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Recipe: Crunchy, Cool, Creative – Asian Cucumber Salad

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Confession: I have a dislike for cucumber. This has been a problem for me because for Indian salads, or at least the one I grew up having to eat, cucumber is a basic ingredient. At some point, I decided that I had better make friends with the vegetable. Not only is it present at so many meals, but it also happens to be very healthy, full of antioxidants and very hydrating. I knew that being innovative about the preparation, as well as making it attractive in its presentation, were the keys. That is how this Asian cucumber salad came to be.

The particular salad I grew up with was the Indian kachumber. It contains onions, tomatoes and cucumbers – all sliced and served raw, and seasoned with salt and chilli powder. My childhood impressions of it certainly did make me averse to cucumber, but in hindsight I recognise that it was the way it was presented that was as unappealing as the taste. Children’s palates veer away from vegetables. I eventually learned to love many of them, as you may have noticed from so many recipes and memories I’ve shared. But the way I saw cucumber changed only when I changed, well, the way I saw it.

As you can see, I have used a pretty platter to serve the dish. That is a vital component in making any dish look more attractive. When making this salad, here are a few more tips that will increase its visual appeal. Ensure that the cucumber is sliced just before serving, so that it doesn’t look wilted at all. I feel that round slices work better in terms of the look, but if you prefer long ones, go ahead. There are plenty of fancy slicers available too, to play around with shapes and cuts. They could especially increase the fun quotient for kids.

We eat first, but we also make things in our mind before we consume them. For instance, have you ever wondered why red wine is served in a certain glass or white wine in another? A plate, a cup, a serving spoon… It became the standard because someone began using it, and others followed suit. Make your own style, break out. It makes the whole culinary experience more interesting.

But it isn’t just the way the salad looks when well-plated that matters, but the dressing does as well. I found that an Asian-style dressing completely transformed the vegetable and perked it up beautifully. This really is the element that makes this whole dish what it is.

I’m very interested in Asian cooking and really enjoy the sauces used therein, along with certain techniques. For instance, vegetables are not always fully cooked. They are stir-fried in a variety of sauces that greatly increase their flavour and make you want to eat them in that semi-raw state. Being semi-raw, those vegetables are healthier and add more texture to the dish too. You may want to check out some recipes I’ve shared like this rice stir-fry and last week’s udon noodles to see what I mean.

My daughter happens to be quite talented at Asian cooking, and I love discovering dishes with her. We recently made kimchi together, which I shared on my Instagram. It was delicious, and also happens to be very good for gut health. When we get together, we explore this cuisine, and always make our regulars: burnt garlic rice and dim sums. If you happen to visit me when she’s in town, there’s bound to be something Asian on the menu. A really simple way to start trying out that range of cuisines is through a salad like this one.

Asian Cucumber Salad

(Yield: Serves 2)

 

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

3 cucumbers (medium-sized)

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

10-12 cashews (split and roasted)

½ teaspoon chilli flakes

 

Toast the cashew and set aside.

In a bowl, prepare the dressing. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil and chili flakes. Mix well.

When you are ready to serve the salad, slice the cucumbers into rings, as thinly as possible. As I said before, this is my preferred method, but you should do yours. Arrange the slices on a plate of your choice.

Pour the dressing over the sliced cucumber. Sprinkle the toasted cashew. Serve immediately. Enjoy the burst of flavours as they mingle with the texture and coolness of the fresh vegetable. See what a big difference a good dressing and a pretty plate can make?

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Recipe: Topped With A Tang – Salad With Passion Fruit Dressing

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I hope you enjoyed my previous post, in which I gave away the recipe for one of re:store’s bestsellers. As mentioned then, I was on a stop motion video kick and was determined to produce at least a couple of those cute videos, with Anushka’s help to bring everything all together, of course. The chocolate cupcakes were the first star, and I must admit they were the more difficult to shoot of the two dishes I had zeroed in on for this experiment. The second one (the recipe for which I am sharing today) was much easier to shoot, perhaps because the composition was within a single bowl and the overall motion was more stable, and I love the result.

Before we go any further, here it is: the stop motion video for this recipe, a delicious salad with passion fruit dressing.

As you can see, with the shoot for this video, I wanted the dark and moody theme that I usually use in my photography to be reflected too. I also wanted to showcase what a stop motion video looks like when the recipe is simpler, as opposed to the more complex chocolate cupcakes one. As for whether or not I was looking for a contrast between tastes, health quotient and so on – honestly, not really. In this experiment, it was my aesthetic side that took over and determined my choices more than my culinary side.

At the moment, we are enjoying a bounty of hydroponically-grown varieties of greens in Chennai. This form of small-scale agriculture seems to be all the rage in the city, and as we grow some of our own produce ourselves, and as I personally always have an eye on natural and nourishing ingredients, we couldn’t be more pleased by this trend. These organic vegetables grow without soil, and so suffer less from worms and other issues. We have so much at home at the moment that I’ve been making lots of green smoothies and salads. For this recipe, you can use any kind of lettuce that you have available.

When it comes to salad dressings, those of us who opt for healthier dressings tend to stay with the simple staples like lemon, salt or pepper, but I’ve found a way to retain the health aspect while increasing the flavour of the dressing. This is where the passion fruit comes in.

Whenever a fruit or vegetable retains its foreign name on the market, and doesn’t have a commonly used local Tamil or other Indian name, I know that it’s something that has only in the recent past been cultivated here. So it is with passion fruit, and this post by a fellow food blogger has lots of information about the supply we get here in India, which is grown in the hilly regions.

Long before I began to enjoy this taste, there used to be a passion fruit shrub at our house in Kotagiri. Not having learned yet how much I love it, I would simply give away its yield to our neighbours. The plant is long gone now, but how I wish I had eaten that bounty while I could! I feel this now all the more because passion fruit has a very short growing season here in India. Just in case you happen to try this recipe at a time when it’s scarce on the market, rest assured that you can use a store-bought syrup instead of fresh pulp too. While it may contain added sugars or other ingredients I prefer to avoid, the taste will be the same. It’s the fruit’s unique flavour that really elevates this salad. Passion fruit has a slightly sour flavour and a high citric content, and it goes very well with crunchy apples. The two fruits complement each other, with their mix of textures and tastes. They have a beautiful contrast when put together here.

Passion fruit is a hardy fruit, not very pretty in appearance, but slice it open and you’ll find just the opposite. Its soft pulp looks just lovely speckled with black seeds. My husband loves having some for breakfast whenever it’s in season, slicing it in half, sprinkling some sugar on top, and scooping the flesh out with a spoon. As for me, I enjoy the juice very much and even make it daily when I can. It’s a healthy ingredient, one that’s great to start the day with, and we make ample use of it whenever we get our hands on some. Luckily, I had enough left over during the last passion fruit spree to make it the star of this salad…

 

Salad With Passion Fruit Dressing

(Yield: 1 bowl)

 

Dressing

½ cup passion fruit pulp

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt to taste

 

Salad

2 cups lettuce

¼ cup finely cut spring onions

½ apple (core and sliced)

2 tablespoons chopped dates

2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds

 

Simply put the salad ingredients together in a bowl and set them aside. Then, whisk the ingredients of the dressing until they are blended well. Pour this over the salad before you serve it. Enjoy!

Sometimes, there really is nothing else easier to prepare than a salad. I’m a huge fan of the food format itself, as you may know, and here are several you may also enjoy: mango salad, millet salad and sundal.

Salads are a great way to increase your vegetable intake, and they give you a boost especially as a mid-day meal that keeps you light on your feet but sated. Do try this one out and let me know what you think? Before I forget, here’s another look at the stop motion video that started off the idea for this post! In case you missed it, do check out my cupcakes recipe too, and the stop motion video that accompanied it. If you use the app, I’m looking forward to connecting on Instagram too.

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Recipe: Mixing It Up – Indian Veg Millet Salad

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I enjoy the creative challenges of coming up with innovative dishes, and salads are a category I worked on happily during the earlier stages of re:store’s journey. Before turning my focus more intently towards baking and photography, I used to take orders for salads. The orders generally came from people who were fitness-focused or preferred to eat smaller meals at work. But that was no reason to eat the same thing every day. So I planned menus of 10-15 salads, rotating them every 3 months.

The salads were inspired by so many cuisines, and people I met, and using a schedule was also something new for me. Before going into business, I’d usually just throw whatever was on hand into a salad. Another thing I learnt was that keeping veggies fresh in India was not easy when they weren’t consumed immediately. Especially when the salad travelled from the re:store kitchen to another’s home, and then commuted with them to their office. So if I put in a fancy leafy vegetable, by the time the customer opened the container at their desk at lunchtime, it would have started to look and taste different. Through trial and error, I figured out ways to use only local and seasonal produce in my salad experiments.

Another thing I don’t believe in is using store-bought dressings, so I made them all from scratch, matching each one to the ingredients used. Naturally, I am also very particular about the hygienic handling of raw vegetables, so I always prepared salads only on the day of delivery.

We often think of salads as a part of Western cuisine, but they are often found in Indian cuisines as well. Whether it’s a home-cooked Gujarati meal or a South Indian one, some kind of raw, cut veggies will be served. While a vegetable smoothie may be a great way to substitute an unhealthy beverage, there are benefits to salads that go beyond taste. God made vegetables crunchy because they are meant to be eaten that way – it all begins by using the teeth and jaw muscles!

The Gujarati word for salad is “kachumber”, and while my recipe contains very diverse ingredients, at its core you could consider it an update on the traditional one. You know how much I love millets, and this salad uses foxtail millet as a base, for substance as much as for its many superfood properties. All the ingredients are available locally and inexpensively. I sometimes use sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin, but the latter are more authentically Macrobiotic here. Even the green peas come from Ooty, not so far away from me at all.

I’d love to share with you some nostalgia about salads and childhood, but let me be honest. Like many people, I often refused to eat vegetables growing up – but now look me, advocating for them!

 

Indian Veg Millet Salad

(Yield: 1 bowl)

Ingredients

Salad

120 grams cooked foxtail millet

½ cup steamed green peas

1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots

¼ cup cucumber

¼ cup finely cut raw mango

A handful of pomegranate arils

A few sprigs of fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves

 

Dressing

2 tablespoons sweet lime juice

1½ tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon olive oil

A pinch of pepper

Salt to taste

Place all the fresh ingredients in a beautiful bowl. I have mentioned the quantity of the vegetables – however, you can eyeball the amount and decide for yourself how much you want to use. And of course, innovate. Add or delete ingredients depending on your fridge stock. You could even use any other millet if that suits you.

In a small jar, add all the ingredients for the dressing. Shake vigorously. Pour on the salad before serving and mix together till the dressing coats all the vegetables.

That’s all there is to it. A citrusy, profoundly simple dressing lifts the flavours of an unusual but deeply Indian salad. You have the sweetness of pomegranate, the tartiness of raw mango, the crunchiness of seeds and more. A medley of textures. Just mix it all up! I hope you’ll enjoy this easy recipe from the “salad days” of re:store, excuse the pun!

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