Pineapple Salsa

Salsas are one of the easiest way to enjoy fruits on a relaxing weekend or during a game day. Since its a season for pineapple I tried this salsa and I loved the new taste, it was a mixture of sour, sweet, tangy and spicy. You can adjust to it to your taste buds.

Ingredients:

1cup Pineapple finely chopped
1/4cup Green & Red Bell peppers
1/4cup Red onion
1tbsp Lemon juice
salt, Pepper & chilly powder to taste
Method:

Mix all and refrigerate for 30 mins minimum so the taste gets mixed up well. Serve with your favorite chips.

Spinach Pesto sauce

This is a very easy Pesto sauce with no cheese in it. It tastes wonderful and very healthy. Good thing about pesto sauce is you can make a lot and freeze it, so you will have it any time you need or its that simple that will not take much time.

Ingredients:

2cups Baby Spinach
1cup Walnuts
1/4cup Olive Oil
salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Method:
Grind the walnuts to a fine/coarse powder then add spinach and blend it. Add salt and Pepper and start grinding and slowly add olive oil till its well blended and fine paste is formed. Use it on any pasta or store it in an airtight container.

Note: Its easy in a food processor or a glass jar blender.

Apple Jam

Jam is something I had never experimented before as I always used to have a store bought bottle in my refrigerator.But recently a good friend of mine returned few tapes of Sanjeev Kapoors' cookery show on Zee TV "khaana Kazaana".I used to watch that show and record all the good dishes.So I re-watched few and found a Green Apple Jam recipe in that and wanted to try that in order to clear the green apples I had left over from the Dasara Festival. For my surprise it turned out to be one of the easiest and healthy with no such chemical preservatives.v Its definitely a keep. Apples can be substituted with any other fruit like Strawberry, blueberry, banana, cheery,Mango, pineapple or mixed fruit too.

Ingredients:

3 Green Apples
2 cups Sugar
Green Food color(optional)
1tsp Lemon juice(Citric Acid)

Method:

Peel the skin and seeds off of green apples and cut it into small piece.Put them in heavy bottom vessel and cook them on medium flame for about 15 mins so it cooks well and becomes almost like a paste. Now add sugar and keep stirring them occasionally ,once the sugar melts and gets to a consistency add few drops of food color(which I didn't add) and lemon juice(Recipe demanded for citric acid but I substituted with lemon juice),stir well and allow it to cool. Store in a glass container in the refrigerator for months.

Note:Always cook in a medium/low flame so its easy to know the consistency of jam.

Mango Salsa

Salsa is a Mexican dish used as a dip for chips. Its one of the popular snack in USA and Mexico.Its usually served as an appetizer and tastes yummy.I was so bored of eating the same old store bought salsa and it tasted the same every time.So i started to look for some other recipes and found this one, thought its a great time to try as there is plenty of Mango available in the market and its the season.For this recipe you need sweet Mango so i bought this from Indian stores as i wasn't sure of the mangoes in other stores.Its so simple and doesn't take much time to prepare.So it can be done way before a party and chilled in the refrigerator.



Best thing is its so colorful and attracts everyone to try a bite.The lemon juice in it gives a different sour taste.While buying Mango see to it that its not too ripe otherwise the mango in the salsa will become a puree while mixing.I sent this recipe for a contest in Orkut community and the theme was Mango.Do give it a try and let me know how it turned out.


Ingredients:
1 ripe and sweet Mango(chopped into small cubes)
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 Red bell pepper finely chopped
1/2 tomato small cubes
1-2 Green chillies finely chopped
Fresh cilantro for garnishing
salt to taste
1 tsp Paprika Powder/Red chilly flakes
1tsp Lemon juice(optional)

Method:
Mix all the ingredients and chill it in refrigerator for few hours and serve with tortilla chips/ pita chips of your choice.

[Note: Green chillies or Red chilly powder and pepper powder can be added to make it spicy.]

Zucchini Chutney

Zucchini is vegetable which belongs to Cucumber family.Its widely available in USA, and can be used in almost any recipe which requires a vegetable.It cooks fast and tastes good too.As its low in calories its good for the people who are dieting...some useful information i found on net says:

The zucchini vegetable is low in calories (approximately 15 food calories per 100 g fresh zucchini) and contains useful amounts of folate (24 mcg/100 g), potassium (280 mg/100 g) and vitamin A (115 mcg/100 g). 1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended amount of manganese.

I have tried a very healthy and low carb version of chutney with this vegetable.Its very simple to make, healthy and mouth watering.It can be eaten with Rice, chapathi's, dressing for sandwiches , Dosa or Idli.

Ingredients:

3 Zucchini
1tsp Oil
2tsp Crushed Paprika
salt to taste
1tsp Jaggery(optional)
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
a pinch of Hing

Method:

Chop the zucchini, fry them in 1/2tsp oil till it looses its water and turns a little brown in color.Add Paprika, jaggery and salt.Cool it and blend it with a hand blender /Mixer grinder.Add tempering with the leftover oil, mustard seeds and Hing.Chutney is ready to be served.

Note: U can skip putting tempering and reduce that portion of oil too.Paprika can be substituted with Red chilli powder.

Heerekai (Chinese Okra)Chutney

Chinese Okra/Heerekai in "kannada" is a tender and sweet flavored vegetable available throughout the season.It used in different forms and in different dishes.It can be used to make bajji's, curries, sambar/tove and chutney's too.


Here i have made chutney out of it, its a simple and easy recipe.It goes well with Dosa, Idli, Chapathi's or Rice.


Ingredients:

1 Chinese Okra/Heerekai
1/2tsp Channa Dal
1/2tsp Urad Dal
4-5 Red Chillies
1/4 cup Fresh Coconut(dry coconut can also be used)
1/2tsp Tamarind Paste
1/2tsp Jaggery(optional)
2-3 Curry leaves
1tsp Oil
1/2tsp Mustard Seeds
a pinch Aseofotida



Method:

First clean the chinese okra and chop it and keep aside.In a pan add 1/2tsp oil and then add Channa dal, urad dal and fry till it turns golden brown.Then add Red chillies, tamarind and roast for a minture and cool it on a plate.In the same pan add the chopped Okra and fry till it looses all the water and turns a little brown.Cool it on a plate and grind by adding all the roasted dals, coconut, jaggery and salt with out adding any water(U can add a little water if its not grinding well).
In a small pan add 1/2tsp oil and mustard seeds and when it crackels add a little aseofotida , curry leaves and pour it on chutney and mix well.Store it in a container and can be used for a week.

Note:If u dont add any water it will stay longer.Refrigerate after using.