Indian Chaat meets Tostadas! Cilantro mint lime chutney marinated beans on crunchy tostadas with sweet maple lime sauce and cooling yogurt, are an Indian fusion dish that’s a perfect starter, snack, or even entree! No cook (Options for soy-free nut-free gluten-free)

These no-cook tostadas use canned beans, prepared tostadas, and lots of delicious sauces – no cooking needed! The only cooking you’d need to do is if you are making your tostadas from tortillas. Prepared tostadas are readily available in most grocery stores.

I wanted to make a fun dish with beans, and I took inspiration from chaat, which is a family of Indian snacks or street food characterized by these awesome combinations of different textures and flavors. Especially papri chaat which has crisp crackers paired with mashed potatoes or chickpeas or both and chutneys, sauces and yogurt for a fantastic salad like hearty nachos if you will. Many chaat recipes have crispy, spicy, sweet, and tangy all together. They’re great as snacks or can be a refreshing meal.

I took inspiration from those flavors and textures. Usually, I make this chickpea potato chaat with small crackers, where you take some cooked chickpeas and cooked potatoes, toss them with some spices and chutneys, and layer them with yogurt, more chutneys, and some chopped crunchy veggies.

I turned that dish into this tostada, where we take crispy tostadas and make marinated beans that are soaked in a delicious green chutney, instead of chickpeas, along with cucumber and onion. We top the tostadas with these beans and then add a good drizzle of seasoned non-dairy yogurt and this sweet, tangy, maple-lime sauce to bring all of those flavors together. It’s absolutely fantastic and delicious! The maple lime sauce is a sub for tamarind date chutney. If you have tamarind chutney, use that for more Indian chaat flavor.
Try more Indian salads- Mango Zucchini chickpea Indian spiced oil salad and my Kachumber Salad !

This recipe is very versatile. If you want to control the heat, use less of the green chili, and choose a milder chili.  If you don’t have tostadas, you can make your own! Those instructions are in the recipe notes. If you don’t like cilantro, you can make a mint chutney with more mint leaves instead of the cilantro.

Chutney bean tostadas are just fabulously crispy, zesty, refreshing, and hearty. They are a perfect summer meal!

Why You’ll Love Chutney Bean Tostadas

• perfect warm weather meal or snack – no cooking required!
• incredible combination of flavors and textures! marinated beans, sweet and savory chutneys, creamy cooling cumin yogurt drizzle, on crunchy tostadas
• soy-free and nut-free with easy gluten-free option

Continue reading: Cilantro Mint Chutney White Beans over Crispy Tostadas (no-cook! Papri Chaat inspired)

The post Cilantro Mint Chutney White Beans over Crispy Tostadas (no-cook! Papri Chaat inspired) appeared first on Vegan Richa.

A fully loaded, flavor packed, protein rich summer spinach salad with an umami-packed crisp chickpea hemp seed olive crumble, nutrient dense greens, and creamy, vibrant tahini lemon dressing. A perfect hot weather dinner. (23g protein and 15g fiber per serving, (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, high protein)

This is a fantastically hearty summer spinach salad. It has so many textures and flavors, and it has 80 grams of protein for the entire salad. That’s 20 grams of protein per serving. For a salad!

There is protein from the chickpeas, from the hemp seeds, and from the nutritional yeast in the chickpea crumble. There’s also protein from the tahini in the dressing, the non-dairy yogurt (depending on the brand), as well as a little protein from the greens that you use in the salad. You can amp up the protein even more by sprinkling it with some hemp seeds before serving or adding some of my tofu bacon bits, or other high protein toppings.

The salad has this creamy texture from the dressing, the crunch from the fresh veggies, and crispiness from the chickpea crumbles, which we bake until they’re crispy-crunchy. The umami comes from the olives and the sun-dried tomato, and the refreshing, fresh flavor comes from lemon zest, the cucumbers, and any other crunchy veggies and greens. 

It’s just a fabulous combination of flavors and textures. The combination of tahini and yogurt helps mellow tahini’s strong flavor and makes for a rich, creamy dressing.

Why You’ll Love this Summer Spinach Salad

• incredible combination of flavors and textures! Crunchy veggies, creamy dressing, and savory, crisp chickpea-olive crumble.
• easy to make in about 30 minutes
• packed with veggies and protein
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Summer Spinach Salad with Chickpea Olive Crumble

The post Summer Spinach Salad with Chickpea Olive Crumble appeared first on Vegan Richa.

 Cucumbers are my best friend in summer . I love to munch on some juicy Cucumbers as is or use them in salads or raitas .

Raitas or pachadis are a must have in summer as they cool down the body heat and are comforting on our stomach aiding digestion. 

Across the length and breadth of India ,Cucumbers are an integral part of summer meal be it the Khamang Kakdi of Maharashtra ,Southekaai kosambri from Karnataka ,Vellarikai Kichadi of Kerala or Pahadi Raita from Himachal Region . 

Today , I shall be sharing another favorite recipe using cucumber.  Thayir Pachadi is the South Indian version of raita . We can make thayir pachadi with many vegetables like tomatoes,  sweet potatoes,  ladies finger,ginger etc .

• Sweet potato thayir pachadi
• Dangar Pachadi
• Inji (Ginger) Thayir Pachadi 
• Thakali (Tomato) thayir pachadi 

Inji Vellarikaai thayir pachadi ,is very easy to make and is a No cook recipe.  We will need fresh and tender cucumbers to make this raita . Donot use an over ripe cucumbers as the cucumber won't be juicy and also the seeds will be too mature and rough.

Spice level can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number of chillies used .I prefer to keep the pachadi mild so that the flavor of ginger is lifted up. 

Ingredients 

Pin me up 

 PALAKOTTAI  AND KANI VELLARI SAMBAR

Jack Fruit Seeds have been in use in Indian kitchens since time immemorial , much before researchers found out about their nutritive value and health benefits . My brother's home grown Jack Fruit does not need the customary honey dip since the fruit itself tastes as sweet as honey ! Like always we enjoyed the luscious fruit and collected and saved up all the seeds for future use during this season as well.  

A spicy Sambar with Jack Fruit Seeds and Yellow Cucumber (Golden Cucumber also known as Kani Vellari in Malayalam) with steaming hot rice is the perfect food to enjoy on a cold and rainy day !

The outer shells of the Jack Fruit seeds crack open when they are sun dried . They can be easily peeled and cooked along with dal . Or they can be cooked with the shell , peeled and then added to the sambar.

                                                                                  

                                                                                

Yellow Cucumber - 1 small (Peeled and cubed)

Tamarind - 1 lemon size ball

Salt - 1 1/2 tsps

Tur Dal - 1/2 cup 

Turmeric powder - 1/ 4 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

INGREDIENTS FOR ROASTING AND GRINDING

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Bengal gram dal - 1 tbsp

Red Chillies - 8 ( broken)

Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Grated coconut - 2 tbsps

Sesame oil - 1 tsp

MAKING THE SPICE POWDER

1. Heat half tea spoon of oil in a kadai and roast coriander seeds, Bengal gram dal, fenugreek seeds, and red chillies together till it emanates a pleasant aroma. Add asafoetida and roast for another minute.

2. Switch off flame and add the fresh coconut gratings and roast in the still hot kadai .

3. Allow to cool and grind the roasted ingredients into a smooth powder .

TO MAKE THE SAMBAR

1. Pressure cook the dal adding 1 1/2 cups of water and turmeric powder. 

2. Place a plate with Jack Fruit seeds on top of the dal container so that they get cooked simultaneously.

                                                                                

3. Mash the cooked dal and keep aside . Peel the shells of the Jack Fruit seeds and keep aside.

4. Soak tamarind in warm water and extract the juice adding two glasses of water.

5. Add salt and cook the cucumber cubes in tamarind juice.

6. When the cucumber cubes are soft add the mashed dal and the cooked and peeled Jack Fruit seeds.

7. Mix the ground spice powder with little water and stir into the boiling sambar.

8. Stir and cook till the spice blends well with dal emanating a pleasant aroma.

9. Heat the remaining oil in a seasoning ladle and splutter the curry leaves, and pour it on the sambar . 

Enjoy the Palakottai and Kani Vellari Sambar with steaming hot rice topped with a spoon of fresh ghee!

Enjoy a delightful yellow tomato salad bursting with summer flavour. Make it a celebration of your homegrown produce with this salad with the best citrus dressing. Make some, share some and enjoy the sun.
It certainly feels so special when your garden provides you with a few good summer produce. Since it is a rainy summer this year, we have planted a few tomatoes. One of the varieties we have is the yellow pear tomato instead of the cherry tomato. These are smaller and sweeter and sunshine yellow in colour. To our surprise, this started fruiting as most as soon as the first rains started. So here are showcasing this beautiful produce with summer fresh cabbages and cucumbers.

Ingredients for the easy summer salad

Yellow tomatoes: these are a variety of cherry tomatoes. They are sweet with a burst of that tomato flavour. You really don’t have to go looking for these, cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes will also do the job. If you have extra squishy ones, try our cherry tomato soup recipe.
Cabbage:  sweet and crunch cabbage forms the leafy base for this salad. It doesn’t matter if it is the red cabbage or the sweet white one. You can swap this for lettuce, arugula or mesclun.
Cucumber: Lebanese cucumbers are the plain complement to yellow tomatoes. Since they are water laden, there are lovely to have during summer, especially in a salad.
Seeds: mix the crunch part is the one that makes the salads more appetising. My go-to mix is flax, chia, sesame seeds and hemp. Depending on what you have at hand, just go with the flow. Popped quinoa tastes brilliant in this salad.

Herbs: Herbs add a good freshness to any salad. Since we are picking up some from the garden we have spring onions, gotugola ( Brahmi) and mint from the garden. So today’s batch pick-up goes right into the salad. You can add what you have at hand to brighten up the flavours. 

For the citrus vinaigrette.

Summer certainly is for those strong citrus flavours. This basic citrus vinaigrette has lemon zest, lemon juice, whole grain mustard, grated garlic and grated ginger along with salt. It has no oil added, you can add a teaspoon of olive oil if you like. Do you really need a dressing for this salad, maybe just lemon and salt will do, but it is far nicer with this basic lemon vinaigrette. Since we are using sweet tomatoes,  I have not added sugar or date syrup to them. If you are using this dressing for, say, coleslaw or basic garden salad mix, add a tsp of date syrup.

Putting together a meal

Option 1: The salad is actually a fantastic idea to serve at a BBQ or lunch. Make some crusty toast, and creamy cheese to add to a platter. Don’t forget to keep some chocolate crackles for desserts
Option 2: Pop some vegetable sheek kebabs on the barbecue. Toast up some flatbreads. Whip up some cacik sauce and roll up a kind of Greek gyros.
Option 3: Keep light to follow up with a cold drink, like berry kombucha and then serve some chocolate dessert brownies to make it up.

The recipe card below carries step-by-step guidance to make this easy summer salad. You can directly pin this onto your board to make during the tomato season. Share with us how you feel making this recipe in the comments below with a rating of upto 5 stars

Stay connected

As a home gardener, I get very excited when I see produce come up and the garden active with bees and butterflies. These have an emotional connection to the fruits kind of a sense of joy in their own way. Try your green thumb, you didn’t always have to get it right, but don’t give up.
When you make this yellow tomato salad, whatever type of tomato hope you enjoy the experience. Let us know in the comments how you feel about it and rate the recipe. Don’t forget the citrus dressing is perfect for kidney bean salad or edamame salad.
Stay with us for more, enjoy reading the blog and stay subscribed.