New Potatoes with Indian Style Spicy Sesame Dressing

Here is a spicy Indian take on potato salad. This wonderful recipe combines the earthiness of sesame with the pungent tastes of lime and mustard oil.

Baraboa Mas huni ( Pumpkin) : A Recipe from Six Senses Laamu, Maldives

Mas huni is a Maldivian breakfast food. It is like a salad with simple seasonings of onions and shredded coconut and can be eaten with roshi.
 

 

Bulgur and Lentil Salad with Parsley

 

I love the combination of bulgur and lentils! One of my favorite dishes is Mujadara (to be blogged as soon as my friend Rula gives me the recipe!)

In the meanwhile here is a really healthy and delicious salad recipe that I find myself making a lot of lately.

 

Easy Pomelo Salad

 



 
Pomelo is one of our family’s favorite fruits.

It is a fabulous version of a large grapefruit that is very common in Thailand. It can be eaten in many ways but the most common ways are to eat it just as a fruit or make a salad with it.

I find that Pomelo is quite abundantly available in the fall season here in New York. I see it everywhere from the local Asian supermarkets to Costco.

This is a really simple salad I make with Pomelo.
 

CELERY ROOT, BEETROOT AND APPLE SALAD

 
Sometimes I get vegetables that look like this in my CSA box.
 

 
Many times these vegetables just sit at the back of my fridge until I toss them into a soup stock. This past week I decided to brave a salad with this celery root and I ended up loving what I created.

This is a really simple, super healthy, nonfat salad. I love the tangy flavor that the lemon and vinegar add. Enjoy

 

 

 

WARM GLASS NOODLE AND EDAMAME

My sister in law Sonal has given me the cookbook of a lifetime!

The book is called Plenty  by Yotam Ottolenghi, a renowned chef and author who writes a weekly vegetarian column in London’s weekly  Guardian newspaper. Ottolenghi owns “haute couture” food shops in London, which are well known for innovative dishes, that are made using the best of ingredients.

This is a spectacular dish I recently made for a luncheon, which ended up being a favorite with adults and the kids alike.

QUINOA AND PARSLEY SALAD

Quinoa is my new best friend!

This delicious grain is actually a seed that has been cultivated in South America for over 6000 years.

It is very high is protein and many other nutrients. It is a great replacement for rice and other high carbohydrate grains.

Here is a great recipe I tried from the December 2010 issue of Cooking Light Magazine.

I served it on our Thanksgiving table this year and it was a huge hit.

Chiva-Som’s Yam Yai – Traditional Thai Salad

At Chiva-Som, which is a fabulous health and wellness spa in Thailand, they have perfected the art of Spa cuisine. Everyday at the lunch buffet, some version of Yam Yai which is a traditional Thai salad, was available.

There are many ways of changing up this salad by using different vegetables in it or different dressings. I have given the recipe for an alternative  dressing below though the fat-free fresh house dressing  they make at Chiva-Som is really outstanding.

I’ve also given a recipe for a papaya salad, if you choose to add fresh green grated papaya to the vegetables in this salad.

CHIVA-SOM’S YAM-YAI

Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ cup carrots shredded

½ cup turnip or daikon shredded

½ cucumber shredded

5 tablespoons of Chinese celery (finely chopped – optional)

1 spring onion

½ onion finely sliced

½ tomato de-seeded and sliced

2 tablespoons of chopped roasted almonds

Fat-free House Dressing:

4 garlic cloves

¾ of a red bell pepper

2 coriander roots

1 cup rice vinegar

½ cup honey

7-8 cloves of pickled garlic ( you can buy this at an Asian grocery or make it yourself)

METHOD:

• To make the dressing, place all the ingredients for the dressing in a blender and blend until it is pureed.

• Set this dressing aside –leftovers can be stored in the fridge for later use too.
• In a salad bowl, combine all the chopped vegetables
• Add 2-3 tablespoons of dressing and gently toss to mix
• Garnish with ground roasted almonds and serve.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:

Calories:                       91.8 kcal

Protein:                        2.8 g

Carbohydrate:            13.9g

Fat:                               3.1 g

Soya- Lime Dressing for the Yam Yai

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon Thai dressing

• Mix above ingredients well and use as dressing on Yam Yai

Dressing for Papaya Salad

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

Chopped chilies

• Mix above ingredients well and use as dressing on Yam Yai with grated green papaya.

Watermelon Radish and Rutabaga Tsukemono ( Japanese Pickled Vegetables)

In my weekly organic box of vegetables that I get from my local CSA, I never know what to do with my difficult vegetables ( ie:  the rutabaga, the watermelon radish, celery root, turnips and so on).

So, luckily I can hand them off to my wonderful mother in law Atsuko, who makes them into various kinds of Tsukemono for me which I love!

Tsukemono are Japanese Pickles which are so healthy and delicious. They can be eaten with rice or meat or anything really  or even just by themsleves. There are hundreds of ways to make Tsukemono with all kinds of vegetables. The most common ones are made using daikon radish, carrots, turnips and so on.

Here is one of the simplest ways my mother-in-law makes Tsukemono.

RUTABAGA AND WATERMELON RADISH TSUKEMONO

Ingredients:

Thinly sliced Rutabaga

Thinly sliced Watermelon Radish

Salt to sprinkle

2-3 tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar, used for sushi rice ( any brand of your choice)

METHOD:

• Sprinkle salt over the thinely sliced vegetables and allow it to sit in a colander for 10 minutes.

• Squeeze any excess mositure out of the vegetables and place in a bowl.
• Mix with 1-2 tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar.
• Serve.

Aunty Pen’s Thai Pomelo Salad

Here is another yummy version of a pomelo salad. This is the one that Varong’s Aunty Pen taught me in Bangkok. It’s a little different from the Chivasom’s Pomelo Salad recipe but is equally delicious.

Pomelo Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup shredded cooked chicken

2 cups pomelo

½ cup finely sliced shallots or red onion

2 tablespoons of fried garlic

¼ cup chopped cashew nuts, peanuts or almonds

4-5 teaspoons of minced roasted coconut (optional)

3-4 Fried whole red chilies

5 tablespoons of fried shallots

Ingredients for salad dressing:

3 tablespoons of Thai chili paste

7 tablespoons of limejuice

3 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 tablespoons of palm sugar

METHOD:

• In a small bowl combine all the ingredients for the salad dressing and mix well.
• In a big salad bowl combine the cooked shredded chicken with 5-6 tablespoons of the salad dressing and mix well.
• Add the pomelo and the chopped shallots and mix.

• Add more dressing if needed.
• Garnish with the nuts, minced roasted coconuts, fried shallots and garlic and whole red chilies.