Avinash Shashidhara
Avi trained as a chef in his hometown Bangalore, and worked in prominent restaurants in the UK, where he’s been for 13 years. He loves developing delicious Indian recipes that remind him of home.
Avi’s Kosambri Salad
Avinash Shashidhara
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now
Serves: 8
Prep time: 5 mins (+ 1 hour to soak the dal)
Ingredients:
100g yellow moong dal
1 large cucumber
1 medium red onion
1 green chilli
1 large carrot
1/2 bunch coriander leaves
1/2 a fresh coconut
juice of 2 lemons
salt, to taste
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
Recipe donated by Avinash Shashidhara for Veg Power. Recipe and photography by Avinash Shashidhara.
This Kosambri salad is one made of yellow moong dal, cucumber, pink onions, and freshly grated coconut. It is a very typical Karnataka dish eaten at the beginning of a meal, with, or at the end of a meal. Usually served at weddings, festivals or simply at home to compliment other dishes. It is vegan and vegetarian.
Method:
Soak the yellow moong dal in cold water for an hour and drain. Grate the coconut and carrot. Finely chop the cucumber, onion, coriander and chilli, or cut them into ribbons. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes and serve.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
Get the kids to soak the beans, and grate the carrot. If you’re using fresh coconut they’ll love grating that, too. They can juice the lemons using a squeezer or by using their hands, fishing out any stray pips.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
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