For over 20 years, this vegetable garden has provided beauty and produce for an avid gardener

A summer of traveling doesn't stop this gorgeous garden from thriving and continuing its show into fall

As (slightly) cooler weather starts to arrive in the American Southwest, there’s no reason for garden activities to slow down

This New England vegetable garden proves interest isn't exclusive to ornamental beds

Containers fill and spill with delicious edibles and gorgeous ornamentals started from seed

I was recently watching the Megan and Harry series on Netflix. There was one particular part I actually liked. The friends’ idea for the new year is to set a word. My instant reaction to that was wow,  that’s profound.  Rather than having a resolution that you drop off after a few days,  finding a word that is adding meaning to you in multiple ways sounded far better.
Guess what word I am choosing…after a bit of thought! Imperfect that is my word. As we evolve this year I will share with you how we are taking it forward. For now,  we are starting with imperfect produce. We have imperfect radishes that we are using to make this lesser-known South Indian style preparation.

Prepping the radishes

Radishes or Raphanus sativus, come in long cylinder ones or small round varieties. They have red or white skin. Inside they can be white, variegated or watermelon colour. I choose the small round red varieties to make this dish. The skin is red here and the flesh white. To prep, these, wash them thoroughly especially if they are not in perfect shape. I use a toothbrush to get rid of the mud in the folds. remove the leaves (don’t discard make mullangi keerai poriyal) and trim the root. Now slice the radishes into wedges. Save a few radishes to make our much-loved Radish pear salad with tahini dresssing.

Ingredients to make puli mullangi

Red radishes: prep the radishes as per the notes above. These radishes are crunchy and have a slightly stronger peppery flavour than daikon. Thus goes nicely with the spices added. If you are looking for a low food map option make it with daikon as this has been tested.

Sambhar powder: the archetypal curry powder for anything South Indian is the Sambhar podi. It works for this one too imparting the classic mix of heat from the chillies,  smokiness from the coriander seeds and complexity from the fenugreek.

Tamarind extract:  a thick extract of tamarind is the souring agent in this puli mullangi. This along with the salt and the sambhar podi forms that thick sauce that coats the red radish wedges.

Tempering: spices most South Indian dishes start or layer on with a spice-infused oil. This is created by crackling mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and red chillies in sesame seed oil.
Seasoning: to balance the flavours salt is needed. My mum swears by crystalline salt in anything she wants to keep for a while. This is not the pink rock salt but clusters of sea salt that are not powdered. The flavour this imparts minutely changes depending on the other minerals in it. For acutely trained tastebuds like hers, these are important.

Serving ideas for the radish in tamarind sauce

The puli mullangi is kind of a spicy side dish. You could pair it with a South Indian thali meal. For a simpler platter, I would choose keerai molagutal and puli mullangi with cooked millet.
Fill up a wrap with some cooked beans, stir-fried kalonji rice and pieces for puli mullangi spicy filling wrapped burrito lunch on the go.

Meal prep and saving for later.

The puli mullangi will stay well in the refrigerator for up to a week. In freezer-safe containers, they stay well for up to 3 months. The radishes do go a bit limp but taste fantastic even upon thawing. Save in smaller portions so you thaw only what is needed.

Stay connected

This new year share with us what you think you will be doing. Stay subscribed to see how we are going with our word. Connect with us (instagram or facebook) as we plan to travel a bit more and share new locations and experiences with you.

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.
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