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Showing posts with label SALADS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SALADS. Show all posts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

SOM TAM - REFRESHING THAI SALAD (A VEGAN RECIPE)

SOM TAM - REFRESHING THAI SALAD (A VEGAN RECIPE)
I am not a huge salad lover and the entries in my blog can vouch for it as I don’t have many salad recipes. That does not mean I don’t love salads. I do love salads which are a good mix of ingredients and which appeal to my palate and once it does, it enters my blog. One of my friends recently moved and had a party at her house and she prepared this refreshingly lovely salad for lunch. I loved the refreshing tanginess of the mango, mixed with the neutral crunch of the papaya, the sweet blend of the carrot & onion. Adding to the refreshing feeling was the lemon, the crunch of the de-skinned salted peanuts. The sweetness imparted by the jaggery. The best part of the salad was all blended beautifully into one and yet had a unique taste and flavor. This dressing could be aptly described as “tangy” - a combination of sweet, sour, spicy and salty, but more sweet than sour which helps to balance out the sharpness of the papaya.
This led me to research about this Thai salad, and I found out that this salad is called “Som tam”.
Now, Som (means 'sour') Tam (means to 'pound' with a pestle and mortar).
This refreshing Thai salad, originates from the northeastern part of Thailand, but is popular all over Thailand and even in neighboring Laos and Myanmar.They have their version and additions to the recipe too.
A google search also led me to a website that lists this dish as Number 46 in the “World's 50 most delicious foods” (Below is the URL for you to see the Worlds 50 most delicious foods.)

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/eat/worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-067535

It’s no wonder that I liked this recipe so much.

As the Thais love meat, the som Tam contains dried shrimps and crab meat and fish sauce as one of the ingredients. But since Iam a vegetarian, I will be avoiding all this in my recipe.
They also pound with a mortar and pestle the garlic and chilli into a paste and pound the long beans to a bruise. In fact they pound even the grated papaya and carrot a bit. I didn’t add long beans nor did I add garlic or green chillies in my recipe as I have to cook for young kids who may not appreciate all the spice.

Below is the Vegetarian or might I say vegan version of the “Unpounded” Som Tam with ingredients blended to make anyone crave for a helping of it. Try this refreshing salad. A special thanks to my friend who introduced me to this recipe.

Ingredients
Raw papaya –½
Raw Mango – ¼
Carrot - 1
Onion – 1
Tomatoes – 1 red and ripened (I didn’t use in this recipe)
Long beans (lightly steamed/blanched and chopped) - 7-8 nos (I didn’t use in this recipe)
Green chilly - 1-2 to taste (optional)
Salted de-skinned Peanuts – 2 tablespoons
Red Chilly flakes – ½ teaspoon
Lemon Juice – 1 lemon
Jaggery – Lemon Ball size
Salt as per taste
Fresh green coriander leaves – 1 tbsp

Method
Grate and soak the lemon sized jaggery in water. Make a solution of the jaggery.
Choose a nice green raw papaya, peel the skin and grate it. Don’t use the fine grater, use the medium sized grater, so that you can feel the texture of every ingredient. Keep aside.
I chose a nice green Thai Mango, you can choose any variety of raw mango.
Use only quarter of the mango. Peel the skin and grate using the same grater. Keep aside.
Now peel and grate the carrot and keep aside.
Onion has to be cut in thin strips. Keep aside.
Squeeze the juice of a lemon without the seeds and keep aside.
Now, in a big salad bowl, toss in all the ingredients.
Traditionally Thai som tam salad, is served along with a side dish. This includes pieces of green beans and a fairly thick but small size of cabbage.
Traditionally som tam is made very spicy and hot - the side dish also contains crushed ice along with the beans and cabbage.
I’d suggest that you toss all the ingredients together just 5 to 10 minutes before you plan to eat it. Leaving the ready som tam for a long time, causes the salad to become quite soggy. Remember that this is just you first try at making veg Thai food, you can always experiment by fine tuning the proportion of ingredients used in the recipe.
You can adjust the sweetness or spice levels according to your tastes.
This proportion serves 3-4.

Tips:
· Make sure you use unripe green papaya, which is firm

· Jaggery can be replaced with Sugar or Honey

· Ripe tomatoes can be chopped and added

· Long beans can be lightly steamed or pounded and added

Variations:
· The peanuts can be added as it is or split them into halves and add in, or do it the more authentic way. The roasted peanuts are generally pounded into smaller pieces, not a fine powder but rather coarse.

· Instead of peanuts you can use cashew nuts or both in the recipe

· You can add garlic and chilly pounded into a paste as per the traditional recipe.

· You can add a dash of soya sauce for a n Asian flavor.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

ALFALFA SPROUTS SALAD

ALFALFA SPROUTS SALAD
Alfalfa sprouts are germinated from Alfalfa seeds. They are so easy to sprout that you can sprout them even in your refrigerator. Their dietary fibre contains substances called saponins which can remove cholesterol from the blood. Alfalfa is also extremely rich in antioxidants, including one powerful antioxidant called tricin, and is used as a commercial source of chlorophyll and carotene. It is said to help in stimulating milk flow in breastfeeding mothers and for alleviating menopausal problems in older women. Alfalfa has also been used traditionally as an appetite stimulant, to promote weight gain and to stop bleeding. Unsubstantiated claims include treating abnormal growths, alcoholism and bone and joint conditions. Tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, a useful source of vitamin E with some vitamin A and dietary fibre. I got some cherry honey tomatoes in the market, Cherry tomatoes are small and oval in shape, they are especially used in salads, they are sweeter than the normal tomatoes that we usually use in cooking. I have used them in this recipe. Lettuce provides potassium, carotene, dietary fibre and small quantities of other minerals and vitamins. Onions are a good source of vitamin C, B3 and calcium.
Ingredients 1 ½ cups of Alfalfa sprouts
1 Cucumber
Cherry Tomatoes – 5-6
1 ripe red & juicy tomato
1 Red Onion
Lettuce – 3-4 leaves
Olives – 5-6
½ Red Capsicum
Freshly ground pepper for seasoning
Salt as per taste
½ tsp - dried Oregano
½ tsp – dried Basil
½ tsp – dried Dill
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
Feta Cheese(Sheep/Goat Cheese) – 120gms cut into cubes.
Salad dressing as per choice
Method
First of all peel the cucumber in stripes, means peel one strip out and leave the skin on the next strip and so on. We would like to retain some skin on as it is nutritious. Now chop into square chunks, Chop the Tomatoes into square chunks. Chop the Cherry tomatoes into halves so that they get the spices as well. Slice the onion into a half and then into semi circles and then peel out the rings, so you get thin semi circular rings, this will give the salad more flavor of the onion. I have used the longish red peppers easily available in Singapore and it has a fantastic flavor too. Discard the seeds inside the red peppers and chop them .Add in the olives.
Now in a large bowl, put in all the vegetables, tear the lettuce and put in, also add in the afla alfa sprouts. Now add the olive oil, salt as per taste, freshly ground pepper (use a pepper crusher and crush freshly into the salad), Add in the dried oregano, dried basil and dried dill. Toss it all well and top it with Feta cheese. Feta cheese is very soft, it crumbles very easily so don’t toss it along with the Feta cheese. Do all the tossing before adding in the feta cheese. The Feta cheese cubes must be on the top like a dressing, when you serve yourself your portion you can toss it in. Toss lightly as you don’t want your feta cheese cubes crumbled and squashed.
You can dress this salad with a Thousand Island dressing or some Mayonnaise before adding the Feta cheese, but since I am off eggs now, I didn’t put it my recipe, but you can add this and the salad will be very tasty.

Garnish with some alfalfa sprouts and dunk into this nutritious salad.

This salad can be a complete meal in itself or you can have it with some light crusty bread.

I would like to post this for Lore's Original Recipes Event

Saturday, August 2, 2008

CARROT SALAD

AMMA’S FAVORITE CARROT SALAD
This is my amma’s(my mom's) favorite salad. Whenever Amma makes chappati she will try her best to make time to rustle up this salad. Of course my dearest Appa will always be there to help her in grating the carrots and chopping the vegetables.
Ingredients
Carrots -1-2 medium
Ripe red & juicy tomatoes – 2
Red Onion - 1
Green chillies -1-2
Curry leaves – A sprig
Salt as per taste
Vegetable cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Asafetida – a pinch
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
Method
Wash, Peel and Grate the carrots, Chop the Tomatoes into square chunks, Chop the onions.
Now in a large bowl, put in all the vegetables, add salt as per taste and toss it all well. Now in a small pan, Take one tablespoon of cooking oil, Add the mustard seeds, when the mustard seeds start to splutter, add a pinch of asafetida and the curry leaves, just fry a bit and pour this into the salad. Toss again so that everything mixes well. Add some lemon juice, toss and serve with hot chappatis.

Friday, August 1, 2008

GREEK SALAD

Iam sending this recipe for Sunshine Mom's "Food in Color" which is RED this month and
EC's "WYF-Color in Food" which is also RED this month
GREEK SALAD
Salad is a totally underestimated dish, maybe because people think, “What’s so great in a salad after all everything is raw”. But when I started watching an Indian cookery program regularly wherein a dietician comes over and shares her recipes, I realized that eating raw along with cooked food is very good for health. She also says that Salads when made with a right mix of vegetables and with the right spices and dressing can match no other dish. Salads are good for your health, can make wonders for your skin, light on the stomach and nutritious.
Iam going to share with you a recipe of the Greek salad, This is also known as Horiatiki in Greece. This is a rough country salad, so all the vegetables are cut into big square chunks.
Ingredients
2-3 ripe red & juicy tomatoes
1 Red Onion
1 Cucumber
Freshly ground pepper for seasoning
½ teaspoon dried oregano
Green Capsicum – ½
Red Capsicum – ½
Salt as per taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
Olives – 5-6
Feta Cheese(Sheep/Goat Cheese) – 120gms cut into cubes.
Method
First of all peel the cucumber in stripes, means peel one strip out and leave the skin on the next strip and so on. We would like to retain some skin on as it is nutritious. Now chop into square chunks, Cut the Tomatoes into square chunks Slice the onion into a half and then into semi circles and then peel out the rings, so you get thin semi circular rings, this will give the sald more flavor of the onion. Chop the red pepper and green pepper into square chunks also discarding the seeds inside. Add in the olives
Now in a large bowl, put in all the vegetables, add the olive oil, salt as per taste, freshly ground pepper (use a pepper crusher and crush freshly into the salad), Add in the oregano(this is the original recipe), but in my recipe I haven’t added in the oregano and it still tastes good. Add in the lemon juice. Toss it all well and top it with Feta cheese. Feta cheese is very soft, it crumbles very easily so don’t toss it along with the Feta cheese. Do all the tossing before adding in the feta cheese. The Feta cheese cubes must be on the top like a dressing, when you serve yourself your portion you can toss it in. Toss lightly as you don’t want your feta cheese cubes crumbled and squashed.
Feta cheese makes this salad very exotic, Feta cheese is very nutritious; it is high in protein and low in fat as compared to other cheese available in the market.
Now dip into your bowl and relish. This salad can be served as a side dish. It can even be
had as a light meal with some crusty bread.

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