Quinoa Salad (किनवाचे सॅलड)

Quinoa is a recent addition to our food. Quinoa is considered to be a healthy grain option. It is also considered as a super food. I think quinoa is a very versatile grain. You can cook it as per your mood of the day ! I have tried making quinoa upma (just like daliya upma). It tastes great too.

Quinoa is very easy and quick to cook. I often use this as a salad base. To cooked quinoa, I add any other salad ingredients that I can find in my fridge. This particular recipe I make for dinner.

Servings: 3 people

Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa grain,
1 cup of water
1 tbsp olive oil,
1/4 cup chopped onion,
8-10 cherry tomatoes or 1 regular tomato, cubed
2-3 leaves of Romaine lettuce (or any other variety)
8-10 pitted green olives
1 avocado (optional)
mixed salad green leaves like spinach, arugula, kale or any other variety
salt as per taste
freshly grated black pepper as per taste
chilli flakes as per taste

In a pot, pour 1 cup of water and bring it to boiling point. Add quinoa and let it cook for 10 minutes. Look at the instructions on the quinoa packet to cook it well. It takes about 10-15 minutes to cook the quinoa. Turn off the heat and cover with lid. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes

Once the quinoa is cooled down, mix together olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and all other ingredients. Stir together with quinoa, adjust the salt and pepper seasoning. Keep it in the fridge. This salad tastes good as cold salad. 

Sauted long beans (तेलावर परतवलेली वालीची भाजी)

In my family, all of us like munching raw long beans. I remember doing it since my childhood. Long beans are very easy to cook. Somehow I prefer their raw, tender flavor rather than cooked (boiled) flavor. I made this as a side dish along with palak paneer, which is my daughter's favorite vegetable for her school tiffin. I added walnuts to this dish for an extra crunchiness. You can add cashews too.

Ingredients:
A bunch of long beans, washed and cut into long strips
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp sesame seeds,
a handful of walnuts, chopped
1/2 tbsp olive oil or any other cooking oil
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and honey combination
salt as per taste
black pepper powder as per taste

In a heated kadhai, pour olive oil. Add garlic pieces, sesame seeds, black pepper powder, walnut pieces. Sautee for 1 minute till garlic pieces are well fried and turned brown. Next to it, add cut pieces of long beans and sautee on high flame for 1-2 minutes. Season with salt. Add balsamic vinegar and mix well. Sautee for an additional 1 minute. You can also use lemon juice and honey combination instead of balsamic vinegar.

This is a simple and tasty side dish cum salad with rice or chapati.

Carrot and mung lentil salad (गाजर आणि मुगडाळ कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
3 grated medium-sized carrots,
1/3 cup mung bean lentils, soaked in water for 20 minutes
1/3 cup grated coconut,
chopped coriander for garnish
8-10 raisins (optional)
2-3 green chillies, finely cut
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt as per taste

Combine together all the ingredients listed. Mix lightly. Serve immediately or refrigerate until the next meal. 

Kale greens salad (केल ग्रीन्स सलाड)

Ingredients:
7-8 kale green leaves
mozzarella cheese, grated for garnish
a handful of mixed nuts and raisins, (optional)
a few dried cranberries
little bit of lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Servings: 3 people

Cut kale green leaves finely. Do not use the thick stem of the leaf. Lightly mix chopped kale leaves with olive oil, honey, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Leave it for 5-10 minutes. Just before serving the salad, add dry fruits, nuts, cranberries and grated mozzarella cheese. Gently mix all ingredients together and serve.

Tomato Onion Salad (कांदा टोमेटोची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1 medium sized tomato
1 small onion
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1 chilly
1 tbsp roasted peanut powder (optional)
freshly grated coconut
coriander for garnish
salt as per taste
a pinch of sugar

Serving: 3 people

Finely chop tomato and onion. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients and salad is ready to serve.

You can optionally add 1 tbsp of yogurt.

Moong Sprouts Salad (मोड आलेल्या मुगाची कोशिंबीर )

I had a bowl of moong sprouts, leftover after making moong usal. I tried making Thai bean sprouts salad using these sprouts. I did not have soy sauce and palm sugar at home. I added lemon juice for some sour flavor. Next time, I will try adding soy sauce and palm sugar to make it more authentic.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of long sprouts (moong or any other beans)
1/2 cup capsicum, diced
1-2 spring onion greens, chopped
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely pounded
1/2 tsp olive oil for mixing
1/4 tsp pepper powder or chilly powder
1/2 tsp lemon juice or soy sauce

seasoning:
3-4 garlic cloves, cut finely
1/4 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp oil

Servings: 3-4 people

Lightly toss together all the ingredients, except the seasoning. In a small seasoning kadhai, heat oil and saute garlic cloves and sesame seeds. Turn off the gas and let it cool a bit. Mix the seasoning with the tossed salad. Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Next time I will try making this salad with bean sprouts and will add soy sauce and palm sugar. 

Hummus (काबुली चण्याची चटणी)

Hummus is a Mediterranean dish. It is a thick chutney made using boiled chickpeas.

Servings:
3 people

Ingredients:
1 cup of boiled chickpeas (काबुली चणे)
4-5 garlic cloves
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp chilly powder or pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
salt as per taste

In a mixer, grind the dry ingredients like sesame seeds, pepper corns, and garlic cloves together. Next add boiled chickpeas and lemon juice and salt. Grind to a coarse paste. Do not add water for grinding, use little bit of lemon juice or curd instead, just enough to grind. Serve this with pita bread or lettuce leaves.

Orange Apple Salad (सफरचंद संत्र्याची कोशिंबीर)

Servings:
4-5 people

Ingredients:
2 apples
3 oranges, peeled
Lettuce leaves
assorted dry fruits like pistachios, walnut chopped
salt as per taste

Dressing:
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp of honey or agave nectar or any other vegan honey substitute
1/2 inch of ginger piece, julienne

Cut apples into chunk sized pieces. Peel oranges, remove the pith and cut them into bite sizes. Take juice of one orange and mix it with honey and ginger. Let it simmer in a vessel for about 10 minutes until it fills your kitchen with a nice aroma and the juice becomes a bit syrupy. Let it cool for some time.

In a large bowl or salad plate, toss together orange pieces, apple pieces and assorted dry fruits. Tear lettuce into bite sized chunks and add this to the fruits. Pour cooled down salad dressing on this. Sprinkle salt as per taste. Stir lightly and carefully so as to prevent lettuce from turning soggy. You can either serve it immediately or refrigerate it and serve it chilled.

Black Chickpea Salad (काळ्या छोल्यांची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Black chickpeas, boiled,
1 medium sized tomato, diced
1 medium sized onion, chopped finely
fresh coriander for garnish

Seasoning:
salt as per taste,
ground pepper as per taste,
lemon juice

Boil the black chickpeas in a pressure cooker. Add little salt while boiling. Drain the water once the chickpeas are cooled down. Mix remaining ingredients and the salad is ready to serve.

Tip: Moong, matki and other pulses can also be used in place of black chickpeas.

Onion Curd salad (दही कांदा कोशिंबीर )

Ingredients:
1 large onion, vertically sliced
1-2 green chillies
1/2 cup curd
freshly grated coconut (optional)
salt as per taste
sugar as per taste (optional)
coriander leaves for garnish (optional)
1/2 tbsp groundnut powder (optional)

Servings: 3 people

Cut onion vertically into thin slices. Add salt, sugar, groundnut powder and green chillies to the curd and mix well. To this mixture add sliced onion and grated coconut. Mix together. Garnish with coriander leaves.
 This salad tastes good with chapati or any bhakri - jowar, bajri, raagi etc.

Beetroot Salad (बीटाची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1 cup grated beet
1/2 medium sized onion, chopped
1 green chilly, finely chopped
1/2 cup curd OR lemon juice
salt as per taste
1-2 tbsp pomegranate seeds for garnish

Mix all ingredients. You can use lemon juice instead of curd. Beetroot along with chopped onion tastes good. Refrigerate and serve.

Carrot Salad (गाजराची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
2 carrots, grated
finely chopped coriander leaves
freshly grated coconut

1 tsp lemon juice
salt as per taste
sugar as per taste

For Seasoning:
1/2 tsp of oil
1/2 tsp mustard
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric
7-8 curry leaves
1-2 medium green chillies, finely chopped

Servings:
3 people

In a bowl, mix together grated carrot, coriander leaves, coconut, salt, sugar, lemon juice. Toss lightly. In a small kadhai, add oil. Add mustard seeds to the kadhai. Once mustard seeds start to pop, add asafoetida, curry leaves. Next add chopped chillies, turmeric powder. Stir well and turn the heat off. Add this mixture to the bowl and mix well.

Cabbage Salad (कोबी गाजराची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/4 cup finely sliced or grated carrot
1 tbsp pomegranate seeds
coriander leaves for garnish
raisins for added flavor

For Seasoning:
2 tsp lemon juice
salt
black pepper powder or chilli flakes
olive oil

Take a bowl and mix all the seasoning ingredients. Add shredded cabbage, grated carrot, pomegranate seeds, raisins and coriander leaves. Toss slightly and serve.

Red Radish salad (लाल मुळ्याची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
2 small red radish
1 medium sized cucumber
1 medium sized tomato
Lettuce leaves

For dressing:
salt
freshly ground pepper
lemon
olive oil

Make thin circular slices of radish, cucumber and tomato. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for dressing. To this, add slices of radish, cucumber, tomato and lettuce leaves. Mix lightly and serve.

Radish Green Salad (मुळ्याच्या पानांची पचडी)

Radish due to its strong smell, is not a favourite vegetable in our house. Whenever we buy radish from the vegetable vendor, he generally snips off the greens. I always ask the vendor to keep the radish greens. I decided to make a salad out of these greens today.

I remember my mother making this pachadi with little variation. She used to add soaked yellow moong dal to the salad. I did not have soaked moong dal so I modified it a bit. I found this recipe here. A minor change to the original recipe is I did not use olive oil, used just lemon juice for seasoning.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of radish greens finely chopped
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of cucumber finely chopped

salt
freshly ground pepper
lemon juice for seasoning
roasted sesame seeds for garnish

 Mix all the ingredients together except sesame seeds and toss lightly. Refrigerate for some time and add sesame seeds just before serving the dish. Enjoy the crunchy radish green salad.

Tip: You can add raisins or roasted almonds for additional flavour.