Confession: with waning light this time of year, in order to photograph in natural light, I’ll often prepare some dinner-ish item and eat it all by myself for lunch. If it’s a salad of sorts I’ll usually dress just enough of it to satisfy my lunch appetite, save the rest and share it with the guinea pig when he gets home. You’re getting the picture…this time of year, I’m my own guinea pig. (To be perfectly honest, I don’t mind the job. And today, I flat out loved it. I halved the recipe and ate it all. Drop the “guinea”, keep the “pig”…thank you very much!)

Ever taste hemp seeds? – ok maybe that’s the wrong question – Have you ever bought packaged hemp seed at the grocery store and used your debit card to pay? Toast these little things and they’re about the nuttiest nubbins  you’ll ever eat. Plus, as if taste weren’t enough (and let’s be honest – it really isn’t) they’re jam-packed with nutrition (especially Omega-3′s and -6′s, so super good for your heart and brain!) Add them to your cereal in the morning, your muffins or other baked goods, into your soup, into your … well, whatever!  (I swear to you, these do not taste like hay…or even like grass!)

If you can buy your beets with the greens still attached, that’s a good idea for 2 reasons – decent looking greens means the beets don’t belong to last month, and braised beet greens are the bee’s knees.

You can use a mixture of fresh greens for this salad, but the bitters are so delicious with the sweetness of the roasted beets and the creamy tang of the goat cheese. And then you’ve got all that nutty goodness going on. My goodness, this is good!

Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Salad with Toasted Hemp & Sesame Seeds

enough for 4

for the salad

small to medium beets – 8

hemp seeds – 2 teaspoons

chicory, or baby arugula, or add a bit of radicchio or spinach – about 7 oz. total

goat cheese – 12 to 16 slices

a handful of mustard greens and water cress

sesame seeds - 2 teaspoons toasted

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for the dressing

red wine vinegar (I used sherry vinegar) – 1 Tablespoon

Dijon mustard – 1 Tablespoon

Hemp Seed Oil – Or Walnut Oil – 1 Tablespoon

Olive Oil - 3 Tablespoons

Parsley, coarsely chopped – 2 Tablespoons

Salt & Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375° F. (190°C.)

Prepare the dressing. Mix the vinegar and the mustard together and then add the oils. Stir the parsley in and then season with a good grind of pepper and a sprinkle of salt.

Remove the greens (if using) from the beets, leaving a good inch of stem end. Remove the lower part of the beet’s root, but leaving one inch. (This prevents the beet from “bleeding” out as it cooks.) Scrub clean but don’t peel. Wrap each beet in aluminum foil. Roast/bake until tender. (Depending on the beet size, this will take from 30 to 40 minutes usually. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer. It should pierce easily.) Remove the beets to cool…when cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Slice each beet into six wedges from stalk to root. Place them in a small bowl and toss with a small amount of the dressing, to coat.

While the beets are roasting, prepare the beet greens. Wash the leaves and stalks. Cut the stalks into bite-size lengths. In a non-stick skillet saute them gently in a dab of  oil for about 5 minutes. Add the wet leaves on top and continue to cook for about another 5 minutes, until weaves have wilted and stalks are bite-ready. (8-10 minutes total.) Drizzle with a bit of dressing to lightly coat.

Toast the hemp seeds in a non-stick skillet for about 5 minutes, or until their nutty aroma rises.

Dress the chicory or arugula (whatever your main salad greens are) in enough dressing to lightly coat. Arrange on a serving plate, or divide between 4 separate salad plates. Place the beet greens on top. Add the beets. Add the watercress and mustard greens if using, and tuck in the rounds of goat cheese. Scatter the toasted sesame and hemp seeds over all.

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This recipe has been adapted from one in Tender by Nigel Slater. He used poppy seeds instead of the sesame. He boiled his beets instead of roasting. He used some greens not available to us locally. And he DID use the hemp oil, not the walnut oil that I used here. Sometimes you just have to go with what you have. Feel free to substitute. There’re all sorts of ways this salad can be wonderful! 

(Just for the fun of it, I roll the goat cheese in a mixture of the seeds before slicing. This would have been especially pretty if using poppy seeds.)

To print, click.

ps. up next a sweet but not too sweet special something…it’s what you get when you eat your vegetables!

]]> http://cooking-spree.com/2012/11/12/so-whats-in-a-salad/ Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:13:27 +0000 spree http://cooking-spree.com/2012/11/12/so-whats-in-a-salad/ Fresh-air markets, booths and stalls stretching for blocks and blocks, wooden tables piled high with newly-picked fruits and vegetables.  Luscious juice-sweet fruits, all round-body shapes and colors. Rustic root or bright green vegetables some with the earth still clinging to them. Farmers in aprons, their hands, soil-worn and calloused, paring off samples for us to taste. And we held out our hands and we tasted, and we bought what we couldn’t resist. But we’d made some kind of cosmic mistake! We had no kitchen to take our booty to, no salad bowl, no wooden tongs. No aprons of our own. So it happened that everywhere we went, my longing for brilliant color tossed in a bowl grew. We had some nice salads while away, but they weren’t the salads of home. And  the salads of home are the foods I miss most of all when we’re away.

So here, for you (and for me) brilliant color in a bowl. (and between us, so delicious it’s startling!)

Once again, as is usually the case with salads around here, a list of ingredients but no amounts. I’ll give some rough guidelines, but you know how you like your salads from home, so no one will be as good a judge as you …

Brilliant Winter Green Salad with Pomegranate, Apple & Almonds

Baby Spinach – or Arugula  (which do you prefer, mild and green, or slightly bitter? Or maybe a mix of the two.)

Apple, cored and sliced

Pomegranate seeds (see a previous post for the most ingenious way to remove these wonderfully tart & crunchy little seeds)

Basil - leaves laid out on top of one another, rolled tight like a cigar and sliced thinly

Slivered Almonds, toasted brown

Shallot, sliced thinly and sauteed to a toasty brown in a bit of oil

Soft, mild goat cheese – Optional

Vinaigrette (see below)

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Thinly slice the shallot and drop it into a small medium-hot skillet to which you’ve added a small amount of oil. Stir occasionally until browned. Remove to a paper towel.

Toast the almonds – in a 350° oven for perhaps 15 minutes. Check frequently. (The last bit of browning goes very quickly.) About the last 5 minutes you might (might!) want to place the shallots in the oven along with the almonds to dry and crisp them a bit more. 

Remove the seeds from the pomegranate. (See previous post link above. You’ll also find another delicious salad there.)

Toss all ingredients into a bowl (reserving a little of the seeds, nuts and shallots for sprinkling on top.) Toss with a little vinaigrette. Taste to see if amply dressed. Drizzle more as desired. Sprinkle bits of brilliance on top.

Would you like me to taste it for you and tell you why it’s so good?

Even this time of year, most markets will still have fresh crisp baby spinach leaves. These leaves taste mild and green and like Health itself. (Arugula, a little or a lot, but only for those who like the mildly bitter. I do!) Crisp sweet-tart apple, toasted almonds tasting of the hearth, threads of fresh basil winding throughout (these you nearly taste in your nose), crunchy smoky bittersweet bits of shallot, bursting tart seeds full of juice…and then…if you like this sort of thing…mild and creamy, exquisite white cheese of goat.

I . love .  this .  salad !

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The Vinaigrette

1 Tablespoon Balsamic or 1½ Tablespoon Sherry Vinegar (see NOTE below)

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

(optional – a small drizzle maple syrup or honey – a sprinkling of fresh thyme)

Sea Salt & Pepper to taste

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Shake or whisk all ingredients well.

NOTE on Vinegars: If you are so lucky as to have pomegranate balsamic vinegar, oh do use it here! If you haven’t, any good balsamic will work, though you might want to dilute it with just a bit of sherry vinegar or use all sherry vinegar instead.

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To print the recipe, click here.

when first we practice to conceive

a noodled salad of garden things

kitty-kimboed together,  dressed with zing!

Once scattered with nuts it’s declared as  g o o d

Pray tell – who then shall make it – for

clearly, easily, anyone could!

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by Wilma Shakespoon

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Today’s Wegetable Vednesday offering:

An entire vegetarian meal, loaded with raw fresh vegetable goodness, textured and colorful, brimming with citrusy, nutty & Thai chili flavors, tossed into a bed of cushiony yakisoba noodles.

This recipe can be endlessly adapted to whatever is fresh and overflowing from your garden, or whatever inspires you at the produce stand. (Maybe you’ll add slivers of sweet or snow peas, or thinly sliced cabbage or radishes. Or you might decide to even replace the cherry tomatoes with red grapes. You could also add cubes of fried tofu or cooked chicken breast  if it pleases you.)  The dressing you will love,  just as it is.

Noodled & Tangled Thai Salad

Still…you don’t want to forget your vegetables completely do you? And here it is already Wegetable Vednesday!

I don’t know if you knew, but cauliflower ‘s quite the pacifistic vegetable. Mild and meek, ever-open to compromise, never jumping off the fork to assert itself. It’s SO compliant in fact, we can whip it into something very closely resembling mashed potatoes. Though it can be rather bland (flat out dull when boiled) clever humans have discovered various ways to color these pale flowers delicious. Fact is, it’s child’s play since cauliflower virtually never puts up a fight.

Grill it and toss it, while still warm, in a mustard & caper vinaigrette, tumble  in colorful spinach and tomatoes, toss fresh dill at it, and you have a scrumptiously hearty, fresh-as-Spring salad. (And though some are loathe to hear it, it’s chockablock full of vitamins too!)

Grilled cauliflower & Spinach Salad with Tomato, Dill & Capers

• 2 Tablespoons capers, drained & coarsely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon French wholegrain mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small cauliflower, divided into florets
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 3½ ounces (100 grams) baby spinach leaves
• 25 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• coarse sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds (black or brown) OPTIONAL
• the juice of ½ lemon – at the end

Prepare the dressing: By hand or in a food processor or blender – mix together the capers, mustard, garlic, vinegar and some salt and pepper. Whisk vigorously or run the machine while adding HALF the oil (¼ cup) in a slow trickle. What will result is a thick, creamy dressing. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Set aside.

Place the cauliflower florets into a large pot of boiling salted water. Simmer for a brief 3 minutes. With a colander in the sink, pour the cauliflower pot’s contents into it and then run cold water over top to stop the cooking immediately. Allow cauliflower to remain in the colander to continue drying fully. Once dry, place in a mixing bowl, and toss with the other ¼ cup olive oil and salt and pepper to coat well.

Put a ridged griddle pan over the highest possible heat and leave it for 5 minutes to become very hot. (If you happen to have an outdoor grill going, by all means, go outside!) Grill the cauliflower in several batches to avoid overcrowding, turning from side to side as they begin to char.  When nicely marked with grill lines, transfer to a salad bowl. With the cauliflower still hot, add the dressing, dill, spinach, tomatoes and mustard seeds if using. (NOTE: You may decide that the entire amount of dressing isn’t required for your tastes, and depending on the quantity of cauliflower used. My suggestion would be not to add all at once. You can always add more.) Stir together. Taste for salt. Just before serving, squirt the juice of ½ lemon over all and re-toss. (Putting the lemon on too soon will bleach the spinach leaves.)

Serve warm or at room temperature, checking seasoning one final time.

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For printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here. 

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This recipe adapted from Ottolenghi in Ottolenghi, The Cookbook

Things have been busy around here, and are about to get noisy and busier still. I’m a creature of habit. I reach for things in certain places and expect to find them there.  I’m trying to ready myself for many of the common little things in my life trading places with each other ~ and for flying by the seat of my pants ~ and for setting aside comfortable knowns for “I wonder where?”s.  I’ll explain in a post coming soon. For now, I’m quite content to feast on nearly-April’s quiet. Of course, no sooner do I say that than I realize this isn’t just about me…but generally this blog does tend to be about what we eat around here. I hope you’re alright with that…I haven’t discovered a better way.

Last night I pulled some of those pale greens and creamy whites from the fridge and they became our salad. It was good enough to fix again for my lunch today, and even so good as to make me want to share it with you. So, here you are…

A salad of shaved fennel bulb – crisp and with its tinge of licorice-ness ~ thinly sliced apple, crisp and tartly sweet ~  Romaine lettuce, crisp and clean ~ (you’re getting the idea) ~ very thinly sliced red onion, just a touch to add a gentle bite (more like a friendly nip) ~ and shavings of fairly smoky, salty pecorino Romano cheese. Tossed in a bright vinaigrette ~ flavored with a just touch of roasted and crushed fennel seeds. Scatter a shower of a few more toasted fennel seeds on top if you like.

Fennel & Apple Green Salad with shaved Pecorino Romano Cheese

for 2

• ½ of a large head of romaine lettuce
• ½ apple – fresh, crisp and tart
• ½ medium to large fennel bulb – stalks removed
• about ¼ red onion, very thinly sliced (you could replace with green onion if you like)
• Pecorino Romano Cheese – shaved – in whatever quantity pleases you

Fennel Vinaigrette

for 2

• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1½ teaspoon sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar of your choice – not balsamic)
• ½  teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon fennel seeds (dry roasted in a small skillet over medium low heat) – OPTIONAL – if you’d like a scattering of toasty fennel seeds on top your dressed salad, roast up to 1 teaspoon of seeds, grinding half for the dressing and scattering the rest whole

Prepare the vinaigrette in a small jar by adding all dressing ingredients, shake, and set aside for flavors to blend.

Slice a head of romaine lettuce lengthwise. Lop off the bottom inch or so. Chop the half-head in 1-inch slices. Then, wash and dry. (Salad spinners come in awfully handy for a job like this. Or simply wrap the leaves gently in several kitchen towels and pat to absorb excess water.) Put back in the fridge to keep cool.

Prepare the fennel – remove the stalks and either discard or set aside for another purpose. Or save some of the delicate fronds for garnish or to toss into the salad. I forgot to. Slice the bulb in half from top to base. Using a very sharp knife or mandolin, slice half the fennel bulb in very thin slices. Add to a salad bowl.

Prepare the apple – cut in half. Core and thinly slice. Add to salad bowl.

Onion – if using red onion, slice paper-thin. Add to bowl. If using green onion, slice into narrow rounds.Toss the fennel, apple and onion in the vinaigrette. Allow to sit five minutes. Then add the romaine and toss. Scatter with toasted fennel seeds if desired.

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For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here.

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Are we guided by some intention around food and nutrition or do we fall into the habits that we developed growing up? Do we “fear” change, and is that evidenced by what we eat, and refuse to eat, as well? What would it look like if we ate “outside” the boxes we tend to create for ourselves? What would our dinner table feel like if we decided to be adventuresome spirits when it came to food? What if our dinner table became a place we had fun, played, experimented, made a bit of “art”, didn’t fear making “mistakes”? I hope you know, I’m not preaching…just pondering possibilities.

At least once a week we’re trying something very new to us. It’s not always “successful”, but we rarely regret having tried something new. And at least once a week around our house, it’s vegetarian meals only. Do we feel deprived when those days come, like we’re sacrificing something? Oh not one bit!  So long as food is full of flavor and easy on the eyes, it satisfies. (Satisfaction turns out to be an important principle, and not just from a pleasure standpoint. Studies have  shown that we actually tend to eat less when the foods we eat are flavor-full as opposed to bland or one-dimensional, because they satisfy more quickly. If we’re battling our weight, there’s something to consider.)

These tasty little fritters showed up on our vegetarian menu the other night with cumin-roasted carrots and beautiful green salad…(and then again the next morning for breakfast – can you believe it?) and we were smackin’ our smiling lips…both times.

This recipe comes from Ottolenghi…one can hardly go wrong…

Cauliflower & Cumin Fritters with Lime Yogurt Dipping Sauce

• 1 small cauliflower (about ¾ lb. or 320 g.)
• about ¾ cup flour (4 oz. or 120 g)
• 3 Tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus more to garnish
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 shallots, minced
• 4 eggs
• 1½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• neutral (high-heat) oil for frying – canola, sunflower or grapeseed – about 2 cups (500 ml. or 16 oz.)

Yogurt Lime Sauce

• 10 ounces (300 g.) Greek yogurt
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander)
• grated zest of 1 lime
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• salt & pepper

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Taste – you’re looking for a vibrant, tart, citrusy flavor. Adjust the seasonings accordingly. Chill or leave at room temperature for up to an hour.

To prepare the cauliflower, trim off any leaves and use a small knife to divide into little florets. Add them to a large pan of boiling salted water and simmer for 15 minutes or until very soft. Drain into a colander.

While the cauliflower is cooking, put the flour, chopped parsley, garlic, shallots, eggs, spices, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk together. When the mixture is smooth and homogenous, add the warm cauliflower. Mix to break down the cauliflower into the batter.

Pour the oil into a wide frying pan and heat. When it is very hot, carefully spoon in generous portions of the cauliflower mixture, about 3 Tablespoons per fritter. (Careful for splatters!) Space the fritters apart, making sure they’re not overcrowded. Fry in small batches, controlling the oil temperature so that the fritters brown nicely but don’t burn. (With 3 tablespoon fritters, they should take about 3 or so minutes per side.) (Something to consider – when the oil we fry food in is at the right temperature, i.e. hot enough, less of the oil is absorbed by the food. These do not need to taste in the slightest bit “greasy”.)

Remove from the pan to layers of paper towels placed on a cooling rack to absorb any excess oil. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with dipping sauce.

Serving suggestions: This can of course be part of a vegetarian meal, or a side-dish, say alongside marinated grilled fish, chicken or kabobs.

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For a printer-friendly version, click here.

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Recipe modified only slightly from one appearing in Ottolenghi’s The Cookbook. 

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Grapefruit & Avocado Salad

This salad is light, fragrant, and as pretty as Spring.  You’ll probably need a couple of grapefruits for it.

Grapefruit Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 Tbl. champagne vinegar (or other light vinegar such as rice or raspberry)
• 1 t. minced shallot
• 2 Tbl. olive oil
• 2 pinches of salt

The Salad

• Butter or Bibb lettuce
• Pink grapefruit segments
• Avocado
• Optional: little sprigs of fresh dill or fennel fronds

Prepare the grapefruit segments as you would for any citrus: cut off the top and bottom ends of the whole grapefruit. Setting the grapefruit on one end and using a sharp paring knife, go down along the inside of the rind and remove the white pith as well as the thin outer membrane of the segments. Then, holding the fruit over a small bowl, run the knife along the inside membranes, releasing the fruit and juice into your bowl. Set aside the juice that collects for your vinaigrette.

Either cut or scoop pieces of avocado into the bowl containing the grapefruit segments.

Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking the ingredients together.

Wash and dry your lettuce. Either tear it into smaller pieces or simply leave the soft tender leaves as they are, whole and pretty. Put them in a salad bowl and toss with some of your vinaigrette. Pile the grapefruit and avocado pieces onto the top of the greens, drizzling a bit more of the vinaigrette over top. (Alternately, you can prepare individual little salad bowls assembled in the same way. This is a somewhat easier alternative when keeping the leaves whole.) A scattering of fresh dill or fennel fronds over top would be nice – but “no too much” as Yaya would say.

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For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here.

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