Lebanese Beans Salad | How to make Lebanese Beans Salad | Salad Recipes

Lebanese Beans Salad #Recipes

Lebanese Beans Salad is a simple, flavourful salad but is power packed with protein. Beans are extensively used in Lebanese cuisine and this salad is one of the great ways to add some veggies and beans to your diet.

I was very much hoping that I would be able to keep up with my schedule for the blogging marathon this month. I had been taking part in it since last 2 months so that I could keep this blog running. But, this month my schedule went haywire. A little lack of planning on my part and some unexpected writing assignments that came my way kept me busy and this little space was ignored. I am going to make up for it and will be posting my recipes here now.

My chosen theme for week #1 is Lebanese cuisine and as a part of it, I had posted my version of Fattoush Salad and a recipe for Hummus (without Tahini). The third and final recipe for the 1st-week theme is this 'Lebanese Beans Salad'.

Let's check the recipe now.

Lebanese Beans Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup boiled chickpeas
1 cup boiled red kidney beans
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 medium cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
a handful of coriander leaves, chopped
a handful of mint leaves, chopped

For the dressing
Juice of 1 lemon
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic finely crushed
salt and pepper to taste

Process:

1. Mix all the ingredients of the dressing in a bowl and whisk nicely.

2. In a large bowl add the salad ingredients and drizzle over the dressing. Shake well so that the dressing is well incorporated.

3. Cover the bowl and let it rest for at least half an hour in the refrigerator. Take it out, shake it and serve.

Notes:

1. If you are using canned beans, make sure you rinse them well with water before adding to the salad.

2. When using dried beans, soak the beans overnight and cook separately in a pressure cooker till they are thoroughly cooked but not mushy.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#79

Hummus Recipe | How to make Hummus without Tahini | Lebanese Recipes

How to Make Hummus without Tahini #Recipe

Hummus is served in many ways - you can serve it as a dip with pita bread, it is also used as a spread for falafel wraps. For those who are interested in healthy snacking, you can have dollops of it with carrot sticks or cucumber pieces.

When you think Lebanese cuisine, the first dip that is likely to come to your mind is - Hummus.

The basic version of it is typically made with chickpeas, olive oil, seasonings and lemon juice. So, for my second post of BM #79 under Lebanese Cuisine, I am sharing a simple recipe for this ubiquitous dip.

The recipe for hummus I am sharing today is without tahini. Tahini, one of the optional ingredients in hummus is actually sesame paste made with a little bit of oil. I had hummus for the first time when I was living in Dublin and to tell you the truth, I was not very delighted with its taste. For our Indian palate it seemed a little too bland - in my view, the one I had wasn't seasoned well - it could do with a little more salt and lemon juice.

In the versions I have tried at home, I use lemon juice a little too generously. Let's check out how I make the basic version of hummus.

Hummus Without Tahini Recipe

Ingredients:

1½ cup chickpeas, cooked

2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Process:

1. Add everything in a blender jar and start churning; add water as needed to make a smooth paste.

2. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Serve drizzled with little olive oil and lemon juice with carrot and cucumber sticks or with some pita bread chips.

Looking for more Lebanese inspired dishes, check out

Fattoush Salad
Lebanese Bean Salad

Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#79

Fattoush Salad | How to Make Fattoush Salad | Lebanese Recipes | Salad Recipes

Fattoush Salad #Recipe

Fattoush Salad is a Lebanese bread salad - greens, veggies and toasted pita bread pieces are the main ingredients. But, I have never loved bread croutons in my salad and for that reason, I have skipped the toasted pita chips in the fattoush salad I made.

The dressing for fattoush salad has two vital ingredients among others - sumac and pomegranate molasses. Sumac is tangy dried powder made from a kind of Middle Eastern red berry. Pomegranate molasses as the name says is made from pomegranate and is a commonly used ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking. I didn't have both these ingredients at hand, so I made the dressing without them. I have read that these two ingredients can make a lot of difference to the salad and I will surely try them whenever I get to buy them.

I did search about making pomegranate molasses at home and there were many links that said you could make it by cooking pomegranate juice over a low heat for a long time. But, then I am really wary of cooking fruit juices. So, I dropped the idea and went ahead to make my customised Fattoush Salad.

Last month had been an indulgent one for me foodwise. If you have checked my last month's posts, you will notice I posted mostly sweet dishes - brownies, kheer, peda. All that was part of the themes I chose to do for that month's blogging marathon.

But, the result is now seen when I stand on the bathroom scale!

Such is the life of a food blogger - I want to cook all the delicious dishes in the world, but then I have to take some steps back as ultimately I will be on the receiving end.

So, for this month, I decided I would blog about something really healthy. My chosen theme for the first week of BM#79 is Lebanese cuisine. And today I am posting the recipe for Fattoush Salad, albeit a customised one.

Let's check out how I made my Fattoush Salad.

Fattoush Salad Recipe

Inspired from here

Ingredients:

4-5 Romaine Lettuce leaves washed and chopped
1 large tomato, chopped in chunks
1 small cucumber, chopped in chunks
1 small onion, sliced
a handful of mint leaves
a handful of coriander leaves, chopped
1 cup chopped pita bread pieces toasted ( I didn't use)

Dressing:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp sumac ( I didn't use)
2 tsp pomegranate molasses ( I didn't use)

Process:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing in a bowl and whisk nicely.
2. Mix all the salad ingredients except toasted pita bread pieces.
3. Right before serving, add the dressing to the salad. Top it with pita chips (if you like) and serve immediately.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#79

Oats Mathri Recipe | How to Make Oats Mathri | Festive Recipes

Oats Mathri #Recipe

These Oats Mathri are a close cousin of the regular mathri. Mathri is an ever popular deep fried snack that goes well with Indian masala chai. While it is generally prepared with maida/all purpose flour, I decided to make a somewhat healthier version by using oats flour and wheat flour.

After posting sweet dish recipes one after the other here it's time I share something savoury. So, for the 3^rd day of my special day/festival theme in blogging marathon, I am sharing a recipe for these oats mathri. Along with sweets, savoury snacks also have their rightful space in the menu during festivals – be it Diwali or Holi you cannot do without munching on a handful of them.

Looking for some more savoury snack ideas check out these:

Namak Pare
Rice Krispie Chiwda/Puffed Rice Chiwda
Masala Peanuts

Using different types of flour in cooking is quite in trend these days. So, I decided to make these mathris with oats flour and whole wheat flour. Without much ado, let’s check how I made them

Oats Mathri Recipe

Ingredients

2 cup oats flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp ajwain

1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

3 tbsp oil

1 tbsp crushed kasuri methi

About ¼ cup to ½ cup water for the dough

Oil for deep frying

Process:

1. In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients and using water little by little knead a firm dough. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Divide the dough into 4 balls. Roll each dough balls 1/8 inch thick and using a cookie cutter cut out circles of the dough. Poke a couple of holes in them and transfer the circles to a clean plate. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
3. Heat oil in a pan for deep-frying. When the oil is hot enough deep fry mathri in batches in hot oil turning them in between. They are done when they are light brown in colour on both sides.
4. Transfer them on a kitchen towel so that excess oil is soaked out. Once they are cooled store in airtight container.
5. Enjoy with a cup of hot masala chai.

Notes:

1.       I churned rolled oats to get oats flour.

2.       Poking holes in the rolled circles ensure that mathri will not puff up like a puri when deep fried.

3.       Keeps well for 2 weeks when stored properly in an airtight container.

4.       The dough should be firm. A soft dough will not yield crisp mathri.

Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!

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Instant Peda Recipe | Peda Recipe with Milk Powder and Condensed Milk

Instant Peda #Recipe

 Peda Recipe with Milk Powder and Condensed Milk

Peda is rich milk fudge flavoured with cardamom or saffron. It is also one of the favourite sweets of Lord Ganesha. So, it sells like hotcakes during Ganesh Chaturthi.

For the 2^nd day of Week 4 of Blogging Marathon under the theme ‘Special Day/Festival’, I am posting the recipe for this much loved Indian sweet – Peda.

Traditionally Peda is made with khoya and sugar. Making khoya from milk is a painstaking process where you have to heat milk on low flame for a prolonged time so that all the liquid from the milk evaporates, leaving behind a dense and rich khoya. My mom makes peda from scratch and it is really a long process. You have to be really patient to make it that way.

The recipe I am sharing today is quite instant – by using milk powder and condensed milk you can prepare delicious peda in just 15 minutes. I browsed a lot of YouTube Videos before finally trying it out.

The first time I tried it, I heated the mixture little longer than necessary, so they came out little hard – but they tasted good nonetheless. So, I tried it again and this time they came out semi-soft but not soft like malai peda. But, they were good enough.

Instant Peda Recipe

Ingredients:

200 g milk powder

200 g condensed milk

3 tbsp ghee

4 cardamom pods, crushed and finely powdered

Process:

1.       In a non-stick pan on medium flame add ghee. To it add the milk powder and condensed milk and using a spatula stir well such that the mixture is uniform and well mixed.

2.       Keep heating the mixture on medium heat for about 10-12 minutes and using the spatula keep tossing and turning the mixture as it cooks.

3.       Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Take it off heat. At this point, the mixture should resemble smooth soft dough.

4.       Take the dough out into a clean bowl and let it cool down a little.

5.       When the dough has cooled enough to handle (but not completely cold), grease your palm with little ghee and form small bite-size balls.

6.       I used terra cotta moulds to get the design impression on the peda. If you have such moulds, you can do the same. Else you can just flatten the balls a bit and put a finger impression.

7.       If you like you can garnish them with chopped pistachios.

Notes:

1.       These pedas were semi-soft with a chewy taste – but not soft like malai peda. If you like these a little hard, you can heat the mixture for another 5 minutes.

2.       It is very important to keep stirring the dough while cooking, else it can get brown.

Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!

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Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#78