Carrot Salad

This Salad is awesome for people who are on a diet but get sweet cravings

this makes enough for 2 - 4 people depending on how much Salad one likes to eat!! :)

4 Carrots grated

20 raisins soaked in water for like a few hours so that they become plump and round

1/2 tsp cumin seeds pounded (or cumin powder)

1/2 an Ice Berg lettuce - shredded

1 tbsp roasted white sesame seeds

Dressing

1 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 pinch of salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients together, mix sauce ingredients together, dollop the sauce on and top with the white sesame seeds

Stir Fry Salad in Minutes

I love making and eating Salads and this one I particularly enjoyed as it's so easy, non complex and has such delicious results

Stir Fried Salad

20 - 25 Mushrooms

1/4 Cabbage

8 - 10 pieces Babycorn

1/2 tsp soya sauce

Mixed Herbs - 1 tsp

1/4 tsp Olive Oil

Red Chilli powder - to taste

1 clove Garlic (optional)

METHOD

Chop and clean the Babycorn and mushrooms

Clean and finely slice the cabbage

Take a really good non stick pan, add the olive oil add chopped garlic (optional) and throw in all the veggies

Add the soya sauce, chilli powder and herbs

Cook on medium flame for 2 - 3 minutes till the mushrooms get slightly watery

Check for salt and spice

I personally prefer eating this cold but you can have this hot or cold, up to you!

Also, this salad does tend to have a lot of extra liquid. What I like to do is drain that liquid out, add lime juice and dash of Tabasco sauce to it and use it for the dressing for another salad!

Easy Tomato Salsa

So my sister Sarah simply adores Tomato Salsa and so we had some spare time this evening and we decided to whip some of this deliciousness up. We wanted to have a home-grown, chunky and very messy kind of salsa which goes well on Bruschettas, chips or as Sarah likes it “straight up”. It’s a great and healthy snack and can just as easily be paired with a grilled chicken, grilled fish or grilled tofu and vegetables to make for a healthy meal.

Tomato Salsa (serves around 2 people)

4 Tomatoes

3 tbsp Coriander leaves, chopped

2 tbsp Mint leaves, chopped

1 Spring Onion or ½ a medium sized Onion, chopped

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ tsp green chilli paste (or to taste)

Ok so here is the most tricky part and the secret to a really good tomato salsa (according to me) –

So you take the tomato and de-stem it (see demo)

Then at the bottom of the tomato you make a very thin cross like in this second image

Then you put the tomatoes in boiling water until you can see that the skin is coming out slightly. (this will take literally 1 minute)

Remove the tomatoes and plunge them in cold water. Remove the skins and cut the tomatoes into half.

Deseed the tomatoes (like in this picture below) and chop up the lovely fleshy tomato.

Now you are ready to go!

Put all the chopped up ingredients together in a bowl, stir it around with olive oil, add salt to taste. If you really want to or really would like it then you may add half a teaspoon of sugar if your tomatoes are really tangy and voila! Salsa’s ready!

Monsoon Magic

When it is pouring down outside, sometimes it's really nice to cozy up with a book and a really nice cup of coffee.

For this I would highly recommend you change it up from your regular coffee, invest in a french press coffee contraption, go to your nearest Cafe Coffee Day, buy out some of their Monsoon Magic coffee powder and make yourself a delicious creamy and dense cup of coffee. Trust me guys this is going to be so worth it!

If it's not coffee that you like and you are a tea aficionado then you really should go to either the new Food Hall at Palladium Phoenix Mills or Chado Tea stand outside Phoenix mills for some lovely rainy Delights!! :)