Black Bean, corn and mango salad

Ingredients:

Black Beans: 1 can
Red Onions(finely chopped): 1 medium sized.
Fresh Corn Kernels: 1/2 cup
Ripe Mango(chopped): 1/2 cup
Honey: 1 tbsp
Lime Juice: 1 tbsp
salt to taste
Olive oil: 1 tsp
Bell Pepper(chopped): 1/4 cup
Cilantro(finely chopped): 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated add the corn kernels and cook until the corn is cooked.
Add the cooked corn to the remaining ingredients and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Garnish with cilantro.

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Quinoa with stir fried veggies

Here is another Quinoa dish from me. I tried to make it similar to the Chinese style veggie fried rice. Just used quinoa instead of rice.


Ingredients:

Quinoa: 1 cup
Carrots (cut into small pieces): 1/2 cup
Tofu: 1/4 cup
Green Beans (cut into small pieces): 1/4 cup
Soy sauce: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli sauce: 1/4 tsp
salt as required.
Green onions (finely chopped): 1/4 cup.
Oil: 2 tsp
Pepper: 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

1. Cook the quinoa in a rice cooker with 2 cups of water. 
2. Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated add the veggies and the tofu and stir fry them.
3. Add the cooked quinoa to the veggies and mix them together.
4. Add the soy sauce, chilli sauce and pepper. Adjust the salt.
5. Serve with raita or humus.

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Pasta Salad - Deli style

I love the pasta salads that you get in a deli. So decided to make this at home and searched on google for the deli style pasta salad recipe. Went through a couple of recipes and combined a few and the result is my Deli style pasta salad. 
Cold salads right out of the fridge taste heavenly during summers. Pasta salads are so filling that they can be had like the main course rather than a side dish.


Ingredients:

Rotini pasta( spiral shaped pasta): 1 cup
medium sized tomatoes: 2
Black olives(cut in half): 1/2 cup
Feta cheese(Crumbled): 2 tbsp
Chopped Cilantro: 2 tsp
Parmesan cheese: 1 tbsp
Sundried tomatoes in oil(drained and chopped): 6
Salt as required.

For the dressing:

Sun dried tomatoes in oil: 4
Red wine venigar: 2 tsp
Olive oil: 3 tbsp
Garlic: 1 clove diced
Cilantro: 1 tsp
Freshly ground pepper: 1/2 tsp
Parmesan cheese: 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Cook the pasta in water adding little salt and a splash of olive oil.
2. Once the pasta is cooked,drain the water and set it aside to cool.
3. For the dressing, add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend them.
4. Place the pasta in a mixing bowl and add the tomatoes, olives, chopped sundried tomatoes and the feta cheese.
5. Pour the dressing over the pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan and cilantro and mix well.

Variations: Actual pasta salad recipes require parsley instead of cilantro. I did not have parsley readily available so opted for cilantro.
I also reduced the cheese( both Feta and Parmesan) quantity compared to the actual recipes.

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Orzo Salad

When summer hits it's stride and produce at it's peak, a simple salad can be magical.
This a simple pasta salad with orzo, cucumbers, onions and olives.
Orzo is rice shaped pasta. It looks just like long grains of rice and you can find in the pasta section of the grocery store.



Ingredients:
Orzo pasta: 3/4 cup
Cucumber(Kheera): 1
Red onion(medium sized): 1
Blck olives: 1/2 cup
Pepper: 1 tsp
Salt as required
Olive oil: 4 tsp
Cilantro( finely chopped): 2 tbsp
Pesto sauce: 2 tbsp
Feta cheese: 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Cook the orzo pasta just like regular pasta with water, a pinch of salt and a tsp of olive oil.
2. When the pasta is soft drain the water and set it aside.
3. Chop the onion, cucumber into small pieces. Slice the olives in to half.
4. In a mixing bowl mix the pasta with cucumber, olives and onion.
5. Add olive oil, salt and pepper.
6. Add the paste sauce and mix it with the pasta. 
7. Refrigerate the pasta for at least 30 minutes before serving. 
8. Add the crumbled feta cheese just before serving.
9. Garnish with cilantro.

This salad goes to the SpicyTasty's sizzling summer contest.

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Quinoa salad with spinach, black beans and chickpeas

Have been hearing a lot about "quinoa - the super grain" lately and wanted to give it a try. Quinoa is not actually a grain. It is the seed of a plant that is closely related to species such as spinach and beets. You can read more about quinoa here. I bought them and they have been sitting in the pantry for a while now waiting for their turn. I never ate or cooked quinoa before.

I also had some left over canned black beans and canned chickpeas that I had to use.

There was also some baby spinach waiting for its turn. Before all these get spoiled I wanted to use them and combined them all and cooked with quinoa. The result was just wonderful!!!

Quinoa by itself did not have any taste, but with all the added ingredients the super grain did taste good. I served it along with some home made humus.

Ingredients:

Quinoa: 1 cup
Chick peas: 1/4cup
Black Beans: 1/4 cup
Baby Spinach(chopped): 1/4 cup
Tofu( grated) : 4 tsp
Salt as required.
Pepper: 1 tsp
Lime juice: 1 tsp
Olive oil: 2 tsp
Red pepper flakes(optional)

Procedure:

1. Cook quinoa in a rice cooker with 2 cups of water(quinoa to water ratio is 1:2)
2. Add olive oil to a pan and add the chopped spinach, chickpeas and the black beans. Cook them in olive oil  until the spinach becomes soft.
3. Now add the cooked quinoa to the pan, add salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Add the lime juice and mix.
5. Add the grated tofu on top and serve.
6. Optionally you can add some red pepper flakes  on top to make it spicy.

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Black Bean and Corn Salad

 Ingredients:

Black Beans:	1 can
Whole kernel corn:	1/2 can
Bell Pepper:	1/2(finely chopped)
Tomatoes:	1 medium - sized (finely chopped)
Onions:	1 medium - sized (finely chopped)
Salt:	as required.
Sugar:	1 tsp.
Extra virgin olive oil:	1 tbsp
Cilantro:	(finely chopped)
White wine venigar:	1/2 tsp
lemon juice:	1 tbsp

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients, refrigerate for 30 minutes and serve.

This was big hit in my house. My little girl just loved it.

 

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