
Summer is here, and along with it has come my taste for refreshingly crisp summer salads. I'm impressed with myself these days, heading out to the grocery store and staying within the realms of the produce section and not venturing over to the aisles laden with dangerous goods (mostly chips, ok sometimes cheese and maybe crackers). As Shankar and I hit the year and a half mark on our marriage we're beginning to see a lot more accumulation of things in our home. More dishes and pots in our kitchen, more clothes, more electronic goods, and unfortunately more pounds on the scale. I've decided to be really serious about removing the added baggage that has inconveniently deposited itself on my hips. I guess that it is a comfort zone thing, and yeah I was so much more conscious of my fitness level when I was on the market, and now we tend to choose going out together over going to the gym. At the end of the day feeling good is definitely linked to looking good, so its time to start working out again.


Lettuce Boats with Cous Cous Salad
8 large romaine leaves, 1-2 roma tomatoes diced, 1/2 a cucumber diced, a few tablespoons of chopped green pepper, 1/2 a bunch of green onions chopped, 1/2 bunch of parsley chopped, 1/4 bunch of mint chopped, 1/2 lemon, 1 ounce feta cheese crumbled, 1/2 cup of cous cous, 1/4 cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, radish to garnish
Optional: chickpeas, hot banana peppers
1. Add hot water to the cous cous to cover it. Let stand for a few minutes until the cous cous absorbs the water and becomes fluffy.
2. Mix Through.
3. Add all the vegetables and herbs reserving the lettuce leaves.
4. Add the salt, olive oil, lemon juice and mix.
5. Spread the leaves with hummus (optional).
6. Fill the lettuce leaves with the cous cous salad.
7. Garnish with crumbled feta cheese, and radish slices.
Hummus
1 cup of dry chickpeas soaked (substitute one can of chickpeas), 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1 tsp of chopped garlic, 1 tbsp of sesame seeds , salt and pepper to taste
* You can roast and grind the sesame seeds into a powder before adding to the blender. We have done it by adding the sesame seeds straight and it still tasted great.
** These measurements are really approximate, I find that you just need to keep tasting and adjusting the hummus.
1. If using the dry chickpeas rinse them, cover with water and pressure cook for 20 minutes on high, and 20 minutes on low heat.
2. Grind all ingredients in a blender (my blender is smaller so I do it in two batches).
3. Drizzle the olive oil through the top of the blender until a nice thick but smooth consistency is reached.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9 comments:
those boats look real pretty. you have all the lovely combinations in there. healthy and yummy.
Hey lettuce boat is a very neat idea....liked it a lot and a cool recipe too :)
Shn
Eating right always feels good!
These boats are looking nice. Liked the idea, ideal for summer :)wbyjnymc
That looks cool Kanchana :)
That's a cool salad recipe!
I like how you used lettuce intead of a pita to make it a low carb option!
Very colorful and healthy recipe.
what is difference between hummus and falafel? will u pls expalin me?thanks
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