Most days, when we are eating out, we prefer ordering in our choice of salad. We are big fans of the Chicken Caesar Salad and really particular about how its prepared. The dressing shouldn't be too runny, the bowl shouldn't be too stingy on the lettuce, the chicken pieces should be in a apt amount and croutons are always welcome. It's not everyday that we can get our hands on the perfect bowl of salad and living in an area as Wakad, the options for places with good salad is really low.

Not to mention, The Kukkad Diaries has been championing all things healthy recently, thanks to the Mr. TKD's insistence on fitness and health conscious food choices. This new green wave that we've been riding introduced us to a phenomenal home-grown brand, Green Tokri. And might we say, it's a revelation! If you are a resident of Pune and have heard of Green Tokri, then you are one of the luckier ones. And if you, like us, were/are unaware of what this might be, you are in for a treat!

For the uninitiated, Spear-headed by Dr. Marc Cremer and his wife in partnership with Mr. Zaheer Vakil and Mr. Mohiuddin Mulla, Green Tokri is a brand that brings you fresh produce straight from the farm to your table! Dr. Cremer is an agriculture engineer of profound caliber holding a PhD in his field from Germany. Using his engineering acumen and love for farming he was able to grow lettuce on sweeping Green Tokri farms in Saswad, Pune. Since it's inception in 2001, Green Tokri has grown with leaps and bounds relying mainly on word to mouth publicity. And if it has grown it's because of the unmatchable quality and freshness of the produce and the absolute convenience getting it delivered to your doorsteps.

If you go on to their website, you can register to view all the products on sale. All the canned processed foods are made from the farm grown produce and hence are fresh and tasty. They have listed an extensive range of salad vegetables so that you can go ahead and make your own salad as per your preference. To add to that you can also order dressings, sauces and other condiments that you might require. Everything is extremely reasonably priced considering it's fresh out of the farm and you'll find almost all items priced below 100 Rupees. If you want to make salad just for yourself you can order a pre-cut ready-to-eat salad bowl with dressing for just 75 Rupees! Isn't that a steal?!


Green Tokri spoiled us silly with such amazingly fresh and healthy products. We were only too happy to receive our big bag of super fresh veggies and goodies. Our bulging bag had every vegetable that you'd want to be in your salad ranging from sweet succulent iceberg lettuce to ruby red cherry tomatoes.We got to taste jars of mayonnaise and sauces and dressings. We spent the weekends trying different salads, using the vegetables for new recipes and trying to incorporate the condiments in our everyday food. Green Tokri has amazed us. We absolutely loved everything we got our hands on.


We spend the entire week trying new ways to use the products and at the end of the week, the iceberg lettuce were still fresh in their zip lock bags. It was extremely easy to simply tear off the fresh, crumbly leaves into a box, throw in some veggies and a drizzle of the dressing and pack it off to work. And since, we tried so many ways to eat our vegetables we will sharing it with you too! Right now, however we will start off with our favorite salad that uses the Green Tokri products.

The ingredients we used were:

A bag of Ice Berg leaves: Though this bag of salad leaves had 250gms of produce, yet we were able to use it for almost 4-5 helpings of salads. We stored it to almost a little more than a week and it still tasted as crunchy and sweet as before.


Red Cabbage: It came in whole pieces and it lasted us more than 5 bowls of salad. We used it for sandwiches later. Rupees 50 per piece.


English Carrots: Priced at 29 Rupees for 500gms.


European Cucumbers: We love cucumbers and we totally love it on our salad. These cucumbers were juicy and sweet. The bag of 500gms contained 3 large cucumbers for 25 Rupees. It was so tender we didn't even bother peeling it.


Cherry Tomatoes: These tiny tomatoes instantly pepped up a bowl of greens. It was as fresh as they come and 2 weeks on, we still have a couple lying around in the fridge. It came in a bag of 200 gms and priced at just 29 Rupees!


Pickled Gherkins: We love love love this pickle. It can be used in sandwiches or pizzas and salads or eaten as it is. We loved snacking on the sweet and sour gherkins. Priced at 79 Rupees for 350Gms, we can't wait to stock up on this already!


Roasted Seeds: These are great addition to the salad and adds a crunchy texture. It came in a tiny packet but had enough to out-last all the salad making fervour.

Roasted Chicken: Now, this ingredient is optional if you want. We picked up a packet of pre-cut portions of smoked chicken from Nature's Basket. You can try them too if you are a chicken lover and like adding protein to your salad. It tastes great and stores well.


Mayonnaise and Belgian Samurai Mayonnaise: Even though Mr.TKD avoids mayo like plague yet he gave in to these ones this time because they tasted so good. The Belgian Samurai Mayo is like a spicier version of the regular mayo and it has a great punch. However, Vegetarian friends, be warned, these goodness has eggs in them. 89 Rupees for a jar of 180Gms.

Garlic Dressing: This is a bottle of wonder. It immediately uplifts the entire bowl of salad and makes it taste gazillion times better. This paired with mayo is our favorite dressing. Don't over-use it though, you don't want to overwhelm your bowl with a garlicky flavor. 79 rupees for 250 ml.


Making of the salad was the easiest part. The only thing that takes up a bit of the time is the prepping. Make sure to wash your lettuce before you toss them to your salad bowl. Once you wash them you can just wring it with your hands to break it into bite-sized pieces and then keep tossing the veggies you love into your salad bowl. Sprinkle the dressing on the salad and spoon out some mayo into it too. Toss the salad and enjoy a guilt-free, healthy and delicious meal.


Watch this space for more as we try our hands at Bruschetta with the Green Tokri Basil Pesto! Meanwhile go visit Green Tokri's website and register to go through appealing list of products at www.GreenTokri.com | http://Webshop.GreenTokri.com | www.facebook.com/GreenTokri

P.S: Green Tokri also organizes farm tour of their extensive farms in Sasvad. You can visit with your family and enjoy the greenery and natural landscape of their sweeping farms as well as pick produce for yourself. The tour will help you understand the working of Green Tokri and give you a peek into the farm life. The tour is chalked for an entire day and sounds quite fun! Contact GT for more details.