Roasted Beetroot and Haloumi Salad – A warm salad for chilly days

The chill is beginning to set in Bangalore and as days get cooler, I find myself hating any task that involves leaving the comforts of a blanket. The problem is that, in Bangalore, indoors become pretty chilly while the outdoors stay bearable and yet its not cold enough for any form of heating (atleast not for the husband). So, my clothes get more mismatched than those of a scarecrow, PJs, with hoodie and a kashmri shawl, socks and fur slip ons and my plans to get a headstart on the new year’s resolution a few months in advance, derail.

Eating healthy during the fall/winter is challenging, you crave some deep fried snack with hot chai or a warm brownie on a cold night but, should be eating a cold cucumber salad. 

I saw a picture of roasted beets on some blog a few days back, and one evening when I craved a snack and had neither a brownie nor a cold cucumber, I heated my oven and savored this amazingly simple salad.

3 small sized beetroots

2 medium sized red/white onions

1 large red bell pepper

About 30-40 gms of haloumi cheese

5-6 large mint leaves

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Preheat the oven to about 200⁰C. Set it on roast setting (uniform heat on all sides)

Wash and dry the beets, bell pepper and mint leaves

Lightly coat the beetroots with olive oil and tightly cover with aluminium foil. Each beetroot must be individually covered.

Place the onion (unpeeled), beetroot and bell pepper on the wire rack inside the oven

Let the veggies roast for about 15 mins or so. The bell pepper will need turning around 2-3 times and the beets and onions once.

Check the done-ness by sliding a thin knife through the beets and onion, there should be no resistance. The skin of the bell pepper would have shriveled and there would be a few ‘burnt’ patches on the surface.

Remove the veggies from oven and allow them to cool

Next peel them one by one and chop the heads off.

Cut the peppers in strips, beetroot in rough cubes or thick slices and the onions as long slicess

Chop the haloumi in to cubes

In a salad bowl mix in all veggies and cheese, add mint , drizzle some olive oil and finish off with salt and pepper

Serve at room temperature

Whole Wheat Pancakes

I came across this amazing blog, full of great low cal recipes. I had some stewed strawberries and some grape extract which got me craving for some pancakes. Gina had the perfect answer in the form of this recipe. Here goes the recipe after a few modifications by me 

Ingedients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup slim milk
• 4 regular egg whites
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp sugar or honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pam spray ( can use regular oil in asmall teaspoon)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients to to it and mix well with a spoon until there are no dry spots. Don't over-mix.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray oil to lightly coat and pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter. When the bubbles settle and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

Serve warm with stewed fruit, maple syrup or honey

Chatpate Chicken kabab

This is a very simple dish that goes well as a snack as well in sandwiches. Its chicken kabab with a lot of sweet and sour masale. It does not require a lot of oil so I basically just added a few drops of oil and a good non stick pan to cook. Also its super quick to make.

Ingredients
1 pound minced chicken
1 tbl spoon chaat masala
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tblspoon lemon zest
2 tsp amchur (dry mango)
2 tsp anardana powder (pomegranate seeds powder)
4 Green chillies chopped finely
salt to taste
oil for frying




The kneaded chicken



The kababs after frying

Method
1 In a big mixing bowl mix all the ingredients except for oil
2 Mix it well to make a uniform 'dough'
3 Make out small kababs in your desired shape
4 Heat a flat non stick pan to high
5 Reduce the heat to medium and add a few drops of oil
6 Lightly fry your kababs in the oil
7 Serve hot

Jerk seasoned chicken with redchilli and lime sauce

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Biryani, khorma,tandoori chicken, kababs, kheer,haleem , jalebi, 20 different kind of shrimp dishes, kofta,as newlyweds (got married a month back) this is just a sample of the pleasures our tastebuds received .Unfortunately our digestive system and worse our waistlines did not take to kindly these delicacies.
So we resolved to go low fat/low calorie, in our everyday dishes. With zero expectations from Indian cuisine I rushed to cook up some thing american. At the foodnetwork website I came across a bunch of jerk seasoned recipes, made my own taking something from each and used for my grilled chicken. But the proportions were too low so my chicken turned out bland so I made the sauce to go with it. I've fixed the proportions so hopefully it should turn out ok.

4 limes
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 white onions finely chopped
2 green chiles
2 tbl spoon cups low sodium soy sauce
2 chicken breasts cut into smaal pieces
3 tsp black pepper
2 tsp redchilli flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
3-4 strips capsicum
salt to taste
oil if not using non stick grill

For sauce

red chilli flakes + tomato sauce or red chilli sauce
salt to tase
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Preparation

1) Wash and cut chicken,apply salt and leave aside till you make the rest of the seasoning . The salt helps reduce the smell.

2) Cut the lime into two and microwave for a min . The rind oils should come out . Leave aside after microwaving to cool and squeeze it out. Grate some zest in.

3) mix all the other ingredients except oil and grind in blender to make a paste .

4) Leave cover and marinate for 2-4 hours

5) I used my foreman grill(see pic) coz I can grill with out oil i love tht thing

6) Meanwhile mix the sauce ingredients to gether to make a paste , adjust the flavour according to your taste .

7) Serve hot with rice or bread