Spring Salad

As I said earlier in my first salad recipe, I am trying to eat more of salads, starting at least once a week. This is going good for the second week now. I made this salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes and pineapple. You don't need any extra salad dressing because the juice from the pineapple and tomatoes and creamy avocado makes a dressing by itself. If was wonderful salad and now I started loving salads and hope to keep this going.

Avocado Nutrition:

--------------------

• Avocados are high in valuable, health-promoting fats. For a typical avocado:
• About 75% of an avocado's calories come from fat, most of which is monounsaturated fat.
• Avocados also have 60% more potassium than bananas. They are rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and vitamin K.
• Avocados have a high fiber content among fruits – including 75% insoluble and 25% soluble fiber.
• A fatty triol (fatty alcohol) with one double bond, avocadene (16-heptadecene-1,2,4-triol), is found in avocado.
• High avocado intake has been shown to have a beneficial effect on blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, after a seven-day diet rich in avocados, mild hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (harmful cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL(helpful cholesterol) levels. Additionally a Japanese team synthesised the four chiral components, and identified (2R, 4R)-16-heptadecene-1, 2, 4-triol as a natural antibacterial component.

Video on How to Cut an Avocado

Ingredients:

------------

1 box of Cherry Tomatoes halved

1 Avocado - seed removed and cubed and removed from the outer skin.

5 slices of canned pineapple cubed and juice is separated in a bowl

1 small Shallot chopped

1 small Jalapeño pepper chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 bag Italian blend Salad

10 Black Olives pitted and halved

1 Lemon - Lemon rind and lemon juice

1 package Croutons (I used store bought)

Method:

---------

1. In a bowl add Avocado, pineapple, olives, tomatoes, shallot, jalapeno, salt and pepper and lemon rind and lemon juice and mix well, so that a the avocado gets bit creamy.

2. Now add the reserved pineapple juice and mix again.

3. In a serving bowl arrange the Italian blend salad and top the salad mix and top it with croutons.

Avial (Vegetables in coarsely ground Coconut)

Avial (Malayalam: അവിയല്; Tamil: அவியல், pronounced [aʋijal]) is a dish that has a unique place in typical Kerala as well as Tamil cuisineand Udupi cuisine. It is a thick mixture of vegetables, curd and coconut, seasoned with coconut oil and curry leaves. Avial is considered an essential part of the Sadhya.

It is supposed to have been invented by Bhima (one of the Pandava brothers) during their exile. According to the legend, when Ballav (Bhima's name during this time) assumed his duties as the cook in the kitchen of Virata, did not know how to cook. One of the first things he did was to chop up many different vegetables, boil them together and top the dish with grated coconut.

I made this recipe without adding yogurt, you can make this as you wish with any vegetables you like. There is no hard and fast rule to use any particular vegetable. Me and Shoj love this vegetable recipe as it has lot of vegetables to it and easy to make.

Ingredients:

------------

1/4 lb Green Beans cut to 1 1/2 inch long pieces

1/4 lb Carrots quartered lengthwise and then cut to 1 1/2 inch long pieces

1 medium size Potato, skin peeled and cut to 1 1/2 inch long and 1 inch thick pieces

1 large Raw Plantain/Banana, skin peeled and cut to 1 1/2 inch long and 1 inch thick pieces

1 Yellow Squash cut to 1 1/2 inch long and 1 inch thick pieces

1 medium Tomato quartered and cut into 1 inch thick and 1 1/2 inch long pieces

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

For Seasoning:

---------------

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 pinch Asafoetida

1-2 dry Red Chilies

2 Shallots sliced

1 sprig Curry leaves

Coarsely Ground:

------------------

1/2 Cup fresh or frozen or dried grated coconut

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2-3 Green Chilies

1 inch Ginger chopped

Method:

----------

1. In a mixer add all the ingredients from the coarse ground mixture and coarsely grind this. If you are using dried grated coconut may be you need to add few drops of water if necessary.

2. In a heavy bottom pan with 1 cup water add all the vegetables and turmeric powder, cover and cook for about 10 mins or until all the vegetables are 3/4th cooked. It is ok if little bit of water is there.

3. Now add the ground coconut mixture to it and turmeric powder and mix it gently, making sure that you don't break the vegetables and make it mushy. Off the stove.

4. Now in a pan add oil, when it's hot add mustard seeds, and when they start to sputter add asafoetida, dry red chilies and curry leaves, then add the shallots and fry it until it turns brown and it to the vegetables and mix gently again. Serve this as a side dish with steamed rice and sambar.

Tomato Rice

I usually love to eat mixed rice of any kind and this tomato rice is one of them. Mom usually used to make this on Saturday lunch, as because she used to have either a half a day at work or holiday on the second Saturday's. So this lunch was special for us, because Mom will be there to eat with us. She always used to make either chicken, shrimp or potato fry to with this recipe as a side. I know it's a simple recipe but with Mom it used be always special. So I will dedicate this recipe to her. I made some small changes to my Mom's original recipe.

The tomato is native to South America. Genetic evidence shows the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit and a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru.

Nutrition:

---------------

Tomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other organs. They containlycopene, one of the most powerful natural antioxidants. In some studies lycopene, especially in cooked tomatoes, has been found to help prevent prostate cancer but other research contradicts this claim. Lycopene has also been shown to improve the skin's ability to protect against harmful UV rays. Natural genetic variation in tomatoes and their wild relatives has given a genetic treasure trove of genes that produce lycopene, carotene, anthocyanin, and other antioxidants. Tomato varieties are available with double the normal vitamin C (Doublerich), 40 times normal vitamin A (97L97), high levels of anthocyanin (resulting in blue tomatoes), and two to four times the normal amount oflycopene (numerous available cultivars with the high crimson gene).

Tomato consumption has been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer, head and neck cancers and might be strongly protective against neurodegenerative diseases.

Ingredients:

------------

5 ripe Tomatoes cubed

2-3 dry Red Chilies

1 sprig Curry leaves

2-3 green Chilies slit

3-4 Garlic pods sliced

1 green Cardamom

1/4 inch Cinnamon stick

2 Cloves

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tbsp Oil

1 pinch of Asafoetida

Salt to taste

1 tsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)

2 Cups Cooked Rice (I used Basmati Rice)

1/4 cup Cilantro chopped

Method:

---------

1. In a mixer add the cubed tomatoes and puree until it's thick and smooth without any chunks of tomato.

2. In a heavy bottom pan, add oil and when it's hot add cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and when you smell the aroma add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, when they start to sputter add asafoetida and dry red chili.

3. Add the Curry leaves, garlic and green chilies, now add turmeric powder, salt and the tomato puree and mix well, cover and cook in medium heat for about 15-20 mins or until the tomatoes are cooked well and there when the oil floats on top.

5. Now off the flame and add the cooked rice, ghee and mix well and garnish with chopped cilantro and serve this rice hot or warm with any fry recipe.