Sunday, September 17, 2006

Work Picnic Salad

I had to go for a work-picnic thingie and signed up to get salad. Didnt want to do the usual potato thing and had the foresight to soak some chick peas, black beans (rajma) and black eyed peas. Coincidently, on the morning of the picnic I was watching Ellie Krieger on the Food Network and saw this great dressing called Tzatziki. Traditionally it dresses grated cucumber but ince it was so interesting I decided to try it with my combinatio of beans and peas.

Ingredients
1 can each Chick peas, black beans and black eyed peas (or dry peas and beans, soaked for 2 days)
1 cup hung yogurt
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3 tsp lemon/lime juice
6-7 chopped mint leaves (or corriander leaves)
salt and pepper

In a big bowl, put the hung yogurt and olive oil, combine. Put in everything else, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss. You can make it as garlic-y and as lemon-y as you want.

It really came out well and I love the combination of yogurt and lemon. Very refreshing and it set of the beans and peas very well.

Also, hanging yogurt always seems like such a pain and hassle. But the way Ellie did it was really simple. A bowl with a fine colander lined with a paper towel. The paper towel was a really good trick which didnt demand a cheese cloth (i never have it on hand) or the use of one of my dupatta's (ever had pink yogurt?).

5 comments:

Nupur said...

Thanks for your comment, Gunjan! This recipe looks delicious...did you mix the beans with the dressing ahead of time or did you carry the two separately to the picnic?

Alanna Kellogg said...

Hi Gunjan, Welcome to St Louis! I'm doing some work to promote St Louis food blogs and would love to include you, would you contact me please?

Alanna Kellogg said...

Hi Gunjan, Sorry to contact you again (check w Nupur for verification that I'm okay, definitely not a stalker) but dates for two events for St Louis food bloggers are FAST approaching, I'd love to include you. I look forward to hearing from you!

g said...

Hi ak!
I am more than willing and able to participate! I hope you see this message before its too late!

Alanna Kellogg said...

Hi Gunjan, we're trying! What I would like you to do is E-MAIL me ak @ kitchen hyphen parade dot com as I don't want to leave the information on a public site. When you leave a msg here and on my blog too, I have no way to get back in touch w you (no e-mail address). If you prefer, you could also call me, the number is at www.kitchen-parade.com.