Red in all its glory-- citrus Israeli Salad!

It was a lazy lazy weekend. With an even lazier monday morning :)  The sky is overcast, it is misty by the ocean, and there is a chill in the air. The mountains in the distance wears a crown of low slung clouds. How can it be a busy morning. Nature seems reluctant to start the week :) How can a mortal like me fret about numbers and data? :(  Such days call for comfortable coco, warm socks , a deep armchair and a book about pirates and the Indians :) On such days, do I miss cambridge, MA. The fall. Sigh...

But food wise it is quite a different story.  Its wonderful to sit by my desk and write on my laptop. So lets perk up a bit with some nice smelling, flavorful recipe! Okay..what can I write about today? Yes a colorful, mediterranean salad. Yes.! that will do it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it. But I shall sometime today and then we will have all the colors that this post would be lacking till then :)

I learnt making lovely salads from my Israeli roommate, Tamar. I love Mediterranean salads. The real ones. Learnt from real people :) and it turns out that the most important component of Israeli salad are cucumbers, tomatoes and onions--much like in India. In fact in India if you wanted a salad-- it is probably the only thing you might end up getting!! But its super heathy and nothing is as flavorful as that. With a dash of fresh lime juice and some black pepper. Ahhh.....

Today, however I am going with a red colored salad. Red. Different shades of it. I made it sometime back, when I invited my friend, Celli, to dinner. She could not believe the riot of colors. It was really nice. So here it is today

Salads!

Ingredients:

Any veggie you can find that is a variant of red, orange or purple or at best yellow :)

2 bell pepper-- one red and the other yellow. No greens please. Remember its all red!

2 big carrots

half a head of red cabbage.

5-6 radish

7-8 small tomatoes halved. If you are using regular tomatoes, just a medium size would do.

1 big apple

1 orange-- peeled

Okay I can't remember anything else that might be red. But feel free to keep adding.

4 green onions-- the only green we are gonna use to make it look pretty.

3-4 tsp extra virgin olive oil.

juice of half lemon-- freshly squeezed

1/3 a cup orange juice

a big handful of cranberries. You can also use raisins instead of or together with the crans

7- 8 olives optional.

1 tsf honey

salt and pepper for seasoning

Now there isn't really much to do other than cut and toss!

Chop up all your veggies and fruits to chunk sizes. Keep the cuts similar so that they look pretty. Here is a little tip:- Shred the carrots, preferably in a grater.  And with the tomatoes scoop out the seeds. Will keep your salad crispy. Place em' all in a big big salad bowl. Whisk together the oil, lemon juice, orange juice and honey. Pour it all over the salad. Add the cranberries or raisins and the olives. Toss everything together.  Season with salt and pepper. Chill for  a few hours before serving.

God! the colors the come out! healthy and so  so so pretty. Oh! did you know red color indicated richness in carotene- a vitamin essential for your eye health?

happy eating, healthy living and what's life without some colors!

Pictures forthcoming