Healthy workday salads

I have a fetish for salads and particularly towards winter, when the best of salad greens are available, it's a daily indulgence. Of late, I have been trying to reduce carbs in my diet and eat more protein, for health reasons, due to an auto immune condition I have - Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Quinoa, while expensive both in terms of cost and carbon consumption, is a great addition to the diet for its rich micronutrient profile, including magnesium and phosphorus. It also adds dietary fiber, so a win-win.

I find it easy to set a fixed menu for lunch at the office - helps my cook by shortcutting the decision making process, and the time consuming part of the prep can be done one time. So we made the quinoa at the beginning of the week and refrigerated it, similarly with the chickpeas and roasted pumpkin. To add variety, I just changed up the salad dressing through the week. So putting together the salad is, ironically, a piece of cake!

Ingredients for one serving:
1 cup quinoa, soaked and cooked
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup pumpkin, oven roasted with a little olive oil
1 apple, sliced chunkily
1 spring onion
1 carrot, grated thick
1/2 cup pomegranate
1 cucumber, deseeded and chopped into chunks
Handful of coriander leaves
1/2 cup halved walnuts

Dressing:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp honey ( depending on your sweet tooth, you can add a little more)
1.5 tsp kasundi (Bengali grainy mustard which I love)
Juice of 1 small lime
Himalayan rock salt to taste

Whip together the olive oil and mustard into an emulsion, with a fork. Add the honey and lime juice until it combines well.

For an office lunch, you can pack the dressing separately and add it just before eating.

Changes you can ring:
Ingredients:
I'm on a detox from various Hashimoto's triggers so avoiding tomatoes, capsicum, baingan, dairy etc. If you don't have any such dietary restrictions, feel free to add those veggies. A few lettuce or rocket leaves wouldn't go amiss either.

Feta, or blue cheese if you like, it are great additions

I had planned to add sunflower seeds but the pack I had bought turned out to have worms - blech! Flax seeds are also a good addition, but add them just before eating. Pine nuts also taste great




















Dressing:
Apart from the dressing above, a simple pounded garlic, lime juice and rock salt combination also tastes very fresh. If you're using kala chana, you can add chaat masala and lime juice.

My favourite is Tahini dressing:
1/2 cup hung curd
1 tbsp tahini
1 green chilli
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Small handful of coriander leaves

Fling everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Top your salad with this just before eating. Ps. If you're tempted to skip the sugar - don't. It adds an interesting complexity to the flavour. You can add garlic and cumin if you like, but it tastes just as good without.

Chickpea salad with tahini dressing

I've been looking to add more protein to my vegetarian diet, without resorting to paneer or tofu. Beans and lentils are a good option, so I made myself a chickpea salad for lunch at the office. But I was tired of the regular olive oil dressing and decided to try out tahini sauce which I love, and which adds to the protein content anyway. Turns out it's a marriage made in heaven!

Chickpea salad:
Half cup boiled chick peas
Half cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of lettuce leaves, washed and torn
Capsicum - quarter each of green, red and yellow, diced
Spring onion - 1, along with the greens, chopped fine
1 Kakdi, cut into half vertically and sliced

Tahini dressing:
Half cup hung curd
Half cup regular curd
1 tablespoon tahini
1-2 green chillies
Pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar/ honey

Grind together all the ingredients - except the regular curd. Taste to ensure a balance between salt and sweet. Just before serving, mix the regular curd with the rest of the dressing and pour over the salad. Mix well and enjoy with a virtuous halo of wellness!

All Veggie Dinner

Last week, I decided to serve an all vegetable dinner - I was simply tired of carbs like rice and roti at every meal and needed a break. Luckily we had fabulous organic vegetables from the weekly farmer's market. Though there was dal and rice in case anyone was still hungry, it went untouched!

I'm not a big mushroom fan, I don't like their texture and watery taste. But one of the very few mushroom dishes I like is stuffed mushroom caps. It works best with large sized button mushrooms and is super easy to prepare. Plus well roasted, it avoids that watery taste that I abhor.

Leeks are a winter favourite and I always buy heaps. I love them simply roasted and slightly burnt at the ends, hot out of the oven, with nothing but a tiny pinch of salt. But for a more filling dish, a cheese, cream and leek bake hits the spot and tastes delicious to boot.

The salad portion was a simple Insalata Caprese, with cherry tomatoes. I think it could have used a touch of garlic or pesto and shall experiment with that next time.

Stuffed Mushrooms:

Ingredients
10 large button mushrooms
1 onion, chopped very fine
Handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 slices of bread, turned into crumbs
2 glugs of oil

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.

Remove the stems of the mushrooms and chop the stems very fine. Pour 1 glug of oil into a pan and heat. Toss in the garlic and onions and cook until soft. Add the mushroom pieces and cook. Mix the parsley and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix with the bread crumbs.

Coat the top of the mushroom cap with what's left of the oil and place onto the roasting tray. Fill the hollow on the upper side ( from where you took out the stems) with the mixture of breadcrumbs, mushroom stems etc.

Roast for 25 minutes. Serve hot - serves 5.

Baked Leeks:

Ingredients:
5 leeks - fat ones! Chop off the extreme end of the leafy side and then split vertically down the middle, after washing them thoroughly
200 grams cream
100 grams cheddar cheese, grated
2 slices of bread, crumbed

Heat oven to 150 degrees C.

Heat salted water to a boil. Toss in the leeks and cook for about 5-7 minutes until just soft. Remove and drain. Layer the leeks in a shallow, lightly greased baking pan. Mix the cream and cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the leeks. Cover with breadcrumbs. Bake for 35 minutes or till brown on top. Serves 5

Insalata caprese:

Ingredients:
Cherry mozzarella - 10 small balls
Firm, ripe tomatoes  - 5, sliced
Handful of basil leaves, chiffonaded
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Arrange the cherry mozzarella on a plate. Sandwich between slices of tomatoes. Top with the basil leaves. pour over the olive oil, add salt and pepper. Leave for a couple of hours for the flavours to develop. Serve at room temperature. serves 5. You can add sliced olives, or dress with pesto sauce instead of plain olive oil, add a touch of garlic to the oil for a fancier touch.

Wengers Paneer Rolls

Back when I worked at my first in in an office in Connaught Place, Wenger's was a regular haunt. Then boyfriend and I would walk after lunch or in the evening to CP, and indulge in gourmet delights from Wenger's at least once a week. I discovered French hearts there, Diplomat Pudding, the most incredible eclairs filled with cream, and their paneer rolls - a little too filling but delicious, for all that.

Wenger's has gotten farther off with a move to the suburbs, so a trip there is now barely an annual treat. I read somewhere that they still import many of the flours they use for their bakes goods, so replicating them may be beyond my repertoire. But paneer rolls? I figured those would be a breeze. I tried them put for the first time today, and whaddaya know? The taste was a pretty good match! It would make for a great tiffin box stuffer. or starter at a party too.

Ingredients:
Grated paneer - 500 grams
1 medium onion, chopped very fine
2-3 green chillies, chopped fine
Handful coriander, chopped fine
1 inch ginger, minced
2 tsp jeera powder
Salt to taste
Breadcrumbs made of 3 slices of bread

Mix the paneer with all the ingredients except the breadcrumbs, gently. Shape into oblongs about 2 inches long - the moisture in the paneer will help hold it together. Roll each oblong in the breadcrumbs to coat it thoroughly.

Deep fry in hot oil until golden. Serve with green chutney or ketchup.

Time for prep - 15 minutes. Time for cooking - 15 minutes. Makes 15-16