Tricolor salad, tiranga salad, an Indian Tricolor inspired, hearty salad with colorful vegetables, and a homemade dressing with fresh lemon juice and honey.
Vegetable Salad | Easy Salad with Vegetables | Indian Republic day Recipe | Indian flag color Salad | Indian Tricolor Recipe | Indian Independence Day Celebrations Recipe | Indian Republic Day Celebrations Recipe | Recipes with Indian Tricolor | Indian Flag color Recipe | Salad Ideas | Salad for Dinner | Low Calorie Meal Ideas
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Salad : A Love, Hate Relationship
Isn't it true? I know few friends who hate the word salad. Even at home, my elder one would run a mile, when i offer him a spoon to taste. Only salads both the kids prefer is this pasta salad, for obvious reason and this mixed bean and rice salad, which they think as a kind of rice and have it with a big serving of yogurt.
To the contrary, me and my husband love salads. My friends too, look forward to the salads i make, especially Quinoa Chickpeas salad and balela salad , both are colorful, hearty salads with simple homemade dressing.
This colorful fruit salad with lemon mint honey dressing , is a regular at home, especially after festivals, when there would be an excess of fruits after the celebrations. Most of the salads mentioned above qualify to be a meal as such, when paired with a bowl of warm soup or a hearty cheese toast.
A Low Calorie Meal Idea
Today's recipe of colorful vegetable salad, is inspired by Indian Tricolor. A decade old recipe of chunky vegetable salad, given an upgrade with a beautiful honey lemon dressing.
I made this low calorie, yet a hearty salad for our Ekadashi Fasting this weekend. This hearty and colorful salad with a good amount of vegetables along with nutritious seeds and nut mixture makes a great meal anytime. You can add this salad to your regular lunch, to increase the intake of vegetables.
Indian Tricolor Inspired Salad
Usually during Indian Republic day and Independence day celebrations, our social media feed will be buzzing with tricolor recipes. If you are looking for some recipe ideas for forth coming Republic day or Independence Day Celebration, here are some creative ideas.
I made a Tricolor pudding, few years back, for Independence Day celebrations in collaboration with few bloggers. There is Tricolor paratha too, yet another old recipe, made during my beginning years of blogging.
This hearty vegetable salad, an Indian Flag color inspired meal, is a great addition to your lunch or brunch menu. Since it is tricolor inspired, i have used vegetables depicting orange, white and green.
If you like fresh radish or raw green capsicum, you can add them too, to make this crunchy salad more varied in taste and options.
Ingredients for making this Tricolor Salad
- Vegetables : To make this tricolor vegetable salad, i have used raw papaya and cauliflower for white color. Cucumber and green peas for green color. Carrots and papaya for Saffron color.
- Dressing : I have used honey, lemon juice, black peppercorns and salt along with a drizzle of olive oil to flavor this hearty vegetable salad.
- Add-ons : I have used a combination of crushed walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and sunflower seeds to add some crunch to the flavorsome salad.
Step by Step Instructions to make Colorful Vegetable Salad
Please check recipe card below for exact measurements of each ingredient used and also for the detailed instructions
- Wash and prepare all ingredients. In a small bowl or bottle add all ingredients for the dressing, mix well with a fork or shake the bottle vigorously for it all to mix well. Keep it aside.
- In a microwave safe bowl, take cauliflower florets and green peas. Add ½ cup water to it and microwave high for 10 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
- Peel raw papaya and carrot and cut them into thin strips. Wash cucumber and cut it into thin strips. Cut papaya into small cubes.
- In a wide bowl, arrange the papaya fruit and carrot strips for saffron color. Arrange raw papaya strips, cauliflower florets for the white color. Arrange cucumber strips and green peas for the green color. Sprinkle chia seeds in the center of white color.
- Just before serving the salad. Pour the dressing, and mix well with your hands. Finally add the nuts and serve it fresh.
How to Serve this Crunchy Salad
I prefer my salads fresh off the table. But this rainbow colored salad can also be prepped ahead of serving time.
If you are planning to serve this for a party or get together, then i would suggest making the salad dressing well ahead and refrigerating it.
Chop all the necessary vegetables and store them in an air-tight container. You can arrange the salad on the table by the colors and just before meal time, add the dressing, mix it well and garnish it with nuts and seed mixture.
This way you can retain the freshness and crunch of the vegetables. I bet this wholesome and nutritious colorful salad, would delight your friends and family at the gathering.
Tricolor Salad | Tiranga Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing | Easy Salad Ideas
Ingredients
For saffron color
- 2 carrots, approximately 2 cups peeled and thinly sliced ,
- ½ cup chopped ripened papaya cubes
For white color
- 2 cups thinly sliced raw papaya
- ½ Cup cauliflower florets
For green color
- ¼ cup peas
- 2 cucumber thinly sliced, approximately 2 cups
Seeds & Nuts Topping
- 2 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
- 2 tablespoon sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoon chopped walnuts.
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds .
Honey Lemon Dressing
- 1-2 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon peppercorn pounded,
- 3 tablespoon lemon juice , with a bit of pulp
- salt to taste.
Instructions
Let's Make Honey Lemon Dressing
- In a bowl or in a small bottle, Mix everything for the honey lemon dressing, Shake vigorously or mix it well with a fork or whisk. Keep aside until use.
Let's Prepare the Vegetables
- Take cauliflower florets and peas in a microwave safe bowl, add ½ cup water, microwave high for 10 minutes. You can also steam cook them. Drain and keep aside.
- Wash and peel carrots and raw papaya. Remove any seeds off the raw papaya. Slice them thin. Keep aside.
- Wash cucumber and slice them thin with the peel . Keep aside until use.
- If you are preparing this salad well ahead of the meal time. Then please store the chopped vegetables in an air tight container, preferably in separate containers.
Let us arrange the Salad
- In a wide bowl, arrange the chopped veggies in Indian Tricolor. Saffron color : carrots and ripened papaya. White Color Cauliflower and raw papaya. Green color, green peas and cucumber.
- Spread chia seeds in the center of the white color. Let the salad sit this way until served.
- Just before serving, Add the honey lemon dressing, mix the salad well with clean hands. I prefer mixing with hands, it helps to mix the dressing well to the vegetables, and each bite will be flavored by a burst of lemon honey dressing.
- Add the seed and nuts topping to the salad and serve it fresh.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
Vidhya
salad looks really healthy Priya.
Srivalli
Priya, that bowl looks great..but yeah I can understand what you say..:)..amazing that you actually eat capsicum raw..wow..kudos for following this..try adding pepper too..it might bring more taste.
PriyaVaasu
Thank u guys. 🙂
Mayuri Patel
When we were in Mombasa, hubby's friend's mum would always have raw cauliflower in whichever salads she would make. It actually tastes quite good, try it. As for the salad, what an awesome idea. I've had stir fried raw papaya but not raw. Must try it. Like salads that have crunch and flavour. So this tricolour is going on my must try list.
Jayashree .T.Rao
A colourful salad bowl is always welcome at home. Liked the addition of raw papaya to it, it must have given a different taste to the dish.
Neha (My Culinary Expressions)
Wow! This surely is an interesting colorful salad bowl. It has been a while that I have not had salad platter for mealtime in place of regular food. Need to tone down my snacking habits and settle down for some colorful fresh salad. Thanks for this recipe.