Niçoise Salad

If you eat eggs you can add them in.  This is a delicious salad with or without eggs. The dressing is makes everything come together.  Something about mustard and potatoes!

Niçoise Salad

Serves 2 with enough dressing for another time. Or another salad. :)

10 olives 
1 cup green beans, halved
2 cups small potatoes, chunked
3 cups mixed salad leaves
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 small cucumbers, chunked
1 ripe avocado, diced
2 tablespoons capers

dressing:
3 tbsp white wine vinegar 
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
5 tbsp olive oil 
an assortment of fresh herbs, parsley, basil, dill

Toss it all together.

Some Simple Summer Salads

Using that delicious dill dressing, you can add it to your potato salad as a mayonnaise alternative.  It makes for a great salad.  I used the dressing I made from the previous post, found here and added onion.

The night we had the potato salad, I also made some roasted asparagus and tossed it with mini tomatoes, some balsamic, garlic powder, S&P and oil.   It was heavenly! A simple summer salad idea for yah.

THAI MANGO SALAD

I am sure this is not entirely authentic but so delicious, nevertheless. I did not put in the usual mung bean sprouts.  Couldn't find them. These flavors are amazing.  To the average American, putting fish sauce in with mangoes is not necessarily appealing.  If you have never tried Thai, it's worth taking that taste risk. Something about the way the lime, cilantro and fish sauce play together that makes it absolutely appealing.  You will find this combination in other Asian dishes as well.

I totally will make this again but add in mung bean sprouts, carrots and maybe even lettuce.

THAI MANGO SALAD

1/2 cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 firm mangoes , sliced thinly
1 sweet red pepper, thinly slice
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons basil, Thai basil if you have it

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Dressing:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated lime rind
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar, grated palm sugar, even better
1 teaspoon minced hot pepper
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
Toss the mangoes, red pepper, green onions, mint, basil and cilantro.  In a separate bowl whisk together the  dressing ingredients.  Stir into the mango mixture.  Sprinkle cashews over top. Serve with lime wedges.

One of my very dear friends shared with me 9 big, beautiful cloves of garlic from her garden.  I dutifully planted them in the Fall of last year.  I was rewarded with scapes in the Spring that I blitzed in the food processor with oil and froze.  (By the way, they lose their pungency after they have been frozen, which is a good thing for me because they are very strong) I was also rewarded these 8, huge garlic bulbs.  My biggest and best cloves will go to planting so that I can increase my garlic yield next year!  Yeah.  Garlic is one of the most expensive things at the market.  I have tried planting it before but for the last couple years when I went to look for it in the Fall to plant, I could not find any. They were bought out.  A few years before that I gave garlic a try with organic garlic from the store. I don't know if they were the right variety for our climate but I got very small heads. It was supremely disappointing.  This year though, EUREKA!  Thanks to my good friend, J.

Dilled Cucumber Salad

Today was the day of the cucumber. I made bread and butter pickles, then I made refrigerator pickles and what cucumbers I had left, I made this cucumber salad.  I have eaten this type of cucumber salad my whole life.  As far as I know, it is a Polish recipe.  My Grandmother was from Poland.  She made it.  My Mom always made it and now I make it too.  Dont know why it has not found its way onto the blog.  No worries, here it is.  Recorded for the kids and all of you.

DILLED CUCUMBER SALAD

5 cups of sliced cucumbers, ends cut off
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
2 tablespoons fresh dill
1 small onion, preferably a purple onion
pepper to taste

Sprinkle the salt all over the cucumbers and onion, let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes.  The salt will pull moisture from the cucumbers.  If you dont do this, the sour cream will get watery.  But if you eat it fast enough it doesn't really matter.  I have done it both ways. It really is better if you salt them first.

After the cucumbers have lost some of their juice, rinse them off, squeeze them out and place in serving bowl.  Mix in dill and sour cream.  Season with pepper as desired.

Hatch Corn Salad

Have you heard about Hatch Chilies?  The New Mexico Chile "...is a group of cultivars of the chile pepper, initially developed by pioneer horticulturist, Dr. Fabián Garcia, at New Mexico State University in 1894, then known as Las Cruces College and the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. These peppers were selected to have a "larger smoother, fleshier, more tapering and shoulderless pod for canning purposes. "  According to Wikipedia.  They are the chilies you find in the can at the grocery store.

Our local grocery store had them this year and told people to come and get them.  I did, of course, being the foodie I am.  And I roasted them up, used some and froze the rest.  This corn salad is one of the things I made with the chilies.

It really is prettier with some red peppers in it or even orange but all I had was yellow. Too matchy, matchy.
Hatch Corn Salad

2 cups corn
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup bell pepper, preferably a contrasting color
1 hatch chili, roasted and diced

1/2 teaspoon sugar
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon avocado oil or some other mild oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.

Hatch Chile Roast

Roasted under the broiler. Place in a pot or container with a lid while still hot. The steam will help loosen the skin from the pepper.

Gently pull away skin.

With the back of the knife, swipe away the seeds.

Chop, divide into bags and freeze.  All ready for your recipe this winter.

5:2 Lentil Toss

5:2 recipes can be very easy if you have things made up before hand. I had these lentils already cooked so this dish was a breeze to put together.  Obviously, you can use any kind of lentil.  I used black beluga lentils here. They hold their shape nicely after cooking.

Lentils are a very healthy addition to this dish.

Lentils are "a rich source of numerous essential nutrients, particularly dietary fiber and protein supplying 122% and 52% of the Daily Value (DV), respectively. Micro nutrients in high content include folate (120% DV), thiamin (76% DV), phosphorus (64% DV) and iron (58% DV) (table).

With 26% of total food content from protein (table), lentils have the third-highest level of protein, by weight, of any legume or nut, after soybeans and hemp. Red (or pink) lentils contain a lower concentration of fiber than green lentils (11% versus 31%).

The low levels of readily digestible starch (5%), and high levels of slowly digested starch (30%), make lentils of potential value to people with diabetes. The remaining 65% of the starch is a resistant starch classified as RS1^, as a high-content resistant starch, which is 32% amylose. A minimum of 10% in starch from lentils escapes digestion and absorption in the small intestine (therefore called "resistant starch")^. Source Wikipedia, click here).

Lentil Toss
Calories are in parenthesis. 

1 cup fresh zucchini, diced (21)
1 small tomato diced (22)
1 cup lettuce torn into bite sized pieces (8)
1/2 cup lentils, cooked (115)
1 teaspoon olive oil (40)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
s and p, to taste

Toss this salad together and enjoy!
206 calories

5:2 Pepper, Radish, Avocado Toss

Doing the 5:2 - it's just finding the right ideas on how to deliciously fill your belly with goodness that is under 200 calories.  Using vegetables is really key to get the most bang for your caloric buck!  You find stuff to make and then forget about it, which is why I am making a 5:2 category so I can go back and remember delicious and nutritious ways to eat my calories. Plus you can get stuck in a rut of eating the same types of things because you know they are fine.  Its so much better to get some variety in there.  Keeps your interest!

Pepper Radish Avocado Toss
Calorie counts on the side in parentheses.

1 tablespoon flavored vinegar (I used the coconut balsamic for this one) (30)
1/2 cup radishes (9)
3/4 cup orange pepper (25)
1/4 cup (36 grams) avocado diced (57)
1/4 cup garbanzo beans (50)
fresh cracked pepper
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly minced garlic
cilantro would be a great addition to this

Mix all together.  If you can let it marinade for a little while- even better.

Total calorie value: 171

Zucchini Ribbon Salad

Things are continuing with my 5:2 diet.  This is what part of my meal was last night and tonite.  I liked it that much.  My husband said the salad tasted like something out of a gourmet restaurant.

Isn't summer great for healthy eating?  There is so much available and it is so fresh and delicious.

Three egg whites and the ribbon salad clock in at about 130 calories.  Can't beat it!

Buy a really nice feta for this salad.  It really relies on the flavor of some good feta. If you are doing the 5:2 then you can spend a little more on it because you are eating way less otherwise. Right?

Zucchini Ribbon Salad

zucchini sliced with a peeler into ribbons
lemon juice freshly squeezed- half of a lemon for two plates of salad
dill, a couple sprigs per plate
garlic powder, just a little bit
basil 1 or 2 leaves sliced thinly for each plate
fresh craked pepper
kosher salt
feta (1 ounce per plate)

Toss the zucchini in a bowl with the kosher salt.  Let stand fifteen minutes.  This will help the zucchini release some of its juice.  Gently squeeze the zucchini and mix in the remainder of the ingredients.

South Western Quinoa Salad

The good people at Red Pack tomaotes contacted me and sent me some of there wonderful canned tomatoes. This recipe is slightly adapted from Red Pack's recipe.  Visit there website for more delicious recipes and pcik up a can and make some of these fresh delicious salads!

South Western Quinoa Salad
Recipe courtesy of Red Pack Tomatoes

1 cup quinoa cooked
1 – 14 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 – 14 ounce can corn, drained
1- can Red Pack Tomatoes
1/2 of a large red bell pepper
4 green onions, sliced thinly
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Juice from 2 limes
3 tablespoons barbeque sauce

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
for bonus flavor and added heat add a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne or a chopped pickled jalapeno

In a small bowl whisk together limes, olive oil, garlic powder, barbeque sauce, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Combine cooked quinoa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, bell pepper, green onions,  and cilantro.  Mix in the dressing.  Serve with cilantro sprinkled over top and some lime wedges.

Thai Beef Salad

If you have some steak leftover this dish comes together really fast.  You can totally substitute chicken as well or skip the meat all together.  I have had this salad before and I have to tell you anytime I have leftover steak- which is not too often, I think of this salad straight away.  I have mainly used Hangar Steak before.  

Thai Cabbage and Steak Salad

2 limes, juiced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil ( roasted)
3 garlic cloves, minced and divided
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc mam)
1 pinch ground red pepper (cayenne), if  you like a little heat
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 
 
leftover steak, sliced as thin as you can
2 carrots, peeled and cut into strips
10 cups romaine, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup mint, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Thai basil or regular basil, thinly sliced
fresh ground black pepper
3 green onions, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (optional)

 
The most important thing here is to do a nice chop of everything that is in this salad. With a whisk combine the lime juice, vinegar, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, Thai fish sauce and olive oil. Set aside.

Chop and then toss the vegetables and herbs in a large bowl.  Toss in the dressing and then serve with steak and peanuts sprinkled over top.

Asian Cabbage Salad

My favorite go to meal for a low calorie lunch and super healthy and delicious.  Does it freaking get any better than that?

Asian Cabbage Salad

2 cups cabbage chopped small
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 green onion, sliced thinly
1/4 cup peanuts or almonds, chopped
2 tablespoons or more carrot shavings
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Mix the cabbage with the rice wine vinegar and let sit for at least ten minutes.  Add in the remainder of ingredients and toss well!  Enjoy.

Happy Mothers Day!

 I love when the tulips come up!

The earth laughs in flowers.  
                       Ralph Waldo Emerson

ASIAN STYLE SALAD with Creamy Orange Ginger Dressing

Today, it was chemistry in the kitchen.  What was I searching for?  A perfect recipe for the famous Asian type salad (that I love- I mean really love) at a certain restaurant chain that I once frequented.  That is until I found out how many stinkin' calories were in this salad.  Ah, yes, enough to have a couple cheeseburgers instead.  Thats just WRONG people!  Salad is suppose to be healthy!

Make it yourself.  Enter Tyson Crispy Chicken.  No fuss.  No mess.   Of course you can make your own chicken but I hate frying chicken.  And, yes, you can used grilled chicken, but I was really trying to recreate what I missed from that restaurant.  So follow this exactly and you will have that famous salad of theirs in your own kitchen.  And dare I say, you might even like it better.

ASIAN STYLE SALAD with Creamy Orange Ginger Dressing

The dressing.

3/4 cup orange juice*
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil, sunflower oil or canola oil

In a small sauce pan mix orange juice, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic and corn starch.  Heat until it thickens.  Remove from heat, stir in sesame oil.  Let cool.  Once it has cooled completely whisk in vegetable oil.

If it is too thick for your tastes, whisk in orange juice to get the desired consistency.

The salad.

1-2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
1 tablespoons toasted almonds
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/4 cup mandarin oranges
1 or 2 strips Tyson Crispy Chicken
2 tablespoons spelt or oat bran sesame sticks
2 radishes, sliced (this is not in the original restaurant salad but gives crunch)

Arrange a bed of lettuce in a bowl.  Layer in the oranges, nuts and seeds, radishes, sesame sticks and chicken.  Pour dressing over top. Serve.



* If you have a large can of oranges, you can drain them and use the juice from that.  It will be about 3/4 of a cup.

Calories: Using one Tyson Crispy Chicken strip, two tablespoons of the dressing and of course following all the measurements, this salad ends up being around 450 calories.  WAY better than the restaurant salad.  Mainly because of making your own dressing.

Full Disclosure:  I received a coupon to buy Tyson Chicken.  I was not paid in any other way.  I was not told what to say. 

Bacon and Pea Salad

Why is it so hard to get myself to exercise?  Once I am doing it I am fine. But why is it like pulling teeth to get to it sometimes? Yesterday I went for a bike ride along the local trails with a friend.  So beautiful.  All the fall leaves lining the paths.  Golden yellow and oranges and browns.I wish I had my bike for that ride. 

The following pics are from a hike the family and I went on last weekend.  We had a beautiful day.  Hiked and went on a row boat in the pond! 

This is one of those sides that is great anytime of year.  Easy to pull together and it tastes great. Great for a picnic or a potluck.  If you want a little crunch add water chestnuts or celery.  I like it without.

Bacon and Pea Salad

2 cups peas
4 slices of bacon, fried and broken into pieces
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 small purple onion, minced
1/2 cup cheddar, shredded if desired.

Mix ingredients together.  Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Radish Avocado Salad

;

Very simple, very easy. I am embarrassed to post this because it is so simple.  I just don't want to forget this idea come next summer. And I like to share it with you because that is why I visit blogs, to get ideas.  Not that I always do an exact replica, but it's all about ideas and sharing ideas.

Radish Avocado Salad

8 fresh radishes, chopped
1/2 of a Haas avocado, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon walnut oil
2 tablespoons grapefruit vinegar (one of my faves)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
s and p to taste

Mix together and enjoy.

South Western Salad with Pineapple Dressing

Most of the time when I want some recipe or have ingredients to use I do a search.  I either find what I am looking for or I end up combining a bunch of ideas.  This time I could not find anything for the ingredients that I wanted to use.  So, I created my own.  Again, salad dressing is not difficult.  And with a little bit of effort you get a big return.  You could do what I did here with other jams as well- say apricot for instance.  

Southwestern Chop Chop Salad

dressing:
1 half pint pineapple jam, could substitute apricot jam
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup oil

salad:
1 can corn or 2 cups frozen corn
1 tomato chopped
4 scallions, sliced
1 can or 2 cups black beans
5 radishes sliced small
4 cups mesculin mix or romaine

Combine all the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl.

In a blender or a processor add garlic and chop fine before adding other ingredients.  Add jam and blend until it is smooth.  Add white wine vinegar, lemon juice, cumin, and salt. Then while the blender/processor is running add oil and let it whip until it looks totally blended and creamy.

Toss salad with dressing.

Black Bean Salad and Cardboard Bikes

It's bittersweet time of the year for me when tomatoes come to an end.  Tomatoes are one of the stars of summer - are they not.  You just can't find a good tomato in the winter.  But at the same time I love Fall and I love the cooler weather.  I know- no one around here is in love with winter.  They all swoon in the summer.  Save for a few people, I think I am the only one.

With some of the last tomatoes, I made this salad.


Black Bean Salad
I could rename this, the disappearing salad.  It was gone in a flash.  With a nice piece of grilled chicken and some corn bread, this makes a nice side!

1 can black beans
1 avocado, cubed small
1 cup corn
1/3 cup scallions, sliced thin
6 roma tomatoes
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1/4  cup red onion
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1 garlic clove, minced

Mix all together and let stand at room teperature to let the flavors marry.

Check out this bike- its cardboard.  Read about it here on Yahoo.

 

Tomato Salad

One of my absolute favorite things to eat in the summer is a fresh tomato salad.  We all have our versions of this but I wanted to share my favorite way.  I mince a clove of garlic, a few tomatoes, fresh basil, sea salt and olive oil.  WOW.  Swoon.  This salad is in all my dreams of summer. 

I wanted to show you my first tomato of the season.  I think I am remembering it, April Wine.  As my CSA farmer informed me and I think we realized this a few years ago after losing a few tomatoes to rot, is that heirloom tomatoes look not ripe when they really are. 

If you feel adventurous and have not had it, add a bit of allspice to your tomato salad.  I never thought this would taste good but I saw it in a recipe from the book, Aromas of Aleppo.  So good.  You really must try it.