salads

by

Salad Sunday

One of my all-time favorite salads is a Greek salad. This is surprising to me considering that I hate tomatoes, and tomatoes are a big part of a Greek salad. But tomatoes are easy enough to avoid, and I love the mix of textures and bright, briny flavors of a good Greek salad. How many times can I say Greek salad in one paragraph?

(Greek salad sidebar: One summer during graduate school, I studied abroad in Prague for a few weeks. Good food was difficult to come by, for a poor grad student. But one of my favorite things to do was go to a little restaurant just outside the old town square and order a Greek salad, bez rajčat. The salads, to my recollection, had no lettuce. They consisted of cubes of cucumber, cubes of feta, kalamata olives, and a beautiful tangy dressing. I am sure the waitstaff thought I was bonkers for rejecting the tomatoes, but they kindly made the salads tomato-free , and they were SO GOOD.) 

My husband and I usally roast a chicken breast to have with our Greek salad. If I am feeling fancy, I will also whip up some hummus and pita. (Or buy one or both of those things pre-made from the grocery store.) The last time I made hummus, I only used half a can of chickpeas, so I roasted the other half-can in the air fryer with a little salt and olive oil until they were crunchy, and added those to the salad too.  

SALAD INGREDIENTS (all to taste):·      

  • Romaine lettuce, chopped
  • Red onion, finely sliced
  • Cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half-moons
  • Cherry tomatoes (if you like that kind of thing)
  • Kalamata olives
  • Feta (the good kind, in brine), crumbled

CHICKEN MARINADE INGREDIENTS (adapted from Savory Nothings)

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or more to taste
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon dried garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon salt or more to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon ground paprika
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

  • Combine ingredients. Marinate chicken breast for 30 minutes. 
  • Pre-heat air fryer to 390 degrees for 4 minutes. Then air fry chicken breast for 8-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

VINAIGRETTE INGREDIENTS (from Love and Lemons)

  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

  • Whisk all ingredients together until emulsified.

Combine salad ingredients. Top with chicken (or roasted chickpeas) and vinaigrette. Enjoy! 

by

Salad Sunday

I made a big fall salad last week and it was SO GOOD. It was a little fussy, because I went All Out by roasting a sweet potato and making a batch of crispy quinoa. But the result was well worth the prep work. And it wasn’t difficult prep work; just a little time consuming. I enjoyed it so much, I made it again yesterday, this time omitting the sweet potato and crunchy quinoa. Still delicious.

I started with the basic premise of my favorite fall salad, this mesclun salad with goat cheese and maple glazed pecans. But then I changed nearly everything about it. Except for the dressing. The dressing is so good.

This salad has responsibility spinach plus spicy, feathery arugula which pairs well with the sweet/tangy dressing and the creamy goat cheese. It has pomegranate seeds for a tart, juicy burst of freshness. It has roasted sweet potato for a little meatiness and that nice crunchy, mealy combo of textures. It has crispy quinoa for additional protein and crunch. It has sliced apples for additional tartness and another texture. Finally, it has nuts or seeds for more protein and fat, sweetness, and crunch. Everything about this salad is SO DELICIOUS and screams “There is so much to enjoy about fall!” 

Spinach and Arugula Fall Salad with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette (inspired by Once Upon a Chef)

Salad Ingredients:

  • Baby spinach (10 oz)
  • Arugula (10 oz)
  • Pomegranate seeds (2.5 oz) (or you can use dried cranberries or dried cherries)
  • Tart apple, sliced thinly (1)
  • Goat cheese, crumbled (4 oz)
  • Salt and pepper (to taste)
  • Pecans (5 oz) (or nuts/seeds of your choice; my favorite are the Sweet & Spicy Pecans from Trader Joe’s)

Optional Extra Salad Ingredients:

  • Sweet potato (1)
  • Cinnamon (to taste)
  • Cayenne (to taste)
  • Extra virgin olive oil (1 Tbsp)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Quinoa (1 cup)
  • Water (2 cups)
  • Extra virgin olive oil (1 Tbsp)
  • Kosher salt (1/2 tsp)

Vinaigrette Ingredients:

  • Minced garlic (1-2 tsp, although you will want to measure with your heart)
  • Minced shallots (2 Tbsp)
  • Salt (1/2 tsp)
  • Freshly ground black pepper (1/2 tsp)
  • Maple syrup (3 Tbsp)
  • Dijon mustard (1 1/2 Tbsp)
  • Red wine vinegar (4 Tbsp)
  • Vegetable oil (10 Tbsp)

Directions:

1a. (Totally optional step if you like fussiness and have time and inclination.) Prepare the crispy quinoa. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Rinse 1 cup of quinoa under cold water for 1 minute. Add rinsed quinoa and two cups water to a small saucepan. Over high heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until all the liquid is gone, about 15 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Once quinoa is done cooking, allow to cool slightly. Then pour onto prepared baking sheet. Add olive oil and salt to quinoa and mix through with your hands. Roast for 15 minutes, then stir. Roast for an additional 10 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the quinoa is golden and crisp. 

1b. (Totally optional step if you like fussiness and have time and inclination.) Prepare the roasted sweet potato. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Wash and peel a sweet potato. Cut the sweet potato in half-inch cubes. (This can be very imprecise.) Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the sweet potato cubes with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, and cinnamon and cayenne if using. Spread the cubes on the baking sheet and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, tossing halfway through, until cubes are brown around the edges.

1c. Prepare the salad. Add a handful of baby spinach and a handful of arugula to a large bowl. Add a sprinkling (a tablespoon or two) of each of your toppings: crumbled goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, crispy quinoa, roasted sweet potato, pecans, etc. Top with another handful of spinach and arugula, then repeat until your bowl is full of yummy fall goodness. Slice the apple right before serving and add it to the bowl.

2. Prepare the dressing. Add all the ingredients to a jar, cover and shake until emulsified. 

3. Dress and eat. Add dressing to your salad, toss, and enjoy. 

Notes: 

  • I store the quinoa and the sweet potato in separate Tupperware containers in the fridge. They keep nicely for several days, or until your husband eats them because they are delicious even by themselves.
  • This recipe makes a large portion of dressing, but I love this vinaigrette so much I like to keep it on hand in the fridge. I use emptied and washed glass salad dressing jars to store my own dressing.
  • This salad is endlessly customizable. When I don’t have pecans, I use pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds or pistachio nuts. Sometimes I don’t have an apple, so I don’t include one. If the grocery store doesn’t have pomegranate seeds, I’ll use dried cranberries or dried cherries.

What salad do you get really excited about? Are there salad ingredients you need on every salad… or any you REFUSE to eat? I won’t eat a tomato or a beet — really, I’m quite sure — thank you very much, and I really prefer to avoid blue cheese, although occasionally I will tolerate it on a wedge salad.

I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here. 

by

Request for Stir Fry Suggestions, Dinners This Week

Listen, I am going to be honest with you here. I have not been super about sticking to a meal plan lately. Today, I am going to list some meals below that I WANT to make, meals that I INTEND to make. But let’s just all keep in mind that it may not happen, and I may simply roast some salmon and broccoli and call it a day. That sounds good. Maybe I should put it on the list and increase my chances of following, at least in part, the meal plan. 

Before I get into the actual meals, I want to access your stir fry genius please. 

One of my favorite meals is Stir Fry, in which I chop up a bunch of veggies and possibly a protein and then toss them together with a sauce. My favorite type of sauce is some variation on soy sauce plus something sweet plus something spicy plus a little glug of vinegar, with some garlic and possibly ginger thrown in. This Szechuan-style sauce is one of my favorite versions of this type of sauce. As you well know, I adore this chicken and zucchini stir fry, which is also a soy-based sauce, with some chicken stock thrown in for good measure.

But… I may be growing weary of that type of sauce? My husband is, that’s for sure. Every time I make something with a soy-based sauce, he comments on how salty it is. And we do use low-sodium soy sauce, so I don’t really know what to DO about that.

The thing is, I am not sure what other options there are, for stir fries? I mean, there’s the entire curry side of things, which I love. And maybe I just need to veer over into curry territory more often. My problem with curry is twofold: First, it feels heartier than a soy-based sauce; richer. And sometimes I want something that feels light. Second, I feel like curry is fussy, at least compared to the soy based sauce, which I can now do without measuring. I like a nice flavorful curry, and the curry paste that comes from a jar just doesn’t do it for me on its own. It needs doctoring. The reason my favorite red curry stir fry recipe is so delicious, for example, is because it also has kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and a bit of sugar thrown in to amplify the flavors of the curry paste.

Now I am really itching for some red curry. 

To recap: curry is doable, and worth it from a deliciousness standpoint, but it’s fussy. I have to go to a whole separate market to get the lime leaves. And the lime leaves and the lemongrass need to be washed and bruised. And the curry itself has to cook down for awhile. It’s worth it, but it’s not an everyday stir fry for me. 

Same goes for fire fry, which is quite possibly my favorite stir fry of all time. It’s a process. Measuring out all the spices, and marinating the meat, and chopping the ginger and garlic (or pulling pre-chopped ginger and pre-diced garlic out of the fridge), and chopping the onion, and letting everything cook down. 

It’s amazing, but it’s not a task I want to undertake every week. 

So what I want to know is: What else is there, stir-fry sauce-wise?

That sounded very Carrie Bradshaw of me, if Carrie Bradshaw spent all her money on woks and Penzey’s spices instead of Manolo Blahniks. 

I have never really ventured into hoisin sauce territory (but I am suspicious it would be a lot like soy sauce). I have tried oyster sauce, in beef with broccoli, and again: it’s very similar, in my mind, to soy sauce. I am a little leery of sticky sweet sauces or sauces that involve peanuts in any form, although not opposed, you understand. I am just hopeful that there are all sorts of other stir fry sauces that I am overlooking, somehow, and I want options. Lots and lots of options. 

Obviously, I can google. But I want to know your tried-and-true stir fry go-tos. I have a bunch of broccoli and zucchini and bell peppers in my fridge, just DYING to be stir fried. Please help me help them fulfill their veggie destiny.

Dinners for the Week of March 1-March 7