Healthy Salads - Middle Eastern Pita and Fattoush Salad

Flat breads become stale very quickly, so it’s no surprise that there’s an array of Arab dishes made with crumbled up pitas. This is my favorite destination for them (I love any dish where bread is soaked with salad dressing). You can use whatever greens look good in your market -- arugula, watercress, purslane, and cut up leaves of romaine lettuce are all acceptable. The Middle Eastern spice sumac is available in Middle Eastern markets, but the salad will still be delicious if you don’t include it. To keep the fat a little lower I’ve substituted plain low-fat yogurt for some of the olive oil in the authentic recipe.

3 (6-inch) Arabic pita breads

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped or pureed (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 pound tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 European cucumber or 3 Persian cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, then into half-moon slices

6 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced

1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup slivered fresh mint leaves

1 romaine lettuce heart (the lighter, inner leaves), washed, dried, cut crosswise in 1/2-inch wide pieces

4 cups (loosely packed) coarsely chopped arugula, watercress, or purslane (or a combination),

2 teaspoons ground sumac (optional)

Note: You can substitute an additional romaine heart for the arugula, watercress and purslane.

1. If your pita breads are hard, break them up into pieces. If they are not, cut them into quarters and split the quarters open. Toast the pieces in a toaster oven, or in a 325ºF oven, until lightly browned and crisp.

2. Combine the garlic, lemon juice, salt, olive oil, yogurt, and pepper in a small bowl.

3. Toss the salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Just before serving, add the dressing and toss together. Crumble in the pita bread and toss again. Taste, adjust seasonings, and serve.

Variation: Not traditional, but good: Add 1 small ripe avocado, diced, to the salad ingredients.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8 generously

Advance preparation: You can prep the vegetables and toast the pitas hours before composing the salad. But don’t toss the salad until just before serving.

Healthy Salads from The New York times

Warm Potato Salad With Goat Cheese

The goat cheese melts into the dressing when you toss it with the hot potatoes.

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 small or medium garlic clove, minced or pureed

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or for a low-fat dressing use 1/4 cup low-fat yogurt or buttermilk and 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the salad:

1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold, fingerling or red bliss potatoes

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 to 4 tablespoons finely chopped red onion (to taste), rinsed with cold water and drained

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 ounces soft goat cheese

2 to 3 sage leaves, cut in thin slivers (optional)

1. Make the dressing. Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil or the yogurt and olive oil. Taste and adjust seasonings, Set aside.

2. Scrub the potatoes and cut into 3/4-inch dice if large. If using fingerlings cut in 3/4 inch slices. Steam above 1 inch of boiling water until tender but not mushy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the heat and toss while hot in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste, the onions, parsley, goat cheese, and the dressing. Sprinkle the sage over the top and serve.

Yield: Serves 6

Advance preparation: You can make the dressing several hours before making the salad.

Summer Salad With Feta - NY Times Health

Tomatoes were this summer’s forbidden fruit (yes, they are fruits, not vegetables). It was just last week that the Food and Drug Administration announced that tomatoes are safe to eat again – wonderful news for those pining for the fruitiness of the heirloom, the brawn and juice of the beefsteak, or the tart edge of the cherry tomato. Even better than their wide variety of flavors, tomatoes are loaded with vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene and lycopene, all powerful antioxidants.

Summer Salad with Feta

5 medium or large ripe tomatoes cut into wedges (if large, the wedges should be cut crosswise in half), or 1 pint of cherry tomatoes cut in half

1/2 European cucumber, or 1 Persian or Japanese cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, seeded if desired, then sliced into half circles about 1/3-inch thick.

Sea salt or fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup crumbled feta

1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Toss together the tomatoes, cucumber, salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil. Add the feta and herbs, and toss again. Taste, adjust the seasonings, and serve.

Variations:

Add any or all of the ingredients below:

1/2 small red onion, sliced and rinsed with cold water

12 to 18 imported Greek black olives, such as kalamatas or amphisas

1 small green, yellow, or red bell pepper

1 heart of romaine lettuce, cut in 2-inch pieces

A handful of cubed stale bread or croutons

Advance preparation:

You can assemble the salad hours before adding the seasonings, vinegar, and olive oil. Be warned: If you salt the salad too long before serving, it will become watery, as the salt draws out juices from the vegetables.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Approximate nutritional information: 163 calories; calories from fat: 129; total fat: 14.3g; saturated fat 3.8g; cholesterol 13mg; sodium 175mg; total carbohydrates 6.7g; dietary fiber 1.7g; sugars 4.4g; protein:3.4g (Data provided by calorie-count.com)

Spinach Salad with Seared Shiitake Mushrooms - New York times

Shiitakes, which are sold in many supermarkets along with cremini and button mushrooms, are nutritional powerhouses. In addition to the B-vitamins and minerals that all mushrooms contain, shiitakes contain amino acids and linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid. When you pan-cook them over high heat, as you do here, the flavour is very intense.

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 small garlic clove, finely minced or pureed in a mortar and pestle

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (can substitute some yogurt or buttermilk for some of the olive oil for a low-fat dressing)

For the salad:

6 large or 8 smaller fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced (discard the stems or use for stock)

1 teaspoon canola oil

Salt to taste

1 6- or 7-ounce package baby spinach, rinsed and dried

1 celery stalk, preferably from the inner heart of the celery, sliced very thin

1 to 2 tablespoons pine nuts or broken walnut pieces, lightly toasted

1 ounce crumbled goat cheese

1. Mix together the vinegar and lemon juice with the garlic, salt, pepper, and Dijon mustard using a fork or a small whisk. Whisk in the olive oil and the yogurt or buttermilk if using. Set aside.

2. Combine the spinach, nuts, celery, and goat cheese in a salad bowl.

3. Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil and when very hot, add the mushrooms. Shake the pan once, then let the mushrooms cook without moving them around until they begin to sweat and soften (watch closely). After about a minute or two, when they have begun to sear and release moisture, you can move them around in the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Add to the spinach mixture and toss with the dressing. Serve at once.

Note: You can also make this salad with baby arugula.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

Advance preparation: All of the ingredients can be prepped and the salad dressing made several hours before you cook the mushrooms and toss and serve the salad.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/21/health/nutrition/112108-RFHSalads_9.html

Salad Recipes from the New York Times

I Have Chanced upon these lovely recipes from the New York times and am gonna share them with you. If you don't have all the fancy ingredients or don't want to invest in large bottles of red wine vinegar you don't have to! you can just substitute it with Lemon Juice or regular vinegar.

Egg and Herb Salad

8 large eggs, hard-boiled (see below) and finely chopped

1 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, dill, tarragon, chervil or chives

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped, soaked for five minutes in cold water, drained and rinsed

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt or buttermilk

1 tablespoon Hellmann’s or Best Foods mayonnaise

1 garlic clove, green shoot removed, minced

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 6-ounce bag baby arugula

To hard-boil the eggs, place in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan tightly, and turn off the heat. Let sit for 12 minutes. Fill a bowl with ice water, drain the eggs and chill immediately in the ice water.

1. Combine the chopped eggs, herbs, celery and red onion in a large bowl, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss with the egg mixture.

3. Line plates or a platter with arugula, top with the egg salad and serve.

Yield: Serves four to six.

Advance preparation: You can make this several hours before serving. It keeps well for a couple of days in the refrigerator, but you’ll want to toss it again before serving.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/21/health/nutrition/112108-RFHSalads_7.html

Salads and More!

Healthy food can be fun as well! It doesn't have to be boring boiled stuff. This is a salad that I made last night with a few simple easy steps and ingredients and it was really fresh and wonderful!

It's my twist on the classic tomato mozzarella salad-

Ingredients for 8 people:

1 packet of bocconchini cheese (you don't have to use all of it - depending on how strict you want to be on your diet)

1 head of Salad leaves

1 packet of Mushrooms (if you can get Porcini mushrooms for this they give a great flavour to the food)

1 1/2 packet cherry tomatoes (put as much or as little as you like depending on how much you love them)

For the dressing:

2 tbsp Olive oil

Chilli flakes or powder

A good Dash of salt

2 pods garlic finely chopped or crushed

2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

Total bill at Nature's Basket for raw ingredients: INR 289 (cost - 36 bucks a head)

Method

Wash all the veggies

Break with your hand to make bite sized pieces of the salad leaves

Half the cherry tomatoes

slice the mushrooms and saute in a pan with salt pepper and if you have a bottle of mixed hearbs at home you can use that. (I just used a dash from the dried oregano packets you get for pizza deliveries). Put the flame on high and hear the mushrooms "sing" to you and then switch off the heat when done. Put in a colander when done to drain off excess water.

cut the Bocconcini into quarters as well

Whiz all the dressing ingredients together with a fork.

Mix all the Veggies together in a large bowl

Drizzle dressing on top

mix it all in gently together

Voilà you're ready to go!

It's time for the resolutions to be kept!

Hey everyone Happy New Year!

It's time we now all started to keep our New Year's resolutions for keeping fit, keeping slim and basically detoxing so I'm gonna give you all some amazing healthy and fresh recipes for a great start to the new year!

First I want to start with some dieting basics - Don't ever Diet!!

What you need to do is Healthy eating and Healthy living plan and stick to it as a part of your lifestyle. If you go on these extreme diets you will really not achieve much except for a yo-yoing between thin to fat and back. So what I sincerely suggest is to make changes in your life to have healthy food everyday and when you feel the need to have your dessert you can do that as well!

Rule Number 1

Go Light on Dinner

If you have to go out for dinner then stick to the following-

Stir Fried veggies

Clear Soups and Broths

Max one glass of red wine (Do NOT order a whole bottle to share!)

Tofu

Chicken/Fish without heavy and thick sauces, not fried (obviously) and certainly not with nuts

Yellow Dal (without rice)

Tandoori Roti (one only)

Rule Number 2

Always Have a Salad before eating

This truly truly helps. Shove it down your throat if you must but have a bowl of salad before you begin any meal

Rule Number 3

Taste and Savor

If you are desperate (that means you haven't had something sweet in more than 3 days), then apply this principle. Have just one bite, enjoy it and then imagine that this has set you back two whole days of hard work and that you will have to go on your treadmill/work out at the gym for half an hour extra today for this. After that imagine yourself in the figure you've always wanted and picture yourself wearing that hot dress/suit and then try and see if you want the next bite.

Rule Number 4

MOTIVATION!

Yes you will need all your hard work and motivation for this so get going!

now for the recipes... Enjoy them!