Archive for the 'salads' Category
Just home from emceeing the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference, where I ate many things – perhaps most notably absolute perfection in the form of a salted caramel macaron (from the new M at the Calgary Farmers’ Market), meaning I didn’t make dinner, left M and W to their own devices and thus have nothing to offer, recipe-wise. But last weekend Sue fed me a suitably grainy-yet-delicious salad of the sort that makes one feel virtuous, well balanced and light on their feet. I even took photos, and totally meant to tell you about it. But then I thought rather than ask her for the recipe I’d ask her to do a guest post, since that seems to be a thing other bloggers do. And it sounds fun.
Figures she’d have to throw in a preface being all complementary of me. As if I wasn’t wearing rugby shirts (and crushed pink shimmery synthetic shirts with tails from Le Château, with my painstakingly crimped hair – I bet I have a photo somewhere in the basement) right alongside her.
So without any further ado, I give you Sue (hey, that rhymes!):
Hi everyone! My name is Sue, and like many of you I’ve been riveted to the computer for the last couple years, reading every Dinner with Julie post I could get my eyes on.
Julie got me hooked on food and cooking right from the start of our friendship, and I’ve known her for a few decades now. I still find myself amazed when I look at one of her new recipes (SO simple! SO PERFECT!), floored by her work ethic, and more often than not absolutely slayed by her humour. The thing about Julie I know best though, is her capacity for friendship. Julie has been an amazing friend to me since we met in Junior High. She never laughed at my appalling Grade 8 fashion sense (rugby shirts and brown-tinted glasses), or at my horrific first boyfriends when they finally appeared a few years later. We’ve both grown up a bunch, or at the very least we’ve quit drinking Southern Comfort and switched to wine.
It’s because Julie is an amazing and generous friend that she invited me to do this guest-post, and I’ll try really hard not to screw it up. I’m hoping that if you can bear having a sub from time to time, it might mean that Julie can take a night off work and just hang with Mike and W, and isn’t that something we’ve all been asking her to do? But not too often, I promise.
Introduction now aside, I’d love to tell you about this salad I make. This is a salad that’s really great to have on the table when you have things like ribs or burgers or smokies there too. Rich meat dishes, especially the all-indulgent ribs are one of life’s great pleasures after all, and I prefer my eating pleasures to be unsullied by guilt. This is a magical, guilt-erasing elixir of lentils, whole grains and raw vegetables and it’s full of lemony flavour (definitely use fresh lemons if possible!), and there’s feta too. Whenever I’ve ever served this salad to people outside my immediate family, they always take the recipe home.
And it’s one of those salads that keeps well for a few days in the fridge, so you can dip into it for lunch the next day, have a couple spoonfuls when you get home from the gym and put it back on the supper table the night after that.
Like most things of this nature, the proportions and ingredients are extremely fluid. I love the wild rice in it because the texture stays that little bit crunchy, and really, it only needs about 1/2 cup uncooked, but wild rice is stupidly expensive. Feel free to substitute brown rice or omit it altogether. Other times if I need to feed a crowd, I’ll keep the wild rice but bolster the salad with some whole wheat couscous. Some of the vegetables should be crunchy, and if you’re planning on leftovers it’s best to cut the core (ie the watery bits) out of things like tomato and cucumber so as not to have an unappetizing soggy mess the day after tomorrow. Other than that, use what you already have in the fridge, or whatever looks good at the store.
You may notice in the photo a total absence of tomato and fresh herbs. That’s because I live a half hour’s drive to the grocery store, and I was already a glass of wine to the good when I started making this. The salad was fine without, and don’t you think it’s good to be happy when things turn out differently every time you make them? One last thing: you may want to keep an additional lemon on standby, or I suppose a couple tablespoons of red or white wine vinegar would work fine too. I’m always wanting to add that little bit more, but then I’m a bit obsessive with all things lemony.
Lentil & Wild Rice Salad
1/2 cup French blue lentils (green/brown lentils have worked fine in the past – they’ll likely need a little extra cooking time)
1/2 cup wild rice
2 med carrots (grated, but I suggest you grate the carrots when most of the salad is assembled so as to prevent that slight greyish brown colour they’ll otherwise acquire)
2 sticks celery
1/2-1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper
2-3 roma tomatoes
1/2 english cucumber
4-5 green onions, sliced thinly
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped or 1 tablespoon dried
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
150 grams (about 5 oz) feta, crumbled
juice of 1 lemon, seeds removed
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste
In a small saucepan add the lentils to about 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to med-low and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes or to taste, but don’t cook so long they lose their shape. Drain and cool.
In the same pan (no need to wash it), add the rice to about 2 cups of water. Add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to med-low and cover. Cook for about 35 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the rice rest in the pot, on the stove for about another 5 minutes. At this stage I usually find that some, but not all the grains have split open. I like the soft crunch at this stage, but if you prefer all the grains open, by all means let it rest for an additional 5-15 minutes. Drain and cool. (I suggest cooking the rice and lentils in the morning, or even the day before if you like, and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to proceed).
Put the rice and lentils into a large bowl. Chop the celery, pepper, tomatoes, and cucumbers into smallish chunks (bigger than 1/4″ but less 1/2″ works for me), add to the cooled rice and lentils. Add the green onions, herbs, feta, and lemon juice and give the salad a good toss. Add the freshly grated carrots, the olive oil, sugar and a good grinding of black pepper. Taste before you add salt as the feta often does the job! Chill for however long you have, or up to a few days. Makes about 8-10 cups.
February 19 2010 | grains and salads | 20 Comments »
AKA my new favourite way to eat Brussels sprouts (yes Brussels – as in the city in Belgium. Not brussel sprouts. Also not expresso. Espresso! ESPRESSO!!) These were the last remaining veg in the fridge that held their own during our week away. A few wrinkly peppers destined for roasting, and it’s time to hit the market.
Brussels sprouts are after all teeny heads of cabbage, so why not shred them into slaw? My Mom, a devout BS hater, who can sniff one out on a Thanksgiving table loaded with food, said she could be persuaded to try this. I’m doing it quick, before she changes her mind. I’ll let you know if she survives.
Brussels Sprout Slaw with Grainy Mustard Vinaigrette and Maple Pecans
adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2009
1 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
salt & pepper
1 1/2 lb. Brussels sprouts, trimmed
Dressing:
1/4 cup grainy mustard
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread the pecans out on a baking sheet and drizzle with maple syrup; stir around with a spoon to coat them well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 5 minutes; stir and bake them for another 5 minutes, until the syrup is thick and glaze-like. Remove from the oven and spread the nuts on a piece of foil or a plate to cool.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the Brussels sprouts for 5 minutes; drain and run under cool water. Shake off any excess water and run the sprouts through a food processor with a 1/8″-1/4″ slicing disk, or patiently cut them all thinly by hand. Transfer to a large bowl.
In a bowl or jar, shake or whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Toss the Brussels sprouts with as much dressing as you like; let marinate for about an hour. Right before serving, add the pecans.
I was busy patting myself on the back for eating a bowl of Brussels sprouts for lunch – nary a pastry in sight, and I haven’t had hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings for a good 3 DAYS – when our neighbours popped over and gave me an excuse to break into some cheese. So technically I ate triple crème, Oka and crackers for dinner. This is not helping my pants fit.
November 15 2009 | salads and veg | 22 Comments »
Having done a watermelon show in Edmonton last week, I find myself in the possession of more watermelons than I might otherwise have at one time to feed a family of 3. And, having not dropped them to save my pants from falling down last week, I feel particular pressure to do something with them, lest my humiliation be for nothing.
It turns out cubed watermelon makes a great addition to salads. Think about it – they are slightly sweet, crunchy, watery – a far better crouton for a hot summer day, don’t you think? This particular salad was built (as usual) on a mesclun mix, this time plucked cautiously (there aren’t many leaves there) from the pots on my patio; to it I added cubes of watermelon, a small handful of halved grapes, crumbled blue cheese (although feta or goat cheese would have been delicious too), and candied walnuts. For these particular candied walnuts, I toasted about a cup in a skillet (I like to make more than I need, to take me through several salads), then added 1/4 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of soy sauce (which adds flavour and salt), tossed it about until the sugar melted and coated the walnuts, then took them off the heat and allowed them to cool. That’s it. To dress: balsamic vinaigrette: canola oil, a drizzle of flax oil (1 tsp. has the same omega 3s as a filet of salmon), balsamic vinegar, a squirt of grainy mustard and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey – my standard. I shake it all up in one of those IKEA dressing bottles, and if I want it garlicky, squish a clove and stick it in without pressing it – it’s too big to come through the nozzle, so it infuses the dressing with garlic without contributing raw garlic chunks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
(And speaking of watermelon salads – I think I told you last year about one that completely blew me away – just chunked watermelon and feta, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. If you had some fresh mint in your garden, that would be a nice addition too.)
And while I have your ear, I just have to share a few quotes from W in the past 24 hours:
Grabbing onto me at the park: “oooh Mom, you’re nice and squishy!” Super.
In the car: “Mom, what does meat say?” (Me: “Moo.”) W: “No… it says ‘hi, I’m delicious!’.”
Tonight, pre-bath: “Hey, how about you be the Terminator, and I’ll be the cupcakes rolling down the hill. Ready? Go!”
Honestly, I don’t remember improv day in drama class being this complex. What does one do when one is the Terminator upon encountering cupcakes rolling down a hill? (Apparently W has a very clear view of this scenario, and I was doing it entirely wrong.)
One Year Ago: Lamb Rogan Josh and Roasted Chick Peas with Garlic and Chard
August 20 2009 | salads | 14 Comments »
It was a three hour lunch today; the kind that ended as the five o’clock news started. It wasn’t a power lunch, or a liquid lunch on the patio, but a lingering lunch in our living room with friends we haven’t seen all summer. The upside of being self-employed is that you can often push stuff to the back of your plate when an opportunity arises to slack off all afternoon. The downside of being self-employed is that you can often push stuff to the back of your plate when an opportunity arises to slack off all afternoon.
I found us another keeper: roasted potato salad with kale and tahini dressing. It doesn’t sound overly exciting, but trust me, it is. I stumbled upon it while searching for a roasted kale recipe I heard of that supposedly makes kale taste just like chips – anyone want to become my new best friend by sending it to me? because if I can make my greens taste like chips, I’m golden. And I may just package them up and make a million bucks on the side.
For approximately half my life I’ve roasted potatoes for potato salad – the very best kind is made with bacon, and after you cook and crumble the bacon (in the oven, on a baking sheet, at around 400F), you roll chunks of potato around in the bacon drippings and roast them too. Guess what salty meat kale goes especially well with? Bacon.
The other brilliant part of this recipe is the Parmesan cheese – you sprinkle it over the roasting potatoes toward the end of their cooking time, so that it melts and turns golden and crunchy. This too I’ve done, with oven fries, but never with a potato salad. You then thinly slice kale (remove the ribs – they can be too tough) and toss it with the hot potatoes, and it’s enough to wilt the kale. Chard, I imagine, would work very well too. The dressing is just tahini, lemon juice, water and garlic, whirled to a paste. If you like tahini, you’re going to love this. For me, this would make a happy lunch or dinner, just all on its own.
Garlicky Roasted Potato Salad with Wilted Kale and Tahini Dressing
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2008. If you like, par-boil the potatoes until about halfway cooked to give them a head start.
4-6 slices bacon (optional)
2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into big bite-sized pieces
canola or olive oil
4 garlic cloves (3 thinly sliced)
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup tahini
2 Tbsp. water
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2-3/4 lb. kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced crosswise
Preheat oven to 400°F.
If you’re using bacon, lay the strips on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until crispy; remove the bacon and set aside, leaving all or some of the drippings on the pan.
Spread the potatoes out on a single layer on the pan, and shake it around to coat them, adding a drizzle of oil too if you think it needs it. (If you didn’t use bacon, just drizzle the potatoes liberally with oil and toss them about to coat.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper, bump up the oven temp to 450°F and roast for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Stir in the sliced garlic and cook for 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with cheese and roast until cheese is melted and golden in spots, about 5 more minutes.
Meanwhile, purée tahini, water, lemon juice, remaining garlic clove and salt in a blender until smooth. Add a bit of water if the sauce is too thick.
Toss kale with hot potatoes and any garlic and oil remaining in pan, then toss with tahini sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Serves about 6.
We made lunch mostly of (fairly interesting) leftover salads – this, Ichiban salad (I made a fresh batch with leftover ingredients), and the bean salad still sitting in the fridge from W’s party – fortunately bean salad actually improves with time in the fridge. My favourite bean salad is made with a can of kidney beans, a can of chick peas, a can of mixed beans (you get a prettier variety this way), and some yellow and green wax beans, blanched for just a few minutes. Also some chopped red pepper and purple or green onion. (Hey, this is a salad – you don’t really need measurements, do you?) For the dressing, equal parts sugar and white vinegar, simmered on the stovetop until the sugar dissolves and it turns clear, at which point I stir in a squirt of mustard and shake of celery seed. Pour it over the bowl of beans while still warm, and shove it in the fridge overnight for it to do its thing. This is the way my grandma and great aunts made it, and I love it. Simple, sweet, vinegary marinated beans; very lowbrow compared to the million or so more sophisticated takes on a bean salad, but I’d always choose this one. It inspires me to stand at the fridge late at night and scoop ice-cold sweet beans into my mouth by the soupspoonful.
Now, this was a somewhat impromptu lunch. I figured we’d have those chocolate sandwich cookies from IKEA and fruit for dessert, until I remembered how dead easy it is to bake a browned butter bliss, and how wonderful it makes your house smell. When you go over to your friend’s house for lunch, it’s the best to be slammed in the face with the aroma of fresh baking the minute you walk in the door.
I used two peaches, two apricots, and a few small yellow plums. All unpeeled; just cut into thick wedges over the buttered pie plate and the thick batter spread overtop. Bliss. Simple bliss.
Browned Butter Bliss
(by way of Ligita’s Quick Apple Cake in Classic Home Desserts)
8 or so plums, thickly sliced, or 5 apricots, or 3 peaches, or any combination of these or other fruits
3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp. sugar (or to taste, according to the sweetness of the fruit)
pinch cinnamon (or to taste – optional)
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter a pie plate.
Toss your fruit in the pie plate with about 2 Tbsp. sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon, if you like. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and keep cooking it, swirling the pan occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until it turns golden. Pour into a medium mixing bowl.
Stir the 3/4 cup of sugar into the butter, then the eggs, then the flour. Pour over the fruit and sprinkle with the last tablespoon of sugar.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden and crusty, and the juices ooze from around the edges. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or thick vanilla yogurt.
Serves 8.
One Year Ago: Chili over Mac & Cheese
August 06 2009 | dessert and salads | 34 Comments »
This is a bit of a last-minute throwtogether post -pardon the hasty photo- but I was so excited to see the launch of Summer Fest 2009, a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created by A Way to Garden and some of my very favourite food people: Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Marilyn Pollack Naron of Simmer Till Done, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project, and hey, I wanted to be a part of it. Today the theme is fresh herbs, a topic that I could easily spend a whole lot of time on, if I had it. Today I have more parsley than time. Flat-leaf Italian parsley appears to be the only thing (besides tomatoes – they are growing so well they may just escape over the neighbour’s fence) that truly thrives in the little clay pots littering my back patio. Good thing I love it so much.
I’m constantly making an effort to eat more greens. There’s always spinach, kale and chard, but Italian parsley is dark and leafy, and can be added here and there without taking over. The kicker is parsley is so often seen as a garnish; a sprinkle to make potato salad look prettier, rather than an ingredient in and of itself. I typically add entire bunches of it to grainy salads and lentil-barley salads, and recently discovered how well it blends into hummus. But today, with a surplus of nubbly potatoes the size of walnuts and freshly shelled peas, I thought I’d make an easy potato salad (I crave it about this time every summer) where Italian parsley has as much a presence as any other vegetable.
Usually I roast potatoes for salad – they are crispier and more flavourful, and don’t absorb as much mayo so you can get away with using less – but this one needed to be a little more delicate. Scrub and simmer the potatoes (fingerlings would be stunning here) just until tender, adding a handful of fresh peas a few minutes before the potatoes finish cooking. Drain the lot in a colander, run it under cool water to stop them from cooking, and refrigerate until cold.
For the dressing, add a generous squeeze of lemon (and some grated zest, for extra pow) to as much mayo as you want to use. (The quantity of juice is really up to you – according to your taste – but it will thin it enough to dress the salad well – more the consistency of a creamy ranch dressing than thick mayo.) Toss the potatoes and peas with this, tear over a large handful or two of Italian parsley, removing any tough stems, and add a good grinding of black pepper. Today I can’t think of a more welcome lunch.
As for Summer Fest, you can play too – just visit the aforementioned sites (they are all beautiful posts, all well worth a stroll through) and leave your comments – about herbs of all kinds, including links to your own posts if you like, or your favourite online finds – remembering of course that I love to get comments too.
THE SUMMER FEST 2009 SCHEDULE:
Tuesday, July 28: HERBS (Any and all.)
Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES
Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK
Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK
One Year Ago: Pizza on the grill, using Afghan flatbread
July 28 2009 | salads and veg | 13 Comments »
Next »
