Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Steak Salad with Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette

Quite possibly the best summertime salad of all. After all—mostly plants still leaves room for the occasional giant hunk of steak.



Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tbsp lime juice (about half a lime, hand squeezed)
Kosher salt
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
4 oz mixed baby spinach and baby arugula
2 endives, julienned
1/2 pint fragrant cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, diced
Leftover steak, sliced

Whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, and a couple pinches of salt in a large bowl. Add half the cilantro, then add the greens and endives and toss to coat evenly. 

Toss the tomatoes with the rest of the cilantro. Serve a bed of greens onto each plate. Sprinkle with tomatoes and avocado, and top with the sliced steak. 

Serves 2.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Winter Watercress Salad with Mandarins and Pomegranate

Happy 2017, fellow foodies! Let's raise our virtual glasses to bringing people together around food and friendship in the new year.


Meanwhile, here's an easy yet delectable way to fancy up a wintry dinner plate that tastes as crisp and clean as fresh fallen snow. And some fresh fallen snow, for good measure.



Ingredients
1 bunch watercress
2 mandarin oranges, peeled and diced
1 pomegranate, seeded
Olive oil
Meyer lemon
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together a couple glugs of olive oil, the zest and juice of half the Meyer lemon, a pinch of salt, and some black pepper to form a vinaigrette.

Cut the root part off the watercress if needed so that you're left with the leaves and stems. Rinse well and dry gently.

Lightly coat the watercress with vinaigrette (I do this by gently dunking half the watercress in the vinaigrette and then lifting it back out, and gently distributing the dressing through the whole bunch with my fingertips so that the watercress is still all laying in the same direction.)

Arrange the watercress onto plates, and top with oranges and plenty of pomegranate seeds.

Serves 2-4.





Saturday, August 2, 2014

Arugula Salad with Sardines and Preserved Lemon

You know the saying. When life—in, say, the form of two lovely dinnertime hosts who have just plied you with roasted pastured chicken and grilled eggplant and zucchini from their garden and just-plucked tomatoes and homemade pâté and a veritable panoply of stunning wines and a wide night sky pinned up with constellations, into which a shooting star slips, sudden and silent, as if from another world—when that life, goes the saying, hands you a jar of preserved lemons, you go home and you make lots of things that involve preserved lemon the next day.

 

Okay, maybe that's not the saying. It lacks a certain ring. But it's true. The corollary is, when life in any form does not hand you preserved lemons, you make your own. (Shortcut here). And then, in either case, you make lunch.


Lunch, since you asked, should be this.

Ingredients
4-5 oz baby arugula
Good quality olive oil
About 1 tbsp preserved lemon, chopped
Fleur de sel (or sub kosher salt)
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated
1/2 cup canned navy beans, rinsed and drained
Liberal scattering sprouted sunflower seeds*
2 tins sardines, drained**
Freshly ground black pepper

Drizzle arugula with olive oil, sprinkle with the preserved lemon, and toss well. (Use enough oil to lightly coat the leaves. I just do this directly on the plates, using my hands, or you could do it in a bowl and then arrange beds on the plates).

Sprinkle lightly with salt, then scatter liberally with carrot, navy beans, and sunflower seeds. Top with sardines and freshly ground black pepper.


Serves 2 for a light summertime meal, and pairs well with a cold glass of Torrontés.



*Available at Costco.

**Current favorites: Wild Planet Pacific sardines in extra virgin olive oil with lemon.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Shaved Fennel Salad with Pomegranate and Persimmon

Every now and then, one finds a life-changing cooking trick.


For example. There was life before the pomegranate hack. Life before the pomegranate hack consisted of, on average, oh-point-five pomegranates per annum per person in our household. In contrast, life after the pomegranate hack, at the present rate, is on track to exceed over 100 pomegranates per person per annum. (Surely the local pomegranate supply...or our paychecks...will run out long before then, however.)

To experience your own epiphanic culinary moment, arm yourself with a pomegranate, a wooden spoon, and this easy video tutorial.

Then, after you gorge yourself on an entire pomegranate or three, consider the many culinary excuses available for replenishing your dwindling supply. Like, for example, this salad.



Ingredients
1/2 fennel bulb
2-4 large handfuls mixed baby greens
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/2 pomegranate, seeded
1 ripe fuyu persimmon, sliced or diced
1 tbsp lightly toasted pumpkin seeds
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Shave the fennel (I use a carrot peeler to slice off thin pieces). Toss in a bowl of ice water and let sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to crisp, then drain and pat dry.

Whisk olive oil and vinegar together to form an emulsion. Add some pepper. Toss the greens with just enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. Add the fennel, toss a couple moe times, and arrange on salad plates. Sprinkle with pomegranate and pumpkin seeds, and garnish with persimmon slices.


Serves 2.




Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Warm Quinoa Salad with Roasted Kabocha and Pomegranate

After the husband reintroduced me to kabocha squash by way of a brilliant farroto he invented last month (coming soon to a blog near you), I became obsessed. (I say reintroduced because in retrospect, I have eaten it—and always loved it—in Japanese tempura, but never knew what kind of squash it was.) Roasted, kabocha tastes of toasted pumpkin seeds and squashy wonderment. You might think the latter is more of a delirious rant than an actual taste. Roast some yourself and see.


This recipe calls for enough kabocha to make about 2 cups cooked, plus 3-5 extra wedges for snacking, because I am a realist, and realists believe in accurately predicting the amount of a given ingredient that will make it past one's mouth and into the pot. Also because it allows you to have the following conversation:

You: Would you like a slice of kabocha?
Other person: Kabocha?
You: KABOCHA.
Other person: Is it good?
You: KABOCHA.
Other person: What?
You (mouth full): Mmrmph.



Ingredients
1 kabocha squash (weighing about a pound; or sub butternut squash)
Olive oil
1/2 cup quinoa
3 inches of a medium leek, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, rinsed well, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
5 oz veggie and/or chicken broth
2 oz. baby spinach or arugula
Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted in a pan until golden brown
Freshly ground white pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Rinse the kabocha squash and pat dry. Cut the top out as you would when carving a pumpkin, then slice in half from top to bottom. Scoop out the seeds, then slice both halves into even wedges (roughly 3/4" wide at the thickest part).

Drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil, and arrange the squash wedges on the sheet, turning them over as you go so that both sides are lightly coated with olive oil. (Note that if you overcrowd, they won't brown well, so try to leave a little space between them.) Roast for 15 minutes, flip, and roast 12-15 minutes more or until lightly browned and tender without being squishy. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, rinse the quinoa and let soak in cold water for 15 minutes.

Heat a pot over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil. Saute the leek with a pinch of salt until it softens, then add the garlic. Saute a minute more, add the quinoa, and stir a few times. Pour in the broth, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

While the quinoa is cooking, slice about 3/4 of the kabocha squash wedges out of their skin and cut into 1 inch pieces. (You also have time to seed the pomegranate and toast the pine nuts here if you want.) The rest of the squash is yours for the snacking.

When the quinoa is done, fold in the squash very gently (to avoid smushing it) and let heat through, then turn off the heat and cover the pot. Toss the baby greens with a little bit of olive oil and a spoonful of sherry vinegar so that the leaves are very lightly coated. Pour the quinoa-squash mixture over the greens, and let sit for 2 minutes to slightly wilt the leaves. Toss gently, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste, and serve topped with pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side.


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Summer Salad with Cucumber and Cherry Tomatoes

The perfect accompaniment to bread and cheese on a hot summery afternoon.


Ingredients
1 cucumber or Armenian cucumber (about 12 oz), halved lengthwise and thickly sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
About 10-12 large leaves fresh sweet basil, chiffonade
1/2 Eureka lemon, juiced
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together the lemon juice, oil, vinegar, and a little salt and pepper in a small bowl. Lightly toss the cucumbers with a little of the vinaigrette, and set in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to crisp up.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Toss the tomatoes and basil in the vinaigrette, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the cucumbers, and serve immediately.


Serves 3-4, and pairs well with an Argentinian Torrontes.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Easy Quinoa Salad

An easy, healthy, and delicious springtime side dish that complements just about anything.


Ingredients
Olive oil
1 tbsp chopped red spring onion (or sub shallot)
1 tbsp chopped green garlic (or sub 1 clove garlic, pressed)
1/2 cup quinoa
3/4 cups chicken and/or veggie broth
4 oz baby arugula
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the quinoa well in a mesh strainer and let soak in cold water for 15-30 minutes, then rinse and drain well. (This removes the bitter saponins so the quinoa tastes sweeter. A lot of the quinoa sold in supermarkets is now prewashed so that you can skip this step, but some of the fair-trade quinoa still seems to taste better if you have time to soak it first. The liquid measurements here assume you've soaked the quinoa—if not, cook according to the package directions.)

Heat olive oil in a smallish pot over medium heat. Add the onion and green garlic and saute, stirring, until they soften (about 2-3 minutes). Add the quinoa, stir, and then add the broth. Cover, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the quinoa has unspiraled and the liquid is absorbed. Uncover and remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, heat a small pot over medium-low heat. Add the balsamic vinegar and simmer very gently until the liquid is reduced by half (don't stand over the pot or you'll get a nose full of vinegar). Remove from the heat.

Toss the arugula with a spoonful of good-quality olive oil. Add the quinoa and toss together (the arugula will wilt a bit from the warmth of the quinoa). Drizzle with balsamic reduction, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, toss once more, and serve.

Serves 2.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Tomatoes


English, I'm afraid, is not something that happens after you eat this salad.


Foodie coma of happiness, yes. Just not the writing thing. Please excuse. Make this. Tastebud zingy whatnot blissful mm. You'll see.


Ingredients
1 lb small globe or cherry tomatoes, cut in half crosswise
Kosher salt
1 cup red and/or white quinoa, soaked for 10-20 minutes in cold water and drained well
4 oz baby arugula 
Handful purslane (optional—a good use for it if you've planted some to have on hand)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar, simmered until volume is reduced by half
Freshly ground black pepper
10-20 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade


For cherry tomatoes: Preheat oven to 300°. Toss tomatoes gently in a bowl with a little olive oil and a pinch or two of salt. Pour onto a nonstick baking sheet, spread into a single layer, and turn face up. Roast for 30-35 minutes.

For small globe tomatoes:  Preheat oven to 325°. Turn tomatoes face up on a nonstick baking sheet, and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes, then sprinkle with salt and turn the oven down to 300°. Cook for another 15 minutes.


Meanwhile, combine the quinoa with a little less than 1 1/4 cups of water in a pot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes. If there is a little extra liquid at the bottom at the end, simply uncover the pan, turn the heat up to medium, and simmer for another minute or two until liquid evaporates. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.

Drizzle the greens lightly with olive oil, toss, and sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt. Add the quinoa and toss gently (the heat of the quinoa will wilt the greens very slightly). Serve onto plates. Top with roasted tomatoes (warm or room temperature), drizzle with balsamic reduction, and sprinkle with basil and black pepper.

 

Serves 2-4. Pair with a small plate of crackers and good cheese and a glass of your favorite wine for an absolutely mouthwatering picnic. And note that while the tomatoes take awhile to roast, this is a surprisingly easy meal to assemble.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Baby Arugula Salad with Grilled Peaches and Strawberries

If you're making this pizza, this salad almost makes itself. If you're not making a grilled peach pizza, you need to (a) think carefully and deeply about why you would deny yourself such indescribable happiness and (b) decide to make one after all. But let's say your flour has been abducted by muffin-obsessed aliens and it's a national holiday and your neighbors have locked their doors and shuttered their windows in a selfish strategy to hoard all their own flour for their own grilled pizzas and they've removed the ladder that used to go up to your Plan B secret entrance on their second floor so you really, really, really can't make any pizza. None at all.

In that case, you are allowed to make this salad without its grilled pizza accompaniment. Note that you can use just peaches or just strawberries or both, depending on what the aliens have left you. And sorry about the aliens. And the paranoid flour-hoarding neighbors. Especially if I'm one of them.


Ingredients
2-3 handfuls baby arugula
Olive oil
1 handful of strawberries, halved lengthwise and sliced
Half a peach, or two halves, grilled and sliced
A couple slices of prosciutto, torn or cut into pieces or strips (optional)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 pinches chopped fresh rosemary, or more to taste
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, simmered until volume reduces by half

Toss the arugula in enough olive oil to coat very lightly, sprinkle in a pinch of rosemary, then arrange on salad plates. Top with the fruit and add prosciutto here and there if desired. Sprinkle with another pinch of rosemary, a pinch of salt, and some freshly ground pepper, and drizzle with balsamic reduction.

Serves 2.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Summertime Salad with Yellow Squash and Purslane

Crunchy, cool, and light, with a hint of citrus—this summertime salad is chock full of heart-protecting Omega-3 fatty acids. Meanwhile, it will boost your immune system with Vitamin C, load you up with Vitamin A and Potassium, and satisfy your taste buds to boot.


Can't find purslane in your local store? Track some down at a nursery and stick it in a pot or in your garden—it's technically a weed and will thrive just about anywhere, which gives you easy access to this nutritional powerhouse all summer long.

Ingredients
3-4 handfuls (about 6 oz) purslane
1 small yellow squash, thinly sliced into ribbons
(use a mandoline or carrot peeler to cut thin, lengthwise slices)

Vinaigrette
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
Pinch salt
1 to 1 1/2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Pinch or cut the purslane into bite-size pieces, wash, and dry in a salad spinner.

Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl. Toss the purslane and squash slices gently with enough dressing to coat lightly, and serve.


Serves 2 as a (half your plate) side salad.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Simple and Elegant: Nasturtiums and Snap Peas

Found before dinner: A rioting cascade of nasturtiums in our backyard and sugar snap peas in our produce box. The two together make a quick and light springtime salad that's easy enough to throw together for a one-person meal but also stunning enough to display at a dinner party.


Ingredients
Sugar snap peas, ends snapped and strings removed
Nasturtiums, rinsed and dried*
Kosher salt



Arrange snap peas and nasturtiums together on a plate, drizzle lightly with good-quality olive oil, and sprinkle with salt before serving.

*Nasturtiums are reminiscent of radishes, and are spiciest when grown in full sun and fully opened. For a more delicate taste, choose nasturtiums that are just opening or growing in part shade.

Friday, April 6, 2012

The Food in Our Food


In light of the recent media commotion over the ammonia-washed waste trimmings in our beef and caffeine-and-benadryl stuffed chicken (who are apparently also fed their own feathers, laced with arsenic and old lace...I mean, delicious anti-microbials), you may be finding yourself craving some food that didn't come from an industrial farm.



For example. You know those nasturtiums growing in your back yard? Turns out they're delicious. And rarely fed feathers or washed with ammonia. It's like a win-win situation.


To make them the centerpiece of your dinnertime salad, whisk up a vinaigrette of olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper, drizzle lightly over baby greens and toss well. Top with diced grapefruit or pomelo, lightly toasted pine nuts, and a little crumbled goat cheese. Scatter with nasturtium petals and/or whole flowers, and serve alongside roasted beets, or risotto, or sablefish.

None of which have ever been ingredients in dog food. There's something comforting about that.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mostly Plants in a Hurry: Quinoa Salad

Let's face it. Quinoa, when eaten plain, gets a little too quinoa-y about halfway through the plate. Salad, meanwhile, just goes on and on, leaf after increasingly boring leaf. But when you put the two together...


...there's no other word for it. Magic.

Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa (white and/or red), rinsed well* (or sub 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked quinoa)
2/3 cups broth
1 or 2 medium or hardboiled eggs, sliced (or sub 6 quail eggs, boiled for just under 3 minutes)
2 handfuls chopped mizuna (or sub spinach or mixed baby greens)
2 handfuls baby arugula (or sub chopped arugula)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
1 1/2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A little grated carrot or beet (optional)

Drain the quinoa well. Combine with the broth in a pot, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff and decant into a dish to cool (stick it in the fridge to cool faster, or make it a little bit ahead of time...you just want it to be warm or room temperature rather than hot).

Meanwhile, boil the egg(s), if you're not using leftovers from some earlier egg-cooking extravaganza.

Whisk the olive oil and vinegar together in a bowl, then stir in the mustard, parsley, a couple pinches of salt, and pepper to taste. 

Pour half the dressing over the mixed greens and toss to coat evenly. Add the quinoa, drizzle the rest of the dressing over it, and toss well. (If it seems a little dry, you can add a bit more olive oil.) Arrange on plates, garnish with egg and a little grated carrot and/or beet if desired, and serve.

Serves 2 for a light lunch, or pair with fresh bread and some chickpea spread or cheese for a complete dinner.

*If you have time, soak in cold water for 15 minutes to remove any lingering saponins (they're what make quinoa bitter). Supposedly, nowadays quinoa already has the saponins mostly removed, which makes soaking unnecessary, but I still tend to do it if I have a few extra minutes -- it seems to make the quinoa a little sweeter and more tender. If you do this, you can reduce the liquid slightly to 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Baby Lettuces with Trombocino and Tomato

It may be September, but summertime ain't over till the fat lady sings about tomatoes not being in season anymore.


Ingredients
2-3 handfuls mixed baby lettuces
2 cups grated trombocino squash (if you can't find this, zucchini might work in its place), squeezed gently to remove a bit of the excess water if it's very juicy
1-2 cups sliced tomatoes (if large, halve or quarter before slicing)
Several sprigs cinnamon basil, chopped (can sub any other basil)
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Whisk about 3 parts olive oil to 1 part sherry vinegar in a small bowl to form an emulsion. Add a pinch or two of salt and a liberal dusting of white pepper.


Toss the lettuce in a salad bowl with enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. Add the grated trombocino and drizzle with a little more vinaigrette, then top with the tomatoes and a sprinkling of basil (note that cinnamon basil and fino verde are both stronger than sweet basil, so adjust the amount down or up accordingly). Drizzle with another spoonful or two of vinaigrette, and serve.

Serves 2 as part of a light summer dinner. Toss gently before serving onto plates.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Confessions of a Tomatophile

The truth of the matter is -- and I tell you this, internets, in the strictest confidence -- I used to feel decidedly ambivalent about tomatoes. In the sense that, when I saw a tomato, I would often astutely remark: "EWWW, tomatoes." I was young at the time, and prone to sweeping culinary generalizations. Loud and sweeping. I was very young, after all. This was several months ago, at least.


No, seriously, I really didn't like tomatoes as a child, and after two to three minutes of soul-searching, I have decided it wasn't my fault. Because they were square, mass-produced, supermarket tomatoes bred to be shipped rather than eaten, without a trace of that amazingly addictive ripe-tomato aroma, and without a trace of the corresponding taste. Tomatoes to me were kind of sour, often mealy, reddish things that were apparently Good For You. I did not meet a real, fragrant, vine-ripened, glowing tomato until much later. And once I did, I announced (loudly, and with perhaps a modest hint of my old tendency toward sweeping generalization): "TOMATOES ARE THE MOST AMAZING WONDERFUL THING EVER IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM POSSIBLY GALAXY OR UNIVERSE HEY PUT THAT DOWN YES I AM PLANNING TO EAT ALL OF THESE GO GET YOUR OWN SALAD INGREDIENT."


This year, we are actually growing our very own tomatoes for the first time, which may or may not mean that I have been spending large portions of the summer seated cross-legged on the concrete next to them peering at them anxiously and muttering things like "Come on bee, go pollinate the flower. No, over here. Over here, stupid bee! Bee! Where are you going??" and "This stupid tomato plant doesn't even have any tomatoes. I think it's a dud. Maybe we should just pull it out" and "A TOMATO A TOMATO THERE'S A TOMATO" and "C'mon, stupid tomato, get red! Why won't this tomato get red?" and "LOOK AT ALL THE RED TOMATOES!!!!!!!!!!"


When you find yourself with fresh, fragrant, perfectly ripe tomatoes from your garden or farmers' market or CSA box, you can do many things, but here is the simplest and possibly still our very favorite.


Ingredients
Perfectly ripe, fragrant tomatoes
Good-quality olive oil
Kosher salt
Optional:
Balsamic vinegar
Fresh basil
Freshly ground black pepper


Cut the tomatoes into wedges or slices. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for at least five minutes, and preferably 10-20 before serving (the salt draws out the flavor of the tomatoes). You can also sprinkle them with balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper, and/or fresh basil leaves (whole or chiffonade).

Friday, August 19, 2011

Shaved Summer Squash Salad


This is an easy, elegant, and flexible recipe that has us addicted even after weeks of cooking summer squash. The amounts and proportions are flexible, too -- you can do this with a single zucchini for a light, cool garnish to complement a heavier main course, or use the equivalent of 1-2 medium-sized zucchini per person for a side salad. The Parmesan can be adjusted to taste -- I like making shavings that are about an inch long and scattering enough of them so that there's about one in every other bite.

Ingredients
Summer squash
Good-quality Parmesan cheese
Small handful flat leaf parsley or fresh tarragon, chopped
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar or lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
Optional: A couple handfuls of baby arugula, a slice of prosciutto, halved cherry tomatoes for garnish

Wash and dry the summer squash, trim the ends, and then slice very thinly (one easy way to do this is to use a carrot peeler to shave off thin slices from one trimmed end of the squash to the other). Next, shave a few pieces of Parmesan per salad (you can use the peeler again here).

Whisk about three parts olive oil to one part vinegar or lemon juice together in a bowl to form an emulsion. Add salt, black pepper, and the fresh herb to taste.

Drizzle enough vinaigrette over the squash slices to lightly coat, and toss gently (add the arugula here if you're using it). Adjust ingredients to taste. Arrange on plates, sprinkle with the Parmesan shavings, and serve.