Archive for the 'salads' Category
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 | 15 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 »
The above (and below) is an illustration of what can happen when your fridge is full and yet lacking inspiration, when you drag yourself to your computer and unenthusiastically type in “kale” because you have a sad bunch in your fridge and you think you should. And you’re just not that into said kale, even though you should be.
I came across this, and it turned into this. I made a batch of mayo (easy to do with a hand-held immersion blender – I’ll show you sometime) then added an enormous clove of sticky garlic, lots of pepper, an extra squeeze of lemon juice and lots of freshly grated Parmesan, and blitzed it again.
As I tossed it with the kale it occurred to me that bacon would do well here. Even better – prosciutto: when you cook it up it turns crisp and salty without being greasy and chewy, like bacon can be (not that there’s anything wrong with that… except when there is) and because it’s so thinly sliced and lean it takes minutes to crisp up in a hot pan with the merest slick of oil.
It would have been fab as-is. But I couldn’t help but fry up an egg in the pan I used for the prosciutto, and set it on top.
The end.
October 20 2011 | salads and veg and vegetarian | 13 Comments »
You really should know about this slaw. It seems altogether very lowbrow, what with the bagged coleslaw and shredded chicken and thousand island dressing (which was made from scratch, including the mayo, if that counts for anything), but somehow it works. It’s crunchy and creamy and sweet and tangy, and perfect to pack in a container and take with a folding chair down to the river to nibble with your feet in the water while the boys and dog splash. (Bonus: It isn’t quite as alluring to random canines as previous snacks of peanut butter and cheese have proven to be.)
Remember when I used to post what I made/bought/ate for dinner every day? Me too. Now I’m not sure I can remember what was for dinner any given night since Thursday, when we finally (after approximately a decade of saying we would) took Mike’s mum to the Banff Springs for afternoon tea.
Friday was pizza and wine for lunch, more of the same for dinner. (As the latter was a birthday, there was also ice cream cake and apple pie from Pearson’s Berry Farm, by way of Valta Bison.)
Saturday was the third annual Sugar Bowl, a blast of a lawn bowling fundraiser for the Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, which included a barbecue with burgers, dogs, crunchy things, beer from Big Rock and wine from Tinhorn Creek. Bliss donated cupcakes.
This afternoon Erin, Lisa and Katie fed me almond-flavoured pink cake with fluffy meringue frosting.
They made a Community Cookbook. It comes out next weekend.
And tonight good friends grilled us dinner – every course done outside – planked chicken and grilled veggie salad and grilled bananas brushed with rum-honey-cinnamon and served with vanilla ice cream. Which is so making it into my regular rotation. (If I really have one?)
Until then, you should really know about this Thousand Island slaw.
Thousand Island Slaw with Chicken
adapted from Gourmet, July 2007
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade, if at all possible)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. rice or cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. sweet relish
1/2-1 bag coleslaw mix
1/4 cup grated sweet onion (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla – optional)
2 cups shredded roast chicken (from a rotisserie chicken)
a chunk of red or yellow pepper, thinly sliced
In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, ketchup, vinegar and relish. In a large bowl, toss together the coleslaw, onion, chicken and red pepper; drizzle with dressing and toss to coat.
Season with salt and pepper if it needs it. Serve immediately. Serves 4-6.
August 28 2011 | chicken & turkey and salads | 20 Comments »
This here is my new favourite salad dressing. I feel oh-so virtuous when I skip (yes! skip! sometimes..) out to the garden with my wood salad bowl and pluck green leaves from the garden directly into it, then drizzle my greens with creamy rhubarb dressing, made with rhubarb I’ve also yanked out of my own (or my sister’s) soil. I should probably get myself a Little House on the Prairie-style bonnet.
Tart rhubarb makes a perfect base for a vinaigrette, in place of (or along with) whatever acid you’d normally use, like lemon juice. Simmer chopped rhubarb for a few minutes, then puree it with honey, oil and rice vinegar (which isn’t as harsh as other vinegars) – the fibre in the rhubarb will add body to the dressing, but puree perfectly smooth. The result is a lovely pink vinaigrette reminiscent of pink poppyseed dressing – and if you dribble the canola oil into the blender as it’s running, it will thicken and emulsify, like a creamy ranch dressing or aioli. It’s not like a vinaigrette that separates and you have to re-shake before using – it stays pure and smooth and pink and sweet and tangy. Brilliant.
I started out making this with precise measurements, and have since tossed all that aside and simply simmered rhubarb in water, then pureed it with honey, grainy mustard and rice vinegar, and drizzled in canola oil with the motor running. I made vats of the stuff to serve up at the kitchen theatre at the Stampede. Even people who are generally repelled by rhubarb loved it. (Either that or they were just being nice. Thanks guys!)
Rhubarb Vinaigrette
Adapted (with great thanks!) from vinegartart.com.
1 rhubarb stalk, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar (red wine or raspberry vinegar would work well too)
2 tsp. grainy Dijon mustard (or to taste)
1/4 cup canola or mild olive oil
In a small saucepan, simmer the rhubarb with 1/4 – 1/2 cup water for 5 minutes, or until very soft. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. (I’ve done it warm too, and it’s just fine.)
Put the rhubarb into a blender with the honey, vinegar and mustard. Pulse until smooth. With the motor running, slowly pour in the oil. Makes about a cup.
July 15 2011 | preserves and salads | 15 Comments »
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