Yesterday, I spent a fun-filled, educational morning learning to make Salads. Let me confess that I have grown to love Salads over the years – fallen in love with the mix of colours and come to appreciate the blend of flavours & textures. Although I make them much more often at home than I used to in the past, and often have them as a one-dish meal for lunch, I still stick to a few basic favorites. Attending this workshop gave me a chance to extend my repertoire. Also attending a class like this is enriching in so many ways other than just learning new recipes don’t you think? I mean, you can get a million recipes online, but that one-on-one interaction with fellow enthusiasts, the humour, the banter and of course sharing the fruits of your labour with a great bunch of people is priceless and inspirational!
This is my second workshop with the very talented Nandita. She is a medical doctor, writer, chef and author of Saffron Trail, her blog which focuses on Indian vegetarian cooking and baking, her other passion. The first workshop I attended was called Breaking Bread where we learnt how to…you guessed it…bake bread! She’s a great teacher – patient, funny and experienced. She keeps it simple, is open to suggestions and encourages interaction. She conducts the workshops in her beautiful house with a gorgeous garden where she grows a lot of the ingredients that we used in the salads! Organic goodness 🙂 I hope you take a few minutes to check out her blog (just click on the link above). I promise you won’t be disappointed 🙂
And now to the pictures!! What I really loved yesterday was the fact that I had my 50mm lens with me! Had a field day clicking pics. I love that salads are so colourful and vibrant! Just the pictures guaranteed to recharge drooping spirits 😉 Although I can tell you this – they were even better tasting then they look 🙂
Here goes…
We made 4 salads, learned how to grill fruit, bake croutons, caramelize nuts, ‘chiffonade’ basil and to my great delight discovered the ‘julienne peeler’, a boon to people like myself with minimal knife skills 😛 Another highlight for me personally was when Nandita casually sprinkled a few orangey-gold edible marigold petals on the Chick Pea & Grilled Apple Salad we had made – so frou frou, so moreish!
All in all, a great way to spend a morning 😀
Eat Healthy People 🙂
H is for Happiness 
Frou frou! Moreish! 😀 What a delightful addition to my vocabulary! And now I desperately want a julienne peeler 😦 Kahan se milega pata nahi.
All your new accomplishments sound wonderful! And I’m tickled to learn about the gainday ke phool ki pattiyan…..just the other day I bought heaps of marigold gamlas to repot into big gamlas in my courtyard! Now I know I can eat them too 🙂
Tell me, is Nandita related to Lalita Iyer? Just askin’!
I am a huge salad person, and would LOVE to attend a class, just for the pleasure of learning new ways to make em 🙂 Great post, so vibrant and full of life.
So glad you liked M 😄😄😄 I’m totally living up to my quaintrelle-ness na?!!! That’s the plan!
Do you know…I was just thinking of you and your garden today! I was thinking about friends and how we met because of a gardening post! Ab repotting kar rahi ho tou post some pics…haven’t seen your garden in ages. And in case you want to make a meal of the marigolds remember NO SPRAYING!
You should check out Saffron Trail (the blog). It’s cool. I’m sure there are cooking classes in Karachi…dhoond lo!! I remember your recipe box – I remembering thinking it was so cool. I must really make one for myself!
My mom went through a phase that we laughed at when we were kids where she tried to grow a bunch of edible flowers. Now that I’m older and wiser (haha!), I appreciate that she did this, because I know many more edibles than I would otherwise and the ones I like. I wish it were warm enough here to grill fruit. I LOVE it on a salad. Mmmmm – grilled peaches and goat cheese. Now I want a salad
(Sad because I have no way of getting one for lunch!)
Now I want grilled peaches and goat cheese! Will have to go grocery shopping tomorrow…you could throw together an impromptu salad from stuff in your fridge…in the manner of domestic goddess?! A time was, I would pig out on the dressings, and avoid the veggies in the salad
Have thankfully grown out of that juvenile behaviour…for the most part 😉
I’ve been dithering over taking the plunge into growing stuff…you know…see if I can tame the plant-killer that is moi 😛 Hmmm…
Now is not a salad time of year; I have lots of ingredients for soups, but not salads. Besides, I am fickle. I would make a salad, and then immediately want something warmer 😉 (But the sun is shining brilliantly, and we are going to be above freezing tomorrow!)
Yay!!!! Soup sounds good 😊 Btw…Howz Petey coping with the Big Freeze?
We’ve found a place nearby that works on dog socialization – which is good for us because we want to take him loads of places, but live in VERY rural settings, so he sees few people/dogs. So, the two very coldest days he went there. Otherwise, as long as we keep moving he does well. (Poor little fella shivers if we sit still too long!)
I have a spicy peanut quinoa salad pinned on Pinterest…saw it this evening and thought of you 🙂
Oh that’s good! He’s such a friendly dog! The ‘keep moving’ bit sounds exhausting especially to a couch potato like me! I think I would have curled up in a ball under a mountain of quilts and stayed very still 😛
That salad sounds good! Rather like the spicy tofu salad we made.
You made my day, Harsha. Loved how you summarised the morning and I’m glad i gave you some new ideas to eat healthy 🙂
My pleasure Nandita! Looking forward to the next one 🙂