Vegan Black Beans & Mixed Vegetables Salad with Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing

I love salads and soups very much for our weekday's dinner. Especially if a salad is prepared with couple of beans in it, i can have it without any fuss. Obviously you can guess that i will always make salads withbeans in it. I dont grab a 1 kg packet of beans from stores, i usually take 5 kgs bags for my monthly use. They are cheaper than a kg pack and needless to say, if i dont eat meats or seafoods, i can get sufficient proteins from these beans. My store room will always have kidney beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas and the black beans. I just love to cook with these legumes. No time to soak beans, dont worry, make a huge bags of soaked beans during weekend and store them in freezer, they are just handy to dish out anything with them.

Rajma Salad/Red Kidney Beans Summer Salad

Salad is our one of the favourite meal when its too hot. Easy to mix and match, trust me a plate or a small bowl of salad will definitely fulfil your hungry tummy. Though salad calls always for mixed raw vegetables or fruits, do you know you can still add some protein packed cooked beans to them to make a simple vegetable salad as a nutritious one.My today's post is a prefect example for a simple and nutritious salad, which will definitely satisfy your hungry tummy. Adding cooked beans to your salad will definitely makes it more interesting and nutritious as well. If you are a follower of my space, you might have noticed that am running a month of blogging marathon with a super duper interesting theme. The theme for this whole month is 'Protein Rich Foods', yesterday i have posted a lipsmacking, nutritious and a healthy palak/spinach pulao with red kidney beans.

Summer Salad in a Jar/Mixed Vegetables & Mozzarella Salad

Do you know you carry very well your salad in a jar, with a simple earlier plan, you can prepare your salad jar everyday easily to carry in your bag to enjoy for a lunch or else for a picnic. My today's post is a summer friendly salad which i simply prepared quickly with couple of vegetables, mozzarella cheese and golden raisins. Easy to prepare, this salad will definitely please you as most of the vegetables i used in this salad are completely healthy and raw. No oil is needed and no dressing is needed. Spiced up with salt and pepper powder, this salad is very quick to prepare.Actually am posting this salad for this month's Shhh Cooking Secretly event started by me, which is now hosted by Mayuri Patel.

Chickpeas Quinoa Tabbouleh/Vegan Chickpeas Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

Am kickstarting 4th week of Mega marathon with my family's favourite beans aka chickpeas as am showcasing a Dry bean a week with 5 ingredients for 5 weeks as theme under Cooking Carnival as title.Chickpeas/Channa/Garbanzo beans is one the healthiest food which can be cooked as many delicious foods.This Garbanzo beans are included in everyday's diet around the world and many traditional dishes from Middle East, Mediterranean region and few countries in Africa is prepared with this incredible legume. The nutritional benefits of this beans includes Protein, vitamins, minerals which is often included in many nourishing foods. This beans offer many health benefits such as boosting digestion, helping to keep the blood sugar levels stable,helps a lot in weight loss, increasing protection again some disease and many more. Do you know that chickpeas is the most widely grown and eaten bean in the world after Soyabean.

Salade de Betteraves Cuites/Cooked Beetroot Salad

French cuisine have numerous salads and salad have their important place in every get together or else in everyone's daily meal. From traditional salads to innovative salads, French chefs never failed to surprise us or make us awestruck by creating many beautiful catchy salads. Obviously when i was searching for a recipe from French cuisine for 'S' i didnt hesitate a second to make some chilled salad for our weekend lunch. My today's recipe is cooked beetroot served chilled as salad with some crushed walnuts and a creamy yogurt sauce spiced simply with some herbs and pepper, salt. Trust me the nuttiness of walnut and the crunchiness of cooked beets will definitely satisfy your tastebuds.

Spanish Roasted Potato Salad

Salads or soups makes a super filling evening dinner and i love salads very much. Obviously twice a week, i never fail to make salads. One of my recent favourite aka our family favourite is this Spanish Roasted Potato Salad. Anything with potatoes goes directly to your favourite food list, today's recipe goes for oven roasting potatoes. This salad goes for baby potatoes and trust me everyone at home went crazy once they saw this incredible salad. I picked this irresistible Spanish roasted potato salad from Food 52 contest. This salad ressembles almost like the famous Spanish patatas bravas. Usually Patatas bravas are often served as a tapa in bars. It typically consists of white potatoes that have been cut into irregular shapes of about 2 centimeters, then fried in oil and served warm with a sauce such as a spicy tomato sauce or an aioli. This dish is commonly served in restaurants and bars throughout Spain

Horsegram Salad With Mixed Veggies

Salad and soups with sides, this is my theme for this week's blogging marathon coz both soups and salads are our favourite evening dinner. Since i make different soups or salads for our dinner atleast thrice a week,this theme sounds very easy for me. Today's post is also an evening dinner we had few days back with some rotis. Horsegram are very much adviced to add in your diet often if you want to reduce your weight. We Indians,cook horsegram with many spices as different dishes from gravies to spice powder. These horsegram beans are excellent source of iron, very nutritious as well. Do add this nutritious beans often in your menu and enjoy the goodness.

Horsegram salad is one of my recent favourite, this salad gets ready very quickly with simple veggies and cooked horsegram beans. I spiced up this salad simply with olive oil dressing, and this healthy salad tastes fabulous when served along with rotis or else simply as stuffing wrapped with rotis. The choice is yours, horsegram salad with rotis makes a satisfying, nutritious dinner definitely.Sending this bowl of comforting soup to my event Healthy Diet-Soups and Salads hosted by Rafeeda.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#38.

Xoritiki Salata - Greek Village Salad

I know the name of the today's post will be definitely a tongue twister, even i took enough time to spell it. Actually when i chosed International cuisine for this week's theme of long marathon am running during this whole month, i want to make a chinese dish which starts with 'X' as i need to post today's recipe starts with this letter coz we are running different themes during four weeks in alphabetic order.But most of the dishes i crossed while googling goes either for large quantity of eggs or either beef or pork. Since i dont eat either beef or pork and dont want to make a cake which goes for almost  6egg yolks, i took enough time to search to get a super simple dish and finally i got this incredible Greek salad which goes for simple vegetables and simple dressing.

This quick,colourful and very refreshing Greek salad just need easy ingredients to make, and this is a prefect summer time salad.Some lettuce,tomatoes,cucumber,kalamatta olives,feta cheese and red onions makes this colourful salad which is served with an easy breezy garlic flavoured olive oil-vinegar dressing.I carried this salad for our summer time weekend picnic happened before a month and enjoyed thoroughly with some grilled meats. Doesnt matter whether the weather is hot or not, you can still make this healthy,quick and colourful salad whenever we feel lazy to cook or if you want to have a quick salad.

Watermelon & Chickpeas Salad~~Vegan Thursdays

Have you ever combined watermelon and cooked chickpeas in salad??, if not dont forget to give a try to this combo, am sure you will definitely love this super refreshing salad as my kids just enjoyed having this vegan salad. Just with a hint of pepper powder,salt and dry herbs is enough to spice up this quick salad.An easy breezy salad which suits prefectly for a hot summer lunch or for an evening dinner.You can also mix and match any seasonal fruits or cooked beans for making this salad eventhough my choice is watermelon and chickpeas.

This salad is my second post for this week's blogging marathon as my theme for this week is Kid's delight-Summer special.Coming to this salad,watermelon and chickpeas combination tastes utterly delicious,cool,refreshing and fantastic.If you make this salad once, am sure this salad will become a regular salad in your summer dinner or lunch.Also am posting this vegan and nutritious salad today for Vegan Thursdays, an vegan event running twice a month started by me.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30.Sending to Srivalli's Summer Special Mela.

Carrot and Walnut Salad

Most of our dinners are salads and soups, obviously i make variety of salads coz everyone at home like to have different salads. Sometime i will break my head to feed them. Few days back, for our dinner i prepared this healthy,nutty and easy breezy salad with grated carrot and walnuts.

This salad may sound very simple but tastewise they are just mindblowing, the addition of walnuts makes this usual carrot salad very interesting. I served this salad with a vinegar dressing prepared simply with white vinegar, green chillies,olive oil and salt. If you are planning to make a carrot salad, dont forget to add a handful of walnuts. Am sure you will see the difference between the usual carrot salad and this walnut carrot salad.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot and to my own event Healthy Diet-Healthy Salads by Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen.

3nos Carrots (grated)
Handful of Walnuts
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
2tbsp Olive oil
2tbsp White vinegar
Salt as per need

Take the green chillies,olive oil,white vinegar,salt in a bowl,mix and keep aside.

Now take the grated carrots, walnuts in a bowl,mix.

While serving, add the dressing as per need.

Give a stir and serve.

Grilled Zucchini & Potato Salad

We had a windy,cloudy and rainy weekend few days back, thank god we have an electric griller at home to change this nasty weather mood to cheer up with some grilled veggies and meats. This grilled salad goes for both zucchini and potatoes, which i simply marinated with pepper powder,salt,dry herbs and olive oil before they goes for grilling. Apart from it,this salad doesnt even need any special dressing or dip to enjoy. Somehow my kids enjoyed this grilled salad with a handful of roasted peanuts and mayonnaise.

A simple salad, with the zero caloric veggie zucchini and potato makes a wonderful combination for this kind of grilled salad. You can also enjoy this salad as an accompaniment with some grilled meats and bread. If you like grilled veggies, dont forget to make this salad. In case if you dont like or find zucchini,you can replace them with any kind of veggies that suits prefectly for grilling.Sending to my event CWS-Peanuts hosted by me and to my own event Healthy Diet-Healthy Salads by Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen.

1no Zucchini (large & sliced a thick round pieces)
3nos Potatoes (sliced as thick round pieces)
Salt
Pepper powder
1/4tsp Dry thyme leaves
1/2tsp Dry Parsley leaves
Handful of roasted peanuts
2tbsp Olive oil

Take the olive oil, dry thyme leaves,parsley leaves,salt,pepper powder in a bowl,mix it well.

Add the round pieces of zucchini,potatoes to this mixture, stir gently until the veggies gets well coated with the spices.

Keep as for half an hour.

Heat the electric griller, once ready arrange the marinated veggies over the grill and grill them until they get well cooked.

While serving, take the grilled veggies in a plate, sprinkle the roasted peanuts and serve.

You can have this salad both chilled or slightly warm.

Mango, Carrot and Corn Salad

I dont want to say again and again that most of our dinner will be either salads or soups. For this week's blogging marathon, am posting this quick,easy peasy and mildly tangy salad as my choice of theme for this week is 'Mango'. In my previous post, i said that mango are showing their head in Indian groceries here and we couldnt resist to them and i picked some fresh raw mangoes from there few days back.

Seriously i never tried my hands in salad with raw mangoes, this time i really want to give a try and finally i did. Trust me, if you are mango lovers like me, am sure that you will definitely go crazy after having this salad. Sweetness of corn and carrot balance very well the tanginess of the raw mango and the crushed peanuts,sesame seeds gives a wonderful flavour to this simple salad. I didnt prepared any special dressing for this salad,just served them with salt,white pepper powder and olive oil. Give a try friends, am sure you guys will definitely love this fabulous salad.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 28th edition.Sending this salad to my own event Healthy Diet-Healthy Salads by Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen and to my another event CWS-Peanuts hosted by me.

1no Raw Mango (large & julienned)
2nos Carrots (medium size & julienned)
1cup Sweet corn kernels (canned)
Handful of raw peanuts (crushed)
1tbsp Sesame seeds
Salt
White pepper powder
Oilve oil (as per need)

Take the julienned raw mango pieces, carrot pieces,sweet corns in a bowl,give a mix.

Now add the crushed peanuts, sesame seeds to the veggies,give a mix.

Meanwhile take the salt,pepper powder,olive oil in a bowl,mix it and keep this dressing aside.

While serving the salad, add the already prepared dressing generously to salad, give a mix and serve.

Sprouted Moongdal Masal Vadas

I do prepare sprouts at home whenever i feel like cooking with sprouts, one of the most common sprouts i like to make and cook with is the famous protein packed green moongdal sprouts. I prepared few green moongdal sprouts last weekend at home and prepared with them these beautiful crispy vadas for the Tamil new year celebration. Seriously this vadas are simply awesome, tastes exactly like our usual channadal masal vadas. 

They goes awesome as side dish as well as an excellent evening snacks when served along with some spicy chutney.Sprouted moongdal suits tremendousmy awesome for making this healthy fritters,yep since they have prepared with sprouts eventhough they are deep fried, these vadas are definitely healthy.We couldnt stop munching them and enjoyed along with sago kheer.

2cups Green moongdal sprouts
1no Onion (chopped)
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
1tsp Ginger (chopped)
Few Curry leaves
2nos Garlic cloves (crushed)
1/2tsp Fennel seed powder
Salt
Oil for deepfrying

Grind the sprouted moongdal as coarse paste without water, if its too hard to grind,just sprinkle some water.

Add the chopped onions, chopped green chillies, chopped ginger pieces,crushed garlic cloves, curryleaves, fennel seed powder and salt, mix everything well.

Meanwhile heat the oil for deep frying, take a small ball from the grounded sprouted moongdal mixture, flat them in your palms and gently drop them in hot oil.

Fry them until they get well cooked, strain the excess of oil with a paper towel..

Serve hot with spicy coconut chutney.

Bellpeppers & Boiled Peanut Salad

I make salads almost twice or thrice in a week for our dinner.Obviously i do many varieties of salads with many fresh veggies,cooked legumes,nuts and serve them with different dressings.When i choosed peanuts as this week's star ingredient for blogging marathon,i was quite breaking my head for making a simple,quick and easy salad as Valli suggested to make 7 different dishes with salad and soup as one among those dishes with the main ingredient we choosed for a week.Two days back my H came home with a packet of red and green bellpeppers asking me to prepare a quick salad.

Immediately i prepared this simple salad with red and green bellpeppers along with boiled peanuts,tomatoes and served with hung curd,mayonnaise,pepper powder and salt with herbs . While serving,i simply served this salad topped with crushed tortilla chips,thanks to Nithya of 4th Sense Cooking for sharing her trick to feed the kids easily the salads topped with chips.For my surprise,even my lil one who never liked peanuts enjoyed having this colourful,delicious and healthy salad.Try adding boiled peanuts next time while preparing salads friends, am sure you guys will definitely love this.Check out the other marathoners running blogging marathon here. Sending to  Show Me Your Hits - Iron Rich Foods hosted by Julie,event by Sangee.

1cup Red bellpepper (chopped)
1/2cup Green bellpepper(chopped)
1no Tomato (chopped)
1cup Boiled peanuts
1/2cup Hung curd
2tsp Mayonnaise
Pepper powder (as per need)
1/2tsp Dry mixed herbs
Salt
Few tortilla chips

Take the chopped bellpeppers,chopped tomatoes,boiled peanuts in a vessel, while serving add the hung curd,mayonnaise,pepper powder,dry mixed herbs,salt to the veggies,give a quick stir and serve it immediately topped with crushed tortilla chips..

Enjoy!

Spicy Cucumber & Mixed Veggies Salad

Even the weather is quite chilled outside, we never stopped having our usual salads, few days back i prepared a quick,easy breezy salad with cucumber,tomatoes,sweet corns,cooked chickpeas and red bellpepper which i spiced with red chilly powder, dry herbs,mayonnaise and crushed garlic, needless to say that this salad tastes absolutely fabulous,mildly spicy and definitely flavourful..You can have this colourful and easy salad  anytime of the day, obviously a prefect,refreshing salad for hot summer lunch or for dinner,you can also carry them in ur lunch box..Sending this salad to A Veggie/Fruit for a month-Cucumber guest hosted by Richa,event by Priya and to Jyoti's Healthy & Hearty,Vardhini's U event..
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1no Cucumber (medium size & cubed)
2nos Tomatoes (cubed)
1/2cup Sweet corn kernels
1/2cup Cooked chickpeas
1no Red bellpepper (cubed)
2nos Garlic cloves (crushed)
1/2tsp Kashmiri red chilly powder
1tsp Dry parsley leaves
Salt
2tbsp Mayonnaise
1tsp Oil

Mix together the crushed garlic cloves,red chilly powder, dry parsley leaves,mayonnaise,salt and oil in a bowl and keep aside..

Meanwhile take all the veggies in a bowl, add the already prepared spicy dressing to the prepared salad as per need and serve immediately..

Pineapple Chocolate Sauce Salad

Everyone at home love any combination of fruits salad, our favourite always goes to fruit salads served along with custard sauce, for a change i tried making a quick and delicious sliky chocolate sauce with few chocolate chunks and low fat cream for this quick chocolate sauce, i simply served this chocolate sauce with freshly chopped pinepple chunks,both together tastes incredible and absolutely divine,prefect for a chocoholic person like me..This fabulous salad vanished within few minutes once i served it...Today is our 6th day of blogging marathon,check out other marathoners running this wonderful virtual frienship chain here..Sending to Srivalli's Salads & Soups Mela..

2cups Pineapple chunks
1/4cup Chocolate (chopped)
2tbsp Low fat cream
Few melon seeds or nuts

Heat the chocolate chunks and cream together in a microwave safe bowl,mix well until they turns as a silky sauce, while serving take the pineapple chunks in a bowl,pour the already prepared chocolate sauce over the chopped pineapple chunks and sprinkle melon seeds over the pineapple salad and serve immediately..

Creamy Corn & Olive Salad

My family prefer corn based salads usually for their dinner, our recent favourite is this creamy corn and olive salad, its goes for super quick preparation with simple ingredients, i just went for white onions,green olives and tomatoes along with sweet corn kernels for making this delicious salad..You can add very well cucumbers, carrots,cabbage or else fresh button mushrooms to this salad to turn them more colourful and filling, just serve this salad with bread slices, you will have a fabulous lunch or dinner with this delicious salad..Do visit other marathoners running this 9th edition of blogging marathon with me here..Sending this salad to Srivalli's Salads & Soups Mela & to Kalyani's GFF Event..

1cups Sweet corn kernels
1no Onion (big & chopped)
2nos Tomatoes (big & chopped)
20nos Green olives (seedless)
Dry herbs (as u prefer)
2tbsp Cream cheese
2tbsp Hung curd
Salt
Pepper powder

Mix the cream cheese,hung curd,salt and pepper powder and keep aside..Take the sweet corn kernels,chopped onions,chopped tomatoes,seedless green olives, dry herbs in a bowl,while serving add the already prepared dressing and serve immediately..

Cucumber Walnut Salad

Love nuts in salad, to whatever they are added they turn the dish more rich,healthy and super nutty...Here comes a simple,quick at the same time a super nutty salad with cucumber,we had this simple salad yesterday for our dinner, i prepared a simple yogurt dressing to enjoy this salad, serve them chilled during hot summer days, am damn sure that this salad will be quite refreshing and prefect..We had this salad with some grilled meats and bread toast, we just loved it...Today is our 2nd day of blogging marathon, do check out the marathoners running along with me here..

2cups Cucumber slices
1/2cup Walnuts (broken)
1/2cup Yogurt
Salt
Pepper powder
1tsp Mayonnaise

Mix the yogurt,salt,pepper powder and mayonnaise in a bowl and keep aside..while serving take the sliced cucumber,walnuts in a bowl,add the yogurt dressing as per need and serve immediately..

MW Couscous Salad

I can have salads even everyday or even anytime of the day..Sometimes its kinda hard for my family members to eat them, coz most of them love junk foods very much..But am trying to keep everyone away from those foods and just feeding them with fresh veggies and salads...Coming to this couscous salad, its takes only 5minutes to get ready, a wonderful salad to enjoy while its hot if they are served chilled or else serve them immediately with grilled meat or steamed veggies for a lunch or dinner, you have many choices to enjoy this filling salad with your choice of meats or veggies..Since am running blogging marathon, i choosed microwave oven for cooking couscous, you can very well make them in stove top..I have added few sweet corn kernels and finely cubed bellpepper to this salad and spiced up with vegetable stock,lemon juice,olive oil and salt, you can very well add many veggies of your choice for a colourful salad..Check my blogger buddies running this 8th edition of blogging marathon with me here..Pls dont bother for the picture,something went wrong in my camera,i couldnt able to fix it since yesterday,am trying to point out the fault hope i'll get my camera back to normal today.

1/2cup Couscous
1cup Vegetable stock
1tbsp Lemon juice
2tbsp Olive oil
Salt
1/2cup Sweet corn kernels
1/4cup Green bellpepper (cubed)
2tbsp Parsley leaves (chopped)

Take the couscous in a microwave safe bowl, add the vegetable stock,olive oil and salt, mix everything well and cook for 3-4 minutes high (stir twice in between),until the couscous grains get well cooked...Keep aside and let it cool completely..

Add the sweet corn kernels,cubed bellpeppers,chopped parsley leaves,lemon juice to the cooked couscous and toss everything gently...Keep in fridge for an hour before serving or serve immediately..

Refried Beans & Veggies Salad Wrap

Nutritious,filling and quite a satisfying wrap to enjoy anytime of the day without any hesitation,i used some leftover Refried Beans along with a quick,fresh and simple veggies salad as stuffing for making this healthy and delicious wrap..They suits super prefect to carry for a picnic,wrap them well in an aluminium foil and enjoy them either for a lunch or else enjoy them for your dinner..You can enjoy this filling wrap without any guilt and we had them for our dinner two days back..As i used the refried beans for making this wrap, needless to say that this wraps are definitely nutritious,also at the same time healthy coz of the addition of fresh veggies i used for making this wrap..I simply prepared a salad with some red bellpeppers,sweet corns,tomato,celery,grated carrots which i spiced up simply with greek yogurt ,pepper powder and salt, in case if you have refried beans you can very well use cooked rajma beans or any other beans of your choice also you can use chappathis very well for making the wraps eventhough i went for tortillas.....

1cup Refried Beans or any other cooked beans
1/2cup Grated carrot
1/4cup Sweet corn
1/4cup Celery (chopped)
1/4cup Red bellpepper (chopped)
1no Tomato (big & chopped)
3tbsp Greek Yogurt
Pepper powder
Slat
5nos Flour tortillas

Heat a pan,drop the tortillas one by one and cook them in simmer for few seconds on both sides and leep aside..mix together the veggies, greek yogurt,pepper powder and salt,give a quick stir and keep aside..

Now spread the refried beans as per need, followed by the already prepared veggies salad and roll the as wrap..Do check the other blogger running blogging marathon here..