Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Powerless, yet tasty!

I noticed this Powerless cooking event organized by the Simple Indian Food blog a few days ago and interpreted it as concocting a dish that basically used no source of power - including gas! Well, that was a tough one - especially given I was busy using my beater making the dough for some cookies that I was going to stick in the oven. Hmm, no chance of using that as a submission! :)

Well, yesterday was one of those "Not sure what I want to eat" days ... and yet, we didn't want to indulge in super elaborate cooking. After some puttering around, finishing up some dosa batter seemed like the quickest option. Maybe a chutney to go with it? Somehow, that sounded "lame" (usually chutneys are *never* lame! :)) and uninteresting.


And then, I remembered about the powerless cooking event and the obvious idea came to mind - a Southwestern black bean salad! I ended up marinating the vegetables for over an hour so I could get flavours to soak in without any cooking involved - the only reason I even thought the salad might need marinating was because I threw in some squash - never tried that before.


And this went really well with dosas. And with some tortilla chips - they worked perfectly for mopping up the remaining dresssing :)



Southwestern Salad
Nada power, mucho flavour!

Servings: 4

1 small red onion
2 roma tomatoes

1/2 yellow squash
12-15 pickled jalapeno slices

1 can black beans

1 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar

1 t red cider vinegar

a handful of chopped cilantro

salt
1 t red pepper flakes

Dice all the vegetables and toss them into a bowl along with the black beans.

Toss with the olive oil and vinegars.
Season with salt and red pepper flakes.
Marinate for about 1 hour.

Garnish with chopped cilantro before serving.




Off this goes to EasyCrafts!

21 comments:

Shella said...

Quick, easy & very very tempting!!

EC said...

Great entry for the event. Thanks

Lissie said...

very healthy and nutritious salad!

Kribha said...

colorful and good. I'm making a salad too. Will post it tomorrow.

Finla said...

Love the colours and not to mention the fresh flavours

Latha Narasimhan said...

salad looks so tempting! :)Very colourful!

Seema said...

Very easy & healthy one.. Thanks!

Ashwini said...

Nada power? Hahaha - gracias Kaykat. Looks great.

FH said...

Excellent entry Kay. I love salads, specially beans in it!:))

SteamyKitchen said...

I love the idea of powerless cooking!
I think my yogurt qualifies if I leave out toasting of the saffron.

oh but wait. the yogurt needs to sit in refrig. never mind!

Laavanya said...

Yummy salad that is Kaykat... Delicioso.

bee said...

this is exactly the kind of food we whip up often and relish. i don't see the point in elaborate gravies, with or without grinding.

Richa said...

oh yeah! that is one good lookin' salad, never added squash though, sometimes i add finely chopped red bell pepper as well :)

Rajitha said...

looks great...i made something around hte same lines for the event...will post in a few

TBC said...

I totally agree!:-)

Bong Mom said...

MMMMmmmmmmmmm muchas gracias. you did use the gas for the dosa right ?

amna said...

yeah i agree on the tasty part. definitely looks tasty :D

Sig said...

wow, beautiful salad! Hope you are having a great thanksgiving Kaykat!

ServesYouRight said...

Kay Kat - Yum, southwest sound fresh :-)

smita

KayKat said...

Was a good thanksgiving :)

And yes, only used gas for the dosas, good question! :)

Namratha said...

Will totally believe on the mucho flavour part :) Salad looks gorgeous, anything with black beans..I'm ga-ga all the time :-D