Loaded Bean and Dodo (Amaranth) Salad

Starting this blog, I was young and naive. All I knew is that I wanted to cook exciting, interesting and delicious food. Years later,  I now understand the value of food, using local produce,  using fresh produce and being creative.  This salad was conceived after binge watching the amazing Fat Salt Acid Heat docu-series. I was blown away by the beauty of how the most basic of ingredients yield some of the best flavors.  When you think of beans and dodo and potatoes individually, a salad rarely comes to your mind.  But when the same ingredients are transformed through different techniques, what you get is a beautiful vibrant salad that is so satisfying and complex in flavors.  This is one of the main reasons I keep slaving away in the kitchen like a mad woman because the ecstasy of discovering something else a common produce can be is unmatched! I had a hard time naming this salad because it has dodo,  masala potatoes, sweet and charred carrots,  beans, green onions for a spicy kick, pumpkin seeds for a crunch and a sprinkle of cheese to marry all the flavors together. This would have made a really long title. Ha!

1. Using cheese is optional.
2. Use salt carefully keeping in mind that all the individual salted components will be combined. With that said, I salted only the potatoes. Then sprinkled salt on the finished salad.
3. You can use any type of beans. I used red beans.
4. You can use any nuts available to you.
5. I recommend a non-stick pan to avoid burning

1. Place a pan on fire, Wait for it to get hot. Add about a teaspoon of oil.
2. Add the potato wedges. Shallow fry the wedges till half way cooked. Make sure you keep stirring to avoid burning.
3. After they reach the half-way cooked point, add the salt, cumin, curry powder and black pepper and mix well. Let them cook till tender.
4. Remove the potatoes from fire and set aside.
5. Using the same pan, add a half teaspoon of oil.
6. Add the carrots to the oil. Add the juice of half an orange.
7. Let the carrots  shallow fry till the orange juice has reduced to a thick sauce and the carrots start to slightly char.
8. Remove the carrots from the pan and set aside.
9. Using the same pan still, add half a teaspoon of oil and saute the green onions.
10. Add the soy sauce, and chili flakes to the frying onions.
11. Fry the onions till they turn a bright green but still have a crunch.
12. Remove the onions from fire

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