“Fried” Goat Cheese Medallions with Spring Greens

A few months ago, I had this salad at a restaurant. It was so elegant and so eye pleasing, let alone the taste of deep fried goat cheese medallions.  I knew instantly I had to make it at home. Goat cheese is one of the cheeses I always have in my fridge. I absolutely love to have goat cheese smeared on my toast with little bit of salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Making the medallions was not hard at all. I made sure to make more and popped them in the freezer for later use. Good thing I went away for a vacation right after I made these so they are still safe in the freezer, waiting to be enjoyed.

 

Here’s how I made it.

 

“Fried” Goat Cheese Medallions with Spring Greens

Ingredients

1 block of goat cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 cup cold milk

1 egg, whisked

¼ cup oil

 

How to:

Slice goat cheese medallions with a sharp knife. I find it very easy with the dental floss.

Coat the medallions with bread crumbs(salted and peppered), then dip in milk, again in bread crumbs, then in egg and finish with coating with more bread crumbs.

Freeze the medallions for about 30 minutes or so.

Heat oil in a shallow skillet.

Lay the medallions flat on hot oil, shallow fry until golden brown on both sides.

Add more oil if required.

Serve atop your favourite salad.

Enjoy!

 

Stuffed Portobellini Salad

Those who know me well know how much I am in love with Portobello mushrooms! I just love this fungi! It is so meaty and filling and versatile and forgiving, one can never go wrong working with it. These days I have realized that these mushrooms can be served as a base instead of pizza and tortillas or pretty much anything that needs breads, aka carbs! So this is the best way to eat good and healthy if you are eating gluten free or low carb foods. Stuffing and topping of these mushrooms just drives me crazy because the possibilities are endless. My brain overflows with ideas once I start thinking about stuffing these babies. I’ve got a few other recipes in mind as I am writing this so stay tuned!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Portbellini Mushrooms with Spring Greens

Ingredients

6 Portobellini(baby Portobello) mushrooms

1 cup goat cheese

Salt and pepper

¼ cup EVOO

6 cups loosley packed greens of your choice

Dressing of your choice

How to:

Easy. Pre heat the oven to 400° F.

Oil the mushrooms and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until tender.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper once you pull them out of the oven.

Top with goat cheese, stick them back in the oven until the cheese is nice and melty, for about another 5 minutes.

Serve with your choice of greens, dressing and bread sticks.

Enjoy!

Everything But Kitchen Sink Salad!

And this salad is really what I call: everything but Kitchen sink. The great way to use up all the leftover veggies lying in the fridge. All those small heads of broccoli, cauliflower, a couple of tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. Spinach, mushrooms—whatever you have on hand. Throw in the bowl, toss together with your favorite dressing or lemon juice, EVOO, salt and pepper and done. Don’t you think this is one of the healthiest way to eat your veggies?

Fried Peppers

We were talking about peppers at work, right after the farmer’s market day. I mentioned something about fried peppers. Someone asked me, seriously, fried peppers?! I said why not. We have had raw, roasted, grilled peppers so why not fried peppers! And then I realize I might have made a mistake when I said fried peppers. I should have said shallow fried peppers. Either way, they are fried! I really love the crunchy sweet taste of the fried peppers. And don’t judge me as I always make every one believe I am a health nut and then talk about fried peppers. These babies are not deep fried as we would fritters. They are just shallow fried, until that light char achieved, that’s it. This is a very quick and easy side dish, enjoyable by any pepper fan!


There is no recipe for this. You want less or more oil, go for it. Your choice. Just heat up the oil on high heat, toss the pepper slices, cook for about 2-3 minutes, salt and pepper them. If you like it, hit them with a touch of balsamic vinegar and honey or leave them alone and enjoy. They are really good as wrapped sandwiches also.

Summer Tomato Salad

I can't believe what I am doing right now! Just got a few minutes free from work, and here I am. Posting....
As I mentioned in one of my earliest blogs, I love to eat tomatoes. Raw, cooked - in any form. I love the green and red tomato dishes with spices that my mom makes. Truly divine. They are more like jam and I eat them with my rotis smeared with them. Today, I am not making that dish though. It's still waiting for mom to come back and make! Today, I want to talk about the delicious tomato salad I made that was finger licking good and a treat to look at.  I saw a few blogger friends come up with such pretty, eye pleasing dishes, I thought hmmmm, what I should make that could really stand out?! And I wanted to make a real easy, simple dish that could be made in a jiffy and at the same time, it should be filling and pretty looking. And yes, most important part - the ingredients. I didn't want to use exotic ingredients that you can hardly find. It should be made of easy to find and relatively inexpensive ingredients.

So I was still debating myself on what to make and last Wednesday, I went out for a walk in my lunch time to the nearby farmers' market. Every summer, we have this farmer's market opens up that sells fresh from the farm veggies, fruits and freshly baked breads and cookies. There I saw these pretty Roma tomatoes. Hard to resist. I tried a piece of it, and wow, it was so sweet and juicy. So I just bought a basket of those tomatoes. I knew that I will be making a tomato salad with those tomatoes. I also have a very pretty looking oregano plant in my garden and some mozzarella di bufala in my fridge. So my tomato salad was all shaped up. This is going to be a very healthy and delicious salad for sure, I thought. In my mind, I was sure I would be just chopping everything and tossing them together. Finally, it occurred to me to make a salad a Virtual Treat! And here it is. Simple, fresh ingredients transformed into a palate pleasing healthy dish.

Summer Tomato Salad
Ingredients

2-3 Roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/4" thick slices
A palmful of oregano leaves
1/2 lb. mozzarella di bufala cheese, sliced
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
Oil for frying cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

How to:
Dredge cheese slices in bread crumbs and deep fry them.
Keep warm on a paper towel.
Arrange a thick slice of tomato on a serving plate.
Season with salt and pepper. Top with a slice of cheese, seasoned well.
Place a few oregano leaves on top of the cheese.
Repeat.
Season each layer with salt and pepper as you go.
Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and serve.
Enjoy the anti oxidants and lycopene rich salad that is not only an eye candy but very beneficial for skin too!

Butter Cup Squash Salad

 S

I love squash in general. Any kind of squash. I remember growing up, mom used to make this curry with pumpkin, sweet and spicy curry that I loved. As I am writing this, my mouth is watering just by a mere mention of this curry. I have tried to make it but seriously, it never turned out like mom’s! I have to keep on working at it. Will get to it eventually.

I found this great buttercup squash at the supermarket and I picked up without thinking of what I would make out of it. I knew I would be roasting it for sure. I had it in the past, roasted with the drizzle of honey, olive oil and sprinkle of pine nuts. This time also, I started roasting the squash and once done, I decided to use it with feta cheese, hence a salad. There is no recipe. Slice and roast the buttercup squash in hot oven till it’s fork tender. Arrange the slices on a platter, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Throw some feta cheese and parsley on top. Squeeze lemon juice all over and enjoy.

"Fake" Spaghetti!

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How many of you are tired of having plain salads every day for lunch in order to eat “HEALTHY”?! I know I am. I have had my fare share of having salads in all these years. I tried all kinds of salads – chopped, julienned, with meat, without meat, just leaves, just veggies..I got fed up up to my neck. I love pasta. Unfortunately, we can’t have pasta every day. I don’t like to bring Indian food at work as yes, you’ve guessed it right, it stinks up the whole kitchen upon heating up! You might say, eat whole grain pasta. Well, to me, that’s just not pasta! I love my white flour pasta. And then this light bulb went off! Why not make fake pasta out of veggies, and imitate that I am having pasta while I am still having veggies and not feeling bored? I found nice zucchinis on sale over the weekend and I immediately thought of the salad.

I love using my julienne veggie peeler to death. Don’t know how I lived without it all these years?! Ha, funny. Surely it is a very useful tool to have. I julienned some zucchinis to mimic spaghetti. Then I plain roasted cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Mostly because they were the only veggies I had on hand after my weekend grocery haul. I sauteed some garlic chips in hot EVOO along with red pepper flakes, tossed zucchini strings for a minute or so, added all the roasted veggies and a touch of salt, balsamic vinegar and voila..I am on my way to having a marvellous, greatly nutritious, not-at-all-boring salad. I added grilled shrimps for protein. Next time, I will julienne different colored bell peppers and try chicken! Clearly, the sky is the limit when we make salads like this. And the brownie point for my salad is that it doesn’t require additional dressing.

Fruit N Tomato Salads

I love fresh fruits and produce so much, I try to use them whenever I have a dish to bring for the potlucks! Normally here in North America, the salad in the Indian restaurants means chopped head lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers! Whenever we have the catering done for our parties, a huge foil pot has arrived full with plain pieces of iceberg! A few tomatoes and cucumbers thrown on the top, that's it! And I've seen those whole pots ending up in the trash. What a waste.

People normally think that salad should have some kind of lettuce in it. I don't like the idea. Lettuce puts me off to tell you the truth. I can munch on leaves of Romaine like a bunny, no problem. But when the same leafs get chopped into bite size pieces--- it gives me a chill! Don't like it at all. I like to incorporate as many veggies and fruits as possible in my salads to make them healthy and alive. And that's how these two salads were created.

Both salads are a no-brainer. You can put whatever you want in it.

Fruit salad - I made it two ways. Used the freshly peeled slices of melons and combined them with beets. More like carpaccio. Another was just the cut up fruits.

Tomato salad was especially fabulous as I found these beautiful colored tomatoes in the middle of winter and guess what, gotta make my Caprese salad! As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I love Italian foods. And this salad is very close to my heart. I love the simplicity of Italian food. Seriously, it's just fresh ingredients toss together and you've got yourself a healthy, flavourful meal. This salad is no exception either. Arrange slices of tomatoes and fresh mozzarella the way you want, place basil leaves here and there, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and voila!! Salad is served!




fruit carpaccio




















Please let your emails/comments keep coming! it's been great and thanks for your kindness and love!

Caesar Salad

  
I love to have salads. Most of the times, I try to use lots of greens and beans in my salads. But when one is having Caesar salad, there is only a few limited things you can throw in. Well I had tried this salad with cherry tomatoes, eggs etc. but then, it doesn't stay Caesar salad! So I try to be as authentic as I can when I have Cease. This one was made as per regular Caesar , only the presentation was changed. I was thinking about using up the last drop of the dressing and the last shred of Parmigianino Reggiano cheese out of this salad. And I needed something to scoop them up. Of course a bread stick would be perfect for that task but how about using the Romaine leaf instead?! I did exactly that. I made so many cups of this salad and got oohs and aahs from my guests with little kids. Kids had fun crunching on the leaves and garlic bread stick. Of course for them, I used the transparent paper cups!


It's a well known fact that I don't like chopped salads! Weired but true. I loved to eat those salads and just last year, don't know what happened, I was totally put off eating salads. I started having soups instead. But I was craving the crunch of the salad so much, had to do something! Once I just washed the bunch of Romaine and started pulling out the leaves and munching on them! Yes, just like a rabbit! And then I realized that I really don't have to make bite-size pieces of salad at all. And as a result, this was born! Now Caeser salad is around for so long, it has become universal. But it was invented in Mexico.

I was having a few guests over and this is what I did to serve them salad. They were all very impressed! Yes, for a good reason. I bet they had never seen the salad presented in this way before! Actually it looked so pretty, nobody wanted to eat at first. Once they started pulling the leaf out, dipping it in the dressing and enjoying, they wanted more! Maybe next time I will throw just the salad party and see how it goes!

Caeser salad
Ingredients
1 bunch of Romaine lettuce, washed, leaves separated
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
For dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp lemon rind
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
How to:
Toss the ingredients for dressing together in the closed jar. Arrange the salad and enjoy.

Papaya Salad-Thai & Gujarati!

Thai Papaya Salad

I absolutely love papaya-raw or ripe. Ripe papayas, I love to eat them just like that, sauté them with paprika and cashews or plain smoothies. Raw papayas, I use to make Thai salad or Gujarati style stir fry! We, Gujaratis eat this papaya salad with certain kind of pakoras. I remember growing up, I used to eat this a lot with methi pakoras! Yup, mom always used to make shredded papaya salad, fried green chilies and thinly sliced onions with methi gotas(pakoras).

My red Thai chilies are so good and hot! I bit on one just like that(found out later how stupid that was of me!) and literally started sweating buckets! I instantly thought about making papaya salad both ways and using those chilies in it. I mean, nothing could go wrong with crunchy, somewhat tasteless papaya salad spiked up with red hot chili peppers. For an added crunch, I used roasted peanuts in my Gujarati style crunchy salad with a spicy bite. It was pretty hot with lots of chilies. I just sautéed the shredded papaya in mustard seeds, oil and added a touch of sugar, turmeric powder and curry leaves. And of course, used the salted pea nuts to top it off. I made sandwiches out of Gujarati salad. Just wrapped it up in leftover phulka rotis for our lunch! Tasty!



Gujarati Papay Salad

 Thai style salad was also so good, it disappeared right away from the plates! I might need to use the whole papaya to make just one salad instead if I want to save it for work lunch the next day.

Thai Papaya Salad
Ingredients
1/2 medium raw papaya
4 garlic cloves
2 each green & red Thai chilies
1/2 cup chopped scallions, in 1-in (2.5-cm) pieces
handful of fresh coriander (optional)
1/2 to 1 Tbsp. honey
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup roasted pea nuts & julienned carrots for garnish(optional)
How to :
Peel the papaya and rinse with running water to remove the acid. Remove the seeds and shred the papaya with a grater. Set aside.

Place the garlic cloves and the chilies in a mortar and mash with a pestle until crushed into chunks. Place the papaya and the remaining ingredients in the bowl and gently combine all ingredients by mixing with the a spoon. Serve cold,sprinkled with coriander and peanuts if desired.

Greek Salad Appetizer

I am a muncher. I love to keep snacking all day long. It's so difficult for me to eat 3 full meals at a time! I just can't. That's why I don't like to go to buffets. I start snacking on a few items, get full and that's it. Come back home and within an hour, I am starving! And at the same time I regret that I couldn't have the taste of so many items at the buffet. Well, this dish was born out of the same desire of mine to have the bits and pieces of salad all day long instead of having a bowlful of salad in one meal. This one was very easy to put together and looked so elegant, I make it often for my get-togethers and potlucks.

Who would have thought that this traditional country style salad would end up becoming one of the best loved Greek dishes in the world? There is only one secret ingredient in Mediterranean cooking. Freshest produce. The fresher the produce, the better the result.

Greek salad or Horiatiki Salata is a rough chopped country salad of juicy tomatoes, crisp sliced cucumber and red onion, cubed green peppers, crumbly feta cheese and plump kalamata olives, typically seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano and dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. I can eat this delightful combination as a light meal with a side of crusty bread with lots of extra virgin olive oil drizzled on top of it. Yummmm!

Instead of tossing everything together, I decided to use the toothpicks to hold the cubes of salad together and just dip the skewers in the dressing, even though I had the cubes marinated in the dressing earlier.
Easy, easy, easy and sure to be a hit at any party! Olives, tomatoes, feta and cucumbers. I have also made these with olives, tomatoes, and marinated mozzarella cheese-equally good.

Greek Salad

Ingredients
Dressing:
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1-1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Tomato, onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese and cucumber as required.

How to:
Place the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano in a small jar with the screw-top lid and shake well to mix. You can either place the salad ingredients in the bowl and pour the dressing on top of them or make tiny bites using the skewers and place the dressing in small bowls to dip the skewers in.

Sprout Bhel!

I love to sprout and eat them too! As I mentioned earlier in my Sprouts salad_ post, I sprout once a week and have those sprouts as a mid-morning snack. Plain sprouts with a little bit of chat masala sprinkled on them. That's it.


So when Priya announced sprouts event, I flipped out of my chair! I was like, this is my kind of event. I like to keep and taste the sprouts in their natural state most of the times. So I wasn't going to be making dumplings or pan cakes or burgers or curries! I use sprouts for my salads usually, so this time, I thought about making Bhel out of them! I know my other foodie buddies might come up with the same idea but hey, great minds think alike! This bhel is very flavorful, much colorful and so packed with nutrition. Go ahead, give it a try. You'll find it hard to stop devouring it.

Sprout Bhel
Ingredients
1 cup sprouted green gram(moong)
1/2 cup each sprouted black chick peas,moath(matki) and peanuts
1 medium potato, cubed and boiled
1 small raw mango, cubed
1/2 jalapeno, seeded(keep the seeds if you like intense heat!), chopped finely
1 small red onion, chopped finely
Date & tamarind sauce
Cilantro and mint sauce
Chaat masala powder
Fine sev, cilantro leaves & Pomegranate seeds for garnish

How to: Toss all the ingredients with sauces and chaat masala powder. Garnish and enjoy right away with a glass of cold jal jeera! Yum!

This is my entry for Priya's Let's Sprout event.

 
I was so hungry just by looking at the chaat mix, grabbed my bowl and finished the whole thing! Totally forgot to take the picture with all the yummy sauces on top! SORRY!

A Little Trip to Bangkok!

Here we go again! We are flying to Bangkok, Thailand!  Don't have passports and visa ready?!  No need to panic!  Let's bring a little Thailand in our kitchen!

This is my favourite dish to have at the Spring Rolls restaurant near work.  I always have chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce(the post is coming soon!) with mango salad.  They use roasted peanuts, I used cashews.  This was the only difference.  Other than that, this salad tasted just as good ( or should I say better?!) as the one at the restaurant.

Again, no recipe. Mango salad, obviously you need mangos! And lots of it.  Then a red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt, sugar and a touch of fish sauce.  You can omit fish sauce but I found it a nice flavoring agent.

Enjoy the Summer with mangos!

Sprouts

Sprouts is not something new to Indians. I have a very fond memory from childhood, when this vendor lady would bring the basketful of different sprouts for door-to-door sale, every single day, every single morning in summer. She was very generous too. She would give fistfuls of sprouts to us kids to snack on! And we would drag our mothers out to make them buy sprouts from her.

Mom used to sprout many a different beans at home also. Both mom and dad still have a bowl of green gram and chick peas sprouts as mid-morning snack. I make different dishes like, salad, stir fry, pancakes etc with the sprouts. Personally, I prefer to sprout the green gram as it gives better sprouts and is very light on tummy.

I made a delicious healthy salad using grated carrots, cucumber, green and red bell peppers alongwith hot green chili pepper, some chat masala and lots of lemon juice, of course all with my green gram sprouts!

Light weight salad

By God's grace, I don't have any weight issues! Maybe 5 or so lbs to lose or should I say, get 5 lbs of muscle and lose the fat! At the same time I receive complements, I get the questions on how I stay slim! Well, first of all, thanks to my dad! Yes, it is in my genes. Secondly, I do watch what I put in my mouth! Yes girls, you need to do it. It is very important to really check what is on your plate. This doesn't mean you need to deprive yourself of the foods you love. But again, there is a certain constraint called "Portion Control"! I don't binge normally but I do crave certain foods that are definitely a no, no if you are watching your waistline. And it is true that a few seconds of joy on the lips, a permanent bulge on the hips! So I limit the quantity if I eat fried or fatty food and I replace my next meal with healthy salads.

So for my friends, I decided to share a few recipes that is satisfying and filling and you can see how fast the weight come off!

Here is a salad that is one of my favorites. And you will see that salads shouldn't be boring or green!

Tomato and Avocado salad

Ingredients:

about 4 medium beets, scrubbed and tops removed
4 medium tomatoes, different colours or heirloom if possible, cut into 1/4-inch wedges
1 medium Haas avocado, ripe,cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 small red onion, cut in half and sliced into thin half moons
4 tsp olive oil, extra-virgin
4 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 Tbsp basil, fresh, chopped
1 Tbsp chives, fresh, chopped

How to:

Pre heat oven at 400° F. Place beets in aluminum foil, cover loosely. Bake until beets pierce easily with the point of a sharp knife, about 25 minutes.

Remove beets from oven and let them cool down. Peel beets with a vegetable peeler and cut into 1/2-inch wedges; place beets in a large bowl.

Add tomato, avocado, onion, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to bowl; toss to combine. Top mixture with basil and chives and serve.

Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.

Relishing tuh-mah-toes!

I love tomatoes. I remember when I was a child, mom used to slice the tomatoes, sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper and give to me and my sister for a snack! That was totally lip smacking! In winter months, mom would make us red hot soup from tomatoes with Monaco crackers. That still makes my mouth water! Upon my move to Canada, I was introduced to the Insalata Caprese! Mmmmm! So good and so satisfying! I still remember the look and the taste of the salad I had in Venice. Nice and juicy tomatoes, thick slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella and fresh sweet smelling basil. It was heavenly.

I picked up grape tomatoes from the grocery store last weekend. I plopped some fresh ones in my mouth and boy! they were so sweet. I added a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, a little salt and pepper, tossed the tomatoes and voila! I had delish tomato salad ready to go with my pita chips. Again, pita chips is NOT rocket science! Just slice the pitas, bake them in hot oven till nice and golden brown and there you go! I sometimes sprinkle pitas with olive oil, garlic powder, ground pepper etc. But with these tomatoes, I decided to go plain. I absolutely cherished the walk down memory lane!

Hail Caesar!

Everybody loves Caesar salad. In my family, we love it all dressed! With loads of croutons, shavings of parmesan cheese, grilled chicken and a mount of bacon! Sounds very unhealthy, isn't it?! It sure is unhealthy but sometimes we need to indulge ourselves a bit and when this salad is consumed as a main dish, no more complaints!

The only "healthy" choice was the low fat dressing that I made. I have used bottled low fat dressings in the past and believe me, they are not worth spending money on.

The dressing I made had a cup of mayonnaise, juice of 1/2 lemon, salt, pepper, a tsp garlic powder and a pinch of Italian seasoning. When I make this dressing, I omit anchovies! I don't mind it in the store bought dressings. But I don't want to use it in my homemade dressing! Why? Because it is MY dressing and I can do whatever I want to!

A few cupfuls of chopped romaine, garlicky croutons, strips of crispy bacon and shavings of Parmigianino cheese! All makes this salad worthy of the Romaine empire!