Recipes: Zelda's Hearty Cool-Down Salads

Summer heat scrambles the brain and often takes away one's appetite.

There are far fewer cravings for heavy food, like say puri-bhaji or garam, garam kachoris, that will sit at the bottom of the stomach, promptly sending one into a torpid state like an about-to-hibernate bear. And you will be pachtao-ing in no time at all.

Instead, in this season one starts hankering for light, fresh food. It should be cool too. Nothing fits the bill better than salads, for sure.

But two hours after eating a super-large helping of a tasty green lettuce salad or a cabbage coleslaw, one is generally starving again and the hunger pangs are sharp enough to make you reach out for something you ought not to, like a ghee-laden laddu or a bag of cheesy potato chips.

Therefore a heavier salad is what you need. Raw vegetables with legumes, like chickpeas, rajma, whole mung, make for an ideal combo.

Here are two that can see you through several hours in the day.

Beetroot Channa Salad

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• ½ green Shimla mirch or capsicum, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 4 stalks spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 medium beet, peeled, julienned
• 1 cup kabuli channa or chickpeas, soaked overnight, boiled, cooled
• Dressing 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce or ketchup
• 1 tbsp mustard paste or kasundi or Bengali mustard paste
• 1½ tsp salt
• Dash sugar

Method

• In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients till smooth.
  Keep aside.
• In a bowl, add in all the salad ingredients and toss.
  Pour the dressing over it and toss again.
  Refrigerate till ready to eat.
• Serve with a slice of whole-wheat bread.

Mexican-Style Rajma Salad

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• ½ cup rajma or red kidney beans, soaked overnight
• 2 cups water
• 1 small onion, halved
• 1 tej patta or bay leaf
• 4 lavang or cloves
• 1 green Shimla mirch or green capsicum, chopped
• 1 red Shimla mirch or red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 yellow Shimla mirch or yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup boiled corn
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 green chilly, deseeded, finely chopped or 1 fresh jalapeno, deseeded, finely chopped
• 1 tsp jeera or cumin powder
• 2 tbsp white vinegar or juice of 1 lime
• 3 tbsp chopped parsley
• 3 tbsp chopped green dhania or coriander leaves or cilantro
• Dash dried thyme, optional
• Few nachos chips

Method

• In a pressure cooker, add the rajma, the halved smaller onion, cloves, tej patta, water.
  Close the cooker and cook over high heat for 7-8 whistles.
  Take off heat, cool and let the pressure release naturally.
• Open up the cooker, discard the onion halves, tej patta, cloves and drain the water.
  In a large bowl, mix the rajma with the rest of the ingredients, except the chips, and toss.
  Refrigerate till ready to eat.
• Serve sprinkled with the nacho chips.

• REDIFF FOOD