with finely chopped baby carrots, tomatoes, beets, peppers, and seasoned with fresh rosemary.

Rosemary and Mixed Veggie Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 beetroot
• 1 green tomato
• 3-4 baby carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 3-4 sprigs of rosemary (about a tablespoon of rosemary leaves)
• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Teaspoon of sumac

To make:

• Chop all the veggies finely into roughly the same size.
• Make a dressing of the rosemary, olive oil and sumac.
• Pour over the salad.

Entered into Smitha's Best Foods You Ate Giveaway:

Fig, Apple, and Roquette Salad

I had this for lunch yesterday. One tip though - any dressing with maple syrup should be added right before you are about to eat your salad or your salad leaves start to wilt. My salad was fine for about 4 hours, but by 7 hours, it was begging for mercy.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of roquette lettuce/arugula
• 2-3 figs
• 1/2 an apple
• 1 cup of red and green peppers

Dressing

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• Teaspoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• Half a teaspoon of sumac powder

To make:
Chop the veggies and fruits into bite sized morsels.

Combine in a bowl.

Make a salad dressing with the dressing ingredients.

Pour over the salad when you want to eat the salad.

Sunday Shopping at the Farmers' Market and Nature's Basket

Between you and me, I just needed to smoke in peace and as that as my main excuse, I headed out to Bandra for my bi-weekly trip to the Farmers' Market and Nature's Basket. This week the new additions were fresh figs, bananas, and papayas - apart from the usual stuff. I also snagged some green tomatoes, inspired by Kevin's green tomato and jalepeno chutney recipe. Beet leaves are so hard to find elsewhere, but here, the beets are so sexy with their leaves intact. I'm going to use up all those leaves in a recipe using just the leaves and my red rice.

I also had a healthy breakfast at the market with some Guju dhokla and fresh organic carrot juice. At Rs. 50 for seven pieces of dhokla, its not the cheapest. But, by word, it tastes great and has a tangy mustardy taste.

At Nature's Basket, I always find myself in the salad dressing isle and scrutinizing the various dressings available. I'm always disappointed. Today was no different. Not just because of the price, mind you. There is just so much crap in store bought salad dressings - corn syrup being a universal culprit. No thank you. I'll survive with my humble lime dressings.

But I did get my hands on some hoisin sauce, sumac powder, and garlic powder. I'd seen Nigella Lawson looking positively orgasmic as she played around with some sumac, and I just had to have it - screw the price tag! The garlic powder, on the other hand, was a bargain, and it smells divine. I can so see myself toasting a piece of bread with olive oil and garlic powder for breakfast sometime soon.

And for the first time, I saw arugula on the produce isle, so I quickly snagged some of that. And for Rs. 12 a pop, I just couldnt resist buying some fresh rosemary and sage. No idea where I'll use them, but we'll figure that out when the time comes.

Finally, I got myself some silken tofu. I mindlessly added it to my basket, and balked at the hefty Rs 180 price tag - I get a cheaper, and not so good, version for Rs. 60 from Reliance. It had better be good.

And finally, found some aam papdi -which is just mango candy. I used to have a big box of chocolates or candies with me at work for the last two years. Might as well substitute the habit with something a little healthier.