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Tropical salad and Cucumber sandwiches

I decided to do the GM diet this week and detoxify my system of all the street food that Ive been hogging since I came back to Bombay few months ago. The word "unlimited" fruits and veggies was what caught my eye- as I have no appetite for fasting !

Since today is-"Eat fruits and veggies-as much as you like" Day- my menu was planned as so.

• A salad put together by mixing roasted green peppers (capsicum), segments of sweet lime and watermelon
• Cucumber sandwiches with a twist- Here I used the cucumber slices instead of bread with a surprise spread

Ingredients for Tropical Salad:

2 large green peppers ( capsicums)

2 Sweet limes-deseeded and semented

2 cups of watermelon -deseeded and cut into 1/2" sticks

Few mint leaves

Pepper

Mixed dried herbs ( I used thyme, oregano and basil)

Salt to taste

Method:

Roast the green peppers- either on the flame or using Broil function in Oven. The skin will blister and start to turn brown. After the peppers have turned uniformly brown, put them into a paper bag and seal. This process helps in peeling most of the skin due to the heat in the bag. If you dont have a paper bag handy, just let it cool and peel the brown blistered skin off.

The pepper will be soft and have a smoky aroma. Remove the seeds from within and cut into sticks.

In a bowl, mix the roasted peppers, sweet lime and water melon segments. Toss with finely chopped mint leaves, herbs, pepper and salt.

Serve chilled.

Ingredients for the Cucumber sandwiches:

2 large cucumbers-peeled and cut into rectangles / slices

3 small brinjals / 1 medium sized brinjal ( I used the ones that the store had labelled as Nagpur Brinjals)

2 red tomatoes (i used an extra green tomato)-copped roughly

1 medium sized onion-chopped roughly

4 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 large green chilli

Roast the brinjals as for baingan bharta. Cool and peel off skins. Mash the softened flesh and keep aside

Grind the tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, salt, chilli into a fine paste. Put the paste onto a heated kadai / pan. I didnt use any oil, since the diet asked for it. You may add 1 tsp of oil, and temper some jeera before adding the paste.

On a medium flame, let the paste dry up considerably, before adding the mashed brinjals. At this stage add a pinch of turmeric powder and red chilli powder.

Let the mixture simmer on a low flame till all the liquid evaporates.

Once the mixture cools off-you can either serve it as a dip for the cucumber sticks, or apply it as a spread on cucumber slices. Either way its fun, and this is guilt-free fun!!

Saffron Trail Tip:

To speed up the salad, you may choose to use raw capsicum instead of roasting them.

If you dont have sweet limes, you can very well substitute with oranges.

Remember, the more number of colors you can see on your plate, the healthier your food is ! And here we are not talking about the colors of crockery!!!