Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Grilled Pepper Salad with a Herb Dressing

This is a simple salad where I grilled red and yellow bell peppers along with paneer,onion,baby corn and pineapple adding salt,pepper and little zather powder and then tossed it ina simple herb dressing made ith coriander,mint,green chilly,cashew,ginger and garlic.Or in other words,chutney- like or pesto-like dressing.

Ingredients:
Red bell pepper: 1 big
Yellow bell pepper: 1 big
Baby corns: 2-3 medium size
Paneer cubes: 1/2 cup or more
Pineapple: cubed 1/2 cup +/-
Onion: 1 big

Dressing:
Cashew Nuts: handful: 2-3 tbsp
Coriander: 1 small bunch
Mint: atleast 15 medium leaves or as per taste
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 1-2 cloves
Greenchilly: 1 medium size

Salt
Pepper
Za'atar/Zather (optional)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

Preparation:
Dressing:
Soak cashew nuts in water for atleast 15 minutes.Grind all the ingredients with little salt to obtain a fine paste adding little water as needed.It looks like....

Salad:
Chop the salad ingredients into squares or medium size pieces.Chop the babycorn into medium size pieces diagonally.Cube the paneer and pineapple .Toss all the pieces with salt and pepper and optionally zather/za'atar.This is a middle eastern spice and I used it as I had it with me,but it is optional and I used very little quantity that it can be easily missed.


Thread the tossed veg,cheese and pineapple pieces into presoaked wooden skewers.


Grill/broil in a preheated oven at very high temperature for about 10 minutes by placing in a lined and greased baking sheet.I set the temperature at 230C/450F.Simply use the broil function in your oven if you have it.Else you can simply use your grill pan/tawa and grill it on stovetop.

Once you toss the ingredients with salt and pepper,make sure you grill them right away or after sometime you can see that some of them start sweating and release water which makes the paneer/tofu soggy and crumbles it.So to avoid this ,grill them right away or you can skewer the veggies first and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.Either way make sure the veggies are properly salted.

Toss the grilled items together with little dressing (2-3 spoonfuls),olive oil,lemon juice and additional salt and pepper.

Serve in individual bowls with extra dressing on the side as needed.

Hearty Salad can be served as a nutritious side.You can add whatever veggies you find compatible with this dressing to this like potato,apples etc and also toss in cooked pasta to make a more filling dish.You can optionally add green beans or green peppers,which I have avoided as they clash with the dressing and the entire salad may look overly green. The dressing if extra is there then can be refigerated for later use and can also be used as a marinade sauce for vegetables/meat.Also instead of paneer tofu can be used.

Serve the salad at room temperature or hot.

The hearty bell pepper salad is on way to Jacqueline's NoCroutons Required: Bell peppers

23 Comments:

Sunanda said...

Salad looks healthy and delicious...

Shaista Tabrez said...

salad is making my mouth water...

Nithya said...

This looks absolutely tempting and healthy.. wish I could have them right away :)

Indian Khana said...

Thats looks gud and interesting..perfect

Recipeswap said...

I'd love to eat anything that looks so colorful.

Usha said...

This is such a healthy colorful salad!

Red Chillies said...

very clever idea. I have some peppers and I am going to broil them today with some onions as well!

Vaishali said...

I'm not a huge salad fan, but I could definitely go for a grilled veggie salad. Love how you grilled the veggies on skewers-- delicious!

Soma said...

yaaa for grilled peppers, nuts, mint zaatar, & olive oil & every thing else. You have a group of very delicious ingredients going on here.

Soma(www.ecurry.com)

Yasmeen said...

Hearty skewers made me totally hungry,its almost dinner time and I didn't cook anything interesting.

Sanghi said...

Looks great!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous salad..colorful and truly healthy..

Purva Desai said...

Colourful and healthy salad....

Priya Suresh said...

Wow colourful and healthy salad!

Priya Narasimhan said...

looks like a must try salad..heard from lubna that you too are from bangalore.. :-)

Aps Kitchen said...

Ne thing in salad eters my small tummy very well... Loved it....New to ur blog..nd wil love visiting more :)

Unknown said...

grilled salad with herb dressing soundsgreat sweatha yummmm

lubnakarim06 said...

Oh wow love that grilled pepper salad.....looks yum.....

Bombay Foodie said...

What a lovely combination of flavors. I can eat grilled pineapple with anything, really!

Unknown said...

Salad looks colorful and fresh!

Priya Suresh said...

Sweatha, got something to share with u,pls collect it from my blog, u really deserve it..

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