Caprese Salad with Balsamic Reduction

A fresh ball of mozzarella, freshly picked basil, vine ripe tomatoes, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, freshly ground pepper and some salt – This is all you need to make a classic caprese salad.

Gado Gado – Indonesian Vegetable Salad

Gado Gado – Indonesian vegetable salad literally means mix mix. A mix of vegetables, tofu, bean sprouts and the quintessential peanut sauce or bumbu as it is called in the local language. Traditionally the bumbu is made to order as per an individual’s preference for how hot they want the sauce to be. A mix of varied vegetables is smothered in peanut sauce, sometimes topped with a Krupuk or a cracker. For this salad, I did not make an ‘on demand’ sauce. I tried to keep it a nice balance of hot, sweet and savory and I felt that it …

Pineapple Avocado and Pink Grapefruit Salad

  Dear Salads, I had been oblivious to your existence for most of my life, but when I did discover you finally I fell in love. The reason it took me so long to finally find you was that in the Indian food scene, salads used to be (usually) a mix of some cucumbers, onions and tomatoes topped with a fiery green chilli and a dash of lemon. Not that you are not interesting in that avatar! You certainly are! But you also have to understand that it was kind of boring to be served a “garden salad” day in …

Pasta Pesto and Pea Salad – Ina Fridays

   And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. —P B Shelley It’s finally spring like in Colorado. Balmy sunshine one day and almost freezing the next and some high speed winds thrown in in-between. My life these days is almost like Colorado spring time weather. Peaceful and quiet now, full of high energy sometimes and bracing the winds at others. But I am not complaining. It’s just that when life has other plans, I don’t get to blog …

Greek Salad #Ina Fridays

It’s time for another year of celebrating the love of cooking with Ina.  This month we have the Soup/ Salads/ Sides.  Though I wanted to make a soup in the always wet weather of Seattle, I had to settle for a salad.  We are taking a small break and came out to Seattle to visit a friend and his family. After spending a very fun and enjoyable couple of days with them we moved to a small beach town and settled ourselves to enjoy some quite time by the beach and just do nothing.   My best efforts to get …