Cucumber Salad with pomegranates and toasted sesame...

Hello... I know i have been pretty slow and irregular with my posts these days. Apologies. This year i have taken on a new project of home schooling my twins along with another little dear. So my thoughts and my entire self seems to be occupied with organising and putting together things at my 'Little School'. (BTW that is the real name of my home school ). So do wish me luck... as i need loads of them.

Well i don't know if i can even write a recipe for this simple cucumber salad... as it is really nothing but assembling few things together. Now i am an out and out salad person and need to have it everyday. So variation and combinations are something i experiment to the ones that i regularly make. This is definitely not from my creative juices but from one of the magazines that i was browsing through while my boys were getting a haircut.



This salad requires very basic and few ingredients from your kitchen. A cool, colourful and crunchy salad with the flavours of mint . With the toasted sesame and sunflower seeds and pomegranate , it gives a certain smoky nuttiness and sweetness making it completely satisfying.

You will need :

3 Cucumbers peeled and diced

1 green chilli finely chopped

1 cup pomegranate seeds

1 cup fresh mint leaves

1/4th cup Coriander leaves chopped fine

salt to taste

juice of one lime

2 tsp white and black sesame seeds

2 tsp sunflower seeds

2 tbsp olive oil to drizzle.

1. Roast the sesame seeds .

2. Toss the cucumber, chilli and pomegranate together. Add the mint leaves and coriander leaves.

3. Season with salt, lime juice, roasted sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. (I skipped the sunflower seeds as i didn't have them).

4. Drizzle olive oil and serve chill.

Pineapple and cucumber Gazpacho..

After a great week of practically no cooking at home,iam happy to return to my kitchen. Well it was a week of birthday and get togethers.

It was P's birthday on the 29th... We badly wanted to go out for dinner with my twin beasts... The summer heat was not one bit inspiring to leave home.... finally we did and decided to go to 'UpperDeck' in 'Fisherman's cove'.. It is a beautiful hotel set on the remote shores of the east coast. It was here that i had this amazing cucumber and avocado gazpacho... God i cant tell u how incredibly comforting it was!!! Since then i have been attacking my cookbooks and churning and chilling various combinations that 'p' left town till iam done with my affair with gazpacho . Today i tried one with Pineapple and cucumber.... It was gorgeous.



I Used ..
2 cups chopped pineapple
2 cups chopped cucumber
1 1/2 tbsp chilli chopped
1 1/2 tbsp scallions chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup of pineapple juice
1-2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olve oil
1/4th cup raw macadamia nuts..

In a blender process 1 cup pineapple and 1 cup cucumber along with chillies, scallion,limejuice,pineapple juice and salt at high speed till smooth.
At this point check for salt and chilli and correct seasoning.

Add the remaining cucumber, pineapple,cilantro and olive oil and just slush it. We want the gazpacho to be chunky. Stir in the nuts and drizzle olive oil and serve chill. I did not have macademia so i used pine nuts which was good too...

enjoy!