Latin Papaya Mint Salad

I remember the my childhood days, I used to love eating papaya a lot when it's in season. After I came to US, I tried to get it from the grocery stores, but it never tasted liked the one I used to eat back in India. I like it to be ripe and soft and swell. You can actually find out from the smell whether it's tastes good and sweet or not. But this time I got this from a local fresh food market, the raw one and left on the counter to ripen. First I was not sure how it would be, but it tasted way better than the ones I tired before in the US. So I tried this recipe, it's simple ingredients, added just to enhance the flavor of the colorful, vibrant sweet fruit and with a mind to keep it healthy too.

Ingredients:

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1 large Papaya, peeled, de-seeded and cubes to bite size pieces.

3 tsp Honey

1/4 cup of Mint sliced

1/4 Feta Cheese

2 tsp Lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

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1. Placed the papaya cubes in a large serving bowl.

A short video on how to peel, de-seed and cube a papaya.

2. Add rest of the ingredients except the feta cheese and mix gently, making sure that the fruit does not break or gets mushy.

3. Crumble feta cheese over the top and serve cold or at room temperature.

Re-posting this recipe to send to the event "Salad Spread" hosted by Taste Junction

Pineapple Yogurt Fool

Fruit fool is a British dessert which is a mixture of pureed fruit, whipped cream and sugar. In this recipe, whipped cream is replaced by hung curd for a low calorie dessert. This recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor's Chill Out, which is a collection of summer treats. Thanks Veena for the book, which she had sent along with the Arusuvai secret ingredient. 

This dessert gets done faster since there is no freezing and other steps as in ice cream/sorbet. Its very creamy and makes a quick and light dessert. Hung curd can be replaced with thick yogurt too if you don't have time to prepare the hung curd.

You need

• Fresh Pineapple Slices - 10 nos
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Hung curd - 3/4 cup
• Cinnamon - 2 nos of  1" stick

Method

Combine chopped pineapple, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Microwave for 6 minutes till the pineapple turns soft. You can cook it on stove top too, on medium heat. It will take more time.

Remove the pineapple pieces  from the syrup. Blend it to a puree in a mixer grinder. Add the hung curd. Pulse to blend thoroughly. Chill and serve.

While serving the you can drizzle the left over syrup topped with  finely chopped pineapple cubes. There is not much syrup left and it can be added to milkshakes or fruit salads for a subtle pineapple flavor. This yogurt fool is similar to our own shrikand.

This goes to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Italian Blend Salad with Orange Strawberry Dressing and Toasted Almonds

This is a very beautiful and colorful salad which is very simple to make and yet tasty and healthy. I served this salad with sauted onions and baby Bella mushroom. This salad can be paired with any other recipe or meat if you want to. I loved this combination of sweet and ranginess from the salad and buttery, earthy and spicy flavor from the mushrooms. I hope you guys will also try and feel good about it.

Ingredients:

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Orange Strawberry Dressing:

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2 Oranges

1/2 box of Strawberries de-steamed

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tsp Lemon juice

1/4 cup Almonds

1 bag of Italian blend Salad

Onion Mushroom Saute

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1 box of Baby Bella Mushroom, wiped clean with a damp kitchen towel or paper

1 big Red Onion sliced

1 tsp Red Pepper flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1 tsp Hoisin sauce

1 tsp Olive oil

1 tbsp Butter (Unsalted)

Method:

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Italian Blend Salad with Orange Strawberry dressing with Toasted Almonds:

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1. First zest the orange and add to a bowl. Then peel off the skin and make sections of the orange and add the sections to the same bowl. Finally squeeze the remaining part of the orange to get some of the juices.

Here is a video demonstrating how to zest, peel and section an orange.

2. Wash the strawberries, remove the stems of the strawberry and quarter it and add to the same bowl of oranges.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well, make sure you don't break the fruits.

4. In a pan on medium heat add the almonds and toast them for about 5 mins until slightly golden brown and off the flame and let it cool a bit.

5. This should be done just before serving, In a large salad bowl or platter, arrange the Italian salad greens, and over the top add the Orange Strawberry dressing and top it with the toasted almonds.

Mushroom Onion Saute:

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1. Slice the wiped mushroom and keep aside.

A little help with a video on how to clean and cut the mushroms.

2. In a pan add oil and butter and when the butter melts, add onions,mushrooms, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and saute it until they are soft and all the water is evaporated.

3. Add the soy sauce and hoisin sauce and saute if again for a min and serve hot with the salad.

Re-posting this recipe to send to the event "Salad Spread" hosted by Taste Junction