- Salads can be made using gourd vegetables such as ash gourd, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, chow chow or any of the leafy vegetables. Alternatively, vegetables grown below the ground like carrot, beetroot and etc can also be used.
- Remember these vegetables have already been cooked by the sun using the chlorophyll principle.So it is better to think of raw salads as ‘fireless cooking’ or ‘sun cooked food’ rather than ‘uncooked’ food.
- Select only fresh vegetables if possible grown in your own backyard.
- Choose organic vegetables if you have that option.
- If not at least try to ensure that they have not been over-sprayed with pesticides or washed in acidic water.
- Cut the vegetables as thin as possible. Clean and wash the vegetables before cutting but do not repeat the washing process after cutting.
- Do not keep the sliced vegetables for long after cutting .Convert into salad as quickly as possible. In particular do not put it back into the refrigerator for storage.
- For converting fresh vegetables so sliced into salads, use onion, curry leaf, coriander leaf, carrot or tomato — choose one or more of these according to your taste. Whatever is chosen should also be cut into thin slices and added to the vegetables.
- In addition to the above ingredients, either of the following two combinations can be used to add taste:
- curd, and coconut scrapings
- lime juice and chilies. Choose any one according to your taste.
- If opting for the first one, minimize the amount of curd used.
- If opting for the second one, make sure all seeds have been removed from the lime before the juice is extracted.
- Finally, add a little salt and pepper to taste: but minimize the quantity of salt. The preparation resulting from this process is surprisingly very tasty – one normally does not imagine that bottle gourd, ash gourd or ridge gourd can ever be so tasty!
- Always, eat salads before the main meals, making them easier to digest.
- Eat the salad slowly, chewing well. Try to enjoy the taste of each ingredient.
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