Star fruit/ Daare Huli & vegetables salad

Have you ever come across these beautiful fruits called star fruit? It is called daare huLi in kannada. It exactly resembles a twinkling star when we do a cross section! It generally tastes sweet & sour with a unique flavour. It is mostly ignored & wasted in coastal Karnataka in my observation, though it goes great in juice, gojju, stew… In western countries, it is highly valued & used in juice making & food styling.
It is a nutritious fruit, low in calorie (carbs). It is rich in antioxidants. These juicy fruits have combination of sweet and sour taste. 

Now we have a small 3 year old plant in our garden, which started yielding this year. It is sweet variety & hence good to eat & use in salads. I tried this simple salad with locally available ‘garden night shade’ fruits (Ganike/ Kaasin hannu) & vegetables like tomatoes, onions seasoned with cumin, pepper, salt, lemon, fresh mint & coconut oil. I added 2 fresh & tender passion fruit leaves (wilted in oil) while seasoning! I recently came to know that these leaves are edible from a relative. You can add veggies & fruits of your choice too..

Note: I am not very sure about side effects of this fruit. Care should be taken before eating it if any pre existing health issues! 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Star fruits – 2

Onions – 1 (medium)

Tomato – 1

Salt – to taste

Pepper powder – a pinch (optional)

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Cooking oil – 2 tsp , I used coconut oil

Fresh mint leaves – 1 tsp, finely chopped

Lemon juice/ vinegar – 1 tsp, I prefer lemon juice. You can avoid it if star fruit is sour

Ganike/ black night shade fruits – 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

• Wash fruits. Slice star fruits so that you get beautiful star shaped pieces. Keep 6-8 of them aside to garnish the salad. Chop remaining pieces as you like.
• Peel onions, wash and chop finely.
• Chop washed tomatoes too.
• In a serving bowl, mix chopped tomatoes, onions, star fruits. Add salt and pepper powder. 
• Add finely chopped mint leaves, mix well.
• Now prepare a seasoning/ tadka of coconut oil with slightly crushed cumin (I added 2 finely chopped passion fruit leaves & wilted it in oil). On spluttering, add it to the salad.
• Add lemon juice/ vinegar and garden night shade/ ganike fruits.
• Top with star fruit pieces kept aside for garnishing. Serve fresh colorful salad.

Notes:

• You can add fruits like guava/ apple or cucumber to this salad.
• Coriander leaves can also be added for the flavor.