“Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness” (Surah Al Baqarah:183) Ramadan is on us, Alhamdulillah… InShaAllah, with the sunset today, it will start – the time when every aspect of our life is looked into and disciplined… Actually, I always feel that we limit our good deeds and discipline only to these 29 or 30 days. It is said that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so in case we sincerely want to create a good sustainable habit in ourselves, this one month should help us with it. After all, there is even a Hadith in this regard: Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are…
Amrood Chaat | Guava Chaat
I discovered this guava chaat when we had gone to visit my cousin’s wife’s parents. She is the one who introduced me to those yummy chicken croquettes. 🙂 We had dinner from there and then her mother bought some huge Vietnamese guavas for us. They weren’t sweet at all, had a thick skin yet soft interior. We weren’t really keen in eating them. Sensing our dislike, her mother immediately took it back, chopped it into pieces and bought it back to our tables with all those sprinklings. Sensing it was red chilli powder on top, I was a bit hesitant. She pestered us to try. The first bite, and oh my goodness! I can’t explain the plethora of flavors that danced in my tongue! Actually, we ended up gobbling down that whole plate shamelessly. 😀 This is the time when the market gets filled with the large guavas….
Tabbouleh ~ Middle Eastern Parsley Salad
This month, being Ramadan, for the MENA Cooking Challenge, we were given a free reign. We were asked to choose any recipe that is normally cooked during this holy month in the MENA region. The first thing that came into my mind was salad – and of course, what better than Tabbouleh! One good thing about this region is the incorporation of a routine of soup and salad into their daily eating habits. You will see that before every meal, even in restaurants, a small serving of soup and salad is always provided. It is a mandatory part of their eating habit, unlike our Indian style of mostly having only onions as salad and never any soup! I have tried hard this Ramadan to introduce a soup and salad routine, but barring from a day or two, I wasn’t really successful, thanks to the heat in the kitchen…
Simple Quinoa Salad
It is the month end and time for the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge! This challenge was initiated by Priyaakka and then moved on to be managed by Mayuriji. I must say that she is doing a good job keeping everyone motivated to participate in the challenges, even though the group is small. This month, the theme is “cool salads” since it is summer in almost everywhere in the world. I am teamed with Priya Satheesh (there are too many Priyas in the bloggy world! 😀 ). I admire her for all the innovative combinations that she comes up with, for almost all her recipes. This is the second time I am teamed with her, the last time being when I made the potato frittata. The two ingredients she gave me was avocado and tomato. I was fine with the tomato but avocado always gives me nervous…
Greek Salad
One cuisine that I would really love to dabble with is Greek cuisine. If you check out certain recipes of Greece, they have a high Middle Eastern influence in their food, which may be one reason I am so keen to try their food. There are a few that I have in my cut-outs, but when I will try them is to be seen. InShaAllah, hopefully I have many more years of blogging in me so I get to try some! 😉 Meanwhile, as a part of the last recipe in this month’s 3 back-to-back green recipes – the first one was the Coriander Chutney and the second Kiwi Green Grape Juice – here is a refreshing Greek Salad for you. There is nothing much complicated about this salad – lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, olives all mixed up together, some crumbled up feta cheese and a little seasoning…
Spiced Chickpea Mango Salad
Most of my cookbooks are instant purchases. I just flip through and purchase. At least buying that way has given me decent cookbooks compared to some of my online purchases that have literally made me cry once the books have landed in my hand. 😀 I guess I better not talk about them and move on with the book chosen for this month’s book review… 🙂 “Chilli Notes” by Thomassina Miers happens to be the author’s fifth cookbook. And she is no mean one – she is a Masterchef winner. I really didn’t know that when I picked up the book. 🙂 I picked it up from the Borders store at Mirdif City Center, along with the “Low Fat Baking Book” that I reviewed the first in the series. I don’t know what exactly pulled me to buy it but there were surely these factors: Hardcover – I…
Purple Cabbage Coleslaw/ Salad
Somehow, winter is stuck somewhere. It is already beginning of December and we aren’t getting the chills yet. Mornings are cold, but not cold enough to give you a chill across your spine. A drive in the evening still needs the a/c on in the car. It is not cold enough to go inside your blanket while sleeping. We have had an overly foggy morning this Saturday and today as well, so maybe it means that the winters are slowly coming. Last year, we had quite an early start to the winters and maybe that is why the expectation is a bit dampened this year. Since it is not very cold, it is quite comfortable to be outside, for walks, for just those simple outings. At times I wish HD would be fine with going out just like that without an agenda. He feels I am being too nagging…
Egg Mayo Salad
We had the Sharjah Book Fair at the expo center for 10 days. Last year, I had so much of will power that I came out without buying even a single book for myself. To compensate for that, this time, I picked up so many, adding on 13 books to my shelf. 😕 I really don’t know if I need to be going to a de-addiction center to get rid of my cookbook addiction. There was a time when I used to love watches and rings, this has weaned away. Then it became shoes and bags, which then gave way to abayas. Everything has now settled and moved way to a really expensive addiction of cookbooks! Cookbooks in this part of the world don’t come cheap and getting them at a real bargain is a rarity. So you can imagine my excitement when I picked up books like Simply…
Chicken Potato Salad
While going through the blog and the previous 3-back-to-back series, I realized that my major concentration was on the sweet than savory! Hehe… so like me, I know… 😀 So this time, I purposely decided to choose a theme that is not sweet. After a bit of racking my head, I decided to choose my favorite vegetable – potato! I am not sure if there is anybody who hates potatoes. I used to initially get a cold response from my family but now I have converted them into potato lovers! 😉 Potato is in fact one of the easiest vegetable to cook and can be consumed in so many different ways and so many combinations. I already have a few on the blog and just adding another three more to the list! 😉 The first recipe coming your way is a super easy salad. Protein and vegetables tossed…
Pomegranate Couscous Salad
You don’t always buy new ingredients, expecting the folks at your home to accept it wholeheartedly. One such ingredient was couscous. Couscous is a grain like substance made with durum wheat, and is so close to semolina, except that it is in a more rolled form. Many Arab and North African countries use this as a staple in their cooking, instead of rice or wheat. Couscous available now in the market is more of the no-cook variety – all you need to do is to soak it up in hot liquid for sometime and it swells up. It is that easy! I personally feel it is more of an acquired taste. I bought a small box of couscous out of curiosity and used up the whole thing to make this delicious and easy salad. All that had to be done was to soak up the couscous in hot…
Pickled Red Cabbage
The Naan Berenji post was already typed and kept ready earlier and I just had to hit the Publish button when I had the mood day before yesterday. Finally my vacation came to an end. I returned back to reality by Thursday afternoon. From tomorrow, it is all routine – school, work, home, cooking, blah blah… I wouldn’t say that I had the most relaxed vacation. It was hectic thanks to a lot of things packed in but Alhamdulillah, we had an awesome time. In fact, we were not able to everything we wanted to do. Initially, we had even tried to fit in an Andaman trip, but that was called off since we wouldn’t have much time to for it. 🙁 As days go, I will keep penning a bit about our vacation, and some of our good times too. Meanwhile, I am trying to get myself to…
Spicy Sausage Salad
Starting the series of scheduled posts… 🙂 This is one absolutely lazy meal! In an attempt to try make the kids silently eat salad, I tried making this one and what a success it was, whether it was with the kids or the adults! Sausages may not be considered healthy food, but at times I buy the fresh ones with the lower shelf life, as the taste is also much better. Totally packed with a lot of vegetables and some boiled sausages, and topped with very little dressing, this is one of our favorite salads of all times – I guess it is understandable! I love this salad with a big bowl of tomato soup and it makes a nice and cozy filling dinner, with literally no carbs! Off to the recipe… Spicy Sausage Salad Save Print Prep time 2 mins Cook time 3 mins…
Peanut Pasta Salad
We have been eating from out like mad. During these holidays, since we would hit the road early and come back really late, we hardly cooked anything much apart from the biriyani. My sister is already asking me to make her some special since I haven’t made anything much, hehe… I mean, that is true… there is hardly any time to be making specials especially when time is so limited. I am hoping to make at least something before it gets too late, InShaAllah… One request that has come is for this mango cheesecake, which I must get doing soon… From all the eating, at times we do crave for very subtle meals. This pasta salad is one of them. Last year, we had a small blogger’s meet-up, in which Asiyakka had come with a salad similar to this. It was so delicious that we wiped up the…
Fruit Chaat
“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may ward off (evil);” (Surah Al-Baqarah:183) This happens to be my fourth Ramadan blogging, Alhamdulillah. Each time the month comes, it gives me an opportunity to let my readers know about the importance of the month. We as Muslims, celebrate this month as a gift from the Almighty, however difficult it may be taking into account the climatic conditions. But it is His Mercy that this month comes across all seasons as years pass by. So during a lifetime of a person, he fasts easily during winters and with a little bit of difficulty during the summers, however with all the benefits of the month. I have already touched upon the month’s benefits in my posts from the previous years, which you can refer to the archives, if you…
Corn Avocado Salsa
Time for the Secret Recipe Club post! This is my second SRC challenge in Group C and I am excited as usual! 🙂 This month , I was assigned “Where is my spoon?”, a lovely blog by Adina. She is a Romanian currently residing in Germany – both beautiful countries indeed! Don’t ask me how I know, Google is helpful enough in that case, isn’t it? 😉 Her recipe index is loaded with a wide variety of recipes, that look amazing yet are very quick to whip up. A few recipes that I noted up while browsing through her blog were the Broccoli Chickpea Soup, Golden Roasted Potatoes with Avocado Dip and Vegan Banana Bread. After a lot of contemplation and because I was in such a mood for a salad one night, I opted to make the quick Corn Avocado Salsa. I have always loved avocado…