Coming from an Andhra family, all our meals almost always included rice in some form or the other. My mom gets very concerned when I tell her that I had salad for lunch, when in reality I ate a whole 8oz. bag of greens with another 1 cups of toppings added (I don’t eat tiny salads, my salads are huge—sometimes I feel embarrassed to even open my lunch box in the cafeteria, that I sneak lunch at my desk).
So growing up salad was rarely on our menu. It was the biggest cultural shock for me when I came to US. For international dinner on my graduate school orientation, in my very early days in the US, we were served salad and pasta (with meat of course). In those days I wouldn’t touch all that “Ghas Phoos” (rabbit food for non-Hindi speaking people) with a bargepole even if I had to die of hunger. But with time I’ve become more accepting and I actually enjoy salads once in a while (please don’t talk about serving sizes here).
My mom would be very happy with this salad, ‘cos it has rice in it. This is a Friday night clean up recipe that is wholesome, filling and super simple to put together. I’m not including any measures ‘cos I used whatever I had left-over in my fridge, so change the measures and ingredients depending on what you have.
Ingredients:
Brown & White basmatic rice – micro waved until just heated through or at room temperature
Black-Eye Peas – cooked
Shallots – chopped fine
Garlic – minced
Curry powder – I used madras curry powder
Cherry tomatoes – roughly chopped or left whole
Arugula – roughly chopped (any green leafy veggie would be good)
Lemon juice, Salt & Pepper – to taste
Method:
- Heat some oil in a pan, add shallots, garlic and black-eye peas and sauté until shallots turn translucent; about 5 minutes. Add curry powder and salt; mix well. Remove and keep aside.
- In the same pan, add arugula and chopped tomatoes; cook till the greens are just wilted; about 3 minutes. Season with salt and curry powder.
- To serve: layer the rice, beans and greens in the order of preference and enjoy with a squeeze of lemon juice.
It took me about 1 week to clean up the fridge and pantry of the mega marathon leftovers and then another week the body for the cleanse. It is best to go easy on coffee, dairy and gluten about a week before you start the actual detox diet. Alcohol and cigarettes are a big no-no a week before and during the cleanse.
