Healthy Recipes to keep you Fit - Chicken and Peach Salad (India Network)

Preparing food the old fashioned way--at home in your own kitchen--doesn't have to be time consuming or complicated. With some simple guidelines, you can create quick, delicious meals the whole family will enjoy. Many people feel too busy to take 15 minutes for breakfast every day. But this vital first meal of the day gets your metabolism going and gives you energy. People who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight. Breakfast can be quick, easy, and nutritious. If you have a busy schedule, lunch can often be a rushed meal--a takeout eaten at your desk or a quick bite in a diner or restaurant. But with a little planning, it's easy to prepare a nutritious and tasty lunch yourself.
Things like sandwiches or leftovers from a previous dinner can make quick, easy, and healthy lunchtime meals. You must strike a perfect balance in the ingredients that make a pivotal part of your breakfast and lunch recipes. Most of the people nowadays lead a hectic lifestyle. This makes it very hard for them to maintain proper balance in their early morning breakfast and lunch routine. There are many recipes that you can consume to maintain proper balance between enjoying tasty food and eating healthy. Let us discuss one such recipe which is not much time consuming in preparation. Along with that it also helps you to strike a chord between taste and health.

Chicken and Peach Salad
Ingredients:

7 green onions
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons red wine
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 small chicken breast fillets, trimmed

120g mixed lettuce leaves
30g snow pea sprouts, trimmed
1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced
415g can peach slices in natural juice (see note), drained
1/2 cup pistachio kernels
1 avocado

Dressing
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce
2cm piece ginger, peeled, grated

Method
Thinly slice 3 onions. Combine soy sauce, red wine, honey, sugar, garlic, cinnamon and sliced onions in a large, shallow ceramic dish. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight, if time permits.
Make dressing: Place oils, sweet chili sauce and ginger in a screw-top jar. Secure lid and shake until well combined. Set aside until ready to serve.
Preheat a barbecue grill on medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes each side or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Cover with foil and stand for 5 minutes. Slice.
Thinly slice remaining onions. Combine onions, lettuce, snow pea sprouts, cucumber, peaches and pistachio kernels in a large bowl. Peel, quarter and thinly slice avocado. Add to salad. Pour over dressing and gently toss. Spoon salad onto plates. Top with chicken and serve.

There are many internet sites and channels that provide an array of recipes to make your off day subtle. India Food Network is one such website which is very well known for different types of recipes both vegetarian and no vegetarian. It also provides many health tips and recipe short cuts to make cooking a fun filled hobby.

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Friday Dinner: Chicken Piccata, Fettucine con Burro e Formaggio and the Ham Sandwich Salad

...okay, we didn't serve a ham sandwich as a salad, but the inspiration for the salad started out as a ham sandwich, according to Nancy Silverton, in her book "A Twist of the Wrist". It's also not called "The Ham Sandwich Salad", but "Crispy Hearts of Romaine with Ham, Pickled Jalapeno Peppers and Creamy Avocado Dressing". My older sister served the salad to me the last time I was visiting and I knew I had to make it for Lynn at one of our Friday dinners. The dressing alone just makes me want to weep with happiness. Everything in this salad goes together beautifully.

I've eaten Lynn's Chicken Piccata, and pasta with butter and cheese (closer to the original Fettuccine Alfredo than what you eat in restaurants) for years and Friday's incarnation was delicious.  We were talking about when she first made the pasta dish (and whatever pasta you have on hand will work - she most often uses linguine or fettuccine) and she pulled out one of her favorite Italian cookbooks to show me some recipes, "Adventures in Italian Cooking", © 1980, published by Ortho Publishing - a subsidiary of Chevron Chemical at that time. Seriously? Why yes, Chevron had a publishing arm and its subsidiary, Ortho, put out cookbooks. In a way, it's kind of creepy if you think about it too much, but don't. It's a strange source, but one with really good, solid recipes. 

Many recipes call for pounding out the whole half-breast but if your half-breasts are large, making a scalloppine (thin slice of meat) by butterflying the half-breast and just slicing it into two pieces makes a more manageable piece of chicken and takes less pounding time. I've embedded a video that shows how to butterfly a chicken breast. It also helps if your chicken isn't straight out of the refrigerator when you pound it.

Many recipes also call for egg dips and breading which, after sauteing, makes more of a "chicken-fried steak chicken breast",  but Lynn just dusts the pieces with seasoned flour and lets them air dry on a rack before cooking them and I'm in favor of this method, too.

Many moons ago, Lynn lived in the Outer Richmond and her favorite restaurant was Ernesto's (on Clement St.) - back when Ernesto was in the kitchen. Lynn was delighted to be able to recreate many of her favorite dishes from Ernesto's using, amongst other sources, this book. 

Alfredo di Lelio.is credited with the dish "Fettuccine Alfredo" but you know that some form of pasta dressed with creamed butter and cheese has been served since somebody in Italy had water, fire and those three ingredients, but Alfredo has the official credit. Lynn's version includes a healthy dose of fresh ground black pepper and minced parsley. Parmigiana Regiana - at least two years old, is traditional but we used a pecorino romano (sheep's milk) cheese. Don't sweat over the fine details, this remains: pasta dressed with butter and cheese. The only thing about which you must be precise is to wait to dress the pasta until right  before you're ready to serve it. Too soon and the sauce will break (separate). That fact is why the Fettuccine Alfredo we know from most Italian restaurants - at least in the U.S., is a sauce that includes cream as it helps 'hold' the sauce during the restaurant's service period.

Harold McGee has successfully de-bunked the common practice that you need a bunch of water to cook pasta but make no mistake - you need salt. Two tablespoons in the water to cook a pound of pasta in 4-6 quarts of water and if you use the less-water method, two teaspoons to two quarts water.

RECIPES:
 - Chicken Piccata;
 - Fettucine con Burro e Formaggio; and
 - Crispy Hearts of Romaine with Ham, Pickled Jalapenos and Creamy Avocado Dressing


CHICKEN PICCATA
Serves 6-8 as a as a main dish.

Lynn doesn't pound out the entire half breast, she butterflies it, separating it at the 'hinge'  and pounds those out to 1/4".  I think the smaller pieces are easier to handle, take less pounding and look really nice. There will be splatter when you cook this. Use a splatter screen if you have one and are so inclined, or just be ready to clean-up after you cook the chicken pieces.

Ingredients:

• 5 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup flour seasoned with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil (canola or refined grape seed oil) (plus more if necessary)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (plus more if necessary)
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 2/3 cup chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons cold butter sliced into 3 pats
• Fresh-squeezed lemon juice (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/3 cup capers (the small, non-pareil) drained (if in brined) or rinsed and drained (if in salt)
• 3-4 tablespoons finely minced flat-leaf parsley
• Additional lemon wedges to squeeze over the chicken (optional)
• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Preparation

• Pre
• While you're flouring the chicken, heat a 12" heavy skillet (not non-stick - you want the fond from cooking the chicken when you make the sauce) on medium for 5 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons neutral oil (canola or refined grape seed) plus two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil to the pan. Add 2 chicken pieces to the pan (gently - you don't want a hot oil incident!) and fry for approximately 3 minutes per side and the chicken is golden brown. Remove to the baking sheet and cooling rack you have in the oven and cook the next pair. 
• When you are done cooking the chicken pieces and they are warming in the oven, pour out the oil and return the pan to the heat, adjusting it down to medium and add the white wine, deglazing the pan by scraping up the fond (brown bits) with a wooden spoon or spatula while the wine is reducing by about half. Whisk in the chicken stock and simmer for a minute. Whisk in the three pats of cold butter, one at a time until the butter is incorporated. Add the capers and simmer for a minute. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Stir in the parsley and turn the heat to low, to keep the sauce warm while you are plating.
• Place 1 or 2 of the chicken pieces on a plate and spoon some sauce over top - don't forget to make sure there are capers with each serving. Add a lemon wedge to each plate and serve.

FETTUCINE con BURRO e FORMAGGIO
(Fettuccine with butter and cheese)
Serves 6-8 as a side
Make sure you don't dress the pasta until you're ready to serve the dish. For this dish, we used the "more water" method to cook the pasta.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dry fettucine noodles
• 2/3 stick butter, softened
• 4 - 6 oz grated pecorino romano (or parmigiana), grated on a fine grater
• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
• Parsley, finely minced to taste, start with 2 tablespoons 

Preparation:

• Fill a large pot (8 quarts) with 4-6 quarts of cold water. Turn the heat up to medium high and cover. When it comes to a boil, turn the heat down and partially uncover the pot so that it remains at a fast simmer while you prepare the rest of the dish.
• Cream the butter and cheese together thoroughly until the mixture is entirely homogeneous and set aside.
• Bring the pasta water to a full boil and add 2 tablespoons of kosher salt. stir the water and salt. Add the pasta all at once, moving it around gently with a wooden spoon until it all fits in the pan. Cook at a boil until al dente - taste it at about 9 minutes and again at 10. When it is done to your satisfaction, drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup and return that to the pan with the pasta.
• Add the creamed butter and cheese to the pan in 3 additions and working very quickly with each addition, thoroughly dress the pasta. Add the minced parsley and fresh ground pepper to taste and serve immediately. Pass additional grated cheese at the table.

CRISPY HEARTS of ROMAIN with HAM, PICKLED JALAPENO PEPPERS and CREAMY AVOCADO DRESSING
Adapted from Nancy Silverton's recipe in the book, "A Twist of the Wrist".
Serves: 6


We used 1 head of romaine and included some of the smaller outside leaves in addition to the leaves in the heart. I also used less than 1 of the 2 additional avocados called for in the salad because it seemed like overkill along with everything else and a few cubes strewn on each leaf was perfect. The salad is best eaten by picking up a leaf at the core end. This dressing is so good, you will want to marry it.


Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro, including the tender stems
• 1 large ripe Hass or Gwen avocado - should be 7 ounces, cut in half, pit removed and scooped out of the shell
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 4 small garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 small shallots, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup neutral oil (grape seed or canola)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salad Ingredients:

• 2 romaine hearts, washed, thoroughly dried with the leaves removed from the core. Wrap these loosely in barely damp paper towels, place in a plastic produce bag and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble the salad.
• kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ripe Hass or Gwen avocado
• 6-8 pickled jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise, stemmed, seeded and juilienned
• 7 ounces thinly sliced cured ham
• 1/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves (leaves only)

Preparation

• To make the dressing: Puree the cilantro, avocado, elmon juice, garlic, shallots and kosher salt with a small food processor (or in the blender). With the processor running, add the canola and olive oil in a thin and steady stream through the feed tube until the dressing is emulsified and thoroughly homogeneous in appearance. It should look kind of fluffy. You can store this in the refrigerator by placing it in a bowl of an airtight container (one with a lid), pressing plastic wrap over the entire surface of the dressing and covering it tightly. It held beautifully for about 45 minute for us. (*Update* My sister told me that it held for her for three days)
• To assemble and dress the salad: Remove the prepared romaine heart leaves from the refrigerator and place them in a large bowl. Lightly season the leaves with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle the leaves with 1 cup of the dressing and massage the dressing into the leaves with your (impeccably clean) hands. 
• Halve the avocado, remove the pit and cut through the flesh with a knife, down to but not through the skin in a crosshatch pattern - about 1/3" x 1/3" inch. Use a soup spoon to carefully scoop out the avocado flesh - it will be diced.. Season the diced avocado with a little sea or kosher salt and pepper.
• Divide the lettuce leaves evenly among the 6 plates. Top the leaves with a few cubes of avocado, a few strips of jalapeno peppers, a few strips of ham and a sprinkling of cilantro. Repeat this, building one more layer in the same way.

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Friday Dinner: It's a "Goat Hill Pizza" Night!

What are you supposed to do when you have a slightly traumatic yet ultimately successful experience making noodles? I mean seriously, how do you get flour on your back? Well, you get back in the pool and make pizza dough.

Lynn, my culinary confederate, has a favorite combination of dishes: the "Special Combination" pizza, a chef's salad with blue cheese dressing and a side of garlic bread from Goat Hill Pizza, in San Francisco. We can practically smell the pizza at Goat Hill's Potrero Hill store from her back deck, but we decided on a DIY version. Homemade dough, homemade sauce and toppings plus the chef's salad and garlic bread. Have I ever mentioned that Friday night dinners are the once-weekly "Olly-olly oxen free!" of my weeks' meals?

 The dough recipe I used specified that it would make a 14" diameter round pizza. The volume was perfect for a thin-crust pizza on a rimmed baking sheet about 12" x 17". It's also very easy to make and shape - this coming from a dough-a-phobic so you can take that to the bank.

I made a very straightforward tomato sauce with nothing but tomatoes, onion, garlic olive oil, salt and a little pepper. We topped the pizza with sauce, mozzarella, Romano cheese, mushrooms, green pepper, olives, white onion, basil, sweet Italian sausage and salami - but we forgot the garlic (don't you forget it if you make it, okay?). As delicious as it was, we won't forget the garlic the next time. I also forgot to bring the chickpeas for the salad, but you should be more vigilant and make sure you don't forget it, eh?

I went a little crazy with the cornmeal, but it made for a nice picture.

RECIPES

• THIN CRUST "SPECIAL COMBINATION" PAN PIZZA
• Pizza Dough
• Simple Tomato Sauce
• Assembling and Cooking the "Special Combination" Pan Pizza
• CHEF'S SALAD with LYNN'S BLUE CHEESE DRESSING
• GARLIC CHEESE BREAD

Pizza Dough

From:  Serious Eats' Antipasto Pizza recipe

The recipe for the dough states that it will make a 14" (round) pizza or 1 lb of dough. For us, it made a great, thin-crust pan pizza in a rimmed baking pan with a rim, about 12" x 17".

Ingredients

• 1 package Active Dry Yeast (7 grams)
• 1 cup warm water (110F), divided
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt
• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• small handful of course ground cornmeal

Preparation

• Stir the yeast into 1/2 cup of the warm water and a bowl and set aside. Combine the salt and the flour in the bowl of a food processor fixed with the dough blade. Pulse a few times.
• In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup warm water, honey (or sugar) and olive oil. Add to the yeast mixture. With the food processor running, slowing add the wet ingredients to the dry through the feed tube or chute. Let the processor run until the dough forms a ball.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and soft.
• Transfer to a large bowl brushed with oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place (at least 70F) to rise for 1 hour. After an hour, press the dough down (no actual punching necessary) and let it rise again for about 30 minutes.* This is a good time to preheat your oven to 500 and move the rack to the second to the bottom level.
• Gently press and stretch the dough into a rectangle. You can continue to pull and stretch the dough to be a little larger than the bottom of the baking sheet. I rolled it out (very lightly flouring the top of the dough alternating with hanging one edge of the dough over the side of the counter and pulling gently and then turning the dough 1/4 of a turn and repeating. When the dough is a little larger than the baking sheet, spread a small handful of the course-ground cornmeal on the bottom of the pan. Place the dough on the pan and stretch it a little more to make sure you have a small border around the edge of the pan. 

* So, this is how MY pizza dough rise steps went: the first hour went exactly as described above, except for the fact that it was 1 1/2 hours. Then I transferred the dough (no punching down) to a bowl that has a lid so I could get it to Lynn's house where it then sat, with the lid a slightly open, on the counter for at least an hour. Then I put it in the fridge and took it out about 45 minutes before I shaped and rolled it before assembling the pizza. The pizza crust was great so this is just another lesson, care of moi and courtesy of the resilience of dough.


Simple Tomato Sauce
Makes about a quart and much more than you need for this pizza, but easy to freeze for the next time. If you don't want leftovers, cut the recipe in half. I put the sauce through a food mill (medium disk) after it finished cooking. If you don't have a food mill, I recommend putting the sauce through a medium mesh strainer. Many sauce recipes call for draining the whole, canned tomatoes but if the whole tomatoes are of good quality, the liquid will taste good, too. This isn't a super-thick sauce, as prepared below but for our pizza, this is the consistency I was looking for.


Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 - 28 oz cans whole tomatoes (I'm fond of Muir Glen Organic)
• kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Preparation

• Heat 3 tablespoons of butter in a heavy dutch oven on medium high heat. When the butter stops foaming, add the chopped onions and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat the onions in the oil. After a couple of minutes, adjust the heat so that onions cook until they are translucent and soft, but do not take on any color. After 5 to 10 minutes and the onions are soft, add the smashed garlic cloves and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add the remaining olive oil and the tomatoes. Use a potato masher to break down the tomatoes. Adjust the heat until the mixture is cooking at a fast simmer. Do not cover the pot you want to cook the tomatoes and reduce the liquid. Stir the mixture frequently to keep the sauce from sticking as it reduces, adjusting the heat as necessary. Use the potato masher again to further break down the solids. Season the sauce with salt by pinches until you are satisfied. Remember that as it reduces, the amount of salt you use will intensify.Add the olive oil and stir to combine.
• Continue to cook and stir until the watery liquid is gone and the mixture resembles a chunky but mostly homogenous sauce. Add a few grinds of pepper on a fine setting or to taste. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool. When it has cooled, put the mixture through a food mill with a medium disk or a medium mesh strainer. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to prepare the pizza but take it out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before you will start. This may be made several days in advance and refrigerated or frozen. Defrost completely and bring to room temperature.

Pizza Toppings and Preparation

Inspired by Goat Hill Pizza's "Special Combination". I'm giving VERY conservative amounts in the ingredients section. We made thin-crust pan pie and I would not want to overload it to the point where you could not pick-up a piece with your hands without the top falling off and the crust not cooking through.

Ingredients

• Pizza dough in the prepared pan (see recipe for pizza dough)
• Pizza sauce, 1 1/2 to 2 cups
• About 2-3 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
• About 1 1/2 cups Romano cheese, finely grated with a microplane, divided (Note: when you use a micro-plane grater, the results are very airy and fluffy. If you use a regular grater, count on between 1/2 to 3/4's of a cup)
• Salami - about 12-16 thin slices (our salami was about 1 1/2" in diameter
• 2 Italian sausage, casings removed, cooked, drained and broken up into pieces
• 1/2 cup white onion, thinly sliced
• Sliced mushrooms, 1-2 cups
• 1/2 - 1 Green bell pepper, 2-3" julienne slices
• 4-6 green onions sliced crosswise, white and green parts
• 1 cup sliced black olives
• Garlic, small dice. As I mentioned, we forgot to add this but start 3-4 cloves
• Red pepper flakes (for garnish)

Preparation

• About 45 minutes prior to cooking the pizza, preheat the oven to 500F and move a rack down to the the second to the bottom level.
• Using a ladle or measuring cup (1/2 cup). Spread sauce on the pizza dough in the pan. I spread the sauce out after each ladle full. I opted for a thin layer. Add a layer of Mozzarella (about 1 1/2 cups) and a about 1 cup of the Romano. Add the salami and sausage, diced white onion, the mushrooms, black olives, garlic, julienned green bell pepper, and the sliced green onions. Top with about 1/2 more cup of Mozzarella and the remaining Romano cheese.
• Put the pizza in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. Check the pizza. The topping should be bubbly and the edges of the crust, a deep, golden brown. If it's not ready, cook for 5-10 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces. Pass a small bowl of red pepper flakes for garnish.

Goat Hill-Inspired Chef's Salad and Lynn's Blue Cheese Dressing
For the salad, adjust amounts to your own taste. This is a great opportunity to use the oft-maligned iceberg lettuce. I grew up on iceberg lettuce and while there are many more interesting and tasty salad greens, iceberg works beautifully in this salad and is a fantastic delivery system for the blue cheese dressing. We used a combination of  red oak and iceberg. Don't forget the chickpeas! I love Lynn's blue cheese dressing. Although it has mayonnaise and sour cream, the amounts are small and the genius to this is the red wine vinegar.

Lynn's Blue Cheese Dressing
Will dress a salad serving 4-6 people

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• red wine vinegar
• Aged, finely grated cheese to taste like Romano, Asiago or Parmagiana
• Scant pinch of salt and generous grinds of fresh ground pepper

Preparation
Squish up the blue cheese and combine with the mayonnaise and sour cream and combine well. Lynn combines it until it's not-quite an homogenous mixture and there are tiny little pieces of blue cheese. Add red wine vinegar, start with one tablespoon and taste. Add a tablespoon or two of the aged, grated cheese and adjust to taste. Adjust red wine as necessary to achieve a creamy/tart taste. If necessary add salt, but you may not need any. Season with fresh ground pepper to taste.

Salad Components

• Mixed greens
• Feta Cheese
• Chopped  tomatoes
• Thin-sliced red onions
• Kidney beans and chickpeas
• Large dice or thin-sliced beats
• Pepperoncini

Garlic Bread
...aaaand since we haven't had enough carbs, fat and cheese there's garlic bread. Both of us love toasty-er garlic bread with a firm crust rubbed with garlic cloves, dressed with a little extra virgin olive oil but we both have a soft spot for this type. Lynn's description is: a ton of butter, a ton of grated aged cheese, 1 large garlic clove, pureed. Combine and slather on one side of each slice of bread. We wrapped this in foil and baked it for 10 minutes in the oven as it was preheating (at 500F) for the pizza and kept it wrapped and warm on the top of the stove until we ate. After all, what's another ton or so of butter and cheese at this point?

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Spoon Salad, Chickpeas and Wild Rice with Yogurt Sesame Sauce

A few years ago, I landed on Heidi Swanson's blog (101 Cookbooks) when I was looking for instruction on how to make yogurt and have found inspiration there, and in reading her cookbooks (Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Every Day) ever since. Her focus, is on "...natural, whole foods and ingredients - vegetarian recipes that are good for you, with the occasional sweet treat".

At the time I stumbled across her blog I knew I wanted to maintain my membership in the "I eat meat" club, but wanted to cut back and focus on produce and whole grains as the majority of what I eat. I was inspired by not so much the main part of the dish (which looks delicious), but the dressing in her post: Sesame Yogurt Pasta Salad. In turn, Ms. Swanson was inspired by one of Peter Berley's recipes in his book.

I've written on Spoon Salad previously - a combination of raw vegetables cut up so that you can eat it with a spoon - with a good 'refrigerator life' that I make on a weekly basis and mix with a variety of other vegetables, herbs, grains, nuts, beans, dairy, meat, fish and/or tofu. The creativity is in the dressings and 'mix-ins'. The base vegetables change somewhat by season. Every once in a while, I'll use it as a base for a speedy saute or stir fry. I just don't get tired of it.

I had Spoon Salad in the refrigerator along with cooked chickpeas and wild rice and enough 'mix-ins' (avocado and cilantro) to make a great lunch, and enough leftover dressing to take to my friend Lynn's house the next day as a dip for sesame crackers.

RECIPE: SPOON SALAD, CHICKPEAS, WILD RICE & SESAME YOGURT TAHINI SAUCE

Sauce adapted from: Heidi Swanson's Sesame Yogurt Pasta Salad
Serves: 4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side
You may make (and I recommend it) the dressing a couple of hours ahead of time and refrigerate. It will thicken up a little, but just add water - a tablespoon at a time - you don't want it to be watery.

SAUCE

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


• 1 medium garlic clove, minded


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin


• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander


• 1 teaspoon minced ginger


• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric


• 1/2 cup warm water


• 1/2 cup roasted tahini (if you use raw, you might want to add a teaspoon or so of toasted sesame oil)


• 1/2 cup plain or Greek Yogurt (full fat, low fat or non-fat - all of them work)


• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


• fine grain sea or kosher salt

 Combine the warm water, tahini and yogurt in a mixing bowl and add 1/4 teaspoon salt. Combine.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne and turmeric. Stir and saute for about 30 seconds or until the spices are toasted. Add this mixture to the bowl with the water, tahini and yogurt. Add the lemon juice and combine well. Taste for seasoning.

SALAD

• 4-6 cups of Spoon Salad (or any colorful vegetable-based salad)


• 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas


• 1 1/2 cups of cooked wild rice


• 4 scallions, chopped (green and white parts)


• 1/4 cup cilantro (packed) chopped - leaves and the tender parts of the stem


• 1 avocado, diced


• fine grain sea or kosher salt

Combine all of the ingredients with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt* . All but the avocado may be combined a couple of hours ahead of time and refrigerated. Take it out of the refrigerator a little before you serve - it should be chilled, but not cold. Dice and add the avocado right before serving.

Like Heidi, I like to serve the sauce on top of each serving of salad with any extra on the side.

* This assumes that none of the salad ingredients are seasoned with salt. If you are using any ingredients  that have been seasoned, adjust to taste.

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Spoon Salad: It's Crunch Time

Spoon Salad: this time with cucumber, celery, carrots, scallions, zucchini, red bell pepper, breakfast radishes and snap peas

Spoon Salad?
Spoon salad is my name for a combination of raw vegetables cut up so that you can eat it with a spoon, with a good 'refrigerator life' that I make weekly and mix with, at the time I prepare it, a variety of other vegetables (those that don't store well), herbs, grains, nuts, beans, dairy, meat, fish and/or tofu. The creativity is in how it's dressed and the 'mix-ins'. The base vegetables change somewhat by season. Every once in a while, I'll use it as a base for a speedy saute or stir fry. I just don't get tired of it.

This salad is capital-C CRUNCHY! I love the freshness and the taste. It's filling and wicked good for you. It is also great for developing and improving knife skills. I have tried cutting some vegetables in the food processor but overall, it takes less time to do it by hand and in some cases, using a food processor creates too much liquid. I recommend a small dice (1/4") for carrots or other hard vegetables and 1/3 to 1/2 inch for other less hard vegetables.

If there's a vegetable you want to use and you don't know if will keep for a few days, prepare some and add it to a separate container. Check on it each day. If it gets a little liquid-y in the container, it's probably not a good candidate. If you are considering becoming a Spoon Salad convert, think about how and when you'll use it. Once you've diced up the vegetables, you've pretty much made a commitment and you may want to start by making just a few cups at a time.

 

There really are no rules, but these:

• The vegetables are cut so that you can eat the salad with a spoon


• Don't use any 'watery' vegetables - this is a salad that should last in the refrigerator, if stored properly, for up to five days. I've gone as long as seven days with no discernible degradation of appearance or flavor. Anything like tomatoes, seedy cucumbers or other vegetables that are likely to break down quickly should not be included in the 'base' but may be added at the time you assemble it for a meal. One exception is English or Persian cucumbers - they tend to hold up well.


• Make sure the vegetables are well washed when you start and as dry as possible before you assemble and store the salad - and by that I mean no or very, very little residual water left over from washing when you start to prep and dice the ingredients.


• It should be very, very colorful


• Store it in airtight containers - I store mine in several 4-cup plastic containers

You may or may not want to add scallions to your 'base', but I find that onions or shallots (if you wish to use those) should be added as 'mix-ins' at the time you're assembling your meal or dish. It travels well.

Ingredients I Use Include:

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Carrot Walnut Salad with Walnut Oil and Dijon Vinaigrette

I have nothing against lettuce. I love lettuce, but most of the salads I eat at home are primarily vegetables other than lettuce and this oh-so-simple but oh-so-tasty salad caught my eye. Also, it gave me a opportunity to use the Messermeister julienne-ing thingy I used for the zucchini slaw.

Although you can use all extra-virgin olive oil - or any other salad oil - the walnut oil specified in the recipe is delicious. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons each of walnut and olive oil but I found that was a little less tart than I prefer. If this dressing is too tart for your taste, add an additional tablespoon of olive or walnut oil. I also thought that it called for more walnuts and a little cumin.

This should be made at least two hours before serving and preferably you can make it the night before. You can also shred the carrots on a box grater but they will be a little wetter and will not take as long to marinate.If you shred them, squeeze out some of the moisture before you dress them. This also cuts down on the time for marination and two hours should suffice.

Recipe: Carrot Walnut Salad with Walnut Oil and Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette

Adapted from: Serious Eats (Kerry Saretsky)

Serves 4 as a side
You can also add some raisins (dark or golden, I prefer the latter), plumped slightly in warm water

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard


• 2 tablespoons walnut oil


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar


• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder


• Salt and pepper


• 2 lbs carrots, finely julienned (or shredded - see head notes), approximately 3" long, or the length of one-half of a carrot


• 8-10 walnut halves, broken in half lengthwise

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the mustard, walnut oil, olive oil, cider vinegar, cumin, salt, and pepper until emulsified. Toss the carrots with the sauce, and top with chopped walnuts. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving (longer is better - overnight is best)


• Prior to serving, remove from the refrigerator. The salad should be served only slightly chilled, or at room temperature.

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Raw Kale Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

I first ate this at Seester #1's house one Thanksgiving and I was well and truly hooked. There have been weeks where I ate this five days in a row.  Sometimes I wash, dry and prep the kale and then wrap it in a length of paper towel, then store it in a plastic bag.  It will stay fresh for several days.

I most often see this kale labelled as "Dino" because of the pebbled surface of the leaves.  There are many types of kale, but this is my favorite and I can't imagine making this salad with any other type. See: Kale (Wikipedia) and Google Image search for "kale varieties".


Raw Kale Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette
Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:

1 large bunch Tuscan kale (also known as dino, black or lacinato kale), leaves washed and thoroughly dried.

1/4 cup homemade toasted bread crumbs (coarse)

1/2 or 1 medium garlic clove, mashed into a paste

1/4 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, more for garnish

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 table spoons freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

 Method:

1. Trim bottoms off of the kale stems (up to the bottom of the leaf) and discard. Stack the leaves (as many as can be handled).  Chiffonade the leaves (crosswise, along the length of the leaves)  into ribbons no wider than linguine pasta. You should have 4 to 5 cups. Place kale in a large bowl.

2. If using bread, toast it until golden on both sides. Tear into small pieces and grind in a food processor until mixture consists of coarse crumbs.

3. Transfer garlic to a bowl. Add the cheese, lemon juice, salt, pepper flakes and whisk for about 30 seconds. Add  the oil in a thin stream and whisk until emulsified.  Pour the dressing over the kale and toss very well to thoroughly combine. Add black pepper to taste and toss again.

4. Let salad sit for 5 minutes (I've let it sit for up to 20 minutes), then serve topped with bread crumbs and a dusting of additional 2 tbsp. finely grated cheese. 

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