Thursday, February 21, 2013

Healthy Dinners in a Jiffy


Continuing the healthy trend, we have been trying new things for dinner too. We usually don't have rice for dinner, and it sometimes gets monotonous to eat dosas, idlys, or rotis. So we decided to give dinner a healthy spin. Also, eating cold salads on chilly winter nights is not too appetizing, so here are two options for warm salads.
Crispy Lettuce Wrap Tacos
Ingredients (Serves 2)
Lettuce leaves – 4
Corn – ¼ cup
Bell peppers cut into long strips (mixed colors)
Onions cut into long strips
Guacamole as required (recipe given below)
Method
Heat a grill pan or regular pan, and grill the onions and capsicum until they get tender. Throw in the corn and let it also get some light grill marks.
Wash the lettuce leaves and keep ready. Take a few pieces of bell peppers, onions and corn and fill the lettuce leaves. Top with fresh guacamole and indulge. Bon Appétit.
Recipe linked to Food on Friday at http://caroleschatter.blogspot.com/
Grilled Vegetable Burger
A local burger place has an awesome vegetable burger, which is the inspiration for this creation. Instead of using a vegetarian patty, they stack thinly sliced grilled, seasoned vegetables and cheese and serve them between toasted buns. My variation, same stack of vegetables, minus the cheese and buns.
Ingredients (Serves 2)
Eggplant slices – 4 (from large eggplant)
Thinly sliced green and gray zucchini – 1-1 ½ cups
Thinly sliced bell peppers – 1 cup
Thinly sliced onions – ½ cup
Guacamole as required (recipe given below)
Spice mix – salt, chili powder, garlic and herb seasoning mix (optional)
Method
I recommend using a grill pan for this (for those awesome grill marks on the vegetables), but regular frying pan will work fine too.
Heat a pan, on medium heat, and start grilling the eggplant first. Sprinkle some of the spice mix on both sides. Because we are trying to eat healthy, I did not use any oil. But you can use some if you wish. As the eggplant starts cooking, start grilling the remaining vegetables. Sprinkle some of the spice mix on the vegetables too. Toss the zucchini and peppers to ensure that they don’t burn. Once all the vegetables are tender, place one piece of the eggplant on a plate, assemble the vegetables on it, top with a dollop of guacamole and cover with the second piece of eggplant..and dig in. Bon Appétit. 

Guacamole
Ingredients
Avocado – 1
Finely chopped onion – 2-3 tbsps
Finely chopped tomato – 2-3 tbsps
Lemon juice to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro (optional)
Method
Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh. Mash it with a fork, add the onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper and lemon juice and mix well. Mix in the cilantro and enjoy.
Note:
I used my vegetable peeler for slicing the zucchinis. They came out really well, slightly uneven, but good enough to for the burger. 
You can use any vegetables of your choice. Play around with a variety of squashes to suit your palates.



13 comments:

  1. wow,great way to remain healthy,yummy n colorful!!

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  2. Love both dishes. I always grilled vegetables for sweet taste.

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  3. You got me on that guacamole, loved the wrap my kinda quick fix lunch and I do roast it too

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  4. Thank you, Sukanya. We love guacamole too.

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  5. I love lettuce wraps. They work so well and you can use them for any bread you like. Love to cut the carbs and make it a light enjoyable dinner.
    Love Ash.

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  6. Thanks Ash. Carbs are delicious..but we didn't miss it with this meal :-)

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  7. Thanks for leaving a note on your presence, I hope you found something useful when you stopped my blog. I loved browsing through your blog too. Nice work!
    That's definitely a delicious combo of vegetables that sounds crunchy and healthy.

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  8. Your blog was definitely useful, Vimala. Thanks for dropping by.

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  9. Aparna, thank you for joining in the fun on Food on Friday. Ole!

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