Barley & Veggie Salad with Greek dressing

Today I'll share a quick salad recipe with Greek yogurt dressing just perfect for summer. In summer during daytime, I don't feel like eating, I kind of loose my appetite (which happens to many people), during that time a simple cold salad what I prefer to indulge, which is healthy as well as yummy. To make this salad nutritious and filling for me, I used cooked barley and well soaked green beans and veges on a bed of lettuce with chilled yogurt dressing. Yummmmmyyyy.....

Ingredients : (serves 2-3 persons)
Cooked pearl barley : 1 cup
Green beans : 1 cup(soaked overnight)
Carrots : 1
Red beets : 1
Cucumber : 1
Small radishes : few
Tomato : 1
Fresh parsley(finely chopped)

For dressing :

Greek Yogurt : 1/3 cup ( or normal yogurt will also do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Honey : 1 tblsp.
Olive oil(prefered)/vegetable oil : 2 tblsp.
Garlic : 1 clove(big-grated)
Salt and ground Black pepper to taste

Method :

• To cook the barley, boil some water, add barley and little salt. Cook in reduced heat until barley in tender(it takes about 30-45 minutes average).
• Soak green beans in enough water overnight. Don't need to boil.
• To make the dressing : In a bowl, whisk together honey, lemon juice, yogurt, garlic and little salt and pepper. Chill in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
• Assembling the salad : cut all the veggies into bite size pieces. Before serving, in a big bowl, add the veggies, cooked barley and soaked green beans. Add chilled yogurt dressing. Mix and finally sprinkle chopped parsley. Season with salt and black pepper if needed.
• Serve.......................

Sending this to Usha's Healthy Inspiration - Salad event
and to my event "Spotlight : Summer food & drinks",
and to Madhuri of Cook-curry Nook on her event "Serve me some - Salad"

Pasta in Alfredo Sauce ( low-fat version)

Alfredo Sauce is a rich, creamy accompaniment to any pasta. Alfredo sauce is a white sauce, traditionally it was made with butter and Parmesan cheese, but more modernly, and especially in the United States, alfredo sauce also includes heavy cream. In many parts of the world, Alfredo sauce is prepared separately from the pasta. In Italy, the country where these sauces and pastas are originated, Alfredo sauce is not made separately from the pasta. Instead, the ingredients are added to the pasta individually and the whole mixture is tossed to coat the pasta.  

This Alfredo sauce with any kind of pasta is one of my family's favorites. It may not come to the low fat recipe category, but for a special treat you can't beat cheese and pasta together! Once in a while, we deserve some indulgence, right?

In my low fat Alfredo sauce version, I don't add cream, I totally avoid it, instead I use both parmesan and mozzarealla cheese. To substitute the cream, I use flour with milk and it makes this sauce extra creamy but lower in fat.

Ingredients:

Pasta (any kind of pasta will go, I used large shell shaped one)
Garlic : 3-4 cloves(big-minced)
Onion : 1(medium-sliced)
Broccoli, potato & peppers : 1 cup(sliced lengthwise)
Parmesan cheese : 1/3 cup(shredded)
Mozzarella chesse : 1/3 cup(shredded)
Milk : 1/3 cup(approx.)
Flour : 3 tblsp.
Salt to taste
Butter/oil : 2 tblsp.

Method :

• Boil water in some heavy bottomed pan, add salt and pasta. Drizzle little oil while cooking pasta to avoid sticking to one another. Cook until pasta is done, approx. 12-15 minutes. Pasta should not be over cooked, not too soft, not too hard. Drain and set aside.
• Heat butter or oil in a pan, shallow fry the sliced veggies with salt and set aside. In the same pan, add onions and minced garlic. Saute for a while, but don't let them get brown. Add flour now, stir continuously, when it starts changing colour, add milk. Cook until it thickened. 
• Now add shredded parmesan and mozzarella cheese little at a time and stir to mix it with the sauce. Before adding cheese, lower the heat to low to avoid burning. 
• After adding the cheese, add pasta and coat well with the sauce. If you think, the sauce is little thick, add little more milk and adjust the creaminess of the sauce. Add salt and pepper to the pasta according to your taste.
• Mix well and cook gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring in between, so that pasta can absorb the sauce. 

Serve topped with some extra parmesan cheese, tomato slices and parsley.

Earlier pasta recipe reposting for the event :

Classic Mac n Cheese with vegetables(stove top version)


Sending these pasta dishes to Sowmya for her Cooking with pasta Event.

Announcing another Spotlight event, "Spotlight:Summer Foods & Drinks"

        April is my blog-o-versary month. 2 years back at the mid of the month I started this journey to this amazing world of blogging. So far, no idea how much I could contribute to this amazing world of sharing and learning, but I learned a lot for sure and above all I made so many good friends. So to mark this April, which is very special month to me, I thought to host an event. I started an event named "Spotlight" on August last year, first thought to do it frequently, but because of lack of time, couldn't make it. But now, it's perfect time for another "Spotlight".
        Summer is approaching us quite fast. In spring, it feels like summer. So, we have to be prepared for that from now on. During the warm and sultry days of summer, our appetites decrease and we don't feel like eating as much as we should. At the same time, it's also important to meet our daily nutrition requirements. In Summer, it's necessary to drink up lots of fluids and eat food that is nutritious and easy to digest. So, this month's Spotlight theme is "Summer foods & drinks".


The rules of the event :
1. Looking for  easily digestible and easy-to-make recipes for summer, anything form sorbet to ice cream, Simple soup and salad recipes, juices, smoothies, One pot meals for quick cooking, simple comfort food or whatever you love to prepare in Summer and share with me.
2. Post your recipe from now on till May 2nd, which is Sunday. i.e the deadline is May 2nd, 2010.
3. In your post, don't forget to link it to this announcement and feel free to add the logo which is made especially for this event. You can also send me posts from your archives, but make sure to repost it with the link to the event.  
4. No restriction to the number of entries.
5. Non-bloggers too can participate by sending their entries with recipe details and picture to my e-mail and I will add them in the round-up.
6. The entries sent to this event can be sent to other events.
7. You can send the entries to indranidh(at)gmail(dot)com, subjest as Spotlight : Summer Food & Drinks, with the following details,
Your name:
Blog name:Recipe name:Recipe URL:
Attach a photo of 300 pixels wide
Send in your entries on or before May 2nd, 2010..round-up will be published the following week after the deadline. For further doubts or queries about the event, send me a mail to the above mentioned e-mail address.

So cook up your creative ideas and flood my mailbox with your beautiful intries...... looking forward to your support and contribution to make this event a success.

Here is the previous round-up of Spotlight : Fish

Mango custard (stovetop recipe)

Seeing so much sunshine in my blog, I thought to celebrate this joyous occassion with sunshiny yellow Mango Custard, which I made last weekend. Yes, every time I get some awards from fellow bloggers, I cheer up like I am getting my first award. Every time it feels the same, getting so much love and affection from fellow bloggers is something every blogger will cherish. Isn't it? Thanks again dear Kamalika and Deepti for your love.

What is Custard ?

Custard is a recipe that is based on heating, blending and slowly cooking a varying amount of egg yolks, milk and sugar. In the UK, custard is a sweet sauce that is medium - thick in consistency, which is poured onto your favourite dessert, however in other parts of the world, custard can be very thick. Custard has got to be the most popular dessert sauce in the UK. It is usually offered as an accompaniment to most pies and a number of hot puddings. Most people in the UK would not dream of having a portion of apple, rhubarb or cherry pie without a huge serving of warm custard to go with it.
Traditionally, custard is made by using a double boiler, however it can just as easily be prepared in a saucepan, although care must be taken to cook the custard over a very low heat so that it does not curdle. The most important thing to remember when making custard is to beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a separate mixing bowl and then pour the warm milk or cream over the egg yolk mixture into the mixing bowl rather than adding the egg yolks to the saucepan. This is so that the eggs do not cook and scramble. Once the eggs and sugar have been blended into the milk, the mixture can then be returned to the saucepan and the custard is cooked very slowly until it thickens to a creamy consistency.
For a very rich custard, which is unfortunately loaded with calories and fat, recipes will call for double cream to be used. On the other hand, for a lower fat version, you can substitute the double cream for single cream, milk or a mixture of the two.
Mango Custard is a classic dessert..just perfect for summer..I am a huge mango lover..if I don't get good mangoes, I keep few tins of mango pulp in my pantry...
This time I made custard with Alphanso mango pulp and basic recipe of making custard..just came out perfect.

Ingredients :

Milk : 600 Ml.
Egg yolks : 3
Brown Sugar : about 4 tblsp.
Vanilla essence : 1 tsp. (optional)
Mango Pulp : 1 cup
Cornflour : 2-3 tsp.
Slivered almonds & pistachios : 1/3 cup
Cubed fruit pieces : 1/3 cup

Method :

• Pour the milk into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to boil. When it just starts to boil, remove from heat and set it to cool slightly.
• In a seperate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until smooth and sugar is dissolved without any lumps.
• Keeping the milk pan off the heat, mix egg mixture into the milk with a wire whisk adding little by little. Add mango pulp and vanilla essence, too same way with wire whisk. There should not be any lump.
• Take the pan again on stove and cook over a low heat stirring continuously until milk thickens a bit. 
• Remove from heat and set aside to cool in room temperature. Transfer it to a serving bowl. Then chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours. This way Custard will set and thicken little more.
• Before serving, decorate with fruit pieces, slivered almonds and pistachios.

Check out my Caramel Custard recipe, made in Pressure cooker