Quick & Easy Summer Meals
I receive many e-mail requests from visitors to blog recipes for pregnant and post-pregnant women, toddler recipes, lunch-box recipes, 30 minute Indian meals, tiffins, party recipes, how to cook for more than 50 people and many many more. I usually blog about the food our family eats and its very difficult to cater to the many requests of my dear readers and visitors.
Recently, I received two e-mail requests from my readers asking me to blog quick and light summer meals/recipes and ideas. Its hot and humid here in Vizag and past few days have been very light and easy on the stomach kind of meals. I find my appetite diminishing during this season and crave for light meals. I complied all the images of meals we had this past week into a single post - 8 simple, quick, light and healthy (calcuim-rich) summer time meals. They are by no means authentic or traditional but healthy nevertheless. (Not all are complete balanced meals and I prepared them depending on what we had for breakfast)
Carrot - Raw Mango Sesame Salad : Sliver carrot, mango and cucumber. For salad dressing: Dry roast sesame (til) seeds for 3 mts on low-medium heat. Combine toasted sesame seeds, 1 dry red chilli (de-seed and tear), 1/2 tbsp jaggery syrup and 1 tbsp peanut powder and pinch of salt. Toss the carrot, mango and cucumber slivers in this dressing and serve. I served this salad with a glass of panakam (cardamom flavored jaggery water). (Vegan recipe)
Vegetable (Roti) Rolls: For vegetable filling: Finely chop cabbage, capsicum, onion and grate carrot. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add the finely chopped onions and fry for 3 mts. Next add rest of the vegetables and toss them they turn slightly soft, approx 4-5 mts. Add freshly ground black pepper pwd and salt to taste. Prepare rotis and roll them with the vegetable filling. I served them with papaya and a glass of majjiga/buttermilk. (Vegan recipe, replace buttermilk with any drink of your choice)
Sesame flavored Vegetable Noodles: Boil noodles, drain, run through cold water, toss them in oil and keep aside. Prepare a mixture of 1 tbsp soya sauce, 1 1/2 tbsps toasted sesame seed powder, 1 tsp ginger, salt, black pepper powder, 1 1/2 tbsps honey and 1 tbsp vinegar and keep aside. Heat sesame oil in a wok, add spring onions and chopped garlic and toss them on high flame for a minute. Add carrot, capsicum, cabbage and french beans (juliennes) and toss them on high flame for 2-3 mts. Add the prepared soya sauce mix and combine well with the vegetables. Add the noodles and combine while tossing. I served the noodles along with a glass of mango juice. (Vegan recipe)
Vegetable Paneer Salad: Finely slice onions and capsicum. Chop paneer, cabbage, cucumber, french beans, carrots and tomatoes into small pieces. (I blanched beans and cabbage for a minute). Combine all of them in a large bowl. Prepare a dressing of curds/yogurt (with water drained), sweet mango chutney (teepi magai, the recipe of which I will blog in another post), roasted cumin powder. Combine this yogurt dressing with the vegetables along with coriander leaves and adjust the salt. I served this salad along with a glass of watermelon juice.
Egg Cashewnut Salad: Boil eggs, remove shell, quarter each egg and keep aside. Soak few cashewnuts in water for 5 mts. Heat olive oil in a vessel. Add curry leaves, chopped onions, slit green chilli and toss them for a minute. Add pinch of turmeric powder, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala pwd and cashewnuts and combine. Add the quartered eggs and toss. Turn off heat, garnish with chopped coriander leaves. I served the egg salad along with a bowl of mixed fruits.
Methi Carrot Rice: Cook rice and keep aside (this recipe is for 3 cups of cooked rice). Grate carrot, chop beans finely and wash methi leaves. Heat a kadai and dry roast 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tbsp sesame seeds, 1 tbsp channa dal, small cinnamon stick and few black pepper corns and make a fine powder. Heat oil in a vessel, add curry leaves, carrot, beans and methi leaves and cook them for a few minutes. Add the ground powder, salt and combine. Add the rice and combine with this mixture. I served this rice with cucumber and tomato raita. (Vegan recipe and replace raita with a dish of your choice)
Beetroot Chickpea Salad - Soak chickpeas overnight, drain and cook till soft. Grate beetroot and chop cucumber into small pieces. Heat olive oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add split black gram dal and let them turn red, add curry leaves, green chilli and pinch of hing. Turn off heat and combine the seasoning with cooked chickpeas, beetroot and cucumber pieces. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and a dash of lime. I served it along with a glass of majjiga/buttermilk. (Vegan recipe, replace buttermilk with any drink of your choice)
Tender Coconut Water & Coconut Meat - Remove the tender coconut meat with the help of a spoon off the shell of the coconut. Sprinkle some brown sugar or grated jaggery and serve along with tender coconut water. (Vegan recipe)
I hope to share sandwich recipes that are child-friendly that I usually prepare for breakfast or an evening snack.
By sailu • Apr 21st, 2008 • Category: All Recipes, Lunch Box Recipes, Salads & Raita Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
what a lovely array!! especially love the paneer salad. bookmarked of course
Lovely list of summer foods.
I am planning to try a few of them at the summer picnic we are planning in a few weeks!
Thanks
excellent ones sailu…all of them looks great…now how about we coming over there..:)
lovely ideas…so wonderful for this heat!!
hi sailu,
Excellent one’s. I am planning to try few of them. can u also post some good mocktails?
how should carrot juice be made without loosing its nutrients?
Wow what a great list! my menu for this week is set now
thanks Sailu
Egg and cashewnut - that’s really unusual. And the beetroot, channa too!
ahh! so many salad recipes.. very simple too. i have bookmarked this recipe page
Those are some great ideas for summer salads/meals. I like 3, 4 and 7.
Love the color of 7. I’ve never tried adding beetroot to chickpeas before.
I Love the sesame carrot salad Sailu, perfect cooling crunch for a warm day! Lovely list of quick meals, thanks for the tips.
So many summer recipes… looks lovely…. Tender Coconut Water looks so cool…. beetroot and chickpeas salad sounds so different… never tried before…..Nice recipe to try…
What lovely dishes! All of them looking delicious.
Love all the salads.I have bookmarked
hi sailu garu,
i tried senaga pachaid this morning with idlies and it is very tasty and can you tell me if saggu biyam payasam is high in calories? my body is a very heat body, can you post some body coolant recipes please and todays summer recipes are very helpful to me.
thanks sailu garu.
clap clap clap !!! Very very nice - All the meals look fabulous and easy !!!
Great summer Recipes Sailu garu!! Love the carrot mango salad!!
love all ur recipes.nice pics too
Thats a great list and lovely photos!! Thanks for sharing!
Superb recipes!! Awesome pictures. Loved this post.
What a delightful collection of recipes! Especially loved your salads!
Hi Sailu
Love ur recipes.am telugu but born and brought up in chennai,now in usa.
I shd say I never knew tht andhra recipes can be this tasty.You rock!
keep posting more and more fantastic recipes.
3 cheers to u!
lovely dishes. delicious salads.
COOL recipes, with great presentation!!!good work sailu garu.
Thanda Thanda cool cool recipes Sailu.. a real treat to our eyes!!! all of them looks so appetizing and healthy..:D
Siri
Loved all your easy dishes! Beautiful presentation too. I have my eyes fixed on the beetroot chickpea salad, noodles, methi carrot rice. Awesome!
That’s a myriad of interesting dishes..all new to me…
Excellent recipes. The betroot and chickpeas combination sounds amazing. What a great cook u are. I love your blog , pictures and the way you describe.
Thanks for the inspiration Sailu!!!!!!!!
Sailu those are such lovely dishes.. loved it.
Sailu, pleasing to eyes..good on tummy n great for health!All of them are too good and you hv made it sound so simple..thks for boosting, shall attempt them for sure!Thank you!!
Hello sailu all ur recipes r just soo amazing… loved them.. i liked the beetroot and chickpea salad a lot…:)
hey sailu i have mailed u earlier regarding adding my blog to taste of india. i didnt get a reply mail from u about the feed link i sent u… please can u kindly help me with the same i am kind of confused… i wud really appreciate ur help in this..:) thanx in advance.
Hello Shubha, could you please leave your concern at TOI - Bugs/Feedback? You need to aggregate your feed (use feedburner) before submitting to TOI and there seems to be a problem with your blog feed URL. Leave your feed URL at TOI - feedback form.
Awesome receipes, tooooooo healthy, wish we can have more quick receipes which helps in weight management
Thanks so much for posting these really healthy and light recipes - just the ticket for the blazing heat in Delhi! The beetroot salad is definitely going to be a part of our salads!
Sailu
We are still patiently waiting for summer here. I loved each and every dish you make. Beetroot and chickpeas looks so vibrant
thanks sailu, its great and helpful to me. thanks a lot, please send more recipes.
lovely recipes.. the photos are so good! am here after a long time and really love your detailed, regular postings..
Hi Sailu,
Cool recipes for this summer, the pics are too much!!
I am actually on diet right now, all these recipes will help me a lot.
Thank you
Wow! Really nice ones. Definitely must try these. Thank you so much
awesome…..am just gonna indulge myself in them….lovely…I badly needed such summer recipes..
Just to let you know that I made the Sesame flavored Vegetable Noodles (albeit with Soba noodles) and they turned out awesome. Thanks for a very flavorful, healthy, quick and easy summer meal.
Wonderful group of recipes, Sailu! Each one looks better than the one before…
Hi Sailu,
I would say yum yum to your dishes……very interesting to read. Like the egg salad, I think addition of pepper makes even better. You are one healthy woman ………..:-)
cheers
rajani
hi sailu…
great recepies !!!!!!! sooooo much to learn… sure will keep trying & trying……
KEEP IT UP. !!!
Cheers…
jothi senthil
Hai Sailu, I’m Punitha. I am amazed and wonder at your talent, Sailu. No doubt, You are too gifted !!! How lucky we are??? THANK YOU MAAAA.
Awesome awesome recipes!! I have been meaning to ( for the past 6 months) go on a salad diet for a week , just to detox…and only now do i feel comfortable about doing it.Thank to all the wonderful salad recipes you have here!! Thank you so very much! I <3 your blog!
Love,
Indian Girl