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Gardening, especially growing fruits and vegetables has never been my ‘thing’! I am notorious among my family and friends as a person with black thumb who even managed to kill succulents! I am that bad! A complete contrast to my very keen and green gardener parents who have a lush and lovely garden back home growing flowers of every colour, fruits and veggies of every kind!

Then something happened and suddenly little seeds that we planted actually sprouted and then grew into large plants finally bearing fruits of our labour! How? I am still struggling to find an answer. It could be the quality of seeds or the compost or most likely to do with my little helper who might have inherited green fingers from both sets of his grandparents. They say that the genes skips generation and it might very well be true!

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I am not going to bore you today with my rants and rambles. Although my mind is bursting with thoughts, the words have abandoned me today as they refuse to flow at my fingertips which otherwise enjoy tap dancing on the keyboard! The exhaustion has finally overtaken my desire to share one of my most favourite recipes from the treasure chest of secret family recipes!

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As far as I know, there is no concept of salads in Indian cooking. Thinly sliced pieces of cucumber, tomatoes and onion rings with lemon or lime wedge is mostly the kind of salads served with main meals. Sometimes few whole or chopped green chillies accompany these vegetables as we Indians really like real spice kick in our meals!

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I believe in the age old food philosophy that ‘you are what you eat’. Couple of months back, in the beginning of spring season, our kitchen was a busy hub of sizzling deep fried goodies in a hot pot of oil. Although I am not really fond of deep fried food, I found myself binging on the not so healthy but absolutely delicious food days after another! It didn’t take very long for me to gain couple of pounds and add few inches around my waist!

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It was a cold winter Sunday morning when a teenager was woken from her sleep with a gentle touch of her mother’s hand caressing her hair.

“Open your eyes love. It’s time you learn to make a decent cup of tea!’” said her mother.

“5 more minutes Amma”, the sleepy voice begged.

But her mother knew that these 5 minutes will drag on and it will be 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 1 hour before her daughter finally opened her eyes!

“Oh no! You don’t get 5 minutes!” mother said while literally dragging her first born into the kitchen to prepare 2 cups of Indian Masala tea.

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You know that you are watching too much TV when you laugh at the F.R.I.E.N.D.S jokes even before it is made! ~sigh~ Yes! The joy of staring in to idiot box for too long is rubbing on me and slowly I see myself blinking like an idiot at idiot box!

After coming back from 9-5 work load and then one frantic hour of giving bath to Lil dumpling (and in turn getting drenched from top to toe by all that splashing by LD), chasing the super active naked toddler around with nappy in one hand and night dress in another, stuffing his mouth with food and almost threatening him to disinherit in my will (whatever meagre wealth I can accumulate after spending most of my salary on his toys and fancy cloths and shoes and not to forget the bomb they charge at his day care in name of looking after him in my absence) if he doesn’t stop from throwing food all around except in his own mouth, trying to teach him brush his teeth instead of chewing and then patting him to sleep, I am left with long evening to kill. These past couple of days I am easily spotted with a dazed look due to heavy work load and bags of dark circles due to lack of sleep. I feel too tired and lazy to cook after a really busy day, I plonk on the sofa with a TV remote in one hand and the fingers dancing on buttons that will bring shame to the most competitive typists! 

Moong Sprout Kosambari

Kosambari is a popular south Indian dish. It's very common during festivals in Karnataka.

Colourful Kosambari

Ingredients:
1 Carrot, grated
1 Tomato, chopped
3 tbsp chopped Cucumber
1/4 cup Sprouted Moong dal(or just plain moong dal soaked in water for 1/2 hr)
2 tbsp Grated Coconut
1 Green chilli, finely chopped
Juice of half lemon
1 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves
Salt to taste

For Seasoning:
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Urad dal
1 tsp Oil

Kosambari

Method:
In a salad bowl mix all the ingredients.
Season the salad with mustard seeds and urad dal in 1 tsp of oil.
Mix well and serve.

Kosambari