cooking beets

Cool-as-a-Cucumber Avocado Soup ♥ A Low(er)-Calorie Recipe

Today's vegetable recipe: a quick blender soup recipe, just four ingredients and served cold. Low carb. Vegan. Lower calorie than a typical avocado soup.

Sigh. Do your eyes go dreamy too at the thought of avocados? There's simply no matching their silkiness, their smoothness. Pillow makers? How about avocado, not the color, but the cool slipperiness.

Blending cool cucumber with smooth avocado, it was a recent inspiration. The cucumber adds liquid but flavor too, unlike plain water (as most avocado soup recipes specify) or broth (which strikes me as too heavy for summer). Better still, the cucumber adds volume but few calories, keeping the avocado soup in reasonable territory, diet-wise but still tasting like an indulgence.

This soup is served cold, its own cool pillow against summer's heat. I like to serve it in small bowls with small spoons, all to encourage savoring every single silky spoonful. So much for that idea -- when I made this last, my favorite taste tester, who always leaves a bite or two behind on the plate, slurped up every last drop.

AVOCADO SOUP RECIPE

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Makes 2 cups

2 avocados, pitted (save a bit aside to chop for garnish, if you like)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 - 2 green onions, white and light-green parts only
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon agave or honey

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Spoon into serving bowls, top with a little chopped avocado.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Half Cup: 138Cal; 9g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 7mg Sodium; 12g Carb; 5g Fiber; 5g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers 3 points

KITCHEN NOTES

I worried that the pretty light green color would darken but it didn't, at least not when covered for about 4 hours before serving.

MORE SILKY-SMOOTH AVOCADO RECIPES
~ Avocado Dip ~
~ Homemade Cobb Salad ~
~ Homemade Guacamole with Tomatillos ~
~ more avocado recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Fruity Gazpacho ~
~ Tropical Salad Supper ~
~ more avocado recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009

reade more...

Tomato Platter with Olives & Feta ♥ An Easy, Impressive Summer Recipe

Today's vegetable 'recipe' - wait no, let's call it vegetable 'serving inspiration': A platter of perfect summer tomatoes, topped with olives and crumbled feta. Perfect for one or two or a crowd.

My friend Mary brought a big plate of tomatoes to supper on Friday. I loved her tomato serving idea so much, I re-created it on Saturday! So this isn't so much a 'recipe' as a serving suggestion, for it really did work beautifully and flew together in minutes.

Mary made a homemade vinaigrette (carrying it in a handy-dandy salad dressing mixer) to drizzle over the tomatoes just before serving but I went a step simpler still by purchasing an olive-feta mix from the olive bar at the grocery store (where it's quick to pick up just a few olives for a salad or whatever), already moistened with a little olive oil and it was quite delicious already.

Since ours was a small group on Friday, Mary also built 'stacks' of cucumber and thick beefsteak tomato, effectively creating a 'serving' that could be easily moved to an individual plate. Since Saturday's supper was a casual large-group buffet, I just did one layer of cucumber and topped it with another layer of tomatoes. Some people took both, some just stuck to tomatoes.

So this is really flexible (and surprisingly delicious!), make it fit your table!

TOMATO PLATTER with OLIVES & FETA

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Serves as many as needed

Cucumbers, peeled and sliced
Tomatoes, sliced
Fresh feta, crumbled
Olives, pitted
Fresh basil, chopped fine
Vinaigrette (looking for ideas? my challenge to Never Buy Salad Dressing Again has a couple of dozen ideas from my favorite food bloggers)

On a platter, arrange a layer of cucumbers, then a layer of tomatoes, stacking them if individual servings are desired. Arrange the feta and olives over top, then drizzle with a vinaigrette. Sprinkle the top with the basil.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving (a complete estimate since will vary so much, assumes a slice of cucumber, a slice of tomato, 1/4 ounce feta, 1/2 tablespoon standard oil & vinegar vinaigrette): 57Cal; 5g Tot Fat; 2g Sat Fat; 6mg Cholesterol; 80mg Sodium; 2g Carb; 0g Fiber; 1g Sugar; 1g Protein; Weight Watchers 2 points

KITCHEN NOTES

To get perfect tomato rounds, the end pieces need to be used for something else.

Look for blocks of feta and crumble it yourself, rather than individual containers of crumbles which tend to be dry and tasteless.

My friend Mary is an artist and arranged her tomatoes on a lovely glass leaf-shaped platter that belonged to her husband's mother. When I was arranging my own platter, a more typical round shape, I realized how 'artful' it was for Mary to use a platter that didn't repeat the same round shape of the cucumbers and tomatoes. Little stuff some times matters, at least a little!

UPDATE Turns out, this is my favorite 'bring a dish to share' for the summer. When the tomatoes are larger than the cucumbers, I put the tomatoes on the bottom, the cucumbers on top. I often skip the olives, instead scatter just fresh feta and fresh herbs on the top, then take along a vinaigrette (just sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and a little sugar) to pour over top just before serving time. It's always a hit, people really 'get' that these are stacks and move both to their plates.

A Veggie Venture - Printer Friendly Recipe Graphic

MY FAVORITE WAYS with SUMMER TOMATOES
~ Panzanella ~
the Italian bread and tomato salad
~ fresh tomato sauce ~
~ no-cook taboulleh ~

~ more tomato recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

reade more...

Grilled Pepper & Tomato Salad ♥ A Reader Recipe

Today's vegetable recipe comes from a reader: Familiar tomatoes and familiar peppers combined in a salad that somehow manages to turn out entirely different. Low carb. Weight Watchers 2 points.

Sold! It took about 10 seconds to buy into this recipe, sent by a reader just last week. Here's what Laurie B. wrote about her salad recipe that combines roasted peppers (bell peppers and hot chilis both) and roasted tomatoes:

"It hits all my flavor sensors - heat, salt and garlic, well, tomatoes, peppers and onions. Oh wait, that's the recipe, isn't it?!"

She went on. "It's easy to throw together and is so much more than its parts. I got the recipe from a neighbor (she said it was her mother's recipe) when it was served at their son's graduation party. I've never had anything like it and I'll bet I've made it a dozen times since then. We were taking a big bowl of it to a party and I asked my husband to taste a bit; he ate almost half of it and I didn't have enough for the party! I guess he liked it."

And that's been the reaction in my circle too. At a birthday supper on Sunday, with a buffetful of fresh summer food to remark upon, the first praise emerged with the first bite, "These peppers are GOOD." (Thanks, Brad!) Later, the one dish I was asked about? The grilled peppers and tomatoes.

I'll close with Laurie's words. "I sure hope you enjoy this. We sure have." Ditto! Thank you, Laurie for sending this recipe, it's perfect for A Veggie Venture.

GRILLED PEPPER & TOMATO SALAD RECIPE

Hands-on time: 15 'inside' minutes + 'grilling' time
Time to table: 45 minutes (can be prepped ahead)
Serves as many as needed

PEPPERS & TOMATOES
Peppers - a mix of bell peppers (red and green, say) and hot peppers (poblanos and serranos, jalapeños and Anaheim peppers, say)
Tomatoes - preferably something meaty like a Roma tomato

SALAD
Garlic & kosher salt
Onion - chopped into thin lengths
Red wine vinegar
Good olive oil
Plenty of kosher salt

PEPPERS & TOMATOES Trim the peppers and remove the seeds and membranes to discard. Cut into quarter or halves, press with the back of your hand to flatten. Grill the peppers and tomatoes skin-sides down until the skins blacken and blister all over. Leave the skins on (they provide great flavor) and let cool. (Stop here if prepping ahead.) Chop both the tomatoes and peppers into rough pieces, one-inch pieces or lengths for a side dish, or into tiny bites for a salsa.

SALAD Mash the garlic and salt into a paste by chopping the garlic as fine as possible with a knife, then mashing the pieces into the salt with the side of a knife; stir into the peppers and tomatoes and onions. (This way, says Laurie, "No one eats raw garlic and it sort of melts into the salad.") Gently splash with equivalent volumes of vinegar and olive oil. Now get salty -- stir in salt, tasting after each addition, it should taste a little salty so that later, when the juices flow from the peppers and tomatoes. If the peppers and tomatoes don't taste that good, it's likely because the dish needs more salt.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving (Assuming the quantities listed below in the first note, serving 8): 96Cal; 5g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 1317mg Sodium; 11g Carb; 4g Fiber; 6g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers 2 points

KITCHEN NOTES

I'm not giving quantities because this salad so easily adapts to small and large quantities. Still, some guidance may be helpful. For a dozen large Roma tomatoes and 5 large peppers, I used 1/2 a white onion, 3 large garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons, Laurie writes, "it should taste like a salted tomato" and suggest 2 - 3 tablespoons) of kosher salt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

You'll want roughly equivalent amounts of tomatoes and peppers.

I think it would work just fine to oven-roast both the peppers and tomatoes, see the technique used in Oven-Roasted Peppers.

For tomatoes, I used Romas because they're meatier (and as importantly, less juicy) but Laurie says she's used Romas and garden tomatoes both, even supermarket tomatoes that don't look so ripe.

For peppers, don't worry if you want to err on the side of bell peppers. I did too, using 2 green peppers and 2 red peppers with only 1 poblano pepper and one small hot red chili. A little bit of heat is good, it creates another layer of flavor.

BURN, BABY, BURN At every turn this summer, we're putting a little burn -- intentionally! -- on everything from meat to vegetables to fruit. (Is it the Seven Fires effect?) The 'burn' adds so much flavor, that's why the skins are left on when assembling the salad.

The salad is good the next day but does get juicier after sitting.

The photo was taken three days after the salad was made. When I compare this shot with the ones taken when it was made, the peppers, tomatoes and onion all look 'fresh' (even though roasted) rather than dark and almost pickled. It's very pretty, I just didn't get good pictures!

ABOUT PEPPERS & PRICES Red, yellow and orange bell peppers from the supermarket have become so expensive, $1.50 and even more apiece. But for the next few weeks, from early August and well into September, peppers at the farmers market will be plentiful and cheap, both. They'll likely have thinner skins than the ones from the supermarket but they'll be fresh and luscious, whether eaten raw or like here, roasted. If ever there's a time to gorge on peppers, it's now.

This recipe for Grilled Pepper & Tomato Salad is so easy to memorize, so memorable to eat, that I'm adding it to a growing collection of easy summer recipes being published all summer long in 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

JUST LOOK HOW MANY RECIPES
PAIR PEPPERS & TOMATOES
~ Summer Vegetable Stew ~
~ No-Cook Tabblouleh ~
~ Elise's Tomato Gazpacho ~
~ Summer Lentils ~
~ Peperonata with Potatoes ~

~ more bell pepper recipes ~
~ more tomato recipes ~

~ more low-carb recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

reade more...

Julia Child's Cucumber Salad ♥ Recipe

Julia Child's Cucumber salad, garden cucumbers soaked in a vinegar, sugar and water mixture.

Today's quick cucumber salad recipe, from no other than Julia Child: How to soak large, seedy cucumbers so they'll be not just edible but tasty! Low carb. Vegan. Weight Watchers 1 point!

~recipe reposted 2012~
to honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julia Child,
a world-wide celebration happening online, in restaurants and in homes
~more recently updated recipes~

Summer 2009: Seems we can't turn around without stumbling over another story of Julie & Julia, the blog-turned-book-turned-movie that opens nationwide on August 7. Just yesterday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch climbed aboard the Julie & Julia wagon with a story about four St. Louis food bloggers (2011 update, sorry, the Post-Dispatch has removed the online story) whose blogs are also 'projects', including yes, A Veggie Venture! (more about the bloggers in the story)

Summer 2009: Seems I can't turn around without stumbling over a cucumber, the 'small' ones about six inches long, the 'big' ones a foot or more. That's a lot of cucumber to consume! So I've been looking for cucumber recipes where the 'cucumber' is front and center, not just an add-in for wet crunch. Julia Child to the rescue: her The Way to Cook writes about how to make cucumbers less 'burpy' at least a half dozen times. "Soak cucumbers in a little vinegar, sugar and water". Okay, Julia, got it. And soaking the cucumber flesh really did make a difference, especially to preserve them for a few days to make – whatever –
with. I've got a big batch in the refrigerator right now, the first chunks were used in a simple but gorgeous Cucumber Salad.
Keep Reading ->>>

reade more...

Stuffed Peppers ♥ My Aunt's Retro Recipe

My aunt's recipe for Stuffed Peppers, tomato soup and all

Today's vegetable recipe: My aunt's recipe for green peppers stuffed with a mixture of ground meat, fresh corn and rice or another starch such as quinoa, then topped with a tomato-y sauce and melt-y cheese. Low carb. Weight Watchers 2 to 4 points, depending on size.

My 3x5 recipe box is gill-packed with 'retro' recipes that date to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Thing is, the recipes weren't 'retro' then, not back when I copied ingredients and cooking instructions onto neat 3x5 index cards. They were just the recipes that my mother, my aunts and my older cousins were cooking. They were just recipes from good cooks feeding their families. They were just my family's best recipes, the family favorites, the ones we all loved.

So it felt funny to make my dear Auntie Gloria's Stuffed Peppers again for the first time in many years. Today's 'whole food' cook in me was tempted to substitute the can of tomato soup her recipe calls for with, say, a homemade Quick Tomato Sauce or Fresh Tomato Sauce made with fresh garden-picked tomatoes. But the 'family cook' in me wanted to honor the recipes of my family's past, however 'retro' that might seem today.

And so I bought the first can of tomato soup in ages, I spooned out its gloppy goopiness, I drizzled it over top of the stuffed peppers. And was glad of it. My aunt's Stuffed Peppers really hit the spot on a coolish July evening and again warmed up for breakfast (yes, breakfast!) a day or so later. It's not fancy food but it is mine. Canned tomato soup it is. Retro it is.

But you? You may be beholden to your family but not to mine. Use the sauce of your choice!

[Note to Vegetarians about the occasional recipe on A Veggie Venture that includes meat]

STUFFED PEPPERS

Hands-on time: 45 minutes (can be prepped ahead of time and baked later)
Time to table: 75 minutes - 90 minutes
Makes enough for eight small peppers (so 16 halves) or four large peppers (so 8 halves)

PEPPERS
Boiling water
8 small bell peppers or 4 large bell peppers
Ice water

STUFFING
1 strip bacon, cut into small pieces (or 1 tablespoon bacon grease or olive oil)
1 onion, chopped small
1 pound ground meat, broken into chunks (see KITCHEN NOTES)
1/2 cup cooked starch (such as cooked rice, I used cooked quinoa)
1/2 cup corn (frozen works, this time I used 2 ears of fresh corn)
1 teaspoon chili powder or more to taste
Salt & pepper to taste

TOPPING
1 can tomato soup
1/4 cup ketchup
Grated cheddar cheese

BLANCH PEPPERS Bring a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, wash the peppers well, especially around the stem end. If the stems are intact, trim a bit off the stem. Cut the peppers in half, cutting through the stem's center if you can, otherwise, cut a bit to the side so that the whole stem remains intact on one of the halves. (See NOTES.) Slice out the membranes and seeds and discard. Drop the peppers into the boiling water and blanch for 1 - 2 minutes. Drop into ice water to stop the cooking. Let drain, pat dry if needed.

COOK FILLING In a large skillet, cook the bacon pieces and onion until the onion is beginning to turn gold. Add the meat, letting it sear for a minute or two in the hot skillet before moving and breaking up further (the idea is to get a little 'burn' on the meat). Continue cooking until the meat is fully cooked. Add the corn, chili powder and salt and pepper (see NOTES). If making ahead, let cool to room temperature.

ASSEMBLE Pack the filling into the pepper halves and arrange in a baking dish. (If making ahead, stop here, cover and refrigerate for a day or so.)

TOPPING & BAKE If there's time, return peppers to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350F. Stir together the tomato soup and ketchup, drizzle over top of the peppers. Sprinkle with cheddar. Bake for about 30 minutes (if starting from room temperature) to about 45 minutes (if starting cold from the refrigerator) until hot and sizzly all the way through. If needed, put under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Made with 4 large peppers, per half, assuming 1 tablespoon cheddar per half: 190Cal; 7g Tot Fat; 3g Sat Fat; 44mg Cholesterol; 307mg Sodium; 16g Carb; 2g Fiber; 7g Sugar; 16g Protein; Weight Watchers 4 points

Made with 8 small peppers, per half, assuming 1/2 tablespoon cheddar per half: 94Cal; 3g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 22mg Cholesterol; 153mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 8g Protein; Weight Watchers 2 points

KITCHEN NOTES

Any ground meat will work, ground beef (or in my case, ground elk meat), ground turkey, ground lamb would be excellent.

You might want to cook a test pepper, just to see how much time to leaving them in the boiling water. You'll want them to be fully cooked (the oven only really rewarms them, doesn't cook any longer) versus barely cooked, though not so much as to get smooshy.

When making the meat mixture, be sure that it 'tastes' good (and has enough flavor) before packing it into the peppers. I've already upped the chili powder to a full teaspoon, you might want even more.

I ♥ STUFFED VEGETABLES!
~ Feta-Stuffed Zucchini ~
~ Eight-Ball Stuffed Zucchini ~
~ Fresh Tomato & Basil Stuffed Peppers ~
~ Stuffed Pattypan Squash ~

~ more stuffed vegetable recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

reade more...

Stacked Ratatouille ♥ A Fun Summer Recipe

Another hit recipe from our favorite cookbook this summer, Seven Fires. Appearance-wise, it's dramatic; preparation-wise, it's ever so simple. It's just sliced rounds of baked (and 'burned'!) eggplant, tomato and summer squash, topped with a lemony spinach if you like. Works as well for one or two as for a crowd. Low carb.

Who remembers the 2007 movie Ratatouille? I watched it again recently on a rare wet and chilly summer night, snuggling into the story as much as a warm blanket. It's a classic, just like the classic French dish called 'ratatouille' which the movie brought into the mainstream. (And taught a whole generation, perhaps two, how to pronounce the word. Can you say rat-uh-TOO-ee?) It's a sweet pleasure, made for laughing out loud during a movie for two or in a theater with a crowd.

Stacked Ratatouille, too. It's rare to find a recipe that feeds one or two as easily as it feeds a crowd.

The first times I made this, the table was set for two and three so small oven-safe sandwich plates were the right size and looked so dramatic! For these small tables, we followed the inspiring recipe and topped the vegetables with lemony spinach greens. Wow. The vegetables roast to something almost creamy, topping them with that slight bitterness of spinach? Not to be forgotten. This version could easily make for a delicious vegan main dish.

Stacked Ratatouille for One or Two in individual serving dishes

The third time, I arranged the vegetables in circles in a quiche pan and topped them with fresh herbs. It added beautiful color to the buffet at my book club's annual summer party. Even the kids dug in like fiends!

STACKED RATATOUILLE

Hands-on time: 15 minutes for only the Ratatouille, another 15 for the Spinach
Time to table: 40 minutes for only the Ratatouille, 1 hour including the Spinach
Serves as many as you like!

RATATOUILLE
Olive oil
Kosher salt

Asian eggplant (the long narrow ones)
Roma tomatoes (see KITCHEN NOTES)
Small yellow squash and/or zucchini

Oregano (see NOTES)

SPINACH
Fresh spinach leaves (not baby spinach, see NOTES), washed very well and tough stems removed, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Juice of a lemon (preserved lemon works too)

RATATOUILLE Preheat oven to 400F. Fill three bowls with a splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. (See NOTES.) Slice thin rounds of eggplant in one bowl, tomato in the second, squash in the third. Splosh these around, covering all sides with oil. (If you're making the spinach too, I'd recommend cleaning it now, letting the vegetable rounds soak in the oil for just a bit. But it's also fine to keep moving.) Create rows of the rounds, eggplant, tomato, squash; eggplant, tomato, squash; arrange in an oven-safe baking dish. Sprinkle with oregano. Bake for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through. Place the vegetables under the broiler for a minute or two or five, putting a slight 'burn' on the tops.

SPINACH About 5 minutes before the Ratatouille is ready, cook the wet spinach in a hot skillet until just soft. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the lemon juice. Arrange atop the Ratatouille.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving (Assumes 3 tablespoons Olive Oil for 1 pound of combined vegetables plus 8 ounces of spinach): 127Cal; 10g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 629mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 4g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 3g Protein; Weight Watchers 3 points

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION
Adapted from Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann and Peter Kaminski, our #1 cookbook this summer, it is completely rocking the kitchen. That little bit of burn? It's inspired by Francis Mallmann! (Remember Fire-Charred Tomatoes?)

KITCHEN NOTES

The trick is to get vegetables about the same size, hence the Roma tomatoes which are about the right size when matched up with Asian eggplant and small summer squash.

We tried both fresh oregano and dried -- and preferred the dried which held its distinctive oregano flavor better when confronted with heat.

Why not use baby spinach? I know, I know, it's so convenient to buy bags of cleaned baby spinach! But baby spinach is so tender that it almost melts when it hits the heat. It's too tender! I've learned to really appreciate the sturdier spinach, both for taste and texture, if it's being cooked.

Could you use one bowl? I suppose. But three bowls separate the vegetables juices/flavors until they reach the oven.

This recipe for Stacked Ratattouille is so quick and easy that I'm adding it to a growing collection of easy summer recipes being published all summer long in 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

MORE RATATOUILLE RECIPES
from Kitchen Parade
~ Ratatouille ~
the same vegetables but somehow an entirely different dish, also a huge favorite
~ Ratatouille Omelettes ~

from A Veggie Venture
~ Summer Vegetable Stew ~
again, many of the same vegetables but entirely different

~ more eggplant recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

reade more...

Raw Eggplant Salad ♥ Recipe

Today's unusual salad recipe: Small pieces of raw eggplant tossed with celery, olives and capers. Surprisingly pleasant! Vegan. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point.

So. Can we eat raw eggplant? Yes! Do we want to eat raw eggplant? Yes again.

The inspiration for this simple summer salad came from a few slices of eggplant leftover from another recipe, just hanging out there on the counter whispering, "Try us, try us, we'll taste great, maybe." They'd been dipped in nothing more than olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper. How would the raw eggplant taste? Good!

The eggplant's white flesh is pleasantly spongy (definitely NOT mushy) and the skin provides great texture as well as color contrast. I do think that texture's especially important to consider when adding other ingredients, you don't want the whole salad to be soft, some crispness is important.

I also suspect that the more-tender Asian eggplant is the appropriate choice here, versus the big fat globe eggplants that are easier to find, at least in my supermarkets here in St. Louis. I do see Asian eggplant occasionally at Dierbergs but my local Schnucks added them when I asked, but dropped them when they didn't sell. I once compared several eggplants, their photos are here with the recipe for Eggplant Caviar.

UPDATE: I've learned from a reader/friend that like green tomatoes and green potatoes, raw eggplant contains a natural chemical called solanine that can upset the tummy! If yours is sensitive, you might choose another recipe.

RAW EGGPLANT SALAD

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Makes 2 cups (easily adjusted for fewer or more servings)

VINAIGRETTE
Juice of a lemon (2 tablespoons)
1/2 tablespoon good olive oil
Agave or honey to taste (I used about a teaspoon)
Salt & pepper to taste

SALAD
1 Asian eggplant (those are the long slim ones)
1/2 - 1 rib celery, chopped small
Kalamata olives, pitted & chopped
1 - 2 tablespoons capers
Fresh basil, chopped

VINAIGRETTE In a bowl, whisk the vinaigrette ingredients.

SALAD Trim the ends off the eggplants. Lengthwise, cut the eggplants in quarters; cross-wise, cut the eggplants about 1/4-inch thick. Drop the eggplant into the vinaigrette and stir well. Stir the eggplant off and on while prepping the other ingredients, you want the pieces to soak up the vinaigrette. Toss in the remaining ingredients. Serve and savor!

OTHER IDEAS Red pepper, mini mozzarella balls, grated carrot, chopped fennel

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Half Cup: 42Cal; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 119mg Sodium; 6g Carb; 2g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 1g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point

MORE EGGPLANT RECIPES
~ Eggplant Steaks ~
~ Grilled Eggplant with Balsamic Honey Syrup ~
~ Summer Vegetable Curry ~
~ more eggplant recipes ~

MORE 'RAW' RECIPES
~ Quick 'Massaged' Kale Salad ~
~ Zucchini Carpaccio ~
~ Raw Corn Chowder ~
~ more 'unusually raw' recipes ~

~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

reade more...

Pages

.

AVOCADO SOUP RECIPE

TOMATO PLATTER with OLIVES & FETA

GRILLED PEPPER & TOMATO SALAD RECIPE

STUFFED PEPPERS

STACKED RATATOUILLE

RAW EGGPLANT SALAD