Snow Peas and Zucchini Salad with Pineapple

Have you heard of MOOCs? It seems they are all the rage among students now. It stands for Massive Open Online Courses. A couple of years ago I was looking to register for a course and went searching online and discovered a treasure trove of courses available for free from most major universities like Standford, MIT, JHU, Harvard and many more top rated universities. I had not heard of MOOCs then. Not all subjects and courses are available from all the universities but if the ones you want are available you are in luck. Gives you an opportunity to study from the comfort of your own living room. Can't beat that?

Some of these courses are available as video lectures which are obviously more fun than just reading through the course material. Unlike a classroom there is no interaction with fellow students of course and you need to have self discipline to start and complete the course on time which was the more daunting task once I had discovered what I wanted and saved perhaps a few thousand dollars in fees.

The possibilities are endless. Also a lot of these universities are debating whether to give credits for a course taken in a MOOC and how to evaluate them. This might be the way you finish your degree course requirements perhaps!

Compared to a classroom that serve between a 100 and 200 students these online courses serve tens of thousands of students from all over the globe. Pretty powerful stuff this online thing. Who knew!!

If you are looking to learn about something maybe MOOC has something.

Now on to the recipe,

Salads are important, eating green leafy vegetables is good and all that but eating uncooked greens every single day is no fun. I am OK with cooking green leafy vegetables but eating raw salads everyday is tough. Anyway if you are just like me (I am not the only one at home) try this salad. It was well liked and we will be making it often.

Snow Peas and Zucchini Salad with Pineapple Ingredients

1. Pineapple chunks about 1/2 cup (substitute with fruit of choice)
2. Snow Peas about a cup (substitute with green beans)
3. 1 Zucchini sliced into rounds
4. Pickled banana pepper 6-8 round chopped fine
5. 2 tsp olive oil
6. 1 tsp pepper powder + salt
7. 1/2 tbsp dressing - I used Chipotle Raspberry dressing or make your own (see below)

For the dressing
Whisk together

1. 1 tsp honey
2. 1 tsp chili sauce or any hot sauce
3. 1/2 tsp strawberry or raspberry jam or any jam
4. 1 tsp lemon juice

Method

1. Par boil the snow peas in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, drain and set aside
2. Roast the zucchini with a sprinkle of pepper powder and salt till tender (has to have some crunch still)
3. In a sauce pan heat the olive oil and add the pineapple chunks, let it caramelize for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add in the snow peas, pickled peppers and the dressing and toss together.
5. Toss in the zucchini and gently mix it in so it does not break.
6. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.