Savoy Tulsi Slaw

I needed coleslaw.  On a lazy day I wanted a store roasted chicken and sourdough bread, but factory manufactured coleslaw is but a death warrant of sugar and trans-fats, and the taste leaves a lot to be desired.  Only homemade and healthy would cut it.  But the only cabbage that was in good shape and small enough for my needs was a single little Savoy they had rolling around.  I took it home with me, and immediately regretted it when I tasted a leaf.  Bland, and a bit bitter.  It would need some serious doctoring up to be palatable.

It needed sweetening, but without sugar.   A few tulsi leaves, some fennel seeds and fresh lemon juice would do the trick.  This salad takes about fifteen minutes to prepare, and serves four easily.

1 small Savoy cabbage

1 very small red onion, or a bit of a bigger one

1 apple

half an avocado

10 tulsi leaves, (also known as Holy Basil)

pinch of fennel seeds

good squeeze of fresh lemon

ten grinds of fresh black pepper

1 scant tablespoon good oil (avocado is excellent)

salt to taste

pine nuts (optional)

I suppose that if you have no tulsi, you could use more fennel, as both have a somewhat licorice type of taste.  Fresh mint could also be substituted.  But since I am growing it, I have lots, and used that.  This recipe is like that for any salad.  

Don't peel that apple!  The pinkness is pretty and most nutrients are just under the peel.  Slice and dice the apple and vegetables to the size you prefer for a slaw, toss with the tulsi, fennel, lemon, pepper and oil, and then salt to taste.  

As the point of this salad was to counterbalance the roast chicken and thick slabs of buttered sourdough bread, I required no additional calories or protein, but the next day I had the leftover salad for my lunch, this time dressed with lots of pine nuts for protein.  Oh deliciousness. 

Savoy is the prettiest cabbage, but the taste is not my favourite.  But sometimes a not so great start is the beginning of something wonderful.  You know, necessity is the mother of invention.  

The Tulsi (Holy Basil) is wintering in my livingroom window... It will also make a good addition to chai, I expect!

Watermelon Cilantro Salad

This sweet and savoury salad refreshes the palate and cools the mouth.  It’s especially wonderful on a hot day, or when you’ve just had a mouthful of very spicy chilies.  Best of all, it’s so quick to prepare!

1 round of cold watermelon, cut in a ½ inch slice, then cut into cubes

2 tablespoons very finely diced chives, or scallions

10 fresh mint leaves

15 stalks cilantro

5 arugula leaves

2 chive flowers

a few grates of black pepper

½ lemon, juiced

Make sure the watermelon has been chilled first.  Cutting it into cubes is the most work here, and that takes all of about five minutes. 

Even if the greens don’t come from your garden, wash them and dry them well.  Press the mint leaves together gently, and roll.  Use scissors to cut them into thin strips.  Using scissors, also cut up the cilantro, including the clean ends of the stalks.  You can use the arugula stalks as well, if the plants are young, otherwise, just the leaves.  

The carefully washed chive flowers can be gently rubbed into a towel to dry them, then the petals can be pulled apart, thrown into the mix of all the above ingredients.  Toss, and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till served.

This makes a great side dish, the perfect accompaniment to our barbecued lamb, spicy barbecued potatoes, shredded radish salad, and a special channa, that’s still to come.  Stay tuned.

What do you like to eat on a too hot day?

The colours before our last storm glowed!  The flash doesn't quite capture it, but you kind of get the picture.  The red car down the street was positively vibrating.  These storms cool us down pretty fast!  Most luckily we didn't get the hail!

Joanie’s Salad

Joanie’s Salad

An easy light salad often graces the table of an otherwise heavy Indian meal, and my friend Joanie had tasted one of mine, and later reported she couldn’t find the recipe here in this blog. 

So, Joanie, this one’s for you!  This salad takes mere minutes to prepare, and it’s fresh, light and healthy, and makes a great accompaniment to a meal.

You can adjust the proportions, depending on how much you are making.  I made this for three, but it would serve more or fewer, depending on your serving size. 

4 tiny Indian cucumbers, diced (or one cup of English cucumber, peeled and diced)
2 scallions, diced
½ tomato, diced
3 radishes, sliced and diced
6 mint leaves, piled onto one another and cut into thin ribbons
15 (approximately) fresh cilantro leaves
½ lemon or lime, juiced

Squeeze the lemon or lime half over the sliced vegetables, toss and serve.  The mint, lemon (or lime) and Indian cucumber make this salad taste especially fresh.  

I didn't include radishes in the salad Joanie tasted, but they were fresh and impossible to resist, so here they are.  I'd used a combination of British and Indian cucumbers, but discovered the Indian gems are so crisp and fresh, they can stand alone delightfully.

If you can’t find these cucumbers, just using the British cucumbers works fine.  This combination of light, tangy flavours cools the mouth when you’re eating spicy foods, so it’s especially appreciated by many! 

We ate this merely as an accompaniment, but you can eat as much as you like!

Salad Days

Salad Days

The term ‘salad days’ referred to happy days from one’s youth, once upon a time.  Now that I’m on this vegan train, it means something else.  You might think that I’d be miserable and hungry, but I’m not.  I am feeling great, and weirdly, my fingernails are getting really strong.  They used to bend in the wind, I swear.

Always obsessed with getting enough protein, I am sure to include just enough nuts, and the avocado keeps me more than satisfied.  In fact, if I had to choose between avocado and meat, I’d take avocado any time, and ditto for avocado and cheese.  Yay for avocado! 

The big surprises in this salad come from the kale and purple cabbage.  There are tons of anthocyanins in these, which are very, very good for our health and appearance!  In fact, this salad is full of all sorts of other magic bits, also very high in these amazing nutrients.

What's prettier and healthier than red kale?  I could have added the flowers too, I suppose...

In my early twenties, I didn’t realize that an avocado had to be ripe before one tried to make guacamole with it.  I just assumed that Mexicans all had terrific biceps, able to squash those hard objects into nice soft guacamole. 

When choosing them, you don’t need to feel for softness, although if you find one with a bit of give, buy it to eat right away.  I buy a bag full of hard dark green avocados, and they do ripen on the counter after three days or so.



More anthocyanins!

In addition to the nuts and avocado, I’m also concentrating on colour.  I’ve written about this before, but research is showing the incredible health benefits of eating the bright coloured foods, red peppers, purple cabbage, red kale, pomegranates…  Strangely enough, purple cabbage is also associated with being an appetite suppressant, which can’t hurt either, at least not for a glutton like me!

Anyway, to get on with a salad that feeds this greedy woman—you can multiply these amounts according to how many mouths are open:

Turmeric and Black Pepper go together!

3 leaves kale (red is great if you have it, but green will do), ribbed and torn into pieces
2 thin slices purple cabbage
1 sweet red pepper, diced
2 thin slices thin red onion, diced
1 ripe avocado, diced
1 chilli, finely diced
7 mint leaves, finely cut
small bunch of cilantro, finely cut
several shakes of turmeric
many grates fresh black pepper
¼ cup raw sunflower seeds*

1 lemon wedge

or

1 lemon wedge
1 teaspoon tahini
½ teaspoon water

from my greenhouse!

You can switch it up by using any of these morsels:

1/3 pomegranate (seeds)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 zucchini, sliced
¼ cup pine nuts*

Turmeric adds anthocyanins, just toss before you eat!

Because I’m putting this together every day, I’m switching it up from day to day.  Sometimes I eliminate the sunflower seeds, and go with the pine nuts instead.  Sometimes I don’t use sweet red pepper, and go with the pomegranate and tomato instead.  It’s all flexible. 

On some sad, sad days, I have no avocado, so I add more seeds.  So far, I’ve never needed to make the fancier dressing, content to squeeze the lemon wedge over the salad.  But if you’re really hungry, use a fork to whisk up the juice from the lemon wedge, along with the tahini and water.  You will be amazed at how the concoction turns white and expands!  Pour that over the salad.  It’s also delicious, and very filling.

You should be warned that this will not be a meal to eat in a hurry.  The chewing involved in this salad will burn many calories, I assure you.  The great news is that it takes so long to chew through this salad, that your body gets the message that you are very satisfied.  Luckily with this assortment of delicious tastes, you will be well satisfied, and stay that way for many hours!

Pomegranate Garden Salad

Pomegranate Garden Salad

It’s Canada Day, so what better way to get some mouth fireworks happening than a spicy hot meal served on the deck, with a cooling pomegranate salad.  The brilliant red jewels remind me of the bursts of coloured jewels we’ll be admiring in the sky later on tonight, and the pop in my mouth is just as delightful.

Our garden is doling out its bounty, allowing us fresh lettuce greens, mint and cilantro for this sparkling salad.

Freshly picked mixed greens, enough to fill a salad bowl.
10 fresh garden radishes, finely sliced
¼ section finely sliced red onion
1 large tomato, diced
1/3 fresh pomegranate, seeded
3 pinches of growing top leaves of fresh mint
a few fresh cilantro leaves
1 tiny lime, juiced
1 tablespoon high quality olive oil

Carefully wash and spin dry the salad greens.  When you’re picking from the garden, you can’t be too careful.  I remember all too well my dad’s salads, filled with weeds they were, and I always questioned how carefully he’d washed the greens since he hadn’t noticed the weeds.  I’m happy to report that chickweed isn’t poisonous, after all…  I also seem to have survived the insects.  Nevertheless, I strongly caution you to clean your greens carefully!

A wonderful spot for a hot spicy meal!

Normally, we’re lucky to find fresh pomegranates in the fall, so I was mighty thrilled to see some at the supermarket today.  They’re from Chile, and I wondered if they’d be as good as the usual kind we get months from now.  Yes, they were! 

In a pretty salad bowl, add the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, radishes and pomegranate seeds.  Using scissors, finely cut the mint leaves, along with the cilantro and stems, and add to salad.  Pour the lime juice over the salad, then the oil, then toss.

We had this on the deck with fresh masala lamb chops, mushroom masala, grilled potatoes , and masala corn on the cob.  For dessert, we had a Canadian flag dessert—red and white—strawberry shortcake.  I’ll post on that tomorrow, along with pictures of the fireworks we'll view tonight. 

Happy Canada Day everyone! 

Cilantro Strawberry Salad

Cilantro Strawberry Salad

I'm still basking in the remembered warmth of the other evening.  Today was icy cold again, although the sun was shining.  Plants are still sitting meekly in the greenhouse, but they may get to come out tomorrow.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, here's a summery cooling salad that charmingly accompanies a spicy main course, like the masala salmon we barbecued on a cedar plank on that glorious warm evening.  This salad is refreshing, quick and easy.

Core strawberries with a small knife.

15 large strawberries, husked, cored and diced into quarter inch cubes
2 tablespoons very finely diced red onion
15 stalks fresh cilantro
10 fresh mint leaves
fresh grated pepper
1 teaspoon almond oil
1 organic lemon, juiced

Combine the strawberries with onion. Using scissors, snip off the bottom ends of the cilantro stalks, then snip the remaining stalks and leaves into small pieces over the strawberries. Roll the mint leaves up (to get them into a bundle) then use scissors to snip them into very thin strips, over the strawberries.  Drizzle the oil over and then the lemon juice.  Grate the pepper over to taste, and toss and serve immediately.

To add a bit of knockout here, you could add some very finely chopped chilli, but that might be a cruel trick to play on someone who believes this salad will cool their smoking mouth.  But it would be awfully good, wouldn’t it?

Twisted Coleslaw

Why settle for the usual when you can have the delish?

Twisted Coleslaw 

Coleslaw gets a bad reputation from the truly nasty concoctions sold ready made in little plastic tubs.  The primary ingredients in those health killing slippery messes are white cabbage, artificial mayonnaise, and a ton of sugar.  Homemade coleslaw is usually better—shredded white cabbage, shredded carrot, a bit of finely diced onion, real mayonnaise and raisins.  Mine is based on the traditional homemade, but with a few healthful and delicious twists.

2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 diced dried apricot
2 diced dried plums
heaping tablespoon unsalted pistachios (shelled!)

1 teaspoon extra virgin cold pressed Greek olive oil
2 teaspoons left over cilantro mint chutney

For today’s lunch, I just put the red cabbage in a bowl, (why settle for bland, pale and not as nutritious?) and sprinkled the rest of the ingredients on top.  It was a great way to use up my left over fresh chutney, also full of fabulous health benefits!  Oh yum.  So delicious, and so much healthier than traditional coleslaw, and light years away from the stuff in the tub.  

I read somewhere that red cabbage may have the added benefit of suppressing the appetite.  So far that hasn’t happened, but I don’t crave sweets when my red cabbage delights me.  See my post about red cabbage and other fruitsand vegetables for a bit more info.

The Great Foogath Experiment Goan warm, spicy salad

The winning foogath is on the lower part of the plate!

The Great Foogath Experiment  Goan Warm, spicy salad

My friend Jenny has been to India twice, where she has fallen madly in love with foogath.  I had never had it, so I googled it, and have found about a gazillion contradictory recipes, from which I have borrowed, stolen and invented this dish.  Apologies to my fellow bloggers from whom I may have stolen a few teaspoons of ideas!

You don’t need to use these exact vegetables; you can look about you and get a sense of what you’d like.  Jenny tells me that eggplant is often used, but I didn’t have any, so we went without that.

For the winning foogath, I used:

2 kale leaves, stalk removed and leaves cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups shredded red cabbage
1 carrot, sliced finely
2 to 3 cauliflower florets, chopped
2 stalks asparagus, cut into two inch pieces

Competing foogaths!

1 red onion, diced
½ fresh ginger, julienned
1 fresh garlic clove, chopped
1 Anaheim pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon virgin, cold pressed coconut oil
1 teaspoon dark mustard seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
ten curry leaves

¼ cup raw cashews
juice of 1 lime
1/3 fresh coconut, scraped
a few cilantro leaves (optional)
salt to taste

Have the vegetables and coconut ready to go before you start cooking, because this goes fast, and you won’t have time to prepare while ingredients are cooking.

Put the pan on medium high heat, and when it’s hot, add the coconut oil.  When it seems hot, toss in a few mustard seeds.  When they start to sizzle and turn white, add the cumin seeds and let them  sizzle and then add the onion and ginger, stirring to cool down the pan, and lower the heat to medium. Cook for a few minutes, to caramelise them just a bit, then add the garlic, curry leaves and Anaheim pepper.  Let those cook for a minute or two, then add your toughest vegetable.  I added my kale at that point, then my cabbage and let that cook for about three minutes.  Then I added the cauliflower, carrot and asparagus.  The point isn’t to cook these through but to warm them up, so they are partially cooked, but still have some crunch to them.  The idea of keeping the enzymes alive is very appealing to me, as it increases the health benefits of the dish.  This shouldn’t take very long at all, maybe seven minutes or so.  Add the cashews, then the lime juice and stir well to coat all morsels.

My Goan coconut scraper! 

Serve on a pretty plate, sprinkling the coconut and perhaps a leaf or two of cilantro over top.  Because Jenny’s recipe (on paper and brought back from Goa) asked for a bottled masala,with no mention of what that might contain, we experimented by using a madras curry paste in one pot, but we felt it wasn’t necessary, and maybe even detracted from the more traditional foogath.

From what I learned, a foogath is a simple and quick dish that relies on just mustard seed, curry leaves and fresh coconut to make it the special recipe that it is.  I also gathered that this is usually served with rice or roti, but we felt the carbs were unnecessary.  I insisted on the raw cashews, my invention entirely, because I like to put some protein into every meal.  This little experiment was quite delicious, and if any of you out there can let us know what I really should have done, please let us know!

Quick healthy salmon salad

Quick healthy salmon salad

(Look ma!  No mayonnaise!)

Quick healthy salmon salad

This salad recipe is super healthy, quick to make, and tasty with just a few Indian ingredients:

1 whole sweet red pepper, diced
3 thin slices of red onion, cut into small pieces

1 orange (I prefer a blood orange, if you can get it), sliced and cut into small pieces

½ of a 213 gram tin of salmon (save the rest for another salad tomorrow)

5 to 10 dehydrated banana chips, crumbled into large pieces

1 tablespoon unsalted shelled pistachios

1 teaspoon excellent quality olive oil

1 tiny lime, juiced

sprinkles of turmeric powder (I keep some in a salt shaker for handy access)

freshly ground black pepper

10 or so stalks of fresh cilantro

a pinch of dried chillie flakes (to taste)

I combine all of the above ingredients into a bowl about the right size for my lunch, drizzle the oil over it all, sprinkle the turmeric and grind the pepper over the salad.  Salt is unnecessary as the tinned salmon is salty enough. Using kitchen scizzors, I cut up the cilantro and stalks over the salad.  I toss it gently and gobble it down.