Mishrit sprout salad with orange and chili mayo

I do love sprouts, they are considered a superfood and are absolutely delicious. I was also happy to find this beautiful salad and have been craving to make it for some time now. Here it is finally. We are fortunate enough to be able to easily find mixed sprouted beans in the grocery store, so this salad is really quite simple to make. Mishrit literally means "mixed" or "assorted", so for this recipe use box of sprouted beans that have a wide variety, mung, chickpeas, peanuts, and others.

The sprouts are quick blenched to maintain their nutritional value and combined with a colorful array of diced peppers for an absolutely gorgeous salad. The dressing is a creamy mayo dressing with a hint of heat from chili powder and a well balanced sweetness from the orange juice. The salad has loads of textures from sprouted beans and the wonderful sweet-spicy dressing makes this salad addictive.

A beautiful cookbook of contemporary Indian flavors. The chef has taken a variety of fabulous recipes and presented them in a modern setting, like this raita. I recommend this book to those who want something different on their table.

For more wonderful recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

3 cups mixed sprouts

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 red bell pepper, cut into small dice

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into small dice

1 green pepper, cut inot small dice

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted and pounded into a coarse powder in a mortar

1 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste

Salt, to taste

1/4 cup mayo

2-3 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon white pepper

Chili powder to garnish

Heat the water to a boil in a pot and add the salt and sprouts. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute. Drain and cool under running water to stop the sprouts from cooking more. You want the sprouts just blanched, with a firm bite, not cooked. Spread the sprouts out to dry.

Mix the sprouts with the peppers and the fennel, chili powder and salt (careful, mayo has a lot of salt too). Toss well and taste. Keep chilled in the fridge.

Mix the mayo, orange juice and white pepper. Taste, the dressing should be well flavored, sweet and acidic in balance. Keep chilled in the fridge.

To serve, add the bean salad to a shallow bowl. pour the dressing into a large serving spoon and garnish with the chili powder. Place the spoon on the side or middle of the salad. Bring to the table. To serve each guest, mix the dressing into the salad and serve.