Kale and beet salad

All salads are not necessarily healthy. It depends on what dressing you are using and what actually goes inside the salad. Recently, I am a big fan of kale and try to incorporate it into our meals regularly.

Here is one simple recipe of a salad that is extremely tasty and healthy.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

Organic kale about 8/10

Baby spinach organic about 8/10 leaves

½ big beet boiled and cut in chunks

½ orange peeled and cut

2 tbsp apple cider

1 tbsp white rice vinegar

¼ thinly sliced red onion

6/7 organic red cherry tomatoes

½ chopped red bell pepper

Nuts of your choice or sunflower seeds

In a bowl, place the washed kale and spinach leaves and add boiled and cut beet. Cut open the orange after peeling it and use about ½ in the salad. Add the cherry tomatoes and chopped red bell pepper. Now, pour the apple cider and white rice vinegar and serve. This salad tastes sweet and tangy. It goes very well with pasta.

Oil free Falafel

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpeas/garbanzo beans

1 small onion roughly chopped

¼ cup cilantro

3-5 cloves garlic

1 ½ tsp besan flour

Salt to taste

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 pinch of cardamom

Soak the garbanzo beans overnight in a bowl of water and then drain water in the morning. Pour them in the mixer/processor along with the chopped onion, cilantro (you can use parsley), flour, salt, garlic, cumin and cardamom. Pulse it together to form a coarse paste. Refrigerate this coarse, thick paste for about 3 hours.

After 3 hours, remove the paste from the refrigerator and you can either bake them or cook them in the ebelskiver pan using oil spray. Cover the pan and cook them till they are golden brown on both sides.

For the wrap, I used whole wheat pita bread and added tomato, onion, cucumber slices, baby spinach with some tahini sauce (homemade) and yogurt with some dill.  

Semolina and jaggery cake

Lately I have been making most of the cakes with honey and applesauce just to avoid sugar. Somehow, I got bored of the taste of honey in the cakes, so with this cake I decided to try jaggery. This cake tastes exactly like the one my Mom used to make when I was a kid and when there were no fancy ovens. So, do you want to indulge in the same taste again? But, this is with a healthier touch :)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup semolina coarse

1/2 cup almond meal

2 tbsp clarified butter

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened homemade from organic apples)

1/4 cup powdered jaggery

2 tbsp low fat plain yogurt (I used Mountain high)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 pinch salt

Mix all the dry ingredients- semolina,almond meal, baking powder, salt, and cardamom powder in a bowl and mix together.

In a separate bowl, mix the clarified butter and add whisked yogurt, applesauce and jaggery powder and whisk together. Once it is smooth, add in the dry ingredients and whisk together for a minute or so. If the batter is not smooth and runny, you might want to add some more yogurt or applesauce. Pour the batter in a greased baking pan (I used oil spray) and put it in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes on 350 F. 

Basil lemon fish wrap

This recipe is totally inspired by a fish taco we enjoyed in Mexico last year. It is a simple and full of flavors. The flavors are quite simple but the fish reminds of the warm, humid weather of Mexico.

I used tilapia for this fish wrap, but I guess you can use Halibut with this recipe too. It is a simple broiled fish which hardly takes time to cook seasoned with lemon, garlic, basil and pepper and served with avocado, and tomato salsa. Now, you tell me, Can it go wrong?

Ingredients:

For the marinade

2 ½ tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

2 garlic cloves minced

3 tablespoons dried basil (you can use fresh too)

Salt as per taste

Pepper powder as per taste

4 big wild catch tilapia fillets

For the wrap

1 sliced avocado

Whole wheat flatbread (you can use tacos too, but I wanted something healthy)

For the tomato salsa

1 tomato chopped

1 small onion chopped

1 jalapeno pepper

Chopped cilantro

Salt

Method:

Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, and basil in a bowl with salt and pepper crushed. Place the fish fillets in a large zip lock bag and pour the lemon garlic vinaigrette in the ziplock and put in the fridge for about 1 hour or so.

In a separate bowl add the chopped tomato, onion and jalapeno with salt and chopped cilantro and mix well. Keep aside. Chop the avocado in cubes and keep aside. You can add any other salad like cucumbers or lettuce in the wrap/taco.

Now heat the oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes and then change the setting to broiler. Place the marinated fish fillets on a baking tray with a whiff of oil spray and place in the oven on broiler for about 7 minutes and flip in between.

Once the fish is cooked, take the flatbread and keep the fish slices in pieces in the flatbread and add the tomato salsa. Avocado slices with any other salad of your choice and enjoy it.

Chicken Dum Biryani

I always thought Biryani was a very complicated dish and pretty much tried to avoid it as much as I could. But, I found this recipe on sanjeev kapoor’s khazana and when I tried it, I realized that it was so easy and it tasted yummy too. Don’t be scared of the long list of ingredients. Once you start the marination, you will realize that it’s pretty easy.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

Chicken cut into 1 inch pieces

Saffron 7 /8 strands and little warm milk to dip the strands in

Shahi jeera 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf 1 /2

Cloves 5 /6

Green cardamoms 5

Peppercorns 6 /7

Onions sliced 2

Ginger paste fresh 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste 1 teaspoon

Fresh mint leaves 1 cup

Salt as per taste

Lemon juice 2 tablespoons

Yogurt 1 cup

Coriander leaves hopped finely

Ghee 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder 2 tsp

Shahi biryani masala 1 ½ tablespoons

For creating the dum- wheat flour dough

Method:

Take the chicken pieces in a bowl and add ginger garlic paste (preferably fresh), salt and mix. Add shahi biryani masala, red chili powder, yogurt, cilantro leaves chopped and mint leaves chopped and cinnamon powder with cardamom powder. Add about 1 tbp ghee and mix everything. Let this marinate for about 3 hours in the refrigerator.

In a separate pan, wash the basmati rice and drain out all the water. Keep it aside. Once you start cooking, heat about 5 cups of water in a deep pan. Add the washed and drained rice, salt, bay leaves, one cinnamon stick, peppercorns and shahi jeera in the water. Cook till about half way done. Drain this rice and keep aside.

In a thick-bottomed pan, spread the chicken on a bed of cooking spray. (I did not use oil) Then spread the rice in a layer. Again spread some chicken pieces and then layer it with the remaining rice. Sprinkle saffron milk. Cover the pot with wheat flour dough and then place the lid firmly on top.

After about 10-15 minutes, you will notice some steam coming out o the pot. This means that the dum is working and the biryani is cooked. Now lower the flame and let it cook for about 10 more minutes.

Before serving, make sure the chicken is well-cooked. It will continue to cook under the dum effect even after the gas flame is off.

Peanut butter and sesame noodles:

Usually peanut butter contains lots of sodium and saturated fat, but I found a healthy peanut butter (trader Joes- Better n' peanut butter)which is low fat, low in sodium and pretty healthy. This recipe contains lots of veggies and is little spicy, slightly sweet.

Ingredients:

1 pack of whole wheat organic spaghetti

1 inch ginger chopped finely

I small onion sliced

1 carrot sliced in thin strips

1 bell pepper sliced in thin slices

1 bunch kale leaves roughly chopped

1 small bunch baby spinach leaves roughly chopped
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp  soy sauce (low sodium)

2 tbsp sesame seeds

4 tbsp peanut butter

½ tsp sriracha sauce (hot sauce)

1 tbsp organic honey

1 lime juice and zest

2 cloves garlic chopped finely

1 tsp oil

For the peanut dressing: Place the peanut butter in a large measuring cup and microwave to soften (15 seconds). Whisk in with the soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, honey, sriracha, and lime zest and juice in a small bowl. Keep it aside.

In a wok, heat oil and sauté the veggies and the garlic till cooked thoroughly. In a separate pot, cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet. Drain all the water and add the cooked noodles to the cooked veggies. Serve with the peanut butter sauce and garnish with sesame seeds before serving. 

Fig, date and almond meal healthy cake

On our anniversary this year, I wanted to bake a cake, but I wanted it to be something special and healthy. I came upon several recipes without flour. I was interested in most paleo diet special cakes. I stumbled upon the following cake recipe and decided to make it.

Adapted from: greenkitchenstories (chocolate nut and date cake)

1/2 cup fresh soft medjool-like dates, pitted

½ cup dried figs (soaked in water)
1 cup raw almonds or almond meal
1 block 80% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 organic egg
1 organic orange, juice and zest
2 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder
1 tsp extra virgin coconut oil, melted
1 handful fresh or thawed strawberries

Preheat the oven to 340F/175°C. Place raw almonds in a food processor and pulse until you have a fine textured flour. If you are using almond meal, then you can skip this step. Then add the dates and soaked figs and mix until well mashed. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir with a large spoon to combine. Pour the batter in a greased pan and bake for 40-50 minutes. Let the cake cool slightly before removing the pan. Serve with berries.