Piquant Pineapple Salsa

The post title may say "salsa" but I'm having this for lunch as a salad. Very simple recipe with pineapple, cucumber, onion. The veggies are dressed in red wine vinegar, liquid jaggery, chilli flakes, basil, and garlic.

Banana & Lettuce Salad with a Chilli-Chocolate Dressing

Valentine's Day brings with it a whole gamut of giveaways on blogs - mostly chocolate. I even commented yesterday that chocolate has milk and hence is off-limits, in that I don't buy it myself. But if its offered to me for free, I figure its fair game. In that chocolate state of mind, this salad was born. My chocolate was not vegan, but I just used a couple of pieces, so don't have that much of a negative karma.

Cabbage, Grapes, Olives Salad in a Red Wine & Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

I had a bit of salad left over from yesterday - the lettuce was wilted, but the rest was fresh. So, I reused the kalamata olives, gherkins, and peppers; and added cabbage and black grapes to the mix. The vinaigrette is made of 1 part red wine vinegar, 2 parts extra virgin olive oil, sprigs of oregano, and a heaping of poppy seeds. I'd bought the poppy seeds ages ago and hadn't even opened the pack till today -  Had seen a salad dressing somewhere with poppy seeds added, so why not?!

Parsi Ras Chawal (Spicy Tomato Gravy with Rice)

I usually have one meal a week with my family, with me taking a break from making my own meals or ordering takeout. I do ask my mom to either make a vegetarian Parsi dish or to make my portion seperately and then add the meat to their portions later on. This time, its a dish called ras chawal, which would translate to spicy tomato gravy with rice. It's quite unknown compared to other Parsi specialities and I can't find a single recipe of it online.

We usually add mutton to this dish, or serve it with boiled eggs. But this one's all vegan with just potatoes and drumsticks. You're supposed to suck the flesh inside the drum stick, not eat the chewy fiberous outside. The recipe is a rough gist I got from my mom.

Apple, Strawberry, Lettuce, and Cashew Salad

Tart apples, sweet strawberries on a bed of lettuce, with cashews for crunch, all dressed in red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Tomato Salad

A quick salad with fresh, organic spinach, mushrooms suateed in garlic, and tomato, dressed in red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and more garlic. Garnished with my new favorite ingredient - chives! My aversion to eating tomatoes raw is slowly and surely fading away!

Spinach, Mushroom, and Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

• 4-5 cups of chopped spinach
• 1 large tomato
• 12-15 button mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Dash of dry chives

To make:

• Chop your spinach and tomato into bite sized pieces, and slice your mushrooms into half.
• Heat a teaspoon pf olive oil in a pain, and add the mushrooms and thinly sliced garlic cloves.
• Sautee for 5 minutes or until brown.
• Add to the spinach and tomatoes.
• Make a dressing combining the remaining olive oil, red wine vinegar, and the garlic powder.
• Pour over the salad.
• Finish off with a flurry of finely chopped chive.

Papaya and Lettuce Salad

A simple salad with red/lolo lettuce, papaya and olives - dressed with red wine vinegar and chives. I think the olives ruined it for me...the next time I make this, I'd leave out my salty olives. Can't wait for mango season in April - This would taste so much better with mango!

Check out the little tentacles on my organic papaya - Scary looking. Never seen anything like this on another papaya.

Papaya and Lettuce Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a papaya
• 5-6 cups of red/lolo lettuce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• Handful of olives
• 1 teaspoon chives

To make:

• Peel, deseed, and dice your papaya.
• Dress your lettuce in red wine vinegar.
• Add the papaya and olives.
• Sprinkle with finely chopped chive.

Apple and Cabbage Salad

A delightfully tart apple and cabbage salad dressed with red wine vinegar and chives, and a sprinkling of black grapes with some leftover peppers.

Apple and Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 tart apple (I used Granny Smith)
• 2 cups of shredded cabbage
• 1 cup black grapes
• 1/2 red and green peppers
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon chives

To make:

• Chop your apple and cabbage. I soaked my apples in lime juice so that it doesn't go brown.
• Dress the cabbage with the red wine vinegar.
• Add to the apple, grapes and peppers.
• Finish off with a dash of finely chopped chives.

Cauliflower, Green Beans, Peppers and Quinoa Salad

I haven't had quinoa in a while and seeing my depleting stock of vegetables, I made a big pot of quinoa with green beans, cauliflower and red and green peppers, flavored with sumac, sage, and black pepper. I did pop the beans and the cauliflower in boiling water for a minute or two. I did taste the beans raw and they tasted awful and the vegetable vendor explicitly said they can't be had raw. 

Cauliflower, Green Beans, Peppers and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups of chopped green beans
• 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 1 green pepper/chilli
• 1 red pepper
• 2 leaves of sage
• 12-15 black pepper corns
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sumac powder

To make:

• Chop up your vegetables.
• Cook your quinoa in 2-2.5 cups of water for 15 minutes, along with the sage leaves and sumac powder.
• In a pot of boiling water, cook your beans and cauliflower for 2 minutes. Drain into a pot of ice cold water to stop the cooking.
• Add the vegetables to the qninoa and mix well.
• Season with freshly ground black pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Watermelon, Jalepeno, Mint and Tofu Salad

There are quite a few watermelon-jalepeno or watermelon-feta or watermelon-mint recipes out there. This one combines all of them into one. I used raw tofu seasoned with oregano salt instead of feta. Non-vegans can use feta or any other soft creamy cheese.

Personally, I prefer keeping the watermelon seeds, as well as scraping the watermelon off its green rind and using every last inch of watermelon because closer to the rind and the rind itself is where all the nutrients are!

Watermelon, Jalepeno, Mint and Tofu Salad

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups of watermelon, cubed (and deseeded, if you prefer it that way)
• 1 cup fresh mint leaves
• 1 inch knob of ginger, finely chopped/grated
• 1-2 jalepeno peppers, chopped
• 3/4 cup of silken tofu, the softer the better
• Teaspoon of oregano flavoured salt
• Dash of balsamic vinegar

To make:

• Break up your tofu into crumbs with your fingers. Season with the oregano salt.
• In another plate, combine the watermelon, jalepenos, ginger and mint. Leave this in the fridge for 3-4 hours to chill and for the flavors to infuse.
• When you want to eat the salad, add the tofu (or cheese of your choice) on top of the watermelon salad, and top off with a dash of balsamic vinegar.
  
  
  

Small Bean, Grape and Potato Salad

It's been a week or so since I bought fresh produce, and so I was rummaging through stuff in the fridge and found some boiled potato and some small beans. Also decided to make a dressing using my newly bought balsamic vinegar.

I did not quite enjoy the salad at lunch as the dressing was all dried up and made the potatoes extra sticky. And am no big fan of raw small beans either. So, won't be making this one again in a hurry.

Small Bean, Grape and Potato Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 potato
• 1-2 cups of small beans
• 1 cup of green grapes
• Handful of almonds
• 2-3 basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

To make:

• Boil, skin, and cube the potato.
• Combine the beans, potato, grapes and basil leaves.
• Dress it with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
• Top off with the almonds.