Spicy Indian Style Egg Salad - Courtesy z.about.com

The Indian sub-continent is known to relish condiments and toppings that add a more fiery kick to foods. Everything gets more appetizing when you lace it with chilies. Or pepper it up with a variety of mouth scorching, tongue burning ingredients. Unbelievably even a near bland egg salad may be created to sizzling proportions.

Tiny kiosks or mobile wooden carts selling boiled eggs are quite common in market places in Indian cities. Especially in the northern regions of the country, winters are a great time to eat egg dishes prepared in minutes before your very eyes. Misty evenings will find all manner of people huddled around the glowing embers of the coal lit fires that are usually placed on the carts to create tantalizing egg salads.

You only have to tell the busy man with the spatula in his hand what manner of egg you want to eat. In no time the preparation is made to your liking. With hard boiled eggs stacked on the egg holders, he only has to deftly peel and chop up the eggs to mix in the ingredients of your choice. These might include peppery long ginger flakes, sharp green chilies, piquant chopped onions, pungent garlic flakes, and diced tomatoes and julienned carrots and capsicum.

The freshest vegetables added raw over chopped hard boiled eggs are quickly warmed over flaming fires on a pan that never gets off the stove. Adding a dash of salt, pepper, red chili powder and a twist of a lemon you are handed the fare on paper plates or even news paper wrappings. I can bet that this egg salad will not only satisfy your spicy cravings but chase away the blues too.

Spicy Barbecue Chicken Salad - Courtesy flikr.com

Salad dressings and condiments are what make salads more interesting. I contend that spicing up salads with appropriate condiments for the most part, does make a dry bland salad more palatable. Be it regular plain mustard or just some vinaigrette - they cast a spurt of flavors to make it all so very appetizing.

Condiments come in handy when you want to make the veggies and greens holding up to your taste buds. They add the subtle or overt flavors that you may like best on your salad. When you add condiments to your salad bowl it means you dig the relish.

The Caesar salad is a classic example of bland food that can be made more appetizing by using zesty condiments. You are basically trying to add zing to the lettuce and croûtons here as per your preferences. Why even a ready made condiment bottle is a great aid.

Even fast and easy pasta salads do wonderfully well with the right condiments that spice them up. Tossed with sour cream dressing made up of preferred condiments many of us even go for the low-fat versions, doing away with the creamy richness.

Sour cream condiments are perfect for vinegary chicken salads too. The chunky pieces from a rotisserie chicken when tossed with barbecue sauce and spiked with lime juice and hot sauce result in creamy, sharp, soft and crunchy salads. For all grill salad lovers barbecue condiments are never to be skipped. Barbecue sauces lend a whole new dimension and this delightful salad will tell you how!

Ingredients:
1 pound bow-tie pasta
2 cups peas
1 cup corn kernels
2 1/2-pound rotisserie chicken
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup sour cream
2 stalks celery, diced
1 red onion, diced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
4 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Preparing Pasta: Bring large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add pasta. Cook according to package directions. During final 2 minutes, add peas and corn, stirring to ensure they don’t clump together. Drain pasta mixture. Rinse with cool water. Transfer to rimmed baking sheet. Spread it in even layer to dry.

Preparing Chicken: Pull apart chicken meat, doing away with skin and bones. Chop meat into bite-size chunks. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together barbecue sauce, hot sauce and lime juice. Add chicken. Toss to coat.

Preparing the Salad: Combine sour cream, pasta and celery, red onion, carrot and tomatoes. Toss well to coat. Fold in chicken and cilantro, mixing until just combined. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Fine Glass Salad Bowl - Courtesy images.replacements.com

The salad bowl is a consummate accessory that takes center stage on our dinner table. A few of us at home are trying to count our calorie intake and so I keep re-inventing ways to enjoy the weight watchers salad menus. Eating especially concocted, low-in-fat salads from fine salad bowls is turning out to be a seriously interesting way to indulge in dining options.

I keep rotating elegant salad bowls to keep resolute on the greens and seeds. From dainty hand painted see through glass bowls that I inherited, to using porous earthenware bowls when I am in the rustic mood, its the bowls that set off the salad preparations to perfection. I love the right accessories every time.

So while one evening I might be using a fine white china bowl with the gold band egging me on to ingest the Quinoa and Endamame Salad, another evening I would have a fine porcelain container that stands out in its simple perfection for the simplest of fruit salads. Selecting the right salad bowl is really not an overwhelming process. I just keep using them in turns - stoneware through cut glass.

Somehow I feel my resolve for the lighter and nutritious salads stays in place when I indulge myself with fine wares. Zesty rice and bean salads or the low fat caesar salads look immensely palatable when served in style. Tangy, refreshing beet and orange salads appear perfect in see through glass ware. The nice colorful side of the salad comes alive to hone your resolve!