All posts filed under: Soups & Salads

Herby Chicken Salad on Multigrain Bread

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I bought a lovely multigrain loaf from Bliss Chocolates. Yes, yes…they now bake loaves, pita, lavash, foccacia and a host of other yeasty delights. And their packaging is quite nice as well and you know I’m a sucker for such things anyway. After I polished off half a loaf with just olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, I was left thinking how wonderfully this bread would lend itself to my chicken salad. I know it’s winter and a Chicken Salad is more of a light summery meal. But in Bangalore, the sun still shines nice and bright and the skies are awash with my favorite shade of blue. It’s not fair is it? 😛 This basic recipe has many tricks up it’s sleeve. a. You can make this ahead and keep it in the fridge, the flavors just get better. b. So needless to say, it’s a great picnic staple! c. Serve it on some cucumber roundels and you have a fancy cocktail snack at a party! d. I ate this for lunch, so yes …

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Chili Maple Croutons

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Now don’t be babies and skip this post because it’s got ‘kaddu/ kumbalkayi’ as the star ingredient. I know I ran a mile when my mom made pumpkin playa when I was a kid. There was so much drama about not eating it, that my mom finally relented and stopped making it for many years. But I guess I was always a hypocrite when it came to pumpkins. There’s a special halwa (sweet) called ‘Kashi Halwa’, that’s made out of pumpkins for our wedding ceremonies. I used to wait patiently furiously tapping my banana leaf for the waiter to serve us the halwa. I would quickly devour it before he finished serving the rest of the table and act like he missed serving me. The look on the waiter’s face was priceless!  But topping that look was mine, when my mom finally told me that the halwa was made out of pumpkin! Evil evil woman! After that I had to make my peace with the pumpkin. (If only to avoid the dichotomy while eating the …

PanchPhoran Dal (Five Spice Lentils) – Comfort food at it’s Best!

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I know I’ve said many times that making regular dal and rice bores me. That dosen’t mean I don’t make it. No week is complete without Dal being made atleast twice. It’s what we grew up on and it’s what I crave when I come back from a long trip to unfamiliar places. Eating dal and rice with a veggie on the side and a smattering of pickle is nothing short of a homecoming! The fact that it’s such a commoner on the dinner table and gets made so often, I’ve actually never written down a recipe for dal. So this was my first attempt at documenting the precise quantities. I kept a little sheet of paper next to me and kept jotting down what I threw into the pan. Now I finally have a dal recipe that I can pass to the co-resident and ask him to attempt it when am too bored to move a muscle J We use mustard seeds and curry leaves to temper the dal. However, this one uses a …

Flame Grapes and Green Apple Salad

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Yes I’m trying to show off and no the grapes are not on fire. That’s just a name for a variety of grapes that are both white and red in colour. Quite pretty really. They are also seedless and firm. Perfect for use in a salad. The tang of the green apple superbly complements the sweetness of the grapes and we bring it all together with some lovely lemon herb mayonnaise dressing. Now I, (like most people) was not a very big fan of salads in the younger days of yore. We even called it Ghas Phoos. (Those who know, will know!). But now that’s I’ve grown older wiser, I gladly fill up my plate with the goodies. I’ve even been known to order just salad for lunch! (Ha ha ha … really got you on that one din’t I??) Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is … some salads do taste awesome! And though you probably won’t bypass a meal to eat just one, it won’t hurt to pile some on your plate. …

Summer Pasta Salad – a la Infinitea

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I’m more of a summer person than a winter person. Or so I thought, till I got baked in the sun the past couple of days. The heat has been unbearable. I have the fan on full speed at home and there’s still no respite. Being Bangalorean, I always think I don’t need an AC in our pleasant city. Boy, am I wrong! The only time I’m happy these days, is when I’m in the car and I have the AC on full blast in my face or when am under a cold shower! Which leads me to change my earlier notion of what weather person I am – I am an opti-weather person. I don’t like it too hot or too cold, too dry or too rainy, too windy or too still! I’m not fussy, but that’s the weather I would like. If wishes were horses, right? But I still concede that when it comes to satisfying my weather requirement, no other city in the world gets it as close to perfect as Bangalore. …

Potato and Sausage Soup with Pesto

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I resisted for a whole month. I did. Honest. Everyone says I make too many dishes with pesto in it. But…. I love Pesto! And how could I not start the New Year with another way to use the glorious green?! This time I added it to a soup. And not just any soup – the quintessential soup for the manly man. The meat and potatoes soup! It’s technically a main course, but since it’s eaten out of a soup bowl (albeit a rather large one) we’ll still call it soup. As with all things creamy and filled with carbs and meat – this is a hearty one. Meditate on the word – Hearty. It dosen’t just mean ‘filling’, it means something that will make you all loving and giving once you’ve eaten it. Seriously, have you ever seen someone deprived of Carbohydrates? Bitchy bitchy. But not with this soup … all the nastiness just melts into the bowl. Don’t believe me? Try wolfing down a bowl of this and go take a look in …

Tuna and Egg Salad Sandwich

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Some days you are just so lazy that the only option to a fulfilling meal = a Maggi. I have no shame in admitting that the choice for a meal for one, when the co-resident is away is to shove my face with the noodles in front of the telly. Their byline does it for me – Ready in 2 minutes. It’s another matter that its 400 calories of zero nutrition! (I still love you though, my darling Maggi Noodles!) What can I say, old habits die hard! One sunny Saturday afternoon (that’s when laziness is at its peak), I reached into the store cupboard for my customary lazy meal when … Gasp! I had run out of Maggi. Now the paramount rule of laziness restricts me from getting dressed to go to the store down the road to buy one. So my brain had to think of an alternative which would be ready in two minutes. That’s when I made my Tuna and Egg Salad Sandwich! (Well technically two minutes for the assembly, as …

Red Bell Pepper Soup with Lime

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I bought a new cookbook (yes, the umpteenth one!) and paid a ridiculous price for it. (Come on, 1000 photos don’t come cheap). I have so many cookbooks that I just stare at the pictures and sing myself a foodie lullaby. So this time I was determined to cook something from the new book, just so that I can redeem the guilty feeling of not having used it at least once! I admit that the reason I even made this recipe is because the color looked so gorgeous. Bright orangey red! And the fact that there was lemon rind in the recipe didn’t hurt either. I think Lemon rind adds a zing that is unmatched by anything else (Ok, maybe Basil). I must warn you that this soup is not some soothing balm before you start the meal. It’s more like a jolt that wakes you up and gets your belly fire started. Hot and Tangy, I give you Red Bell Pepper Soup with Lime! Red Bell Pepper Soup with Lime Prep time: 10 mins …