Wild Rice Kale Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Salads

Dish: Wild Rice Kale Salad

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Salads' and Valli gave us free rein on choosing the type of salad. So for the next 3 days I have some delicious salad recipes coming your way.

First up is this Wild Rice & Kale Salad. I watched Chef Bobby Flay make it on Food network during Thanksgiving time and I have made it 2~3 times since then. Wild rice is my latest favorite, I love its chewy & earthy flavor. I buy wild rice from Trader Joe's and it is well worth the money spent.

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New Year's Black Eyed Peas and Greens

Here's wishing you all very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016!!
My first post for the year is this healthy Black eyed peas and greens recipe that is a take on Hoppin' John made in the American South.Eating legumes on New Year's day is a custom that many cultures around the world embrace. Lentils represent a wish for prosperity in Italy and Brazil. Black soybeans are on the menu for New Year's in Japan.Every culture has its own reason for the tradition, but it is a well known fact that beans are low in fat, cholesterol and calories, yet loaded with fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals.

In the south, black eyed peas are usually eaten on new year's. The peas represent coins, and are often eaten along side collard greens, which represent paper money. This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and it uses kale instead of collard greens.

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Cherry Tomato & Kale Pasta

I love cherry tomatoes and usually keep a pack of red or yellow cherry tomatoes in the fridge. They are so juicy and can be eaten just as is. They are great to add in salads, pastas and even on crostini.

This recipe is from 'Meatless' cookbook by Martha Stewart Living. Cherry tomatoes are cooked till they burst and then stirred with pasta and kale. It is a very simple recipe with few ingredients and can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes, perfect for a busy weeknight.

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Brazilian Kale & Lentil Soup for #Food of the World (Sopa de Lentlhas com Couve)

We are going to Brazil for this month's #Food of the World event. I had couple of Brazilian recipes bookmarked from our A-Z International series, but both of them happened to be desserts and I was in no mood to make anything sweet. So after looking around for vegetarian recipes, I found this hearty and comforting lentil and kale soup on Cynthia Presser's blog.

I had a bag of kale ready to be used and I also had some brown lentils (aka masoor dal) in the pantry. I think the original recipe had green lentils but the brown ones were just as good.

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Curly Kale with Caramelized Onions (Thanksgiving Side Recipe)

I am continuing with my Thanksgiving recipes again for this week's Cooking from Cookbook challenge and today I have a healthy & delicious side dish made with Kale. It is quite simple to make too.

Kale is one of the tougher greens and needs to be cooked a little longer. This is one of the more time consuming dishes which involves caramelizing the onions and cooking the kale till tender. But thankfully the dish can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to serve. If you want to make it ahead of time, then caramelize onions and cook the kale -- cool and refrigerate. Reheat just before serving and then drizzle with vinegar and garnish with almonds.

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Nagaland -- Betang Meh (Kidney Beans with mustard greens & ginger)

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 20
State: Nagaland
Dish: Betang Meh (Kidney Beans with mustard greens & ginger)

Fourth North eastern sate in a row, today we are going to Nagaland. Nagaland is one of the smallest states in India. Nagaland is largely mountainous state. There are 16 main tribes in Nagaland and each tribe has its own unique language, customs and cooking styles.
Naga cuisine features meats and fish, which are often smoked, dried or fermented. A typical Naga table consists of a meat dish, a boiled vegetable dish or two, rice and a chutney. Some common dishes are 'fermented bamboo shoot' with fish and pork. Naga food tends to be spicy beacuse of the use of different varieties of chilies.

Today's Dish: Like the other North Eastern states, finding vegetarian dishes was extremely difficult even for Nagaland. Lot of emails were exchanged within our BM group and a link to a Naga facebook page was found by one lucky member. It was like jackpot and I picked one dish from there.

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Jammu & Kashmir -- Palak Nadir (Spinach & Lotus Stem Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 11
State: Jammu & Kashmir
Dish: Palak Nadir

Jammu & Kashmir is located in the Northern tip of India. It is mostly located in the Himalayan mountains and has international borders with China and Pakistan. Jammu & Kashmir consists of Jammu, Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Srinagar is the summer capital and Jammu is the winter capital. Kashmir valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape and Jammu is famous for the numerous shrines that attracts Hindu pilgrims. Ladakh is known as Little Tibet and is renowned for its remote moutain beauty and Buddhist culture.

Cuisine: Ladakhi food has much in common with Tibetan food, the most prominent foods being thukpa, noodle soup and tsampa, roasted barley flour. Kawa is a traditional green tea made with spices and almonds, is consumed all through the day in the chilly winter weather.
Kashmiri cuisine has evolved over hundreds of years and is highly influenced by the food of the Kashmiri Buddhists and Pandits. Apart from this, it is also strongly influenced by the Central Asian, Persian and North Indian cuisines. Kashmiri Pandit cuisine is elaborate and is usually prepared with lots of yogurt, oil and spices. Dry fruits and Saffron is used widely in Kashmiri dishes.
Specialties: Ladyar Tsaman (paneer in turmeric), Dama oluv (dum ka aloo/ potatoes), Nadir Yakhean (lotus stem), Shufta, Panjeeri, Kasaar and many more.

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Glowing Green Smoothie

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Moderator's Choice/ Healthy Smoothie
Dish: Green Glowing Smoothie

Day 2 of BM# 31 under 'Moderator's Choice' theme, I picked 'Healthy Smoothie'. We recently bought a new blender and I have been making smoothies quite often. They have come to our rescue when afternoon hunger pangs occurred.

Today's smoothie is super healthy. It is one of Dr.Oz's 5 beautifying smoothies. If you read the article, you will know that this smoothie has more 'gorgeous goods' than any other smoothie. That's because of the chock full of carotenoids found in Kale. Ingesting carotenoids (like the ones found in Kale) was associated with healthy looking skin and helps our tissues from oxidative stress and wrinkles.

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Patli Dal (Yellow Split Peas & Kale in a Yogurt-Peanut Sauce)

Blogging Marathon# 30: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking with Curd/ Yogurt
Dish: Patli Dal

I seem to be saying the same thing again and again, but I still can't believe that it's July already and today we begin 30th edition of Blogging Marathon. My theme for this week is 'Cooking with Curd/ Yogurt'. I wanted to do this theme because I rarely use curd/ yogurt in cooking because of my husband's aversion towards it. He's been travelling which gave me yet another reason to take this theme :-)

Since I'm the only one eating yogurt in the house, I used to buy yogurt from the store. But when my mom visited us last year, she couldn't get over the stickiness of the store bought yogurt. I never realized that until she mentioned it, I guess after all these years I forgot how yogurt felt or tasted back home. Anyway, long story short -- we got hold of some good yogurt culture and started making our own yogurt at home. Even after my mom left, I kept making it and recently I started feeding my daughter home made yogurt, hoping to have someone to share my yogurt based dishes in the future.

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Baked Risotto with Butternut Squash & Kale

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 7
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Winter Entree
Dish: Baked Risotto with Butternut Squash & Kale

Winter is not one of my favorite seasons. But over the course of last 10 years, I've started to appreciate the holiday spirit and the festivities that winter brings. I still don't like snow and shoveling. Winter means cozying up in the house with a big bowl of soup and a chunk of bread. But winter also brings the much awaited holidays and tons of yummy and sometimes not so healthy food.

Today I have a risotto recipe that is much easier and faster to make when compared to the traditional stirring method, all you have to do is par-cook the rice on the stove top and then bake it off in the oven until rice is tender and cooked through.

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Vegetarian Bread Lasagna & Kale - Fig Salad

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Occasions - Casual Lunch with Friends @ Home
Dish(es) - Bread Lasagna with Kale & Fig Salad

Today's occasion is a casual lunch with friends at home. We had a couple of friends over for lunch recently and I made this simple Bread Lasagna along with Kale & Fig Salad. Lasagna with bread is such a great idea and when I found this recipe from Vegan Yumyum, I wanted to try it right away.

Traditional lasagna with the wide noodles is time consuming and a little tricky to make. I have torn the cooked lasagna noodles in the past, so using rustic bread is such a brilliant idea. I used a wholegrain French bread and layered it with roasted eggplant, store bought tomato sauce and grated cheese. Veggie layer is actually very versatile and any sauteed or roasted veggies would taste great in this dish. Using store bought tomato sauce cuts down on the prep time, but homemade would taste awesome too.

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Kale, Adzuki Beans & Potato Curry

I read an article in Vegetarian Times (March 2009 issue) that Kale and Adzuki beans are in the top 10 Super food list (# 6 & 7 respectively). Cooking kale increases its antioxidant level, but over-doing has the reverse effect. So this curry is super healthy and tastes pretty good too.

Kale is a sturdier green compared to spinach and does not cook down to a mush and as mentioned before overcooking makes it not so healthy also. This is a dry curry that goes well with rotis or rice and pappu (dal).

Ingredients:

Kale – 1 bunch, chopped (about 3-4 cups)

Potatoes – 3 medium, diced

Adzuki beans – 1 cup, soaked overnight and cooked (I pressure cooked for 4 whistles)

Onion – 1 small

Green chilies – 2, slit

Ginger + Garlic paste (g+g)– ½tsp

Turmeric – ¼tsp

Red chili powder – ½tsp

Garam masala – 1tsp (I used Kitchen King masala)

Amchoor powder – ¼tsp

Mustard seeds – ½tsp

Cumin Seeds – ½tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

• Add g+g paste, turmeric and potatoes. Cover and cook on medium flame until potatoes are 3/4th cooked; about 8-10 minutes.
  
• Add kale and adzuki beans, chili powder, garam masala, amchoor and salt. Cover and cook till kale is wilted and potatoes are completely cooked through.
  
• Check seasonings and serve warm or at room temperature.

Split Pea Soup

I made Split Pea soup with Sweet Potato and Kale from talented Susan's blog Fat free Vegan. I visit her blog just to see what's cooking in her kitchen. Her pictures are treat to eyes and the recipes are healthy and easy to follow. I made this soup in the pressure cooker and followed the recipe to the T except I used MTR Madras Curry powder instead of Maharajah curry powder. Soup is very flavorful and healthy. My son loved it too.

Adzuki Beans – Kale Curry

This is a hearty and delicious curry that is very good for health too. Adzuki beans (red chori in Hindi) are small red colored beans that are high in protein (about 17grams in one cup of cooked beans) and are very good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese and B vitamins. Kale is considered to be highly nutritious vegetable with powerful anti-oxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory.

Ingredients:
Adzuki Beans – 1 cup, sorted, rinsed and soaked overnight or at least 8 hours
Kale – 1 bunch, roughly chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Tomato – 2 medium, chopped
Chole Masala – 2tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Amchoor – ½ tsp
Turmeric – pinch
Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook the soaked beans for 3-4 whistles (or add 3¼ cups water to 1cup soaked beans; cover and simmer for 45 minutes).
  
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan; add onions and sauté till light brown. Stir in turmeric and garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.
  
• Add the tomatoes; cover and cook till they turn mushy. Now add the masala, red chili powder and salt. Mix well and cook for 1 minute.
  
• Next add chopped kale; cover and let it wilt. Add the beans with ½ cup water; cover and cook again till the curry reaches the desired consistency. Serve with rice or roti.

This is my entry to Protein Rich monthly event hosted by Sangeeth @ letusallcook.