recipe of beans and mixed greens salad and how to keep leafy greens fresh for longer and ready to use

Convenience is the most critical factor that comes in the way of cooking healthy everyday. We fall back on short cut methods, quick sandwiches, take-aways and home delivered food sometimes when we are occupied with work or just can't handle the housekeeping and kitchen both along with work. If you have young kids the convenience factor counts even more.

Being prepared, shopping for fresh greens weekly and keeping some boiled beans, potatoes, may be some chicken helps a lot when you want to cook or whip up quick meals. Paneer and eggs also help me a lot when I have to cook quick meals. We eat simple meals at home but it has to be tasty and different every time. I just cannot imagine eating the same things everyday, apart from some classics that we cook every season without fail.

I make sure we eat loads of leafy greens everyday but I am not too particular about eating them raw always. I would steam and sautee the greens sometimes, would puree and make dips or cook them into a delicious lentil soup.

How to keep leafy greens ready to use...

Someone on Instagram asked me how to keep the salad greens and other leafy greens fresh for a week in the fridge. I know it is a bit of effort if you want to eat fresh greens regularly. First of all you need to buy them regularly to keep them stocked always. I get to shop for my leafy greens once a week but one can buy 2-3 times a week if possible.

Now a days one can order salad greens online and schedule an alternate delivery to get them fresh always. But what to do when you get to buy them once a week. You have to make sure you process them and store them in such a way that you can use them in salads, stir fries and soups.

Now let's see how we can sort the greens, clean them (or not) and keep them ready to use for quick meals whether those are salads, stir fries or soups.

1. Sort the greens by type so you can use them accordingly over the week. The lettuces, rocket leaves etc keep well for 4-5 days in the fridge, the spinach, amaranth leaves, Bathua, fenugreek leaves etc keep well for 10 days, the beet, carrot and knol khol leaves stay good for 4-5 days while the most long lasting leafy greens are the cabbages of all sorts. Think about the green or ed cabbages, Chinese cabbage, pok choi and radicchio etc, the ones that form a head. These stay fresh for a month or so if stored well. 
2. For all salad greens, rinse them well, drain for an hour and pack into cloth or paper bags to refrigerate. For the first 2 days they stay fresh and crunchy so use them directly. If they get softer after a couple of days just tear them first and then dip in chilled water while you prepare the dressing and other ingredients of the salad. And if the salad greens have wilted beyond repair in the fridge blend them into smoothies or just blend and add them to lentil soups in the last minute of simmering.
3. Spinach stays well for a week if it is kept wrapped in a paper or napkin. Choose freshest spinach possible and do not wash it before refrigerating if you are storing it raw. Spinach  should be chopped and cooked immediately after washing else it starts rotting. Baby spinach stays well even after washing and draining the leaves well. You can chop and steam spinach and freeze it in ziplock bags to be added to stir fries and to be blended into soups or to make palak paneer etc.
4. Fenugreek (methi) leaves are a little dry and can be washed and chopped before storage. Keep the chopped, ready to use fenugreek greens in a ziplock bag (pierced to allow aeration) or a cloth bag. These will be great even if they dry up a little bit. 
5. Amaranth greens (both red and green variety) keep well if washed and chopped, stored in a perforated ziplock or cloth bag. If kept unwashed these greens last longer as these are almost drought resistant greens.
6. Bathua leaves I always wash, chop and steam before storage. Bathua (Chenopodium) doesn't keep well because of higher water content in them. So steam bathua and store, chop or blend when required.
7. Purslane (kulfa) has high water content but it is a succulent type plant so it keeps well in the fridge for 2 weeks. It stays good even at room temperature for 3-4 days. 
8. Fennel bulbs, leeks and spring onions keep well if the leaves are trimmed. Keep the leaves separate and use them first, the bulbs stay for longer. Keep them refrigerated in cloth bags or paper bags. Knol khol leaves are better cooked with the bulb like this Monji haak recipe, but keeping the greens separately helps in this case too. 
9. Cabbages last quite a long time. The tighter the head of cabbage the longer it will last in the fridge. My home grown cabbages last about 6 months in the fridge, the ones from the market are already a couple of months old when they reach you. Do not wash the cabbages before storage. The good thing is that the cabbages do not require cleaning and can be chopped quickly before cooking or tossing into a coleslaw or chopped salad. 
10. If you are getting mixed salad greens remember to rinse them first and store in a cloth bag or perforated ziplock, but not for more than a couple of days as some of the varieties of salad greens may spoil earlier and cause other to rot too. Dip them all in chilled water before tossing into a salad. I never use a salad spinner to dry the salad greens but I do let them drain in a colander for some time.

Last but not the least, grow some of the herbs and salad greens in whatever space you have. Try and find more leafy greens that grow wild around you and use them. In this salad you can see some Oxalic leaves that impart a tart bite to the salad. 

Coming back to this beans and mixed greens salad, I have used a native variety of cow peas in this salad which is a brown and smaller variety of black eyed peas. The taste is much better than the regular black eyed peas and it cooks faster too. In local parlance it is called as laal chowli or desi chowli or desi lobiya.

I keep using different types of beans for my salads or hummus or even stews. This laal chowli I find suitable for a stew as well. In fact I stir fried the boiled laal chowli with spinach and bathua (separately) and it tasted so good that I thought of making hummus with it too. The beans were boiled and stocked for making quicker salads for my lunch though.

ingredients 
(serves 2 for a full meal)

1 cup boiled laal chowli (lobiya) or black eyed peas (or use any beans you like)
3/4 cup black grapes halved (or use orange segments)
3-4 large cherry belle radishes thinly sliced or beets thinly sliced
300 gm mixed salad greens torn into bite sized pieces
I used a few oxalis leaves (khatti buti) for a tart bite
2-3 tbsp chopped walnuts

Few pieces of thinly sliced toasted bread (preferably multi grain or whole wheat)

Dressing 
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp or more extra virgin olive oil (or use mustard oil)
2 tsp tahini paste (or use sesame powdered fresh)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
2-3 black grapes crushed

preparation 

Make the dressing by whisking everything together.

Add the boiled beans (room temperature) to the dressing and toss with the mixed greens, radish slices and chopped grapes or orange segments.

Sprinkle with chopped walnuts if using.

Fill into a salad bowl and arrange the toasted bread slices to one side. Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve immediately.

This salad is a fine balance of flavours and textures. The black grapes give it a sweetish flavour that enriches the dressing so much I felt like making the salad again and again. I used orange segments the next time when I used red cabbage for the salad and it was as good.

Do not skip radish in this salad as it gives a nice crunch, you can add thickly grated or julienne of radish if you want.

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pomelo salad with cucumber, beets and roasted peanuts and discovering more exotic salads at Pan Asian

There is nothing better than garden salads. Just pluck a few things bursting with natural flavours, chop them up into desired forms and toss with whatever dressing you like. Or just skip the salad dressing if you wish, trust me you can make great salads without any dressing added. Some salad ingredients complement each other so well you don't need a dressing poured over them.

This Pomelo-beets-cucumber salad is a fusion between the Thai pomelo salad and a khamang kakdi which is a much loved salad from Maharashtra. Use of roasted and pounded peanuts is very common in Maharashtrian food as well as Thai food, I took advantage of the fresh produce from garden and tossed up this gorgeous salad for myself.

This is one of those salads where you don't whisk a dressing and just mix all the ingredients and toss up really well. The fats in the peanuts, the acid in the citrus juices and the slight sharpness in raw beets and mustard greens balance the flavours as well as make the nutrient availability better.

ingredients 
(2 large servings)

2 cups separated pomelo segments
1 cup thinly sliced cucumbers, cut the cucumber in 4 parts lengthwise and then slice
1/2 cup thin julienne of beetroot
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions, preferably shallots
handful of mustard micro greens or any sharp greens or herbs you like
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
generous pinch of pepper powder
chopped green chillies to taste (optional, I use the less hot variety of green chillies)
2-3 tbsp of crushed roasted peanuts

procedure 

Mix everything up and give it all a good toss. You want the juices to mix up and the salt and sugar to get dissolved and soaked up by the vegetables and pomelo segments.

If you don't find mustard microgreens you can use tender radish leaves or radish julienne cut just like the beets.

If you have a pot you can sow some mustard seeds and get the microgreens in just 3-4 days. Keep using them till the first cotyledonary leaves give way to proper mustard leaves, the bigger leaves can also be used though.

Last weekend we enjoyed one of the best salads outside our home. This was at Pan Asian, Welcome Hotel, Saket where Chef Vaibhav Bhargava has created a new menu that boasts of fresh produce and great taste at affordable prices. Pan Asian used to be exorbitantly priced but now the a la carte menu looks much more extensive and pocket friendly.

The microgreens salad we had was a delightful mix of flavours and textures, with edemame and Japanese Bayberries, sesame etc. This was an absolute favourite.

We also taste pomelo salad but I was not impressed because I get to eat garden fresh pomelo anyway.

Another favourite was a Yellow tail carpaccio with ginkgo nuts and more microgreens. We loved the California rolls with a soy based wrap and the variety of seafood dimsums too. I did not like the vegetarian dimsums though.

We tried the signature Miso Black cod for main course. The fish tastes almost caramelized with miso paste, very flaky and succulent and each grain well seasoned and delicious. Chef Vaibhav told the fish is marinated for a couple of days before being grilled to serve. Truly a masterpiece.

This menu is one of those where one doesn't feel overwhelmed with heavy greasy food. I love the way fresh greens and vegetables are treated here and the seafood which is so light and flavourful. This menu does justice to anyone who wants a light yet filling meal or even a low calorie meal. Chef Vaibhav even serves gluten free and organic produce on request.

What is not to like when you are spoiled for choices of healthy and hearty food in a plush restaurant. Family celebrations are the times when one heads towards 5 star hotel restaurants and with this kind of food even the celebrations can get absolutely healthy yet very exotic.

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mango and feta insalata | everyday exotica

Pick the sweet a tart variety of mango like Langda and make it into a salad. No not any salad, make it into Insalata Caprese. Not with fresh mozzarella but the salty creamy Feta cheese. Now you know where I am headed. (Insalata=Italian style salad)

Yes this is the first thing that came to my mind when I grew some microgreens of sweet basil sometime back. I wrote an article about mangoes and this recipe in my monthly column at Exotica and this salad was repeated many times. You know the mango phalsa salad has been a perennial favourite and the Thai style mango and sticky rice keeps getting repeated in new forms in my kitchen. The ripe mango and red chilly dip is quick and easy with a dash of balsamic.

We love our mangoes so much we even make mango poha in various ways. Mango granola parfait is another breakfast staple during mango season. You might like the mango couscous salad or a mango red chilly dip that I make and use it like a salad dressing sometimes.

You get the drift. This is how much we love our mangoes. And we eat them for meals on weekends, sometimes for week day dinners too. And no, mangoes are not fattening, just don't make them into a cake or a cheesecake please. But then there will be some better cheesecake recipes too.

Sharing the Exotica article and the recipe with you now, read on...

There are about 1000 varieties of mangoes in India and the total production of mangoes all over the country surpasses any other fruit by its sheer volume. There are many wild varieties of mangoes too but this is one of the first fruits that were grafted and bred for great taste and texture as the Mughal kings would reward anyone who developed a good mango cultivar for them. Mango growing competitions and mango eating competitions were common even in History. No wonder so many mango cultivars came up and have been preserved so well in the country.

The lesser known mango cultivars could not become very popular in urban markets because of small fruiting season and faster rotting once the fruit is ripe. But locals always get the best of mangoes for themselves.

Each region has a special variety and people go gaga over their love for their own native variety of mangoes. I have always loved Langda, Dusseri and Kesar but I can understand if someone swears by Benganpalli, Neelam or Alphonso, the mangoes grow over you and if you have been eating a variety since your childhood it becomes an absolute favourite.

There is one more factor that makes us partial to the mangoes native to our own state. The mangoes plucked when ripened on the trees are the most flavourful and we get to devour such mangoes only within a span of 2-3 days as it starts rotting really soon. The tree ripened mangoes do not travel well and that is the reason why the native varieties of mangoes taste the best closer to their place of origin. So if we get Bengunpalli mangoes in the north we must understand that those were plucked from the trees premature and were bereaved of their optimal flavours that develop only when the stone of the mango is fully developed. The ripening hormone (phytohormone Ethylene) in the fruit releases only when the stone is mature in the case of mangoes. No wonder Bengunpalli tastes bland when we get them in Delhi and you never get a good langda in the south, until someone has planted a tree in a private orchard. The mangoes for long distance transportation are plucked early and they never get a chance to get ready for proper ripening.

Eating local mangoes is the best bet when you want the most flavourful fruits, the next best way to savour the juiciest fresh mangoes is travelling to places where your favourite variety of mangoes grow in the season. You rarely get well ripened mangoes far away from their place of origin. I fondly remember the trip we took to Rataul last year with Suhail Hashmi just to eat mangoes from his native village in western UP, some 45 Km away from the capital.

We are never tired of the ways we can eat mangoes. We eat them sliced we eat them juiced and we juice them in their own skin and drink smooth pulpy mango juice right out of the packaging nature decided for this luscious fruit. The juice straw sipped from cartons stands no chance once you have rolled a ripe mango between your palms, punctured the opening on the top and sucked the juice out of it.

For many childhood years I wondered if the origin of the word ambrosia comes from sucking ripe juicy mangoes, somehow ambrosia and mangoes rhymed in my mango smitten mind and it became ‘mangrosia’ for me.

Somehow in the modern sedentary world we started associating mangoes with weight gain unfortunately. While it is outright wrong, the mangoes are packed with nutrients that actually boost health. Rich in various antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, mangoes are the best food one can have during summer months. So much so one can have mangoes for a meal, make salads or even desserts. Imagine a salad that has mango in it wouldn’t need any packaged dressing or mayonnaise to make it tasty, the fruit itself is so delicious the salad would need just a few natural fresh ingredients to make a perfect bite.

A mango basil and feta cheese salad mimics Italian Caprese in the choice of ingredients but ends up being far more delicious. Imagine sweet luscious mangoes with a smither of feta cheese and fragrant basil micro greens. You don’t actually need a dressing with this salad but a drizzle of honey and balsamic mix lifts up the caprese to a new level.

Ingredients

(makes about 20 bite sized servings)

Ripe mangos peeled and cubed 2 (40 clean cubes)

Feta cheese 200 gm cubed into 20 pieces

Basil micro greens or regular basil leaves torn, a handful

Honey 1 tbsp

Balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp

Procedure

Chill everything separately so the salad is chilled for serving right after assembling it.

Mix the honey and balsamic vinegar to make the drizzling sauce.

Arrange the mango cubes in a plate.

Place one cube of feta cheese over each mango cube and then cover with another mango cube.

Place a basil micro green over this and insert a cocktail stick to hold the bites together.

Drizzle with the honey balsamic mix and serve right away.

We are still getting some mangoes in our local markets and you might like to try this quick appetiser for a party. Please do let me know whenever you make this mango feta insalata. You can use regular basil leaves if you don't get basil microgreens.

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lunch boxes for adults : how to pack salad meals and one pot meals in lunch boxes

Here I am with more lunch box ideas and more pointers towards how to pack balanced meals in lunch boxes. The ongoing lunch box series has been immensely satisfying and fun, I kept getting messages, mails and comments on the blog saying how useful you all are finding it. Many of you shared your ideas of lunch boxes too, thank you for that as it helps other readers too who struggle with preparing lunch boxes healthier.

Salad meals in a lunch box work wonderfully if you include your favourite ingredients and take care of the textures too. Fruits, leafy greens and steamed vegetables make great salads but when making it a meal one needs to take care of a few things to make it a balanced meal.

Some useful pointers for lunch box salad meals...

1. Include seasonal fruits or vegetables to make these salads. out of season is not worth.
2. If using raw leafy greens in the salad make sure they are organically grown or home grown.
3. Use a vinaigrette dressing or a yogurt based dressing if the salads is being packed in a lunch box for 3-4 hours to stay. If packing cucumber batons or carrots etc on the side you can drizzle some vinegar to keep them from fermenting in summer months. 
4. Add pickled salads to fresh ingredients to toss new salads everyday. This way the salad keeps well for a few hours as pickled salads have some residual vinegar in it. 
5. Apart from the fruits and vegetables, it is good to add some source of protein in your salad. Lentils, beans, nuts, seeds or paneer cubes work really well to supplement a salad with protein. If you eat nonveg you can add boiled eggs, tuna flakes or poached chicken etc to make a filling balanced salad. Quit industrially produced sausages, home made sausages, prosciutto and bacon, ham etc are great. 
6. Hung yogurt or fresh cheeses also make the salads balanced and tasty. But you can use any good quality cheese you have access to. 
7. Make stir fry salads with the vegetables that can't be eaten raw. It helps to eat more salads that way. Pumpkin salads are my favourite. 
8. Chickpea salads are the most versatile. Just keep some boiled chickpeas handy in the fridge and toss a salad when in a hurry. 
9. Stocking some paneer, some cooked beans of any type, some poached or grilled chicken, some tuna flakes etc saves a lot of effort from assembling salad meals or lunch boxes. 
10. Stocking some roasted seeds and nuts also saves time. Keep them refrigerated if making a bigger batch. 
11. Plan shopping of fresh produce like vegetables, fruits and leafy greens weekly so you have good options to prepare balanced meals always. Salads or otherwise.
12. Some salad dressings can also be prepared and stocked in glass bottles. This sesame based dressing is my favourite to stock, others I just whisk last minute.
13. If you have some dips in the fridge you can just cut wedges or batons of vegetables and fruits, rinse them with dilute vinegar and pack with any of the dips or even plain peanut or other nut butters in the lunch box.
14. Be very careful with raw salads during summer months and rainy season I repeat. Use a vinegar based dressing or just go for stir fry or steamed salad options. Some pasta salads can be cooked the one pot way too.

And now I am sharing 7 lunch boxes with salads and how I like to pack them..

1. Chickpea, paneer and pumpkin stir fry salad.. 

This one takes 15 minutes to make if you have pumpkin, boiled chickpeas and paneer in the fridge. Just pan grill thick pumpkin slices with salt, pepper, garlic slices, thyme and little butter about 5 minutes each side and then chop them in cubes.

Now add cubed paneer, chickpeas and a bit of lime juice to the same pan and toss them all together lightly. Pack in a lunch box. Yogurt is good to pack with this. 

Mango was packed with it for a snack or dessert serving. It does make a lavish lunch box for sure.

2. Chickpeas, paneer and potato salad...

This chickpea salad takes just 10 minutes to assemble if you have a well stocked fridge.

Boiled chickpeas, boiled cubed potatoes, cubed paneer, sliced olives, onions and rucola leaves make this salad quite flavourful. I added mustard vinaigrette and some sun dried tomatoes to make this salad texture rich.

Just take care the chickpeas are boiled soft when you make such a salad. Hard boiled chickpeas make such salads feel too dry sometimes. Have bitten by hard chickpeas trust me.

3. Okra stir fry and chickpeas salad...

This one takes 20 minutes to cook. This is the kashmiri spiced okra, a much repeated recipe in my home and I do have it as a salad too. If you don't have okra as a salad you must try once and see how you get converted.

So stir fry the okra, empty in a lunch box and then quick stir fry the boiled chicpeas too in the same pan with the residual spices clinging to it. Pack in the same box or keep it separate.

Plain yogurt is what I prefer with it. Try this combination and tell me how it was.

4. Cucumber, peanuts hung yogurt salad...

This one is a 5 minute job on the kitchen counter if you have some hung yogurt handy.

Peel and chop cucumbers in bite sized pieces, season with whatever you like, I added flax seeds dry chutney powder, top with hung yogurt and then sprinkle some chopped roasted nuts or crushed roasted peanuts. 

I had packed some bread croutons with this salad in case I feel like having them, I did not need them with this yummy salad. One of my absolute summer favourite salad.

5. Pear rucola salad with walnuts...

Another 5 minute lunch box for you if you love salads or for those days when you need a lighter lunch box.

This is a frequently repeated salad too, the recipe of pear rucola salad was shared earlier but I do keep changing it a bit every time I make it. Any nuts and seeds are suitable for this one.

 Not to forget yogurt with it of course.

6. Tuna and potato salad with beans 

This one takes about 10 minutes to cook. This is a stir fry salad as I like the potatoes of this season to be a bit more flavorful. Winter potatoes will be used directly (boiled and halved or sliced) but I like sauteing them with mustard oil (or olive oil), some salt, pepper, garlic powder and chilli flakes for flavour.

Added steamed beans (quick parboiled) and flaked tuna (from tin) and tossed well, the salad goes straight to lunch box.

Some cucumber batons and yogurt with this is a better idea.

7. Chicken, mushrooms and green beans salad ...

I usually get some chicken legs, simmer them for about an hour on low flame along with some spring onion and bay leaf etc and make shredded chicken with it. Chicken breast can also be used but it gets dry very easily in a lunch box. 

The chicken meat is chopped into bite sized pieces, the bones are further simmered to make a rich stock for a curry or soup and everything is reserved separately, refrigerated for later use. 

This way the salad takes about 15 minutes. Saute some sliced onions and chopped beans to cook them lightly, retaining the textures. Add the mushrooms and saute some more, add cooked chicken and saute some more till flavours are absorbed. Pack.

I used whole red chilies, Chinese five spice powder and garlic powder to make it flavourful but you can add just anything you like. I would like a few cucumber batons with this one too but this salad was made the day we had returned from travel so there was nothing fresh in the fridge.

This chicken and purple cabbage salad can be a great lunch box salad too.

During summers my meals revolve around freshly tossed salads and watery vegetable stews as my tolerance to heat is quite low. Adding loads of vegetables is my way to make meals hydrating.


I love one pot meals too as my comfort food at home, a hot bowl of khichdi or a freshly tossed salad is my idea of a comfort meal. I can have my khichdi with just a drizzle of ghee and a glass of buttermilk on the side but somehow I find packed lunches need a bit more to it as the food changes a little after 3-4 hours while it stays packed.

My one pot lunch boxes will be the ones that are hydrating type, do not feel dry to eat after 3-4 hours and have some textures in it.

Here are 5 one pot meal lunch box ideas, 4 of them pressure cooker meals...

1. Soba noodle cold salad.... 

Soba noodles get cooked fairly quickly and cooked soba noodles refrigerate well too.

Add some sauteed assorted vegetables with your favored seasoning and toss it with cooked soba noodles. Add some chopped boiled eggs on the side and make a balanced filling meal.

My ratio for this soba noodle salad is 40 gm raw soba noodle per serving and 200 gm assorted vegetables. I added loads of garlic and salt and pepper only to this cold salad and it was an absolutely delicious meal.

2. pressure cooked lentil and vegetables stew...

This one a strictly one pot meal, cooked in pressure cooker and packed directly into the lunch box.

Chopped cluster beans (guwar) and cubed pumpkin is pressure cooked along with a tempering of chopped chillies, ginger and garlic, boiled chickpeas are added once the vegetables cook, some amchoor powder is added too and a delicious meal is ready to be packed.

You might like to add tomatoes to this one, I like amchoor a lot with chickpeas and pumpkin but lime juice could also be a good choice.

Musk melon and yogurt was packed with this meal to break the monotony. I know the stew looks drab but I love this kind of meals.

3. One pot whole wheat spaghetti pasta...

Whole wheat pasta takes long time to cook so I have devised a way to make it quick in the mornings.
Pressure cook 40-50 gm pasta per serving with about 200 gm water and salt (one whistle and 5 more minutes if cooking 2 servings).

Add 1 tbsp butter, minced garlic, frozen peas and chopped mushrooms once you open the pressure cooker and toss and cook till the peas get soft, takes about 3-4 minutes. Add herbs of choice and pack with boiled eggs or shredded chicken.

I had packed mango yogurt with almonds and chia seeds but it was not eaten, the whole wheat noodles are quite filling.

4. Palak wali chana daal with paneer...

Yes it makes a nice one pot meal too. Just pressure cook chana daal with loads of spinach in pressure cooker, add tempering of your choice and small cubes of paneer, simmer for a couple of minutes and it is ready. Check out chane ki daal paneer wali to find a detailed recipe. Chane ki daal bathue wali is also a base recipe for this one.

Some kachumber salad and buttermilk will be good with this, or just make a raita.

5. Millet risotto for lunch box..

I cook with millets a lot but for lunch boxes they get used only when I make dosa or idli or for multigrain rotis and breads. Direct cooking with millets is more for hot meals but a risotto works fine for lunch boxes too.

This one is a barnyard millet and carrot-pumpkin risoto with rosemary garlic. This risotto is cooked in one step, no addition of stock or wine but the flavours of rosemary and garlic make this nice.

For 2 servings cook 100 gm barnyard millet with double the amount of water, add a cup of finely chopped pumpkin, 1/2 cup grated carrots and 1/4 cup grated potato to the simmering risotto along with salt and pepper. Add chopped rosemary, garlic and 1 tbsp butter and cook till millet grains get soft and it reaches risotto consistency, adding water if required. Add grated Parmesan, mix well and pack.

I packed a mango, balsamic preserved cherries and cashew nut salad with it fearing the husband might not like it but he loved it.

Tupperware lunch boxes are quite convenient for this kind of meals as they are completely leak proof. But use them only when the meals do not need reheating. I find this set of lunch boxes useful for my requirements.

And here is another giveaway for you all along with a few more that I announced for the lunch box series.

A set of brightly coloured steel lunch boxes or multipurpose containers with plastic fitting lids (hopefully great leak-proof too), is up for another giveaway. Just write about your lunch box, how you like them and how you are finding this series too.

There is a nice Tupperware steamer, a hand painted steel lunch box, a couple of glass bottles up for giveaways too in this series so please comment here and enter a chance to win one of these.

Please write your mail id too, I will be shipping these beauties to any Indian address.

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recipe of REAL food, some Magging and a pumpkin salad | caramalaised pumpkin salad with garlic-thyme butter and cheddar shavings

Yes there is a recipe of REAL food. And the recipe to real food needs a lot of unlearning, a lot of un-conditioning in modern times. The 'food markets' have conditioned us so much that we started thinking of food differently, we don't recognize an eggplant or pumpkin as food anymore and the 'dead' noodles coming out of a cheap packet is perceived naturally as the yummiest most desirable 'food'.

Caramelized pumpkin packs natural flavours, would it appeal to the palates paralysed by MSG laden 'tastemakers'?

Just think about the number of people who wouldn't feel hungry by the name of pumpkin and a packet of Maggi will make them hungry instantly and will bring back loads of 'happy memories' that they made in hostel rooms and mountain holidays.

Just imagine what Maggi has done to their growing up years not to mention to their system. They don't even realise there are chemical reasons behind this 'feel good addiction', the way a cheap small pack of instant noodles has clouded  and hijacked their sense of taste and satiety.

I have been watching some discussions and jokes about Maggi and MSG on social media lately and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time someone proclaims MSG is a natural component of many natural ingredients. See this facebook discussion to know how some people spread more ignorance about the facts. No wonder MSG has become the common salt in almost every home and street food vendors have been using MSG to make even sambar, daal and chhole tastier.

Maggi and their ilk have garnered such a following that people are not even believing reports from Govt. authorities regarding other toxic chemicals found in them, limits permissible or not. And then they claim that everything edible natural food also has some or the other toxic component. But is that equal to junk food being laced with toxins too?

The most frustrating discussions and arguments came from people who were comparing Maggi with pesticide ridden vegetables and even alcohol, nicotine and even spurious medicine. As educated and aware consumer we must know pesticide ridden vegetables and fruits are a different matter on it's own. Nicotine and alcohol are not even distantly related to the issues of junk foods that our bodies haven't even known as food.

All these convenience foods that have been made 'hyper-tasty' with the help of several chemicals including MSG, more chemicals go into them to prolong the shelf life. These food like objects find place on our tables and in our lives through a very strategic marketing that involves clever advertising and placement of the shiny packets on supermarket isles as well as the corner grocer of the colony.

Maggi and it's ilk creeped into our kitchens stealthily, hijacked the sense of taste and satiety so much so most of us started rejecting real food. And many of us even started arguing to defend Maggi.

True that Maggi has not killed anyone that the arguments are saying, but we can't be this shortsighted to ignore the metabolic disorder that is fast becoming an epidemic. Young innocent kids are getting diabetic and obese, adults develop multiple hormonal imbalances even before they reach middle age. I wonder why many of us do not realise that our body is equipped to heal itself if we stop eating trash and start nourishing it with real food.

Many said that they eat Maggi 'only occasionally' for a 'rare treat'. Just imagine Maggi being called a 'treat'. The trash being called a 'treat'. Need I say more to emphasize how Maggi and it's ilk has hijacked the sense of taste and satiety in today's world?

Aren't there real noodles tossed with real ingredients to make a tasty meal?

I wish a trend starts when there are fresh noodle makers just like the bread bakeries around towns, we already have dosa and idli batter makers who sell ready batter for everyone's convenience, the fresh noodles made with real ingredients will be a welcome business venture. One can use their own seasonings, sauces and vegetables to cook their own favourite concoction. That kind of real noodles will be better even if they are made of white flour, at least one would be saved from the load of chemicals.

Just do away with fabricated food friends. Period.

And now a recipe of REAL food, the kind that wouldn't even appeal to the 'tastemaker' addicted palates and minds. But I hope they try it sometime and know how pumpkins can pack more flavours than they imagine. All of you who come to find real recipes here know it already :-)

Caramalised pumpkin pan grilled with thyme-garlic butter, served with cheddar shavings ...

Just imagine firm yellow pieces of pumpkin being slow braised in a pan along with butter and thyme, some large slices of garlic that turn crisp by the time the pumpkin gets nicely caramelized both sides. The flavours seep in so well that no tastemaker can replicate this.

Choose a ripe pumpkin with tough flesh, orange yellow in colour and almost brown skin. Slice the pumpkin, peel off the skin and chop the flesh into bite sized fat slices. Get started to make this delicious salad.

ingredients...
(2 large servings or 6 servings as a party starter )

about 2 dozen bite sized fat slices of pumpkin (400 gm)
thyme leaves 3-4 springs
butter 1 tbsp
sliced garlic as much as you like ( I used 4 fat cloves)
salt to taste
mature cheddar cheese to shave over the cooked salad ( I used a small leftover cube)

procedure...

Grease a flat griddle with butter and arrange the pumpkin cubes and garlic slices over it. Sprinkle with salt lightly, sprinkle half the thyme leaves too and let the pumpkin pieces grill slowly on low heat. I prefer covering the griddle with a domed lid for this.

Turn over the pumpkin slices and sprinkle the other half of thyme leaves. The addition of thyme leaves at different phases of grilling ensures the flavours seep in really well. The garlic slices will start browning slowly alongside.

Cover again and let it grill and caramelize. Poke with a sharp knife to know the pumpkin has softened to your preference. The surface should be nicely caramelised and spotted.

Arrange in a serving plate and shave mature cheddar over the hot pumpkin slices and see the cheese shavings melt.

Dig right into it and see how it surprises you if you haven't loved pumpkin ever.

For party starters this salad can be served with some cocktail sticks or small forks so the guests can pick up he pumpkin cubes easily from a platter. Avoid serving it in a deep bowl, always a wide shallow platter.

Eat real food, forget Maggi and forget all reconstituted foods that come in shiny cheap packets. Eat local and seasonal vegetables and fruits and see how you get more nutrient value for your hard earned buck.

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food and coffee pairing session with Bonhomia and a recipe of apple peach walnut salad with home made feta cheese

Coffee and food pairing sessions make sense if you are someone who likes entertaining with a lot of coffee being served. I would probably have one shot of coffee during a meal or snacking session with friends, but when you are to learn the intricacies of coffee, you got to gulp down a lot of caffeine in one sitting. I was ready to take this caffeine assault greedily when Bonhomia hosted a coffee and food paring session at Le Bistro du Parc.

Le Bistro du Parc is a standalone French bistro located at the edge of a park in Moolchand market, a nice place to sit and relax while dining with the company of old trees. The bistro, founded by Naina de Bois-Juzan serves French cuisine using locally grown seasonal ingredients, not too difficult as we are growing almost everything now. The fresh ingredients make a difference and that is evident at Le Bistro du Park, of course I could witness the finesse with which the ingredients were handled too. More about that later.

Bonhomia is a premium brand of coffee that makes coffee blends packaged in capsules compatible to Nespresso machines, the coffee blend capsules are made for a single shot of coffee and are packaged in boxes of 10 capsules each. Now that is a convenient way to enjoy great coffee in the comfort of home. Coffee that gives a perfect crema, as I had learned with Illy coffee master barista Nicola Scognamiglio from Italy.

The coffee blends that go by the names like 'Free love', 'Dark deeds', 'Black viel' and 'Vanilla artisan' are blended creatively. Mr. Tuhin Jain (CMO, Bonhomia) introduced us to the nuances of Bonhomia coffee blends and that these are all sourced from high altitude coffee plantation of south of India. Mr Kunal Bhagat joined us later and discussed how these capsules of coffee are made locally using the best coffee beans.

A Tomato tartar prepped with lime juice, esplette pepper and basil wrapped in a pickled ribbon of radish was served in dainty portions along with the blend Free love. The freshness of the salad bites fits well with a medium strength espresso shot.

Next was garlic bread topped with baby romaine folded around goat cheese, sun dried tomato and radish microgreens paired with Dark deeds served as Americano. Sharp edgy flavours raising the bar to a stronger full bodied coffee blend.

Next came dainty bites of stuffed puff pastry with olive tapenade and confit peppers paired with Black veil, the most potent coffee blend of the day. It was served as cappuccino but I tried the espresso shot too and it is indeed a very robust coffee blend.

The dessert platter had an assortment of miniature almond financiers, lemon Madeleine, crisp meringues and pistachio tuiles with some fresh fruit bites. Vanilla artisan blend served as macchiato is perfect with dessert and the pairing was received well.

Now it was a lot of caffeine in my bloodstream. The food was beautifully done, the dainty lemon Madeleine proved that the French bistro is worth it's salt. The finesse in every little detail is very evident, the taste hits the spot perfectly.

And then I had to make the next meal that could hydrate me and be filling at the same time. I made this apple peach walnut salad with home made feta cheese and home grown rucola greens. Nothing could have served the purpose that day. The salad was so good it got repeated for the weekend breakfast too. Yes we do eat unconventional things for our meals.

Home made feta cheese makes so much sense for me, the reason being I love the creamy feta so much and the packaged feta is just too expensive. So I have to do the effort of making feta, it takes some time but I try and make large batches and refrigerate for about 2 weeks. Will share the recipe of feta cheese sometime soon. Have not been able to photograph the process for the purpose.

The dressing... whisk everything together

balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp
lime juice 1 tsp
brown sugar 2 tsp
salt and pepper to taste
crushed walnuts 2 tsp or walnut oil few drops

Chop one large green apple and 4-5 small peaches. The Himachal green peaches are starting to come right now and I love the complex flavours they pack. Chop about 15 walnuts halves and mix with the cut fruits. Tear a handful of rucola leaves and add. Drizzle the dressing and toss the salad.

Serve immediately topped with as much feta cheese as you want. We had kept some feta cheese on the side too and kept digging the fork to pick up the creamy cubes of goodness.

This apple peach walnut salad will be really great for a summer menu, especially during day time. If you chop the fruits a bit smaller the salad can be served over garlic bread too. But we eat breads very occasionally so the large bowl of this salad will be good any time. Check out another Peach and feta salad to see how you can make variations of this salad.

No coffee with this salad please.

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Thai green mango or raw mango salad recipe to wrap up a crazy weekend

We had a nice brunch of multigrain uttapam yesterday along with some fiery chutneys and curry patta flavoured buttermilk. A nice relaxed late breakfast that powered us for a massive clean up of the cupboards, sorting things to give away and to rearrange, in a bid to get a bit organised. We often neglect housekeeping issues and they keep piling up, this was the weekend we decided to take it head on. And we did. The big breakfast helped a lot.

This thick onion laden uttapam is quite filling and I had made a quick pressure cooker pumpkin mash with coconut cream, the garlic flax seeds chutney adds up taste and fills you up fast too. Quite an energising breakfast/brunch it was.

We decided we will eat some fruits in the evening as usual and then prepare dinner or order something for dinner if we get too exhausted by the end of this exercise. But once we started sorting things to rearrange and bundling up things to discard or give away it just kept stretching endlessly. We had iced tea in between that I had kept ready in the fridge but we really got hungry by late evening. The maid was on leave and I had to start dinner from scratch if I do. Not possible I said and suggested we order something new for dinner. Normally we just call the corner dhaba and get assorted tikkas and roomali roti with loads of onion rings in such times but I wanted something light healthy and yet tasty. Was it such a tall order?

Made some nice strong cold coffee and we sat down to search for online ordering. I was not prepared for the kind of deluge of food options flashing on the screen. We had been hearing about Foodpanda a lot and tried it for the first time. Once I selected my area of residence and cuisine I was amazed to see the number of small and big establishments from near and far offering almost whatever I wanted for myself. Ranging from student breakfasts which is basically cheap, light but tasty breakfast options to sushi and miso soups I could order anything. Amazing.

We ordered a miso soup, a cucumber and seaweed salad and chicken teriyaki with sticky rice, all this with a 20% discount that was offered for the day. Not sure if the discount was for the day or forever as I was ordering food this way for the first time. I am embarrassed a bit about not knowing the options but not sorry about not depending much on take-aways and home deliveries.

Anyway, we enjoyed our meal, too tired to empty it into plates and bowls, we dug into the bowls it came into, and did not regret one bit.

And today the next episode of the operation housekeeping was followed. Same multigrain batter was steamed into idli and had with ghee and garlic flax seeds chutney to be followed by tackling plumbers and electricians. But today I had planned better and kept some green raw mangoes and red onions ready to toss up a nice salad in the evening. And by the end of the day I am feeling accomplished to be able to post the recipe with you as well.

ingredients..
( 2 large servings)

raw green mangoes 2 large or about 300 gm
red onion 1 medium or 100 gm
chopped fresh mint 1/4 cup
chopped fresh green coriander 1/2 cup

the dressing..
minced fresh red chilly or red chilly flakes to taste (keep a bit higher as chilly heat gets denatured by the tartness of raw mangoes)
brown sugar or grated jaggery 1.5 tbsp
salt 3/4 tsp or to taste ( I used a mix of regular salt and black rock salt)
light soy sauce 2-3 tsp
cashew nuts shallow fried in ghee or oil 1/3 cup or about 80 gm

procedure...

Peel the raw mangoes and slice thinly from the sides of the fruit. Arrange the slices and chop them into very thin matchsticks. Chop about 1/4th of the raw mango in really small bits to add texture.

Peel, halve and slice the red onion thinly. Dice a few slices in small bits too to add texture. This salad is a very good mix of taste and texture.

Chop the herbs and chilly. Mix all these together and keep aside, reserving the chopped chili for dressing..

Chop the cashew nuts roughly. Some of the nuts can be whole as it adds to the salad in a very good way. You might feel it is too much cashew but the salad is packed with fiber and balances the overall glycemic index and calorie count both.

Mix the dressing ingredients and whisk lightly with a fork. Pour into the chopped ingredients and give it a good mix. Let it stand for 10 minutes before adding the cashew nuts and digging into the flavours right away.

This salad will cast magic on whoever digs into it. Such a wonderful mix of flavours you would crave for more. This was a huge bowl of salad and we kept digging our forks into the bowl silently till we polished off the last shred. That good.

There is a raw mango and sprouts salad with peanuts that I make and that can also be dressed to taste. Raw mangoes, onions and fresh chillies eaten together are supposed to keep the body cool and energized, thanks to the mineral and vitamins that they pack.

Make this Thai raw mango salad this season. You can pack it to your lunch box, all mixed up and it will get better in a couple of hours stays in the box. This salad makes a nice snack for a bunch of friends too for a weekend drink. Think about it, you might like it rolled up in a crisp paratha too.

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Thai sesame garlic dressing with calamondin juice | a red cabbage salad and a ripe papaya salad with Thai sesame garlic dressing

A cabbage salad sounds unimpressive unless you have a killer dressing. This red cabbage salad with Thai sesame and garlic dressing blew my mind away. This salad is so good there is always a competition while eating from the same bowl. You must know it has been repeated a few times already.

Inspired by the Thai masterclass I made another Thai salad even though I have been having hot soups more in this season. A cold salad doesn't always feel right in winters but I experimented with a Thai dressing one day that turned out to be so good I used it up immediately with some red cabbages that I had in the fridge at that time. The Thai sesame and garlic dressing was supposed to be used for a salad for lunch the next day and I had kept a jar to fill and refrigerate but I took out cabbages and coriander greens instead, chopped them patiently and tossed the salad with the dressing being poured right out of the mixie jar. Some meal plans change like that. For the good.

My tiny Calamondin tree is giving me some fruits but Deeba had given me a bagful when we met last time. My tiny tree is loaded with small unripe calamondins but since I allow some Citrus Butterflies to breed on this tree, many fruits don't get to ripen and then the Bulbuls and Barbets come and pick them up, the ripe ones. Thank God I can get calamondins from friends.

The calamondin chilly marmalade that I had planned was not happening and I made the calamondin infused tea a few times and then I thought of using it's juice for a nutty salad dressing. This is one of the best salad dressings I have experimented with.

ingredients for the dressing 
Recipe inspired by this one
(makes about one cup, enough for 2-3 large servings)

sesame seeds (raw) 2 tbsp
calamondin juice 3 tbsp (from about 10 calamondins)
honey 1 tbsp
fresh red chillies chopped (preferably thai bird chillies) 2
garlic cloves 5
sesame oil (cold pressed) 1 tbsp
salt 3/4 tsp
light soy sauce 1 tsp
chopped lemongrass (white bulbous part) 1 tbsp

Blend everything smooth in mixie except the red chillies. Pulse once after adding the chillies so they just get macerated in the dressing and not completely blended. Add water and dilute to make it flowing consistency. Taste and adjust sweet-salt balance.

ingredients for the salad
(2 large servings)
finely chopped red cabbage 2 cups
finely chopped green cabbage 1 cup
chopped white parts of spring onions 1/3 cup
chopped coriander greens 1/2 cup
roasted chopped cashew nuts 2-3 tbsp

Procedure..

Mix all the chopped vegetables first. Pour the thick dressing paste over it and mix well again. Let it stand for about 15 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with chopped roasted cashew and serve. This salad stays good for about 2 hours even after mixing so you can take it in lunch box or make it well ahead for a party too.

This salad is so good I finished half of it while just tossing it. And then felt guilty to finish a good thing all by myself and not sharing with the husband. But the good sense prevailed and I saved for him too. He loved it too, even suggested this could be a lunch box regular. I made a large batch of the dressing the next day and refrigerated to toss quick salads for his lunch box in the morning.

With some tender baby spinach plucked fresh from the garden, I can toss a salad with just anything if there is a good dressing on hand. Else I would admit I eat salads even without dressing if there are citrus fruits that lend their own zing to the salad once the salt is added.

The coriander greens are flowering now and packed with more aromatic oils. The flowering stalks of coriander make nice aromatic addition to any salad. I chopped some along with spinach and added to a papaya salad.

Ripe papaya salad with baby spinach, coriander greens and a couple of strawberries.

I made this ripe papaya salad with the same dressing and loved it so much I might eat papaya like this whenever they are not sweet enough. This was a papaya that turned out to be less sweet than we like and I was thinking of making a smoothie and gulp it down in one go. But now papayas will be consumed in a fancier way thanks the calamondins and the love for sesame. I added some mixed seeds to this papaya salad and loved it. Use any nuts or seeds you fancy.

Another salad I make with not so sweet papayas is here with pickled beet roots and that is another favourite. You know I would eat a large bowl of salad anytime.

You might like to add some arugula or lettuce instead of spinach and orange segments instead of strawberries, may be some pickled beets too but try and not let this salad stay for very long time as the enzymes of papaya start working on the sesame dressing and it looks curdled. Though the taste doesn't change much.

This sesame and garlic Thai salad dressing with calamondin juice and lemon grass definitely has strong citrus notes, but you do get the kick of the fresh red chillies, the sweetness of honey, nuttiness of sesame and the umami lend by the soy sauce. Imagine the flavours.

There is still a jar of this Thai sesame garlic dressing in the fridge, I might toss some sprouts and roasted peanuts in it next. A good thing must be used in a good way right?

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