Tangy Cabbage Salad (bong style)

One of my Bangalore summer favourites are the gingery, mustardy heady scents that brings to mind the aromas wafting from my mothers kitchen…theres a sweet pungency to the smell quite distinctive of bong cuisine…jumping out to you, say from a tightly closed box of heeng which could never be too tight not to allow any of its sharp smell to slip by, mixing heavily with a tumbler full of freshly grounded mustard and green chillies, some fried bori (dried lentil dumplings), finally blending with the monsoony smell of the freshly washed greens, some for the salad and some for the food.

Before I continue being nostalgic about my younger days, I should add that: salad is not a part of a regular bong kitchen-as I have never seen any paraphernalia associated with it in my granny’s kitchen-- ringed onions and cucumber or either one of these two would classify as a salad!! Salad is a concept drilled in me by my mom –a crusade she started to combat the lifestyle diseases my father was battling, and needless to say the battle is won. I agree that there is no foolproof way to safeguard your life, but prevention is the key .As far as the ‘prevention process’ is concerned, the first one was of course drilling the concept of healthy eating in my ‘battle hardened baba’s mind’ and the second one was to come up with new healthy salad infuses with strong bong intonations to the dinner table everyday. Her seasonings would sometimes be bong, and through her bong touchups I think she unknowingly introduced a new genre of bong cuisine-The healhy side of a bong belly-The Bong salad(s)

Here is the recipe from my mother’s Bong Salad recipe chest or you can say Diet bong food collection, what i call my mother’s Apollo stunt

PS (Apollo is a chain of health centre promoting healthy heart friendly food)

Tangy Cabbage salad (Mom’s special)

Ingredient:
1) 2-3 tbsp orange juice concentrate
2) ½ cup julienned mint leaves/parsley /coriander
3) 2 crispy sweet apples (grated)
4) ½ cup cabbage (chopped fine)
5) Rock salt(to taste)
6) ½ cup toasted, crisp and crushed –muri (rice crispies)
7) Toasted and crushed dried red chillies(to taste)
8) Toasted and crushed peanuts, a handful
9) 2 tsp lemon juice (preferabley gandharaj lebu)

Toss 1-4 ingredients and add lime and refrigerate. Just before serving add the rock salt, crushed peanuts and crushed muri …the mint in the salad makes it summary, so if you are trying it out when its not soo hot—then parsley/coriander will do a neat job.

You can have this meal on its own on in conjunction with your lunch or even as a mid meal snack. Muri is a traditional bong snack item, this salad just retails that part of it , making it more healthier and low calorie for the weight watchers.

Calories per serving-80 calories

If having as a standalone meal, compliment it with a tall glass of salted and spicy buttermilk/sweet lassi, to make turn it into a nutritionally balanced meal in itself