A Recipe For Salad

To make this condiment, your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs;
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault,
To add a double quantity of salt.

Four times the spoon with oil from Lucca brown,
And twice with vinegar procured from town;
And, lastly, o'er the flavored compound toss
A magic soupcion of anchovy sauce.

O, green and glorious! O herbaceous treat!
'T would tempt the dying anchorite to eat:
Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
"Fate cannot harm me, I have dined to-day."

Salads are an excellent way to pump up your daily food with some essential and healthy nutrients; Salads can be prepared from everyday vegetables and are the easiest of all recipes. Experts have recommended including atleast one variety of salad daily. Since most salads have vegetables and other ingredients in thier raw form, all the essential nutrients are preserved.

Kachumbar.
2 medium tomatoes
2 medium onion, peeled
4 tbsps chopped fresh coriander
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsps lemon juice

Cut the tomatoes and onions into 1/4 inch pieces and put them in a non-metallic bowl.

Add all the other ingredients and mix.

Kosumbari
from South India.

Cooked Moong dal - 50 gms
Cooked Chana dal - 50 gms
4-5 green chilies
coriander leaves- a small bunch
freshly grated coconut - from 1/2 a coconut
Fresh cucumber - 1
Lime - 1/2
Mustard seeds - 2 tsps.
asafoetida - a pinch

Soak 50 gms each of moong dal and chana dal separately for one hour. Grate the coconut to get a handful of grated coconut. Drain the water from the moong dal and chana dal. Peel one cucumber and cut it into small pieces of the size of a pea. Chop two green chilies. Keep one spoon of oil in a kadai, warm it and put in mustard.
Wait till they splutter , then put the chopped green chilies, turn around and put a pinch of hing (asafoetida). Put the entire mixture onto the moong dal and chana dal. Add salt to taste and then squeeze the juice of half a lime (green variety). Turn around and then garnish the grated coconut.

Any salad with yogurt is called raita. A raita is a simple preparation made by adding fruits, vegetables or any other thing to beaten curds. Most Indian families enjoy curds either plain or in the form of delicious raitas as an accompaniment with lunch or dinner. Raitas are unique because they are cool and spicy at the same time. Indians cherish a large variety of raitas and the following are some of the recipes of raita.

Cucumber and Red Pepper Raita

1 cup of natural yoghurt
1/2 cucumber / diced or grated
1/2 red pepper / diced
2 sprigs of mint,leaves removed and chopped
Salt and pepper

Whisk the yoghurt with a little water to thin it to a smooth consistency.
Add the all remaining ingredients with the salt and pepper to taste. Mix well
Pour into serving bowl, garnish with mint leaves and chill.

MIX FRUIT RAITA

Ingredients:

2 cups Curd (yogurt)
3 Bananas
1 small Pineapple
2 Apples
1 Ripe Mango
1 cup Pomegranate seeds
Chopped coriander leaves
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder to taste

Preparation:

Stir the curd with hand mixer (Mathni) properly and mix salt, sugar, and curd is thick add little milk or water.
Cup all fruits in small cubes and add to the curd.
Garnish the fruit raita with chopped coriander and pomegranate.