Last month we tried to follow a no carb diet and successfully followed it for 7 – 10 days. Then we switched to low carb diet. When Valli, announced blogging marathon (BM) # 42 with no carb recipes, I immediately picked that theme. Well, actually I was going to skip this month’s BM but had to do this BM for another theme. When Valli announced the BM, she kind of hinted that she was expecting some of us to take up the theme miscellaneous food and I am one of them. After pondering about it for few days, I decided to do this BM with misc. food as one theme and without any hesitation I picked no carb / low carb recipes as my other theme. I will be doing the misc. food next week and this week it is 3 days of no carb / low carb recipes.

Whenever we get health & weight conscious and decide to lose some weight, we go on a no carb or low carb diet. I don’t believe in going on liquid or crash diets to lose weight and try to eat healthy with low carbs combined with some exercise. Being a south Indian, rice is my major weakness and if I were given a choice between rice and roti or any Indian bread, I always prefer rice. And whenever rice is served with curries, I do tend to eat a lot more. To overcome this, I usually avoid preparing curries when I am trying to control my weight. I usually grill / bake chicken, fish and serve it some salad or with very little rice. However, it is usually salads. Southwestern Chicken Salad I posted last month was one recipes I made when we were on this diet. Five days a week I make grilled chicken or fish with some salad for dinner and on weekends we indulge ourselves with some biryani. 😉

On weekdays, for lunch I try to eat salads or roti with lot of vegetables. No matter what I eat, I try to avoid or control my carbohydrates intake. Last month when I was on this no carb diet, for lunch I ate salads most of the time. To be more precise, it was black eyed peas salad. Yes, I have fall in love with this legume and this is my new legume love affair. I already mention about my other legume love affair few years ago. My affair with chickpeas has ended once I fell for black eyed peas.

We eat very early dinner and this salad was perfect for lunch. If I was hungry before dinner time, I snacked on some nuts or ate fruit. There is no specific recipe for this salad. Just throw in the vegetables of choice for the salad and season it with a simple chili powder, salt, lime juice and extra virgin olive oil dressing. It is rich in fiber and quite filling.

Preparation Time: 10 – 15 minutes
Serves: 1
Ingredients:

• 1 – 1 ¼ cup Frozen Black Eyed Peas (I used 365 from Whole Foods)
• 2 mini Cucumber diced or ½ – ¾ cup diced Cucumber
• 1 – 2 medium sized Carrots cut into circles or ½ circles
• ½ small Red Onion Diced, about ¼ cup when diced or add more if required
• ½ tsp. Chili Powder
• ½ + ½ tsp. Salt
• ¼ – ½ tsp. Garlic Powder (I used ½ tsp.)
• 1/8 tsp. Cumin Powder
• 1 tbsp. Lime Juice
• 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Cilantro ~ Coriander Leaves for garnish

Preparation:

• Cook frozen black eyed peas in some water with ½ tsp salt until tender, about 6 – 8 minutes. Drain the water run the black eyed peas under running water to bring the peas to room temperature and keep aside.
  Cut the vegetables to desired size.
• Make the dressing by whisking together extra virgin olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, ½ tsp. salt, garlic powder and cumin powder.
• Take all the vegetables and cooked black eyed peas in a bowl. Pour the dressing over it and toss it. Adjust salt and chili powder to taste. Keep the salad aside for 15 – 20 minutes to let the vegetables and peas soak in the dressing. This is optional though. Couple of days ago when I made this salad, it took me about 20 – 30 minutes to set up my photo shoot and take pictures. I left the salad tasted better, vegetables and peas were more flavorful after soaking in the dressing.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Suggestions:

• I used frozen black eyed peas. If using dry black eyed peas, soak for 5-8 hours or overnight and cooked until tender. If using fresh, boil in water until tender. Fresh peas cook very fast.
• I made this salad on Monday but there was a photo shoot mishap and I was not happy with the pictures I took and had to make it again. When I made it on Monday, I also added chopped raw green mango. If using raw mango, adjust lime juice accordingly.
• I used garlic powder as I have some in my pantry. It can be substitute with some fresh crushed garlic.

This day in 2008: Chicken Biryani
This day in 2012: Kheema Dum Biryani ~ Ground Goat Biryani

Blogging Marathon: Checkout what my fellow bloggers are doing this week on blogging marathon page.

Events: This is my entry for Radhika’s My Legume Love Affair # 73, an event started by Susan currently organized by Lisa.