Tag: Salad

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Summer Salads, part I

Summer brings a change to our kitchen. Basically, we do a lot less oven roasting and a lot more grilling. The other change is we add several basic vegie salads to the fridge, to help make meals easier … at home or on the road.  

The next few Thursday posts will contain recipes and notes on the different salads we like. We hope you like them too and if there is a summer salad you really enjoy, please take a moment and share it in the comments. We’ll load it in the recipe page and let the other readers of the blog know.

The most basic of these salads is Chopped Salad. You’ll find a variety of recipes in any search, because it’s a basic go to recipe. Our main criteria is for the dressing to be simple, low fat, low carb. As evident in the recipe, the variety is also in vegetables used. It’s what you like and/or have on hand. This turns out ot be a great end of the week vegetable drawer emptier. 

Chopped Salad is super versatile. It is great as a side to any grill entree. Add it to a bed of greens and some protein and you have a salad entree. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Chopped Salad

Ingredients

  • 1/4 lb green beans cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 1/2 cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 1 small yellow or red pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 4-5 small tomatoes, seeded and diced into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 4-5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley
  • 1/2 cup corn

Vinaigrette

  • 3-4 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinaigrette
  • 1/2 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Lightly blanch green beans. Don't overcook. Cool in a bowl of cold water, then cut into 1/4 inch pieces.
  • Peel cucumber. Seed and cut into 1/4 inch pieces.
  • Seed and cut yellow or red pepper into 1/4 inch pieces.
  • Seed and dice tomatoes into 1/4 inch pieces.
  • Chop fresh basil leaves.
  • Chop fresh parsley.
  • Toss in corn and gently mix ingredients together.

Vinaigrette

  • Mix olive oil, white wine vinegar, garlic, dijon mustard and salt and pepper. Stir vigorously until well incorporated.
  • Add vinaigrette to chopped salad and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate.
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Avocado Egg Salad

If you think that avocados are just something to mash-up and dip corn chips into, here’s some news for you, and we’re not talking that ‘millennial ‘ toast fad either.

Not to say either of those uses are bad, but maybe it is time to rethink this super food’s role in your pantry. Yes, super food.

In that dark green shell the “alligator pear” holds 20 different vitamins and minerals, a 100 gram serving has; 150 calories, 15 grams of healthy fats and only 2 ‘net’ grams of carbohydrates … no sodium or cholesterol. See… super food!

We came across a really great way to fix this fruit. Make an egg salad. You can skip the mayo and get a rich creamy egg salad that is perfect for a sandwich or scooping. Though we’d recommend that you use celery sticks, or carrot disks, rather than corn chips.

We have also started to slice it thin, layer it on a piece of toast, add some fresh ground pepper, and then put an over easy egg on top for a great breakfast treat.

Sure you can keep mashing up that dip because you are still getting superfood advantage, but maybe that jar of processed cheese stuff isn’t the best pairing.

Print Recipe

Avocado-egg salad

Servings: 2 people
Calories: 150kcal

Ingredients

  • 1/2 medium avocado diced
  • 2 hard cooked eggs diced
  • ¼ cup celery chopped
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon fresh chives minced
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 3 turns fresh ground pepper

Instructions

  • Dice avocado, egg and celery to about the same ⅛ inch size pieces and place in small bowl
  • Add lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper, then mix to combine 
  • This can be spread on bread, toast or scooped up with slices of fresh veggies like carrot, celery, zucchini or cucumber.
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Green Goddess Goodness

It may have been years since you tried Green Goddess dressing. I remember bottles of a Kraft version that showed up in our family fridge in the 70’s . I guess it was popular on the SoCal sprout salads of the day. We recently came across a version of this dressing as part of an oven-roasted green veggie salad … it was better than I remember and actually easy to make.

Classic Green Goddess recipes use anchovies, either whole or paste to get that earthy flavor. This take on the classic swaps out pungent fish with white miso paste, more vegan friendly. You can find miso in most markets these days and it’s worth the effort.

The way we are making it is with a hand blender which allows us to do very small batches but it can stay in your fridge for a few weeks if you wanted to do larger portions. The recipe attached is weighed out in grams to make this process easier.

Try tossing a couple cups of chopped up broccoli crowns, one inch pieces of green bean and small chunks of zucchini in a tablespoon of olive oil and pepper. Spread it out on a sheet pan covered with foil and sprayed with oil and roast for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Mix this with some of the green goddess and spread over a bowl of salad greens, some wilted kale or even a mix of both.

For a speedy dinner salad check out JQ’s quick dressed greens. You add the parts of an oil and vinegar dressing to the bottom of a large bowl and then toss salad while mixing the dressing. The taste variety comes from herbs and spices added to the mix.

Print Recipe

Green Goddess dressing

This version of Green Goddess gets it's umami-ness from white miso rather than anchovies, and makes a great sauce for oven-roasted veggies, chicken, lentils, or even a mixed green salad.

Ingredients

  • 60 grams mayo
  • 30 grams buttermilk
  • 3 grams lemon juice
  • 10 grams white miso
  • 1 clove garlic about 3 grams
  • 15 grams green herbs see note

Instructions

  • A hand blender works really well for small batches. This can be made in a food processor but you'll need to double or triple the quantities. If you are using a hand blender (Bamix), add ingredients in the order listed, keeping herbs on top. In a food processor you can just load it all in.
  • Mix with short pulses stopping often to scrape down the sides, until the herbs and garlic are very finely chopped and the mixture is smooth in texture.

Notes

  • Measures are in grams so you can increase the amounts easier. Just put the mixing vessel on a scale and add ingredients. This amount is good for two large bowls of mixed greens with roasted veggies.
  • Herbs - you can use any combination of fresh green herbs you like. We use about 2 tablespoons(Tbsp) parsley, 1 Tbsp chives, 1 Tbsp tarragon  and then add basil to get 10 to 15 grams.