Corn-Tomato Salad with a Tomato vinaigrette!

Since A's been hounding people like me with desserts like those below, and much to my anguish, most of you seem to have taken to his tactics. So, as a response, I post this incredibly fresh and tasty salad with a vinaigrette I personally love.

Like I said, I was on a no-carb diet for a week. It worked great as a detox diet for me. I really didn't miss carbs as much as I thought I would. I'm consciously trying to reduce my carb intake irrespective of whether A wants to or not. I intend to outlive my husband, yes. Anyway, during that week, I made this salad sans the corn but added avocado instead, and loved it so much that I made it again yesterday. This time, I skipped the avocado and added corn. Considering its Holler's birthday and she seems to be a tomato gal like me, this one goes out to her for the Tomatoey edition of 'No Croutons Required' event. . Here's wishing you a healthy and happy birthday, Holler!

Ingredients:

1 cup corn

1/2 cup red onion, chopped.

1/2 cup cherry/grape tomatoes, cut into halves

1/4 cup baby spinach, chiffonaded

1/8 cup olive oil

3-4 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tsp Chipotle pepper

1 tsp honey

A dash of balsamic vinegar and/or red wine vinegar

1 tsp roasted cumin seeds

Lemon juice

Pepper

Salt to taste

Thaw the corn if frozen and add to the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over it. The lemon juice measurment may be slightly approximate, because I love lemon and add a lot of lemon juice to everything that I eat! Also add salt and pepper.

For the Vinaigrette -

- Chop the sun-dried tomatoes. You could use either the ones packed in oil or the dry ones. If you use the ones packed in oil, you may want to reduce the amount of olive oil used for the dressing.

- Blend the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the chipotle pepper powder, roasted cumin, honey and the vinegar(s) along with olive oil and make sure it is of a pouring consistency. Add lemon juice if required. Again, add salt and pepper as you wish.

If you don't want to buy Chipotle peppers or Ancho chilli peppers which are essentially dry Jalapeno peppers, you may want to look for the readymade powdered ones available in your Farmer's Market or in the Mexican aisle at the supermarket. They lend a beautiful smoky flavour to the vinaigrette.

Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and mix well! Simple, filling and makes you feel like you put in a lot of exotic ingredients ;)

Happy Birthday to you, Holler. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Green Thai Curry - Off to Healthy Cooking!

While I racked my brains on what to submit to Mansi's Healthy cooking event, and almost gave up, Sireesha came along with an award for us (I cannot believe it, still, though) and I thought that we couldn't give up now! After all this! So, A and I concocted this Green Thai Curry for the event. Two days ago, we ate at Top Spice, a popular Thai-Malaysian restaurant here in Atlanta with my cousin and her family and I was a convert. I'm not the Thai food type while A pigs on Thai food. Tofu is his life saviour and I do not consider Tofu at all. Like, I do not think its food. Blame it on its colour or its texture!

Speaking of colour, I love colour in my food. I love chaat not just because of its taste, but because of the medley of colours on the plate. I love bright looking food than pale food. I like my food messy and colourful than neatly arranged and all that. Well, you get it. I'm not one of those perfect food blogga types ;) So, ya, getting back to the food! A came home from work and decided to make a Thai curry. I was game since I've started loving Thai food in the last two days :) Our fridge had remnants of veggies from a long-gone Farmer's Market trip. And this situation was perfect for a Thai dinner. So, here it is - the colours, the flavour, the richness, and all the proteins, vitamins that one can have on a plate, presenting to you the Green Thai Curry!

Ingredients (serves 2-3 people):

1lb (454g) Tofu

1 medium green bell pepper (capsicum)

1 medium red bell pepper

2 carrots

1/2 bunch spinach leaves

1 bunch spring onions

5-6 pieces dried red chillies

2-3 pieces of fresh green chillies

1 tbsp peanut butter (substitute with 20-25 pieces of peanut ground into a paste)

2 cups water

salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp honey

1 tsp lemon juice

1. Divide the block of Tofu into two equal portions. Grind one half with the spinach leaves, half of the red chillies, all the green chillies, lemon juice and ginger. This forms the 'green' gravy or base.

2. Cut the other half into cubes and saute them in 1/2 tbsp oil until they are crisp and golden. Set aside.

3. In a pan, add 1 tbsp oil and saute the spring onions and all other vegetables in that order. You can choose to add different vegetables to create your own curry. Broccoli, baby corn, mushrooms, even potatoes! Add the remaining red chillies and let this cook for 10 mins. Add salt in between.

4. Add 1 tbsp peanut butter (or the peanut paste), water, honey and the gravy. Let this simmer for 15 mins.

5. Now add the crisp tofu cubes and let it cook for a few more minutes.

6. Finally, add the coconut milk/cream to the curry (take pictures ;)) and mix well and let it cook for a couple of mins. Once done, serve hot with steamed rice.

Thanks again Sireesha for the award! We received the 'Nice Matters' award from her and would like to pass it on to: Nags who is one of the inspirations behind this food blog and Mom's Cooking (another one I know personally!) and Sameera, two absolutely new bloggers like us :) So, there! Yes, I repeat again, this healthy Thai curry goes to Mansi's event - Healthy Cooking! Here is another picture of our wholesome dinner, little rice and loads of veggies: