Tempting! Links to Delish Dishes and Handy Hints.

It is time to tempt you with another Set of Deliciousnesses. Eat your heart out!

But first, do you do yoga? Are you in part of the world that is coming into Spring? Have a look at this post from Yoga for You on how to reduce allergies due to pollen. Just the time of year for building these into your pranayama and asana practices.

Right Brained or Left Brained?

Do you know whether you are Right Brained or Left Brained? Ideally, it is good to be both. Using the right brain for creativity, ideas, relationships between things, insights, intuition.  Using the left brain to bring things to fruition, put ideas into action, plan, execute, make lists. It is fabulous to watch people with strongly balanced Right and Left brains in action. But for most of us, we prefer to use one side over the other. Which are you? Find out using an amazing visual test at What Why How Where. (The good news is, with practice – albeit long practice – you can bring the hemispheres into balance.)

Salads help the 5+2 equation.

Yesterday I wrote about the problem of 5+2 veggies and fruit. Here are some more way to solve that riddle. (If you are in the UK, apparently you only need 5 pieces in total. Think I will shift to the UK.)

• Straight from the Farm has a wonderful Strawberry Vinaigrette. So luschiously pink. Yum. Make it with the first or the last of the strawberries (depending on the part of the world you are in).
• Lucillian Delights has a fabulous Tomato and Barley Salad. Try also, some Tomato Puri, a wonderful Indian salad snack. From Ruchii. Or Tomato Masala, from Taste of Mysore. Kalyn’s Kitchen brings a tomato and goat cheese salad.
• And Orangette has a wonderful chickpea, lemon and parmesan salad. Both wonderfully healthy.
• Make some sprouts – it is so easy. There are several techniques, some of which I have posted before. But just for a reminder, use a jar this time, from Au Naturel. Or look here for the muslin method, from My Food Blog. Then make her Lentil Salad from the sprouted lentils. Bitter Sweet uses sprouted quinoa in a berried dish for breakfast or dessert.

Veggies help the 5+2 equation.

• Thin, thin zucchini (courgette) strips. From Kalofagas. From the same source, using zucchini with garlic and black olives on linguini with toasted breadcrumbs. Or maybe, stuff the flowers of zucchini with burgul and feta. By Food Junkie. Or with rice and pinenuts, from almost Turkish Recipes.
• More zucchini. This time from Lucullian Delights. Zuchinni and Pepper Cannelloni. Baked. Looks delicious.
• Another way that I mentioned in yesterday’s post was to make your veggies into dips. Here is an example, again from Food Junkie. Muhammara, or a Syrian Red Pepper dip. And Jugalbandi turns tomatoes into a chilli salsa. Red peppers again in a delighful dip for Turkish bread. From Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook.
• Mash veggies together. Try this wonderful cauli, bean and parsnip mash - I had a carrot and parsnip mash for dinner tonight, before I saw this wonderful dish. It will be on my table soon. From Flash in the Pan.
• Pumpkin and Tahini soup? Sure. Try Fuss Free Flavours for an amazing recipe.
• More on Pasta – make beet stuffed ravioli! A crimson wonder, by We are Never Full.
• I never knew what kokum was. Sure, I had heard of it, but never looked into what it was or its background. Read all about kokum, from Aayi’s Recipes.

Lentils actually count as a veggie in the 2+5 equation.

• I am on a spinach kick at the moment. I just love that veggie when it is in season! Wait until I post my Aloo Palak recipe – the spinach sauce is so flavoursome and so simple. In the mean time, enjoy Simply Spicy‘s Mixed Dal with Spinach, using my two most favourite dals. Or a chickpea and spinach soup from Siri’s Corner.
• Then there are oven cooked lentils. Limes and Lycophene has a delish dish that is also a one pot meal! Great at washing up time.
• I am such a sucker for rasam. Oh my, give me several cups full. Here is a Tomato Rasam, straight from India via The Budding Cook. Followed up by Mysore Rasam, from My Food Blog.
• And then there is Crumbled Lentils (Parupu Usli). This looks so amazing. From Archana’s Kitchen.

And then there are Pancakes, and some other Yum Things.

• Ever wondered how to make pancakes without eggs? Try these. M’semmen, from 64 sq ft kitchen. Or what about coconut pancakes? YUM. From Destiny’s Vegan Kitchen. Or some chickpea flour (besan) savoury breakfast pancakes, from Mr Breakfast.
• Not really a pancake,  but a steamed banana-stuffed rice-wrapper delight. Brought to you by Experiments in Kaila’s Kitchen.
• I love black sesame seeds. Not that they taste any different, but they look so dramatic. Here are some Black Sesame Shortbread, all the way from The Sugar Bar.
• Make some Sunflower Date Cookies! From Apartment Therapy.
• Elderflowers are beautiful. I once had a varigated elder bush. The white flowers followed by black berries was a wonderful tree-journey to watch. The flowers also make great cordial, and even gin! Stick to the cordial for the moment, making it with the help of Girl Interupted Eating. And to compliment that – a tea from China. Chrysanthemum Tea, and both Noob Cook and Appetite for China shows us how. AFC also posts on Rose Tea, and then makes Rose Tea Rice Pudding!
• Speaking of tea – I drink an lot of Jasmine Green Tea Balls Tea. Called also Dragon Balls Tea or Buddha Balls Tea. Figs with Bri makes icecream out of them! Check it out.
• Then finish off with some Lemon Fudge. Too good to be true. Thank you, The Well Seasoned Cook.

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