Recipe: Cucumber & Peanut Salsa Salad

In the heat of Delhi, its quite a painful process to even attempt any cooking, and also you know that no one has the appetite to eat anything piping hot or heavy.

We end up having lots of milk shakes, lassis and ice cream for lunch alternated by the occassional healthy salad and this is one of those easy to assemble salads if you roast and skin the peanuts in advance. If you have cooked skinned peanuts, then you don't even need to turn on the gas, which is something I dread doing in the afternoon heat.

I also assemble the salad without adding the peanuts (so they don't lose their crunch) and pop it in the fridge for upto a day and mix the nuts just before eating. So the cucumber is really chilled and its even more refreshing on a hot summer day.

Kid's love it, but depending on your child's spice tolerance you may want to balance the chillies.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber - skinned and diced (deseeded if you prefer)
1 small onion - diced (optional)
1 green chilli - finely chopped (deseed, if you don't want it too spicy)
1 handful of peanuts - roasted and  skinned (or boiled and skinned for a different texture)
juice of half a lime (I had some salted green mangoes that I needed to finish off as they were dis-coloring, so I used a few slices of that chopped up - it imparts both a salty and sour flavour)
salt to taste

Method:
Just mix all the ingredeints and serve as is or slightly chilled.
If you want to preassemble: Mix everything upto a day before. Except the peanuts - add those just before serving.
The peanuts are high in protein, so its quite balanced to have as an entire meal.
Or serve it as a salsa side with grilled meat or a salad with Indian food

Options:
You can add a handful of sprouted gram to make it healthier.
Onions give a different taste if added
Personally, I'm not a fan of raw tomato, but its also an option.
Use chaat masala instead of salt

I've submitted this recipe for Kid's Delight - Cool Comforts which is part of Srivalli’s Kids delight event.







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