Savoury Roasted & Grilled Salads

These are simple salads that I tried out.I desperately wanted to make a strawberry soup but decided to go for a savoury peppery salad and that too after marinating and grilling strawberries.Why grilled -just like that for a change.Also I had one red bellpepper that I wanted to use as well.So I roasted the red bell pepper and eggplant and tossed in chopped fresh tomatoes to obtain another salad in my favourite colour -red.So here are both .

Strawberry Pepper Salad

I know strawberry season is over in India.But I managed to get two small boxes from Kovai where I have been for the last two days on a very short break.They come from Ootty.Whatever it is I managed to make a savoury salad for Lisa 's NCR. This is a simple yet different recipe where I gave a peppery marinade to strawberry and then pan fried them and tossed with other ingredients.

Ingredients:

Strawberries: 10 + sliced

Onion: 1 small quartered

Cucumber: 1 small deseeded and chopped

Cottage Cheese /Paneer : few cubes/tbsps crumbled

Cilantro: few sprigs

Marinade

Soy Sauce: 1-2 tbsp or more

Ginger: 1 small piece

Garlic: 1 clove

Pepper

Salt

ChilliFlakes

Preparation:

Make the marinade by mixing all the ingredients together in a big bowl.Toss the sliced strawberries and quartered onions into this and let the flavours blend for about 30 minutes.

Heat a grill pan or skillet and spread/spray little oil on it.Add in the marinated strawberry and onion and let it grill for 1 minute per side.

In another bowl,toss in the pan fried/grilled strawberries and onion and chopped cucumber and crumbled cheese and chopped coriander/cilantro sprigs.Garnish with more pepper and salt and optionally a tinge of the remaining tangy marinade.

I didnot add any lime juice to the marinade as the berries are already tart.The leftover marinade will be more tangy as it may also include the tartness of berries.So just a tinge of marinade is enough for the salad.If you like a sweeter salad go for honey drizzle.The salad is a twist to the normal sweet strawberry salad and tastes peppery and bit tangy.

Tomato and Roasted Pepper Salad

This is another simple salad that I adapted from the BBC Mediterranean CookBook. I had some leftover red bell pepper which I roasted along with eggplant and onion and tossed in with fresh chopped tomatoes to obtain a salad in my favourite colour -red.

Ingredients:

Red BellPepper: 1

Chinese/Japanese Eggplant (long purple): 1

Red Onion: 1 medium cubed

Tomato: atleast 1 big

Garlic: 1 clove unpeeled

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Fresh Mint

Pitted Black Olives(optional)

Preparation:

In a big bowl,toss together chopped red bell pepper,sliced eggplant,sliced onion and 1 single unpeeled garlic clove with olive oil and salt and roast in a preheated oven at 400F for 15 or more minutes by spreading in a lined/greased baking sheet.

In another bowl,add chopped tomatoes,lemon zest and lemon juice and little salt and pepper.Add in the roasted ingredients and stir in mint and optionally pitted black olives.Serve chilled or at room temperature.

The simple salads are easy to prepare and are a twist on the normal and sweet salads.Both can be served as a side or whatever way you want.The strawberry pepper salad is on way to No Croutons Required: Savoury Berry Edition hosted this time by Lisa .

The tomato and roasted pepper salad is on way to FIC:Favourite an event by SunshineMom and currently hosted by yours truly.

Reminder:Kindly send entries in your favourite colour to FIC:Favourite and I would definitely love to know you through your favourite colour.