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Oven Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes with PeanutButter & Buttermilk Dressing4

Past 10 days were a blur at our house.. Between Karva Chauth party and my girl gang gathered at the house for the wedding, I hardly had time to squeeze in a blog-post. Those were such good days and in all honesty, I didn’t want them to end! Exciting times filled with fun, laughter and so much joy!! I’m going to cherish the precious memories of this time spent with friends and family forever. Moments like these is what makes our life worthwhile.

Between all the festivities of the past weekend and coming weekend, I am doing a detox of my own with fruits, soups, stir-fries and salads. Gearing up for the next big weekend, you see! You won’t believe how many great recipes I have lined up for you all! But before that enjoy this humble dish which truly deserves a place in your repertoire! 🙂

Oven Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes with PeanutButter & Buttermilk Dressing2

Today’s recipe is simple but totally lip-smacking.

I mean it has potatoes & peanut butter in it so of course! 😉

Just some roasted veggies with healthy yet delicious dressing. Perfect for the ‘touch of cold’ weather we are experiencing here.. It is great as a side dish or as a whole meal in itself.. I had it for dinner and could not finish it entirely. The recipe can easily be doubled, tripled or quadrupled as per your needs. I used regular potatoes but baby potatoes would be amazing too!

Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes with Peanut Butter & Buttermilk Dressing

Serves: 2 as a side-dish or 1 as a lunch/dinner

Ingredients:

Roasted vegetables:

4 small potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes or 12 baby potatoes, halved
20 spears of asparagus cut into 5-inch pieces, hard woody ends discarded
1 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper, to taste

Dressing:

4 Tbsp buttermilk
1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp crunchy peanut butter
1/4 tsp honey
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Arrange prepared potatoes and asparagus on the baking tray. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and toss together. Let it bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove the asparagus from baking tray and return the tray to oven. Let the potatoes bake for another 15 to 20 minutes till fork-tender.
In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the dressing.
Serve the roasted vegetables smothered with the dressing.

Enjoy!!

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It’s my Mother’s Birthday today! She is the most special woman in my life. She is my first best friend and I have had heaps of special moments with her. She handed down so many traits of hers to me… We both love bags, shoes, clothes and FOOD! She is such an awesome cook!

As already confessed in my intro page, I never learnt to cook before I got married and being such a great cook that she is, my mom was quite concerned about that part. She sincerely wrote down all her recipes in a diary for my convenience and gifted it to me on my D-day. That is my most prized possession and a lovely gesture on my mom’s part! I should soon get down to posting few of her special recipes!

Among many things my mother and I share, we both LOVE pasta! So aptly, I am posting a very simple pasta salad which is very refreshing and flavorful. I’m sure my mom would have enjoyed this thoroughly if I could make this for her at home for tonight’s celebration. But we are distanced by miles hence a virtual birthday dish will have to suffice! 🙁

I love Caprese in any and every form!

You must remember I once created this unusual ice-cream with it and these skewers served with pesto!

This time I brought together 2 of my favorites and created this dee-lish caprese pasta salad. Of course with a twist… I added capers for a little tang! And it really did wonders. This salad is so beautiful, adorned with pear tomatoes and bursting with basil! Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Happiest of Birthday Mother! Cheers!!!

Caprese Pasta Salad

Servings: 4-5 as a side and 2-3 as a light lunch/dinner

Ingredients:

For salad:

2 heaping cups bow-tie pasta
Around 20-25 pear tomatoes, sliced
25-30 small cubes of Mozzarella
2 Tbsp capers, drained & washed
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil leaves

For dressing:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
A pinch of red chili flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook pasta in generously salted boiling water according to package directions till al-dante. Drain and rinse with cold water.
In a large bowl, add pasta, sliced tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese cubes, capers and toss.
In a small bowl, take all the ingredients mentioned under dressing and whisk.
Add the dressing to the large bowl of salad ingredients and toss well. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Let it chill in refrigerator for half an hour. Top with sliced basil leaves just before serving.

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Tag: sides