Over this one month, I have tried so many dressings, but I realized there wasn't an authentic Indian dressing there.
Yes, I agree that Indian salads do not really have dressings except for lemon juice, if at all. But what I wanted to create was a dressing which only had Indian flavours.
And that's how this brilliant dressing was born.
A full month of salads only and I still haven’t gotten over bell peppers. I’ve grilled them, toasted them and baked them and loved in them in every format.
And the dressing ideas just keep coming… just when I think I am done with all the dressings that I can think of, this one just came to my mind. I was going through my herb cupboard (yes, I have one ;-)) and realized that I hadn’t used the Oregano at all. Neither did Thyme and Sage make an appearance. Well, they are for another day, but Oregano and Garlic are today’s heroes.
Yes, chargrilled vegetables can be a meal too! If you don’t trust me, try it and see.
I had a bunch of these veggies in my fridge and the only thing I could think of today was to oven roast them. I didn’t think of a dressing nor an accompaniment. The veggies as they were, roasted, of course.
Yummy, healthy and fills the stomach – that’s what this salad is for me!
I toasted the broken wheat or Dalia a bit before cooking this in hot water to remove the raw taste. The addition of Kasuri Methi is for the flavour. I also added the chopped chillies to the broken wheat while toasting it to get the flavour of chillies into the wheat. This step is totally optional.
I don’t know why, but this salad is also called The Classic Moroccan Salad in this article, from which I’ve been inspired for this recipe. I guess its because of the use of toasted cumin and the raisins in this salad, which are a total hit, by the way!
I first tasted the honey and chilli dressing during a food review I did for Syn and I’ve been itching to try this ever since. The sweet and chilli combination just bursts in your mouth and you will be pleasantly surprised. For this salad , you could you just the honey as a dressing, but I strongly suggest you try this dressing! :-)
When I started with the A Salad A Day project, I had decided that I would not make any salad with cucumbers in it. As much as I love the freshness of a nice cucumber, it really is a boring vegetable when it comes to salad.
But when I thought of this dressing, I was tempted to try this.
Jar lunches are a concept I am just warming up to. I haven’t heard of them till the time Siri told me about Recipe Redux and their theme for August, 2013.
But after having discovered such a convenient method for lunching, I don’t think I can go back.
Another simple, easy and flavourful salad featuring bell peppers and beans.
Technically this one’s not a vegetable salad, given that tomato is also a fruit. But the addition of raw onions (*gasp*, yes! ;-)) makes it one, I guess.
Who doesn’t love the simple and refreshing Caprese salad, tell me?
In this recipe, I’ve tried to reproduce the fresh taste of the salad, but gave it my own spin.
This is one of those simple salads that you can serve as an appetizer or a full meal.
Its best served with salad leaves also, but I decided to give it a miss. It tasted good nevertheless. Oven roasted tomatoes is one of those simple pleasures I’ve discovered and begun love in this month.
Here’s a classic salad recipe… something so famous that it needs no introduction!
Its like spring in a bowl! :)
Growing up, I’ve eaten a lot of sweet potatoes. In fact, they were one of my favourite vegetables to snack on. I could eat it boiled or curried or even as a papad, a Mangalorean speciality. This vegetable , also called Genasu in Kannada is clearly a favourite. So it had to feature in my ASaladADay project!
Am pretty proud of this dressing and I loved the way it turned the taste of the sweet potato into a not-so-sweet-but-starchy-potato. The spring onions complement the Berbere mix well. If you do not have the mix handy, you can substitute it for any Indian curry powder, because the idea is to make the potatoes spicy.
Yet another beet-based salad, but with a different dressing , as usual.
Yes, I had an overload of beetroots delivered to me last week and I had no other option but to use them in my salads.
Doesn’t the ring of this salad make you feel fresh! :-D
This one is something that would taste good if you had it as a salad or if you juiced all the ingredients together. No matter what the form is, this combination is a winner!
Sweet, sour, crunchy, soft – These are the words I’d use if I had to just give adjectives to this salad.
The dressing made it look like a curried salad, but grilling the carrots retains the crunch and imparts the flavour of the dressing to the bite. Perfect!
Bell peppers are every salad maker’s fall-back option! You can never go wrong with these, they taste great no matter how they are cooked and go well with literally everything!
And that is why I decided to pair these up with some radical vegetables and protein! :-)
This one is a simple salad using a basic dressing and some nuts for garnish.
I’ve blanched both spinach and cauliflower leaves to remove the raw taste, but I guess you can leave them as-is if you don’t mind the taste.
I know, thats one too many cauliflower and beet salads in a row. But then, I love this combo and I had both these veggies at hand. I had to make them!
This one comes with a different dressing, and is cooked differently, to add novelty to my palate which is getting bored quite soon these days… am not blaming it, given the food am feeding myself, these salads are the only bright part of my day.
I fell for this salad for the sheer contrast in colours. And as I’ve learnt over the past one week, nothing is as interesting as a variety of colours on your plate, especially when you are eating salads.
Adapted from one of the salads from an old issue of BBC GoodFood, this recipe is a sure winner. For the idea of cooking tofu and the pairing of vegetables, of course.
This one’s easy, a no-brainer. You cannot go wrong when you marinade paneer. Always.
The juicy, crunchy and yummy cottage cheese tastes better if you marinade it in the curry mix longer , but if you are falling short of time, you can mix it and grill it immediately too.
Well, I can see how many of you would wrinkle your nose as you read radish and raw mango in the same sentence.
I get that, I totally do. Well, this wasn’t the favourite of my salads, either, but as I mentioned before, I have to eat all vegetables and I can only try my best in making them interesting.
Many traditional Indian salad recipes use grated carrots. This is the reason why I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to add it to my Salad month. After all, I’ve grown up eating grated carrots tempered with Hing and mustard.
That is why, when I bumped into this recipe on NYTimes, I jumped and picked it up. There is something very Asian and non-Indian about this dressing that I totally loved.
This one is definitely one of the best salads I’ve eaten , and I give all the credit to the grilled cottage cheese.
This is one of those easy green salads that most of us make when we have nothing better to eat.
Owing to my new-found mustard love, I’ve customized the honey-mustard dressing a bit in this recipe and kept the vegetables simple.
No, am not a fan of cabbage. And am certainly not a fan of red cabbage either. But when you are embarking on a month-long salad diet, you have no option but to partake of all the vegetables available. And that is how this salad happened…
Steaming the cabbages takes off the raw smell they hold and thus making it a lot easier to eat them in a salad. Adding the radish to this salad gives it a crunch and a different taste. To make them all come together, I used a mint chutney based dressing.
