Carrot Kosambari :

Kosambari is a South Indian style vegetable salad, an integral part of any festival South Indian menu. It can be made with or without the tempering, which has significantly less oil, with all sorts of fresh flavours, such as grated veggies, raw legumes, raw mango or lemon,  coconut oil and hing.

Here, what I am sharing is our family favourite, Carrot corn salad. That is how my family identify this salad and demands it. Here, one can add or delete or increase or reduce the quantity of any ingredients without any compromise on taste.

Ingredients:

Grated carrot – 1 or 2

Boiled corn – 1 small cup

Sprouted Moong/green gram – 1 small cup ( optional)

Pomegranate kernels – as needed

Grated Raw mango/lemon juice – as needed

Salt

Chopped coriander – 1 – 2 tbl spoons

Fresh Coconut – 1 to 2 tbl spoons

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tsp, Mustard – 1 tsp, Hing – ¼ tsp

Green chilli – 1 or 2 (chopped), Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Take one bowl, mix in Grated carrot, boiled and cooled corn, Pomegranate kernels, Sprouted moong, Grated raw mango, Salt, chopped coriander, fresh Coconut and mix everything.

-Do the seasoning by heating coconut oil, splutter Mustard, add hing, chopped green chilli roast a bit. Add Curry leaves and put them over the salad.

-Mix everything, enjoy as a filler, healthy appetiser or as a side dish or as an evening snack.

Banana/Plantain Stem Salad:

Traditionally we have used banana stem from ages and it is a super-rich vegetable and neglected by many. Our ancestors were very intelligent and included all the available nutritive vegetables from their surroundings. In our native, usually most of the people rely on agriculture for a livelihood and include all parts of banana plant in day to day cooking. When a bunch of bananas is harvested, the banana tree is cut away. Which is 80% water and 20% fibre.

Eating banana stem is very good for health as well as the kidney. It’s high fibre nature is known for its cleansing property of the digestive system. So, it is very good for diabetic or kidney stone patients.

It has layers of covers which should be peeled off and foot long pieces are made by retaining only a couple of outer layers as a protective layer for this vegetable and they are stored and kept aside for future use.

According to the requirement, before chopping this veggie, chop off required length of the stem, remove outer remaining sheath, until you find the very soft inner core.

Now comes the chopping part. Make thin slices, while slicing you will see the thread like fibre, which sticks to the knife and sometimes it will stick to the slices itself. If you find any thread like fibre either in sliced pieces or knife, remove it by hand.

After slicing the roundels, stack 5 to 6 roundels one over the other and chop as desired. I usually make square small pieces for this salad.

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Ingredients:

Plantain stem – 10-inch long.

green chillies – 2 (if available use bird eye chillies)

Fresh Coconut – 2 table spoons

Salt

Lemon – ½

Coriander leaves – 1 table spoon (chopped)

Coconut Oil – 2 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Hing – 1 pinch

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

  Chop banana stem as described in description.

  Now, remove the remaining outer cover.

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  Slice inner pith into roundels by removing thread like fibre.

  Stack all the roundels and chop as needed. I prefer small square pieces.

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  Sprinkle salt and lemon juice and mix it thoroughly.

  Chop chillies.

  Do seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, add chopped chillies, hing and curry leaves.

  Add this seasoning over salad.

  Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut.

  Goes very well with hot rice or curd rice.

 

Sautéed Asparagus:

Asparagus is thin, pencil like green shoot. It is high in fibre and one of the most nutritious, food. Which is low in fat and calorie too.

Snap them at a natural breaking point and peel the outer tough fibre from the hard part and one can use this in any dish by slicing or as it is.

Asparagus is very delicious when it is sautéed or baked. It can be served as a “crunchy” side dish or salad.

Here in India, we don’t get plump variety and this time when I went to USA, in my sister’s house I tried this and it is much tastier than what we get it in Bangalore.

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Ingredients:

Asparagus – 1 bundle

Olive oil – 1 table spoon

Red chilli flakes – 1 tsp

Garlic salt – to taste.

Method:

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  • Wash Asparagus, snap them by hand at a natural breaking point.
  • If you want to use bottom woody part, remove outer fibre by peeling, either chop them or use inner core as it is in this salad or any other dish.

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  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add asparagus, cook until it blanches. It hardly takes 2 to 3 minutes.
  • Drain and proceed to sauté.
  • Take one tawa, put oil and heat.

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  • Drop Asparagus, sprinkle garlic salt and red chilli flakes and toss until you see a charred look.
  • Serve hot.

 

 

Bitter gourd salad:

Bitter gourd is a very healthy vegetable and is considered as a therapeutic vegetable, used mainly in controlling diabetes and weight reduction in Ayurveda. I have come up with this recipe to utilise fresh produce from my terrace garden. We are a bitter gourd loving family and my daughters are very fond of gourd in any form. I usually make dry curry or tawa fry but I tried my hand at this salad and everyone loved this as a side dish with rice and yellow dal.

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Ingredient:

Bitter gourd – 2 to 3

Onion – 1 to 2 (chopped)

Green chillies – 3

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tsp.

Lemon – ½

Coriander leaves – 1 tbl sp (chopped)

Coconut Oil – 1 tbl sp.

Method:

-Wash bitter gourd, make bite size pieces, including outer skin and inner seeds. Chop green chillies and put together.

– Sprinkle some salt, turmeric and mix nicely and keep aside for 10 minutes.

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-Take one tawa, put oil. When it is hot, put marinated bitter gourd and chilli pieces and fry in a low flame until it is crisp.

– Cool this mixture. Add chopped onion, some more salt, lemon juice and mix nicely and serve.

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-It is very simple to make and tastes really great with hot rice and dal.

Pea pod salad:

After peapod pakoda, I wanted to try some more with peapod. Peapods are so rich in flavour as well as taste. So, I tried a salad and it turned out so tasty and healthy. Here’s the recipe.

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Ingredients:

Peapods –as required

Olive oil – 1 to 2 teaspoon

Garlic – 7 -8 flakes

Salt

Red chilli flakes – ½ – 1 teaspoon

White sesame – 1 teaspoon

Method:

  • Separate fresh and green peels (pods) while opening, to collect green peas.
  • After this, peel off the inner membrane (which will not cook and it is fibrous too)
  • How to remove inner membrane: If you want to see a pictorial guide, click here
  • You basically have to take one of the ends, fold in and pinch inwards, slide your thumb beneath and remove the glossy membrane and separate. If membrane breaks in-between, try from the other side.
  • Discard inner membrane and use outer green cover to make salad.
  • Wash these peels and drain, keep aside.
  • Slice garlic and keep aside.
  • Dry roast sesame and keep aside.

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  • Take one tawa, add oil .When oil becomes hot, add garlic slices and fry until it is brown.
  • Add in washed and drained peapods, fry for a while. Sprinkle salt and red chilli flakes.
  • Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve.
  • I served this with Spinach Khichdi. Click here to see the recipe.