Archive for the 'salads' Category
Look, I have something for you! That’s not baking, nor dessert. Something that can be called into service for barbecues and potlucks all summer long, or hang out in your fridge and wait for you to need a scoop of something real instead of a handful of chips or another piece of raisin toast. I feel like I’ve been shortchanging y’all lately, and when I was reminded of this salad – and how delicious it is – I got all tingly (as W said this morning when he woke up with his hand asleep for the first time: “it feels all sparkly, like a fuzzy peach”) – and wanted to rush home and tell you about it immediately. Of course it took me a day or two. Mostly because everybody ate it.
This is something my mom and I came up with years ago – like decades – to bring to a baby shower. I have little memory of whose (I have it narrowed down, but can’t be sure) but I do remember this salad. (Priorities.) It has orzo, and spinach, and purple onion, and lemon… we tossed things in without measuring, and when it disappeared and people asked for the recipe we figured we had better remember how we made it. The next time we used rice, and it quickly became that go-to recipe we used any time we had to bring something somewhere. Until we didn’t.
And then my mom made it on Saturday. (We had a Food Revolution Day dinner. It was great. I was so distracted by worry that there might not be enough food -there was- that I forgot my camera.)
Orzo – that slippery little pointy-ended pasta that looks like giant grains of rice – are generally overlooked as a base for a salad. (Or for anything, really. Does anyone outside of Italy cook with orzo anymore?) Its size is perfect for salads, slipping into the nooks and crannies between veggies, and never getting soggy. I highly recommend it – especially with lots of fresh spinach (it’s back in my garden already!), lemon and feta. And if you have juniors, pick up the salad bowl and bring it to the park with as many forks as there are people.
Orzo Salad with Spinach, Feta and Lemon
1 1/2 cups orzo (small rice-shaped pasta)
1 small bunch fresh spinach or half a bag of prewashed spinach
half a purple onion, finely chopped
1/2 – 1 cup crumbled feta
grated zest and juice of a lemon (about 3 Tbsp.)
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the orzo according to the package directions; drain well, running under cool water to cool it down, then dump into a bowl.
Thinly slice your spinach: tack a bunch of leaves, roll them up tightly and slice through the whole bunch – or just tear it in with your hands. The method you choose will likely depend on the salad’s final destination. Add the onion, feta and lemon zest.
Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and drizzle with the rice vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Toss to coat well. Taste it and adjust the seasonings if it needs it. Serve right away or refrigerate until you’re ready for it. Serves 4-8.
May 22 2012 | one dish and salads and vegetarian | 10 Comments »
I have no exciting way to introduce you to this salad of sorts; suffice to say it has taken care of many lunches, and even a few dinners over the past few weeks. It’s the Ichiban salad of my childhood, glammed up with chunks of roasted chicken, and made extra toasty by popping crushed dry noodles in the toaster oven along with the sliced almonds. (Note: do not leave the toaster oven to go check your email. For real.) The resulting jumble is crunchy, sweet and sour, and makes a satisfying sum of its parts. Also: a ginormous bag of coleslaw mix (enough to last at least a week) costs $3, a packet of noodles about a quarter, and a handful of almonds aint much. You also get the health plusses of all that slaw, and the nuts, and a few peas if you want to add the dregs of the bowl of leftovers from the other night. (OK… honestly? I put them in there so I could call it chicken noodle salad. I thought it was catchy. It is kinda fun though, right?)
More selling points: If you’re starving when you get home, it can be put together in under ten minutes, before you devour two pieces of toast and a handful of granola. All the things in it keep well enough to keep on hand in the cupboard or fridge – cabbage has staying power. (You don’t have to add roasted chicken, but if there’s some in the freezer or fridge, it’s a Very Good Thing.)
I’m going to drive structured recipe lovers crazy for awhile here, because this is again one that gets tossed together without reference to measurements.
For two big pasta-size bowls, or enough to put on the dinner table as a side, here’s what I do:
- Crush a bag of Ichiban noodles (spicy chicken is my fave, although you’ll just use a sprinkle of the packet) in its bag, then open it up and shake the contents out onto a baking sheet – it should fit in the toaster oven. Add a handful of sliced almonds and toast until everything smells nutty.
- Mound a generous amount of thinly sliced cabbage or coleslaw mix in a bowl. A couple handfuls per person, I’d say.
- Get a jar, and pour in about 1/4 cup olive or canola oil, 2-3 Tbsp. sugar (it’s sweet), 3-4 Tbsp. rice vinegar and a sprinkle of the seasoning packet. Shake it up.
- Add the toasty nuts n’ noodles to the slaw, add some chopped chicken if you like, and drizzle the lot with dressing. You probably won’t need all of it, but that part is up to you. Toss and eat.
Now I’m all hungry.
April 12 2012 | chicken & turkey and salads | 12 Comments »
I’m a little smitten with quinoa salads right now, y’all. Maybe that’s not new. I’ve always loved a good tumble of quinoa with black beans or chickpeas or sautéed leeks or kale. Usually with feta.
OK, so totally not new. This one though? Totally is. The same but different.
I know apples are out of season. Most everything is. But I’m starting to grow little green things in my kitchen – like sprouts and basil – and either would be fab torn and tossed into a quinoa salad. As green things begin to poke out of the ground, you can pluck them and toss them in. That’s the beauty of these beany, grainy salads – anything goes.
This is one I did awhile ago for Swerve, and I can’t get enough of it.
Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas, Feta and Apples
1 cup quinoa, rinsed in a fine sieve
1/4 cup golden or sultana raisins
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
a big handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta (or as much as you want)
1 tart-ish apple, chopped
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or almonds
Dressing:
1/4 cup canola or olive oil
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. curry paste or powder
Cook 1 cup quinoa according to package directions (or there are directions here); dump into a wide salad bowl and set aside to cool. (Tip: add the raisins as it cools – the raisins will plump up as they absorb any excess moisture.) Add the chickpeas, parsley, feta and apple and drizzle with dressing. (To make the dressing: shake all the ingredients up in a jar.) Toss, then sprinkle with toasted walnuts or almonds right before serving.
Serves 4.
March 21 2012 | grains and salads and vegetarian | 13 Comments »
Back in December when I was bedridden with a back that capsized on the day of our cookiepalooza, which resulted in Mike bringing up Oreo truffles and shortbread at hour intervals, I started to fantasize about big salads, and would have paid $100 to anyone who delivered a hefty dose of kale.
I started flipping through food sites and blogs, looking for pictures of green things. Guys, I had it bad. I bookmarked this kale and quinoa salad with cranberries and feta, and swore I’d make it the minute I could stand at the kitchen counter again. I didn’t of course, and then it was Christmas, and the new year, and now February. So today, amongst it all, I made it for lunch. No biggie.
The great thing about a quinoa salad – besides its obvious deliciousness and ability to transform hard core leafy greens like kale – is that you can keep it in the fridge and have something great to dip into at any time without any mental effort. For days when your brain is otherwise occupied.
Although you can cook quinoa like rice -in a rice cooker, even- I like to cook it like pasta, in a pot of water, and strain it and return it to the warm pot to steam. Adding a handful of dried cranberries helps plump the fruit while absorbing excess moisture, as does a tea towel draped over the pot to absorb the steam. This guarantees fluffy quinoa.
The recipe – inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s chard stuffing – called for pine nuts, which cost about as much as platinum these days. Although I have a half a small bag in the freezer left over from some recipe or other, I’ve been coming up with substitutes, not wanting to waste the precious bitty things. But it occurred to me it would be an even more colossal waste to have them linger into freezer burned oblivion, only to be tossed out 10 years down the road.
And so I carefully unwrapped and shook out some pine nuts to toast in the toaster oven. I may have counted them, just to be fair. I gingerly set it on “toast” and ran to quick check my email.
Walnuts it is!
This is simply dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon – but it would be fab with a simple balsamic or red wine vinaigrette.
Kale and Quinoa Salad with Cranberries and Feta
Adapted from Beyond the Plate, where it was inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s Chard Stuffing. Quantities of each ingredient are up to you, of course – adjust each according to your taste.
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup dried cranberries
olive oil, for cooking
1 medium shallot or a small chunk of purple onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small bunch of kale
salt and pepper
pinch dried chili flakes (optional)
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup pine nuts or 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
a squeeze of lemon (optional)
In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook the quinoa for 12-14 minutes, until just tender and the germ separates, making a little curly Q. Drain well in a fine sieve, then return to the pot (off the heat, but still warm), add the cranberries, cover with a tea towel and the lid, and set aside to cool.
In a medium skillet set over medium-high heat, heat a drizzle of oil and sauté the shallot or onion for a couple minutes, until soft. Remove the tough ribs from the kale, stack the leaves and thinly slice them. Add to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until wilted. If you like, add a small splash of water to the pan to create steam, and cover for a few minutes. Season with salt and add a pinch of chili flakes, if you like. If you added water, remove the lid and cook until the moisture has cooked off.
Add the kale to the quinoa, along with the feta and pine nuts or walnuts. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon, if you like. Toss again and serve immediately. Serves 4.
February 02 2012 | grains and one dish and salads and vegetarian | 17 Comments »
I know, it’s just slaw. Or is it? Stick with me – there’s something shiny at the end.
Usually I just wing it when I make slaw. Which admittedly is not very often. Usually it’s the Ichiban noodle kind, with the cabbage part out of a bag. But this holiday slaw came into my inbox, along with a gift I get to pass on to you, and the combination of thinly sliced fennel, radishes and cabbage with a maple-cranberry dressing inspired me to actually make it. We ate it with roast chicken, and because it was already getting dark at 3:45 (!!) I managed to get exactly one usable photo.
Ironically, I left my food processor at JPL (d’oh!) and I miss it terribly. It would have come in handy to make this slaw. I do have a mandoline, but my fingertips are afraid of it – I don’t think I’ve touched the thing in years. So I sliced it the old-fashioned way, with a knife. But I thought about my food processor and how much I love it.
So guess what? I have a new free stuff for you. Hint: it’s shiny! It whirs! It makes recipes like holiday slaw so much easier to make! It will help with your holiday baking! It’s from KitchenAid!
Pop on over to the free stuff page to see…
Holiday Slaw
adapted with thanks to KitchenAid!
1/2 large green cabbage, cored
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed
8 large red radishes, trimmed
6 green onions, trimmed
1 red pepper, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white wine or rice vinegar
1/3 cup canola or olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
salt
Cut the cabbage into 5 or 6 wedges. Position the adjustable slicing disc in the work bowl and, using the thin setting on High speed, push the wedges through the feeding tube. Transfer to a large bowl. Switch to the coarse side of the reversible shredding disc. Cut the fennel into quarters. Push the fennel and radishes through the feed tube; add to the bowl.
Cut the green onion and green pepper into chunks. Use the multi-purpose metal blade to chop finely. Add to the cabbage mixture. Combine the cranberries, vinegar, oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, mustard and salt in a small saucepan set over medium heat; bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage mixture and toss to coat. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 4 days. Makes about 12 cups.
November 29 2011 | salads and veg | 13 Comments »
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