Sweet Potato, Quinoa & Black Bean Salad

This is a delicious & very colorful salad!!  The recipe is taken from 500 Quinoa Recipes by Camilla V. Saulsbury which has a whole wide range of recipes! It’s a very well written book – waiting to try out more recipes!  The recipe makes 4 main-dish servings. 

Sweet Potato, Quinoa & Black Bean  Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into ½ in cubes

3T extra virgin olive oil

1T chili powder

1.5 c cooked quinoa (1/2 c quinoa cooked in 1 c water = 1.5 c cooked quinoa)

1 large red bell pepper chopped

½ c thinly slices green onions

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed

1T ground cumin

3T freshly squeezed lime juice

1T liquid honey or agave nectar

Sea Salt (or regular) & freshly ground pepper

·        Preheat oven to 400F.  In a large rimmed baking sheet, lined with foil & sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Gently toss together the sweet potatoes, 1T olive oil, chili powder & sea salt & fresh ground pepper.  Spread in a single layer on the baking sheet & roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown & tender.  Cool completely.

·        In a large bowl combine the sweet potatoes, quinoa, red pepper, green onions & beans.

·        In a large bowl, whisk together the cumin, lime juice, honey and 2T of olive oil. Add to the salad mix & toss gently to coat.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.

The Exotic Kulfi Simplified!

Kulfi (pronounced Kool-fee) is a delicious dairy dessert from the Indian subcontinent.  It is traditionally made by boiling whole milk, stirring it continuously to reduce it to a thick consistency & then adding crushed pistachios, powdered cardamom seeds, sugar & saffron & freezing them in little earthen pots or aluminum molds to make a heavenly frozen dessert!

I like this recipe because it is supremely flexible! No need to slave over a stove, this recipe is quick and simple. You can use different kinds of nuts or no nuts, use a little fruit like mango to creatively add flavor, go fat free & if a company comes up with sweetener-based condensed milk, this could be a good option for diabetics.  So here you go…

Ingredients:

1)       2 cans of fat free evaporated milk

2)     1 can of sweetened condensed milk

3)     2 slices of white bread, edges removed

4)   1 tsp cardamom seed powder or coarsely crushed (optional)

5)    A couple pinches of saffron (optional)

6)   2 tbsps crushed pistachios (or almonds or cashews)

Method:

Tear up the bread as finely as possible.  Add all the ingredients to a mixer and run the mixer on medium speed for 2-3 mins.  Pour into popsicle molds or a glass pan & freeze & enjoy!!

The molds & the final product!