Beet Salad

In the last month, I have made different variations of this salad maybe 5 times. It is very easy and soo delicious. It is great addition to any dinner party. Goes great with meat and rice...

It is also very good for you. They say the more colorful the vegetable is the better it is for you. No lack of color in this one for sure...

Ingredients:

2 medium size beets

1/2 lemon's juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 clove of garlic (mashed)

small bunch of parsley (chopped)

Salt to taste

For a different variation;

- an orange

- hand full of pitted kalamata olives

First thing you do is to put your gloves on.... This is the most important step, otherwise your hands will be red red red, that will not come out for a while...

Then you skin the beets and cut them into pieces like in the picture. The you put the beets in a pot with nothing else, no water or salt. Cook the beets in low heat for 15 minutes. Then let them cool off.

Add the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and garlic and mix it up. Then you can pretty much put this in the refrigerator until you serve it. You can definitely make this dish the day before. I think its is even better if you cook it the day before.

Before you serve it, add the chopped parsley...

The picture below is the version with an orange, chopped black olives, and less parsley than usual.

I think it very very good just with the parsley but you can make it fancier with the orange for sure...

Enjoy...

Eggplant salad

I have made this salad last week when we had some friends over. It was a big hit. It is also very very simple to make.

Ingredients
2 large eggplants, cut up
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil to roast the eggplants
For the dressing:
4 tablespoons of olive oil
small bunch of fresh mint, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tahini (roasted sesame seed paste)
1/2 lemon's juice
1 clove of garlic, mashed
Salt and pepper to taste


Cut the eggplants into cubes. Brush the baking sheet with olive oil. Place the eggplants with the skin down (The one in the picture was my first try, the second time I did the skin down and it worked out better)
Then put the rest of the olive oil to a bowl and brush the eggplants by dipping the brush to oil and then brush the eggplants. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roast the eggplants in the oven for 20-25 minutes (400). You may need to keep it a little more depending on your oven.

Then in a bowl mix all the dressing ingredients. Place the eggplants in  plate and let it cool at room temperature.

Spoon the dressing on eggplants right before you serve. It is a healthy and delicious side dish to any meal.

Fried zucchini and peppers with yogurt sauce...

This is a very simple dish but it is soooo delicious. It gets even more tasty if it sits in your refrigerator for a day.

First thing to know about this dish; It is served room temperature or cold, right out of the refrigerator. Do not warm it up especially after putting the yogurt sauce on it.

Ingredients
3 zucchinis
1 lb sweet peppers
Sunflower oil
1 cup plain yogurt
1 clove mashed garlic
Salt to taste
Red peppers

It is a simple dish because it is simply fried vegetables. I had 3 zucchinis. I sliced them up and fried them in sunflower oil (half an inch of oil in a large pan). I think what makes this dish so tasty is the type of oil you use. You need to use sunflower oil. Any other oil will not taste same...

I fried them outside, on our grille's burner.

Then you put them on a paper towel until they are cooled off.

For the peppers, I used sweet peppers that I bought from the Korean grocery store. You can use any type of pepper really. If they are big peppers, just slice them up.

Then you mix 1 cup of plain yogurt with a clove of mashed garlic and salt to taste. Spread the yogurt sauce on top and sprinkle with some red peppers.

Enjoy...

I took two small bowls to friends; one of Sude's coaches and a neighbor. They both loved it.

The rest was mine... I love to eat this with toasted sourdough bread. Yummy...