Mango-Chickpeas Salad

I like chickpeas, so the other day I cooked some chickpeas for evening tea and wanted to do something other than the usual Chickpeas sundal. As I was gazing through my refrigerator looking for inspiration to add to my chickpeas, a bag of frozen mangoes caught my eyes. The poor thing has been sitting in the freezer since last summer and I decided to give it a try with my chickpeas. The result was great. Hope you like this simple, healthy and refreshing salad. 

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1 cup, diced. (Fresh or frozen. Thaw frozen mango before using)
• Chickpeas - 1 1/2 cups cooked (Add a little salt while cooking the chickpeas)
• Onion - 1/2, diced
• Red pepper (capsicum) - 1/2 diced
• lemon juice - from 1/2
• Salt -1/2 tsp or to taste. 
• Dry red chili flakes - to taste

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients together.
• Add salt carefully as the cooked chickpeas has salt already added. 
• Refrigerate for a while before serving.
• You can always add more or less of each ingredient to your liking.

Mango Salad

I love mangoes, I think most Indians do, after all India does have the best mangoes :) Here in Canada we get mangoes from California and Mexico, don't get me wrong, they are good, but they cannot compete with Indian mangoes when it comes to taste. If you have not tasted Indian mangoes you've missed something great, even the skin of Indian mangoes taste great.

I found some green Mexican mangoes the other day at the supermarket, they taste like half ripe Kili mooku (parrot- beak) mango, but have bitter skin. I remembered eating a salad made of mangoes long time ago and decided to make it. The mango salad is very refreshing and light. 

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1, thinly sliced. (Any variety of mango, that is firm and not too sweet will work) 
• Carrot - 1, medium size, thinly sliced
• Red Onion - 1/2, thinly sliced
• Red pepper (Capsicum) -1/2, thinly sliced. You can use green pepper if you cant find red.
• Coriander Leaves -  Handful, finely chopped.

Dressing:

• Lemon juice from half a lemon
• Ginger - 1/4 inch, finely grated
• Hot sauce/Chilli sauce - 1/2 tsp or more
• Salt - 1/4 Tsp
• Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Steps:

• Mix all the sliced veggies and mangoes together.
• Mix together the ingredients of the dressing.
• Combine the dressing and the salad well using your fingers. 
• Refrigerate for a while, it will bring out the flavours really well. Then serve.

Chickpeas Sundal

Chickpeas, kondai kadalai, channa... Call it what you want, on a rainy spring day, hot sundal and ginger tea is enough to relax in the evening. Sundal can be made with peas, chickpeas, green gram etc. It means simply tempering with mustard seeds.

Ingredients:

• Dry chickpeas - 1 Cup
• Water - enough to cover the chickpeas, around 2 cups
• Salt - 1 tsp
• asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

For tempering:

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil - 2 tsp.
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Dry red chilies - 2 
• Ginger - grated 1 tsp
• Coconut - grated 2 tsp 

Steps:

• Soak chickpeas for 2-3 hours.
• In a pressure cooker add soaked chickpeas, water, salt, cumin seeds and asafoetifa powder and cook for 10 - 15 mins.
• After the chickpeas are cooked, heat a pan. Add oil. when oil is hot add mustard seeds, let it crackle. 
• Then add urad dal, red chilies and ginger.
•  Add chickpeas and coconut, turn off heat and stir well.

Carrot and Moong dal Salad

This is for all the salad haters! yup, I am not a big fan of salads too, but this salad changed my mind. I saw this recipe long time back at http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/, but just passed it cos it looked like the side dish I make with carrots, only difference was all the ingredients were 'raw'. But my husband saw it sometime ago and wanted me to make it, yeah, he likes salads. I was very sceptical about it, becos my past attempt in making a salad with apples, raisins and yogurt on my husband's request was not very successful...lets just say I will not be posting that recipe anytime. But this salad is a keeper. I did very little changes to it. Try it and enjoy. 

Tip: You need at least 15 mins to set the salad. And make sure the dal is cooled completely before adding the carrots. You dont want to wilt them in the heat. 

Ingredients:

• Moong dal (Split green gram) - 1/4 cup.
• Carrots - Shredded 2 cups.
• Coconut - Shredded 1/4 cup. (fresh or dry. If dry, soak it in hot water for sometime and then use it)
• Cilantro (Coriander) leaves - 2 tblsp, chopped
• Oil- 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice - 2 tblsp 
• Ginger - 1 tblsp, finely shredded
• Green Chilli -1/2, finely chopped
• Salt - 1 Tsp
• Black pepper - 1/4 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Steps:

• Wash moong dal till the water runs clear and soak it for about 2-3 hours. 
• In a small bowl mix lemon juice, ginger, green chilli, salt, black pepper and sugar to make dressing and set aside.
• In a pan heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the cumin seeds as seeds crack add the moong dal.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes stirring continuously. Don’t over cook that will make dal dry.
• Turn off the heat and remove the pan, let the dal cool.
• Now mix the carrots, cilantro, coconut and dal and the dressing together really well. I used my fingers ;) its easier to get through the shredded carrots.
•  Let it sit for about fifteen minutes before serving.