Green apple Rocket Salad with chili garlic dressing

Green apple Rocket Salad 

with chili garlic dressing 

If there are two things for which my dedication and passion stays constant it is preparing dishes and working for Market Research.

Quite often my aunt and my husband complain about my sense of punctuality . They say other than something that involves food or my work where I would be earlier than required  I am not at all punctual when it comes to meeting them at a certain time and I am quite ashamed to say that I am guilty as charged. I am working on my sense of time when it comes to matters other than work or food but as for now I am one hundred percent dedicated to my week of celebrating salads.

I love tangy taste and when tangy flavour meets the flavours of chili and garlic it makes me even more happy. As a child I enjoyed mixing raw mango slices with cayenne pepper and salt and would spend each afternoon throughout my summer holidays with a book in my room.

When it comes to Green apples also known as Granny Smith Apples I love the tangy flavour and the crunch hence this salad is a perfect summer time treat for me.

Have it for brunch, lunch or dinner its ultimately healthy and delicious. I have intentionally used rocket leaves for their peppery taste and I feel that the other lettuce leaves would not do justice to this salad because they would not have the unique flavour of rocket leaves. The pimiento stuffed olives gives a Mediterranean touch to the salad and the flavour of the olives with the apples and rocket leaves with the hint of garlic and chili is fantastic.

I usually make my condiments as much as I can and hence my chili garlic paste was homemade but you may use some chili oil if you do not have the inclination to make it at home.

Serves 1

1 Green apple
Half a cup of rocket leaves
10 Pimiento stuffed Olives

For the Dressing

1.5 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4th tsp Chili garlic paste
1/4th tsp fresh thyme leaves
Salt as per taste


Chop the apples. Mix with the rocket leaves and sliced stuffed olives.

I make my chili garlic paste and keep it in the refrigerator for about 2 months to 6 months. What I do is soak 1 head of garlic with 80gm hot dried red chili in enough vinegar to just about soak them. At times I use Rice Wine Vinegar and then there are times that I would go for White wine vinegar or red wine vinegar or any other vinegar of my choice. I let it soak for 2 hours and blend it to make a paste with some salt. This comes handy when I am cooking Chinese dishes as well.

Whisk the dressing with a fork. Pour over the salad and enjoy.

Bacon Parmesan Rocket salad to Kick start my Salad Week

Bacon Parmesan Rocket salad 

to Kick start my Salad Week 

When it comes to  blogging I follow my heart more than anything else. While there are weeks when I might blog everyday of the week there might be days on the end when I would cook and even click photographs for documentation but not blog about it at all.

Just the other day I was talking with a friend and a blogger about how its our passion for cooking which is actually what keeps us going even on those days when we would just want to drop dead or are tired and then comes the blog for documentation.

Anyway when I met Pritha who blogs from Guilt-Free I remember exactly what had impressed me about her blog and firstly it was this coffee cake. I am a complete coffee lover not an addict though. Well I do need my one cup per day but that's only after waking up otherwise I am good. Anyway so a coffee flavoured cake immediately caught my attention and then when I took out time to read some of her earlier posts. I usually have this habit of going back to a blog's posts when it had taken its baby steps. Anyway the moment I did that what impressed me most was this discipline that she follows when it comes to her blog at times. Her blog itself started on a dessert a week note which impressed me to no end.

And then as the story goes like minds met over an event. We had a potluck . We talked and talked for hours. I went to Mumbai and yet we would talk endlessly about food and in-between she actually took a one month Bengali food marathon project and low and behold she stuck to her promise.

I for one do not have that kind of discipline . In fact when I joined her for her Christmas event I was the one who actually lagged behind. And she is the one who holds a full time job and there I was well working of course and as a freelancer I was swamped with work but still the point is I got inspired by my friend. Do take a look at her blog for possible exciting events this June and there is also a possibility of a joint venture Event by 2 insane girls who love to cook and eat and click .

Anyway so inspired by my friend I decided I should do an event one that is close to me and quite honestly I love salads. My point is salads can be beautiful. They are just not part of diet food projects, In fact a hearty salad can actually fill your stomach and emotions so that you actually do not end up eating a lot of unhealthy food.

So let's kick start my Salad Week with a Bacon Parmesan Rocket salad. The beauty of this dish is that the 3 ingredients used in the dish is all that you need for this beautiful salad. Personally speaking I don't use a dressing for the salad because otherwise the beauty is lost. Its the peppery taste of rocket leaves along with the crisp bacon a bit of crisp fatty portion and a hint of that glorious Parmesan cheese that makes it one of the best salads ever. In fact I don't even use salt since I get all the salt that I require from the bacon and I leave out freshly crushed pepper because the peppery taste of the rockets provides that superb bite to my salad.

Salad that serves 1 person

1 cup to 1.5 cups rocket leaves removed from the stem
100gm bacon cut into bite sized pieces
Parmesan shavings as much as you need


Here is an important tip to make sure your rocket leaves are absolutely crisp and fresh if they seem a bit wilted due to the heat. Plunge them in ice cold water with a few ice cubes and let it soak while you fry the bacon its on absolute low heat turning them once one side has become golden brown. In my experience if you start frying the bacon on low heat it becomes crisp without any burnt parts. Once the bacon is fried drain it well and then assemble the salad.

Simply drain the rocket leaves, arrange them in a salad bowl top it with bacon and Parmesan shavings and voila its that easy to whip up this gorgeous salad.

If you want you may drizzle the salad with a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil  but I would steer clear of vinegar or any wet ingredients which would hamper the crisp characteristics of the bacon.