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.

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Cream of Beetroot Soup

It's probably no surprise to regular readers when I say I love beets! Here's a dead simple recipe with just three ingredients: beets, tofu and sage. I had it raw - but you can just as easily heat it up or even replace the tofu with cream.

Cream of Beetroot Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 large beetroot
• 4 sage leaves
• About 50-75 grams of silken tofu

To make:

• Chop up the beets and the sage roughly.
• Blitz the beetroot, sage, along with some water, in a blender till it its a puree. Set aside.
• In a clean blender, add the tofu cubes and blitz till its the consistency of cream or curd. Add some water if needed.
• In a bowl, combine the two. I added the two in layers - a tablespoon of beets and then a tablespoon of tofu cream.
• Serve 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:

Red Rice with Beetroot Leaves

How many of you have had red rice? For lunch yesterday, I made a bowl of red rice and used up my beetroot leaves as well. The rice takes an awful lot of time to cook. The packet said 45 minutes. I cooked mine for 30 minutes.

Also, if you are wondering where is the all-important salt in my recipes, the answer is I havent forgotten to add that to the ingredient list. I just dont use salt. And I didnt for this recipe as well. But I would definitely recommend using salt for this one. I will next time. The taste was quite bland.

Red rice with beetroot leaves

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of red rice
• About two cups of beetroot leaves (including stalks)
• Teaspoon of sumac powder
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Salt to taste

To make:

Wash your red rice, drain, and soak the rice again in water for approximately 20-30 minutes before cooking. Cook for 30-40 minutes, along with the sumac and salt, with almost thrice the amount of water as the rice. Start off with a little less - keep adding water as you go along.

Chop up the beetroot leaves.  

Once the rice is cooked, let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Then add the chopped leaves and mix well.  Finish off with a dash of olive oil on top.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Since I did have some of my garam masala and chilli batter left over from my tofu pakoras, I decided to also make some fried green tomato fritters. After dunking the tomato slices in my batter, I fried the slices, and then sprinkled garlic powder on the piping hot fried tomatoes.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 green tomato
• 1/3 cup besan (chickpea flour)
• 1 green chilli
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• Juice of half a lime
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Teaspoon of garlic powder

To make:

• Slice the green tomato into round discs.
• Make a fairly thick batter using the chickpea flour, chilli (finely chopped), and garam masala. You'll need about 1/3 cup of water to bind everything into a smooth liquid batter.
• Dunk your tomato slices into the batter and let it marinate for 30 minutes or so.
• Heat oil in a pan.
• Shallow fry the slices for about 3-5 minutes on each side.
• While still hot, sprinkle garlic powder on top.
• Mix and dig in immediately.

Spicy Tofu Pakoras

I love the Hairy Bikers. They're adorable, in that cuddly teddy bear way. We have our own Indian version of the hairy bikers, by way of Rocky and Mayur on Highway on my Plate. One guy plays good cop (vegetarian) and one plays bad cop (eats everything). However, the one dichotomy about India is that while vegetarian food is plentiful and easy to get; vegan is not. Everything's cooked in ghee (clarified butter) for that authentic old India taste, and the default meat substitute is paneer (Indian cottage cheese).

Speaking of paneer, the hairy bikers, while touring India, had made Palak Paneer (Spinach with Cottage Cheese). Indians normally just dunk chunks of paneer inside the spinach pot and let it simmer for a while. The hairy bikers, ingeniously, coated their paneer chunks in semolina and then fried the paneer to give it a crunchy coating and then added the paneer on top.

That sounded good to me. Only, I substituted the paneer for tofu. You do have to use a firm tofu, though. Mine said Firm on the carton, but I did find it a bit soft and I hate having to handle my ingredients with extreme care.

Tofu Pakoras

Servings: 6-8 bite sized pakoras

Ingredients

• 100-150 grams of firm silken tofu
• 3/4 cup besan (chickpea flour)
• 1 green chilli
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 cup semolina
• Juice of half a lime
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

To make:

• Slice your tofu into square cubes, patting them dry.
• Make a batter using the chickpea flour, chilli (finely chopped), garam masala, and lime juice. You'll need about 1/2 cup of water to bind everything into a smooth liquid batter.
• Dunk your tofu cubes into the batter and let it marinate for 30 minutes or so.
• Heat oil in a pan.
• Dunk the marinated tofu into a plate of semolina, ensuring that the cubes have a decent amount of batter on them firstly, and then are completely coated in semolina.
• Fry till golden brown.
• Serve with more lashings of lime, and a mint or chilli chutney.