Green Salad with Spiced Yogurt Dressing

The inspiration came from flipping through one of my Indian cookbooks, in which many recipes call for yogurt. I’ve had Asian style yogurt dressing before and they are mostly mixed with berries or other types of fruits. I thought they were ok but there’s something missing. It could probably use some spices and herbs. So I just kinda pull out what I have in the pantry.

Spices: I used ancho chili, smoked paprika and cumin seeds. You can experiment with other spices like turmeric, fennel seeds, mustard, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves or nutmeg.

Herbs: I used garlic and parsley here, but cilantro or mint would be wonderful as well. You can certainly use onions, scallion or shallots in place of garlic. I like the scent and taste of lemon peel/juice and it pairs well with other herbs and spices. You can use other citrus fruits like limes or oranges.

I minced parsley, lemon peel and garlic together and added spices, salt, olive oil, lemon juice and yogurt.

I started with a dollop of yogurt and mix to see if I needed more. I ended up using the entire cup of yogurt (6 oz)

You can add ingredients and seasoning based on your own taste and desired texture. To turn it into a dip, you can probably use some sour cream or blend some feta cheese, some chopped onions and lots of chopped herbs.

I can see the dressing (with some adjustment) used as sauce for meat or seafood dishes. Here I just use it as salad dressing and serve it with a cheese and scallion scone on the side.

Farmers’ Market Day

I try to get 7-day supply of produce from my once-a-week trip to farmers’ market but I usually run out of vegetables before my next trip.

Here’s what I got this time:

I got one bag of organic pistachio, 4 onions, 3 bunches of kale, 3 bunches of bok choy, 1 bunch of turnips, half pound of pea tendrils, 2 bunches of watercress, 1 bunch of purple mizuna, 1 New Zealand spinach, 1 chual/lamb’s quarter, 1 thai broccoli, 1 yu-choy, half pound salad mix (baby mustard greens, tatsoi, swiss chard, romaine lettuce), 3 heads garlic, 4 Fuji apples, 4 Sierra Gold potatoes, 1 Hass avocado, 2 meyer lemons, 4 Satsuma tangerines, 1 lb snow peas, 1 bunch Swiss chard and one pint cherry tomatoes. The total bill comes to $65 even. Not bad.

Normally I would get more. I usually get some cabbage (green, purple or Napa) and sometimes eggplants and asparagus. Occasionally, I would get free-range chicken, eggs or other animal products.

I like to try new produce. This time I picked up a bunch of lamb’s quarters. Other names include fat hen, Chinese spinach, Good King Henry, white goosefoot and wild spinach. The vendor told me this vegetable does not contain oxalic acid like regular spinach. I looked it up in The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia and found that it does. So people with kidney disorders, gout or rheumatism should probably consume it sparingly if at all. Healthy individuals should enjoy it in moderation. That’s good to know.

Another type of spinach I have tried a few times is New Zealand spinach. Their leaves are tougher and have a more intense flavor than regular spinach. It pairs very well with Thai seasoning. Although not related to spinach, it does contain medium to low levels of oxalates, which can be removed by blanching.

Pea tendrils. It’s commonly used in Chinese restaurants as a stir-fry dish called chow dou-miao, which literally translates to stir-fried pea sprouts/shoots. It’s usually cooked with minced garlic or fermented bean paste. You can be creative and cook it any way you want. I’ve found it a good match with shallots, chili sauce, shrimp or shrimp-based seasonings.

Monday Dinner – South Indian Food

I started making Indian food at home about a month ago. The cookbook I use most of the time is Healthy South Indian Cooking by Alamelu Vairavan. It contains mostly vegetarian recipes and recipes calls for less oil than other regional Indian cuisines. It’s very home style cooking and there’s no difficult techniques required. So it’s a good book for beginner Indian cooks who want to cook healthier vegetarian dishes. Another Indian cookbook I own is Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking by the popular Indian cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey. It has more meat dishes.

You can get most of the ingredients you need from Whole Foods or Ralphs and use substitutes for things you couldn’t find. But if you want to go 100%, try a specialty grocer that carries Indian spices and staples. I shop my ingredients at Asia Foods in Culver City, CA.  Not all ingredients I use for the meal show in the picture below. The ones not in the picture are fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, tomato sauce, urad dal, Vindaloo and Balti spice mixes, which I got from Penzeys.

My recipes call for quite a bit of root vegetables so the total weight is higher than using mostly leafy vegetables. The scale is set with the weight of the metal bowl subtracted. All vegetables combined weigh almost 3.5 lbs.

One of the recipes is kohlrabi sambar. I didn’t buy kohlrabi in my last trip to the farmer’s market so I use turnips instead. I cook them trimmed and unpeeled. After they are cooked, they have pleasant light sweet flavor which is a nice contrast to the tartness of the tomatoes. I also like to add their green tops in the end of cooking. But it’s not available this time because I used them in a different dish a few days ago. The green tops don’t keep well in the fridge after the purchase, so it’s better to use them before they turn yellow.

Dinner for two: the dish on top in the picture below is turnips sambar. It’s cooked with moong dal, spices, onion, tomato and tomato sauce. I believe you can use different kinds of lentils or split peas as well. Last time I cooked it with yellow split peas and it turned out pretty delicious.

The bottom dish on the right is a plain basmati rice. On the left is red lentil with sweet potato and tuscan kale. Sweet potato is a fantastic ingredient in curry dishes. I use them in place of potato because they are more nutritious. The master recipe or inspiration of this dish came from Whole Foods: Red Lentils with Garlic and Onions. The recipe can be accessed from their website or mobile app. I omitted garlic since I didn’t have any on hand. I added about 1.5 tablespoon of curry powder. You can use any curry mix you like or mix your own.

Monday Brunch – Peasant Style

I shop my weekly supply of grocery at Santa Monica Farmer’s Market every Wednesday. Every morning I eat fruits to start the day. If I run out of fruits, I make simple stir-fried vegetables with whole grain rice or rice porridge as main carbohydrates for my first meal.

Here’s what I pick out/what I have left in the fridge for the brunch: baby bok choy, baby broccoli, baby carrots (cook trimmed but unpeeled) and half green cabbage.

Here’s how much they weight. Almost 2 lb and 10 oz. The scale is set with weight of the metal bowl subtracted.

I pre-soaked my brown rice and pearl barley over night and added some pre-cooked cranberry beans. (I happen to have some leftover) You can add pre-soaked and uncooked beans as long as the cooking time is about the same as the grain you use. The brown rice mix will be cooked on the stove top for about 35 minutes and then cooled in covered pan for about 10 minutes. Check the package of the grains you use. Cooking time varies depending on the type of grains and how they are processed.

I water stir-fried the vegetable with some minced garlic and drizzle with olive oil in the end of cooking.  Sometimes I use (unrefined) peanut oil to lightly heat the aromatics and quickly add the vegetable before it turns smoky.  Here’s what I have on table:

No leftover.