My Favorite Recipes Collection: Salads

This salad recipe was inspired by our recent trip to California. We visited Walnut Creek, home town of my daughter in law for her baby shower. Her loving mom took us to this restaurant called True Food Kitchen, a health food restaurant. Food was of course healthy, delicious, nutritious and with lot of vegan options. One of the items on the menu was Chopped salad which was yummy. I quickly looked at ingredients and was determined to make it at home.

I admit, although this salad is all those things that I mentioned earlier is higher in calories count due to dates and all the nuts, fruits and cheeses.

You can prep all the ingredients and refrigerate them and then as needed you can make a salad of desired amount/servings and toppings. It is truly a versatile salad you can not go wrong with it...

Came back to my home town and when things settled down, I went to grocery store and bought all the ingredients. One of the ingredient was slivered almonds, however the grocery store I went to did not have these, so I bought the salad toppings with caramelized pecans, sweetened cranberries, and pepitas and also bought roasted salted shelled pistachios instead.

That is the good thing about this salad, it is very versatile, you can add and omit any of the ingredients. I used crumbled feta cheese and pepper jack cheese cubes instead of aged cheddar cheese.

I also added tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries and watermelon.

Luckily I was able to find the Champagne vinaigrettes salad dressing which was the key tasty ingredient to this salad.

Ingredients:

Greens like Baby Arugula, Queen leafy greens, and chopped Romain lettuce.
Pitted dates sliced
Farro, wheat bulgur or cracked wheat cooked
Jicama peeled and chopped into cubes
Organic apples of your choice chopped into cubes I used Envy apples
Tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries and watermelon or any of these favorites
Crumbled Feta cheeses
Small cubes of pepper jack cheese or aged cheddar cheese shredded or cubes.
Slivered almonds or any nutty salad toppings
Champagne vinaigrette dressing or California vinaigrette dressing.

Method:

Wash cracked wheat / bulgur or farro.
Cook on stove with water and pinch of salt, when water comes to boil you can turn her heat to medium low.
Cook for 15 min or until tender but not mushy.
Drain and set aside to cool.
Slice the dates, peel and chop jicama and cut apple in to small pieces.
Cut tomatoes, slice the strawberries, cube water melon, and cube or shred the cheddar cheese.
Wash and drain all the green salad spinner.

Prepare the serving plates by laying down the greens, topped with chopped jicama, apples, blackberries, strawberries, followed by sliced dates, cooked farro, and feta cheese, and cubed pepper cheese and nutty salad topping and pistachios.

Drizzle with desired salad dressing.

Enjoy !!

Photographs by Surekha.

Recipe adapted by Surekha from Chopped salad on menu of Health food restaurant "True food Kitchen"

In Latin America, Mexico has one of the most extensive street food cultures, with about 43% of the population believing that it is not harmful and about 58% eating on the street at least once a week.

Forbes named Mexico City as one of the foremost cities on the world in which to eat on the street.

Mexican street food, called antojitos (literally "little cravings"), is prepared by street vendors and at small traditional markets in Mexico.Street food include tacos, tamales, gorditas, quesadillas, empalmes, tostadas, chalupas, elote (mexican corn), tlyuda, cemita, pambazo, empanada, nachos, chilaquiles, fajita and tortas as well as fresh fruit, vegetables, beverages and soups such as menudo, pozole and pancita. Most are available in the morning and the evening, as mid-afternoon is the time for the main formal meal of the day.

Most of the above listed are available in local Mexican restaurants here. However we always crave for what is not easily available locally. Of all the street foods I love the empanada, elote and the street spicy fruits with Tajin and Chamoy. These are not available here locally where I live.

I first tried the Mango verde (green Mango) with spices in Costa Rica in a local mall there in 2017 at a small stand (Cosual) in food court. (see picture on left) As matter of fact that is the first thing I tried there, then I forgot about it till I visited LA in 2018. There on Santa Monica pier there was this small fruit stand where he was offering these variety of saladsfruits like Mangoes, papaya, pineapple, Jicama, coconut, cantalope, cucumber, watermelon and oranges with spicy mix. I ordered cup of mix of watermelon, Jicama, and mangoes. (see picture below)

Again I came home and forgot about it, did not have chance to try these anywhere on our South American trip or in Mexico either. Recently I visited a long lost friend of mine in West Palm Beach and there in the mall again there was this Kiosk where they were selling these. This time I tried it with combination of Tajin, lime juice and Chamoy sauce. Of course I had to come home and find the Chamoy sauce and try out the recipe myself, as I always have Tajin in my house I usually use it on ripe mangoes, pineapples, watermelon and other fresh fruit.

So what is Tajin and what is Chamoy sauce. You can make Tajin at home and I was thrilled when I found Chamoy sauce made by same Tajin brand. I went to local grocery store and picked up unripe mangoes, ripe papaya and ripe pineapple but forgot the Jicama. That was okay because I tried the recipe and it came out perfect. I bet your mouth can not stop watering as you are looking at these pictures.

These pics are from Costa Rica.

Information I found on Wikipedia on Tajin and Chamoy: what is Tajin and what is Chamoy sauce. Chamoy is a variety of savory sauces and condiments in Mexican cuisine made from pickled fruit. Chamoy may range from a liquid to a paste consistency, and typically its flavor is salty, sweet, sour, and spiced with chilis. Homemade Chamoy sauce is a thing of beauty. This sweet, salty, sour, spicy sauce is an explosion of flavor and completely addictive. Drizzle over fresh fruit, rim your cocktail glass. You can make this sauces at home but why bother when it is readily available in store. However here is a simple recipe for it to make it at home if you can't find it in store.

Recipe for Homemade Chamoy sauce: Ingredients

1/2 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup dried prunes or raisins
1/4 cup dried sour hibiscus flowers
4 dried chiles de arbol dried - optional, for spicy
2 cups water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Tajin seasoning (if can't find it, have recipe below to make it at home)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
3 tablespoons lime juice juice from fresh lime
1/4 cup orange juice

Instructions to make homemade Chamoy sauce:

Add all of the ingredients except the lime juice to a large pan or sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the ingredients soften. They will plump up a bit.
Cool, then transfer to a food processor or blender. Add the lime juice and process until smooth. Thin with water as needed.
Taste and adjust for seasonings.

Enjoy!

Recipe for homemade Tajin: What is Tajin? You can easily get it at local grocery store. If can't find it here is the recipe as it is not difficult to make.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp guajillo chile powder
1 tbsp ancho chili powder
3 tbsp lime powder (See Note 1)
2 tsp Mexican oregano (Mexican oregano is native to Mexico. Unlike Mediterranean oregano, it’s a relative of lemon verbena, with mild licorice and citrus flavors)
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp sea salt
2 tsp mildly roasted cumin seed powder

Instructions:

If using whole dried chiles, remove stems and seeds from chiles and add to a spice grinder or blender. Grind to a powder.
Transfer to a small bowl and whisk in the lime powder, and salt Mix well. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 months.
Serve sprinkled over fresh cut fruit, popcorn, steamed corn on the cob, rim a glass for Margaritas

These pictures are from Santa Monica Pier in LA.

These pics on left are from West Palm beach outlet mall in Florida

Now here is how I made these spicy fruits in my kitchen.

I used following ingredients:

   One unripe mango.
   One ripe papaya
   One ripe pineapple
   Tajin salt
   Tajin Chamoy sauce
   Kosher salt
   Powdered sugar
    Fresh lime juice

Notes/Hints: You can use any fruitswatermelon,melon, cucumber, or Jicama root. You can adjust the amount of spices and sauce to your taste.

So what did is I peeled the mango and papaya, cored the pinapples,cut the papaya and pineapple in small cubes and sliced the mangoes in to thin stripes(if mango is firm enough you can even use shredding or Julienne attachment on your food processor. I just did it with hand as the Mango that I used,even though it was not ripe but was towards a little softer texture.)

I just used two cups of each and used following amount of above ingredients to make fresh serving. You can store the rest of the fruit in fridge and add the spices and sauce when ready to serve.

For each two cups of serving of each chopped cut or shredded fruit you add following:

1 teaspoon of Tajin seasoning.

1 table spoon of Chamoy sauce (or to taste) Pinch of kosher salt (keep in mind the Tajin and sauce both are salty so don't add too much salt)

1/2 teaspoon of powdered sugar.

Lime juice to taste from fresh lime.

Place the fruit and all the ingredients with above spices in a small Tupperware container with lid, close the lid and shake well, until everything is well incorporated.

Serve immediately. Store rest of the cut fruit in the fridge and add mix the spices and sauce when ready to serve.

Now, isn't this totally mouth watering ?

Enjoy !!

I love to write about our travel food taste experiences. Of course I am always open to constructive criticism and open to new ideas to improve my blog. My ultimate dream is to publish this blog in a book with help of Google and Pixi books, so my kids and their spouse can enjoy the recipes that I learned over my life span. Someone just mentioned to me, why don't I write the blog about quick 15-30 min healthy meal recipes, but this is not what my blog is about, you can get tons of 15-30 min meals video recipes on line.

My blog is about my life experiences from my childhood till now: inspired by my parents, who loved to invite people over for dinner. It is about I growing up in different regions in India and then moving here and modifying recipes based on what is available here.

Just like my parents I love having people over for dinner parties and whenever I do, I take of pictures and save them for later to post the recipes when I am off of work, and that is why often times my recipe yield is for 8 or more people.If you find the recipes too large, by all means cut it down to your desired quantity adjusting the ingredients quantity.

Now at this point in my life, my blog is about traveling to different parts of world and trying different food and challenging myself to make the same items that I tried the best closest way in taste and texture.My blog is not about making money off of ads and asking for like and share. I am sure if you like the recipe you will try it and share it with friends.

I am sure if you like my blog, you will visit and check what new recipes I have posted. Thank you ! And Thank you Google for this platform to share my recipes.