Going nuts on Holi - Boiled Peanut Salad

 

 Holi is a synonym for spring to me.  A time for family and friends, flowers , colors, gujias, gulab-jamuns and endorphin rushing songs that only get played ‘on a loudspeaker mode’ just this time of the year. 

I love the spirit of the festival- and I don’t even play with colours. I run the risk of sounding like a snooty auntie who sniggers at the colors and hauls the holiday hullabaloo.  That’s sincerely not me. I’m plain shy. Just  one of those people who will stand in one corner of the apartment bacony , careful enough not to be seen, yet seizing the colourful moments from the tiny curtain opening. Once its all done, I’ll go and reward myself with a Gujiya .

Do you think that there is anything that echoes with Holi, more than the abundant servings of Gujiya, Sewain kheer or a desi celebratory salad? Yes of course , it’s the hip gyrating holi numbers in Amitabh Bacchans throaty baritone blaring from the society loudspeakers. Maybe for me the Holi magic comes from these catchy once-a-year wonders that stick in your head and feel good, perhaps only while taking a big mouthful of the freshly made spiced peanut salad with a spoon that’s a bit stained with gulal.

Bura na mano Holi hai.

No, I’m not about to present a festival sweet recipe. Today is a shortcut day. Spring cleaning for guests has taken most of my time. So it’s a short cut colourful savory and oh so healthy peanut salad day. Are you game?

Boiled Peanut Salad 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups boiled peanuts

1 cucumber diced

1 fresh tomato diced

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

2-3 green chillies 

2-3 sprigs coriander leaves

Sea salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

t tbsb lemon juice(to serve)

Method:

Pressure cook the peanuts in salted water till soft but firm , not mushy. Cool to room temperature. Next toss all the other  ingredients(except lemon juice) together. I sometimes add dried prunes or raisins, but that's optional. just before serving add freshly squeezed lemon juice. As simple as it can get.

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