Category Archives: Salads and Dressings

HEB Kale Salad

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Winding our way across Texas, we fell in love with the H.E.B grocery stores. I’d been there before, but when we were on the road, we’d stop in the morning to pick up a pre-pared lunch to carry with us. One day I picked up “Fresh Kale Cranberry Pepita Salad” from the display case.

I searched for the recipe back in California, as I was trying to recreate that dish. There were several options to choose from, and I’m pretty happy with the one below. There are two odd ingredients: one was orange juice concentrate. In the old days you’d find it in the freezer section in a can; no more. So I squeezed a couple of oranges, and cooked it down to where it was getting to the jammy stage: still liquid, but quite thick. Don’t let it burn! The other is crystalized ginger. You’ll find a photo of what I used, below.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Bunch of Kale
  • 1/3 Cup Pepitas (Pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/2 Cup Slivered Almonds
  • 1/2 Cup Dried cranberries

Sesame Orange Dressing

  • 3 Tbsp Rice or Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp Oil (Canola or Olive)
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Crystallized Ginger Diced
  • 1 Tbsp Orange Juice Concentrate
  • 1 small shallot, finely diced
  • 1/2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
  • Salt, Pepper and Sweetener of Choice to taste. 

Instructions:

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together and let sit while the remaining components are prepped. 

[Optional] Begin toasting your slivered almonds in a saute pan on medium.  Keep an eye on them and toss occasionally until most are starting to brown, abut 8 minutes.  Be careful not to burn them.

If you have a head of kale, rinse the kale and partly de-stem and chop the leaves into thin strips.  –OR– Just buy a carton of baby kale from the grocery store. I used a little more than half of the kale, and yes, chop the leaves into thin strips.

In a large mixing bowl, massage half of the dressing into chopped kale for about 3-5 minutes.  This will allow the dressing to thoroughly coat and soften the kale a bit. Add more, a tablespoon at a time, if needed. Freeze remaining dressing for the next round.

Mix toasted almond slivers, dried cherries and pepitas into dressed kale. Taste and if needed, add more salt and pepper.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes prior to serving.  

HEB’s ingredient list on the back of the package:

  • Kale 
  • Cranberry Nut Mix: Sliced Almonds, Dried Cranberries, Pumpkin Seeds
  • Orange Sesame Vinaigrette: Canola Oil, Crystallized Ginger (Ginger, Cane Sugar), Rice Wine Vinegar, Orange Juice Concentrate, Shallots, Ginger Purée (Ginger, Water), Sesame Oil, Scallions

I was mystified by “ginger purée” and didn’t have that, so just upped the crystalized ginger a bit. I also didn’t refrigerate it, because we were hungry and just wanted to eat.

Potato, Snap Pea and Tomato Salad

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I was determined to get rid of some of those magazines I had laying around, so went through them one day, folding down the corners of pages that looked great.  Then, today, a friend and I went into the local specialty olive-oil-and-vinegar store, and picked up a couple of different vinegars and oils.  All of this combined to yield tonight’s dinner, served up with a piece of flaky grilled salmon. Perfection!

Ingredients:

1 lb. mixed potatoes: fingerlings, small white or red potatoes, small blue potatoes (our market sells them together, but you can mix and match from your grocer’s produce section).  Cut all potatoes the same size (I made them all about the size of a man’s thumb.)

1 cup sweet pearl tomatoes, cut in half
1-1/2 cups (approximately) sugar snap peas, washed and cut in half, ends trimmed
4 very thin slices of red onion, cut into quarters, then soaked in water for 5 minutes
1 clove garlic, chopped fine (not smashed), then soaked in water for 5 minutes
7-8 basil leaves
salt and pepper — If you don’t have a salt grinder, use a few shakes of David’s Kosher Salt (no substitutions)

Lemon Vinaigrette

Splashes of other vinegars: red wine or lemongrass mint or your other favorite tangy vinegar
Extra drizzles of flavored olive oils: herb, or lime, or other mild flavors

Preparation:

Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until almost tender.  To the same pot, add snap peas and cook until crisp (potatoes should be tender).  Check by dunking the snap pea in ice water; don’t overcook.  Drain and then place in ice water bath to cool quickly and to stop the cooking.

Meanwhile, while potatoes are cooking, snip the basil leaves into ribbons in the bottom of a medium bowl.  Add cut tomatoes.  Drain the onions, and add those to bowl.

Make up a batch of Lemon Vinaigrette, added the drained garlic to the mix, along with salt and pepper, and a splash or two of other vinegars.  Pour over the above vegetables and let sit for a few minutes to blend.  (Note: you can reverse the order of this–prep up the vegetables, then putting the potatoes on to boil.)

When potatoes are cooked and cooled down, drain and pour onto clean kitchen towel, patting to remove excess water.  Place the potato/snap pea mixture into the bowl with the vegetables, toss to coat evenly.  Add drizzles of flavored oils, splashes of vinegar if it doesn’t have enough kick, and plenty grinds of your salt shaker.

Serve immediately.

Happy Summer!

Basil Pesto from the Garden

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Many years ago, thinking I needed a night out, my sister Christine took me to a quilt shop Open House.  I did. But while the memory of the event has faded, the dish she made — Pasta with Pesto (see notes below) — is still vivid in my mind.  While I haven’t made the pasta recipe too much, every year when the basil plants in the garden threaten to take over the entire plot, I snip the branches and make some pesto to put in the freezer.

Choose wrinkly leaves from your plant, as shown in the top photo.  When the plants start to set blooms, the leaves change becoming stiff and pointy, which is why my husband and I are always out in the garden pulling off the flowers.

3-4 cups of basil leaves, washed and laid out to dry on a paper towel (blot excess moisture)
3/4 to 1 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons toasted pinenuts
3 large cloves of garlic (or if you want to add this later, chop your garlic)
1/2 to 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place garlic in a blender, and put in basil leaves on top.  Add pinenuts and cheese.

With blender going, drizzle in the olive oil, until desired consistency.

Place pesto into jars; place in refrigerator for current use.  Freeze for long-term storage; I chip out chunks to put into soups, sauces, or wherever I need that fresh-from-the-garden taste.

 

**To make that Pasta with Pesto, mentioned in the beginning, pour the pesto over hot cooked pasta, with a glug of olive oil.

Serve hot or at room temperatures.  Can add slightly sauteed vegetables of your choice (zucchini, carrots, red sweet peppers, etc.) and/or cooked, diced chicken meat.

Persimmons

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Fuyu Persimmons

Fuyu persimmons are short and round, shaped just like a large tomato.  They can be eaten raw and somewhat firm, without having a bitter, astringent taste. The Hachiya variety are larger, and teardrop shaped.  Hachiya persimmons need to ripen until they are very soft.  They contain a lot of tannins when they are immature, which make them taste very astringent as well as cause severe stomach problems if a person actually manages to eat one.  As the fruit ripens the tannin level decreases, until the taste becomes very mild. hachiyapersimmons

That’s why the hachiyas (shown above, with a pointy end) make you pucker up when they are unripe!

That website goes on to note: “Fuyu persimmons can be sliced and eaten raw, when they are soft enough so that they give just a little to the touch, like a ripe tomato.  The skin is very fibrous so you will want to peel them before cutting them up.  After peeling them they will be slippery, so slice in half and put the cut side down so they are laying on the flat edge.  This way you can slice or dice them more easily.”

Some say to cook with the hichiya and eat the fuyus in salads, or raw, but one cook found that Fuyus work fine in making her Persimmon Bread.persimmonhachiya1

When I made my bread, I waited until my hachiyas were this soft–or as someone said, like pushing in on a water ballon! And I didn’t peel them, throwing the cored persimmon whole into my food processor with the ripe pears.  If one hachiya is not as ripe as the other, you can cheat by micowaving it until it is soft.  persimmonhachiya2

Alternatively, you can core them, then scoop out the jelly-like flesh. When I made my Pear-Persimmon bread, I simply cored them, then whirred the persimmon — skin and all — in the processor.  We sometimes refer to them as “persey-mons:” once when we were staying in Bologna, I asked the hotel breakfast lady what kind of tree was just outside the breakfast room.  “Persey-mon” was her reply, and so it stuck.Persimmons, sliced1

One way to serve the Fuyu persimmons raw is to core and peel them, then slice them across the width. Layer them into a shallow serving bowl.  Whisk together some white vinegar with some honey, about 2 Tablespoons of each, or until the tart-sweet taste is balanced. Test and add more honey to taste, if needed.  Pour this over the persimmons, then sprinkle with poppy seed.  This is an elegant and easy side dish.

Another recipe I found (untested by me) is to make a salad using spinach leaves as a base.  First, start by making a vinaigrette:

  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 4 teaspoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 6 Tablespoons olive oil

Mix the rice vinegar, orange juice, honey and sesame oil in a small bowl.  Whisk in the olive oil in a slow stream, whisking vigorously to emulsify the ingredients.  Lay down some spinach leaves, then the cored and sliced persimmons.  Sprinkle with toasted pecans, and dried cranberries, then pour the vinaigrette over all. (If you use 2 persimmons, it will serve 4 people.)

Panzanella

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PanzanellaI’ve made all types of panzanella, but I think this recipe is really fabulous.  I was traveling in Scandinavia, where the travel author Rick Steves says their favorite vegetable is a potato, and began thinking of my garden back home, wondering how many tomatoes would be ready to pick when I returned.  In scanning the news one morning, The Washington Post published this recipe and I couldn’t wait to try it.  So the first thing I did when we climbed out of our car after our long trip was to check the garden for tomatoes.  But to my horror, the irrigation systems had been shut off while we gone, and my garden experienced the full force of 100+ degree temperatures: it was crispy and no tomatoes.  So I used some high-quality tomatoes from Costco for this dish and it was still good.  I can only imagine what it would have been with my own.

I purchased a sour dough loaf from Trader Joe’s for the bread, cutting off nearly half of to keep to the 8-ounce requirement.

Recipe adapted from recipes by chef-restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola, and from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, culinary director of SeriousEats.com.

Ingredients
3 cups packed, torn pieces sourdough bread (including crusts; from an 8-ounce loaf)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/4 pounds ripe heirloom tomatoes, hulled and cut into bite-size wedges
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Freshly cracked black pepper
10 fresh basil leaves, stacked, rolled and cut into very thin slices (chiffonade)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Arrange the bread pieces on a rimmed baking sheet, then drizzle half of the oil over them and toss to coat. Bake for 15 minutes, until the bread is dried and fragrant but not browned. Let cool.

Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in a colander set over a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the teaspoon of salt; let them drain for about 20 minutes (no more), gently tossing them every few minutes. Transfer the tomatoes to a serving bowl along with the cooled bread pieces; toss to incorporate. Reserve the tomato juices in their bowl; there should be a scant half-cup. [Note: I had more, and used it all.]

Add the garlic, shallot and vinegar to those juices, then gradually whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to form an emulsified vinaigrette. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Pour over the tomato-bread mixture; use your clean hands to gently toss and coat.

Scatter the basil over the salad; serve right away.

Fennel and Blood Orange Salad

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Fennel Blood Orange Salad

I found this on Smitten Kitchen, who found it on the New York Times.  When I went looking for my typed file today, I found that it had been published in 2002.  I can’t believe it took me that long to finally try it and put it up here on the blog.  Well, don’t you wait that long.  It’s easy and quick and has miles and miles of flavor.

FENNEL AND BLOOD ORANGE SALAD
By Kurt Gutenbrunner
Published: January 23, 2002
Time: 30 minutes

1/4 cup very coarsely chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon walnut oil
1 medium-large fennel bulb, leaves and stems trimmed off
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
2 large blood oranges
1 tablespoon paper-thin shallot slices
10 mint leaves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon lime zest

1. Place walnuts in dry skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, to toast. Toss with walnut oil, and set aside.

2. Slice about 1/2 inch from bottom of fennel and discard. Slice fennel very fine on mandoline, starting with flat bottom side. Put in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, and add lemon juice.Fennel Blood Orange Salad_1

3. Trim all peel and pith from oranges. Holding peeled fruit over bowl containing fennel, use sharp knife to cut sections from membrane. Let them drop into bowl. Squeeze remaining membrane over bowl to add remainder of juice. Discard membrane.  (This is how it looks before tossing it with everything else.)

4. Add shallots, mint leaves, olive oil and reserved walnuts. Toss gently. Sprinkle on lime zest, and serve perhaps as a first course with smoked salmon or as a side dish with grilled fish..

Yield: 3 servings.

 

Roasted Carrot Salad

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Rstd Carrot Salad

Dave and I have gone twice to Sycamore Kitchen in Los Angeles for lunch, and had two different kinds of salads, with a sandwich.  Everything’s been top-notch.  I wanted to try and replicate the Roast Carrot Salad we had, as it was so unusual with its carrots peeking out from a frothy mixture of greens and toasted pecans.  I could tell the carrots had some sort of marinade on them, so started hunting on the internet for something comparable.  To my surprise, Sycamore Kitchen had posted their recipe on a Meatless Mondays column, written for the LAWeekly blog.

It has a really mellow flavor, this combination of avocado and roasted carrots, and I was happy to recreate it from their very own recipe, which is below.

Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Pecans

From: Karen Hatfield
Serves: 4-6 people

2 ounces ginger root (I used a lobe about the size of my entire thumb)
1 ounce peeled garlic cloves (I used about 3-4 large cloves)
¾ cup soy sauce
½ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon chile flakes
24 young carrots with tops (about 1-inch in diameter, about 8-inch in length)
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 Hass avocados
4 cups arugula
2 cups tatsoi (didn’t have this, so substituted some baby spinach leaves)
2 heads red Belgian endive
12 large basil leaves (Opal basil recommended)
24 mint leaves
Lemon juice and olive oil to taste
Salt and pepper
1 cup toasted pecan pieces

1. Cut the ginger into 1-inch pieces. Using the back of a sturdy saucepot crush ginger and garlic and place in a large mixing bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, dark brown sugar, and chile flakes in a bowl; whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Reserve at room temperature for up to 4 hours. This will be the marinade for the roasted carrots.

2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Peel carrots and trim the tops to leave only one inch of green. Wash the area where the top meets the carrot as this is where dirt is the trickiest to remove. Dry well and spread carrots on a sheet tray (or two if needed) so that they are in a single layer, not touching.

3. Drizzle vegetable oil over and lightly season with salt (not too aggressive, the soy sauce with contribute more salt later). Roast the carrots in the oven until tender, turning only when the bottom side takes on a deep caramelization. The time will depend on the oven, but it usually takes between 12 to 25 minutes.

4. When the carrots are cooked, transfer them to a roasting pan large enough to snuggly fit all the carrots in a single layer. Pour marinade over and allow the carrots to stand in a warm place (like on top of the oven) for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, peel, seed and slice avocados to about ¼-inch thick and reserve. Trim the red endive and separate into leaves. Place endive leaves in a bowl with the arugula and tatsoi. Tear the basil and mint leaves into large pieces and add to the lettuces. Season all with a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and toss gently

6. Divide the carrots evenly among serving plates keeping them together and parallel. By now, the marinade should have coated the carrots; but if desired, spoon a little extra over the carrots, being careful not to include the crushed ginger or garlic pieces.

7. Place avocado slices on top of the carrots. Carefully arrange the salad in a perpendicular row over the carrots so that the tops and bottoms of the carrots are still showing. Sprinkle the toasted pecans over the whole salad and drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top to finish. Serve immediately.

The biggest time-consuming part was the prep of the marinade, in terms of my labor.  The rest was merely waiting for the carrots to roast (I had to turn the oven up to 450 for the last few minutes to get them to carmelize properly).  You could do the carrots ahead of time, but after their resting time in the marinade, I would drain them if you are going to store them in the fridge overnight.  Trust me, the taste is still very strong, even without the soaking in the marinade.  We had more carrots than needed for our salads (I halved the recipe) and I enjoyed them as a snack, right from the fridge the next day.

The photo above is the one I took on the day we ate there.  Here’s the photo they submitted with their recipe:

roasted-carrot-salad

Cherry-Arugula Salad

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Cherry-Arugula Salad

Bedridden from a foot surgery, I fantasized about getting up and cooking and about what I’d make when I could finally get out of bed.  An article in the New York Times about cherries was published just about that time, and a friend picked up the ingredients for me to make this creation from Martha Rose Shulman (whose recipes I generally adore).  It was just the ticket for bringing some new flavors to our menu which had been, for a week or more, built around prepared freezer meals from the grocery store.  It was wonderful!

It has a strong flavor so don’t serve something delicate with it–to go along with this, try seasoned barbequed chicken thighs and a sturdy side dish.  But the combo of the tangy vinaigrette alongside some brilliantly flavorful cherries and creamy chevre was heaven.

 1 6-ounce bag baby arugula
16 cherries, halved and pitted
Scant 1/4 cup pistachios or almonds, (about 1 ounce), lightly toasted and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3-5  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Combine the arugula, cherries, half the nuts and the tarragon in a large bowl.

Whisk together the vinegars, salt and pepper and olive oil. Toss with the salad. Arrange on a platter, sprinkle the goat cheese and remaining pistachios over the top, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

Cook’s Note: I didn’t have sherry vinegar, so I used rice wine vinegar with about 2 teaspoons sugar, for a substitute.

Nutritional information per serving: 212 calories; 18 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 milligrams cholesterol; 9 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 87 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 6 grams protein

Baby Greens and Quinoa Salad

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On our regular Friday night date, we went to California Pizza Kitchen to share a salad and a mushroom pizza, our usual.  But CPK had a new salad on the menu, and I came right home and tried to duplicate it, with a couple of twists.  Since I didn’t measure too many of the ingredients, a lot of this is sort of “throw a little of this in, then throw a little of that.”  If you want the original, head to CPK, but this is a good approximation.

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
Cook the quinoa in the water, according to package directions.  Rinse under cool water, then drain.  Alternatively, you could cook the quinoa ahead of time, then chill it before use.  It also freezes very well. [Check other salads on this site for more detailed directions on how to cook quinoa.]

Place the quinoa in the bottom of a large sloping bowl, suitable for tossing a salad.  Douse the quinoa with some dressing: you can use any vinaigrette from this site, or any purchased light vinaigrette would do.  For this salad I used Brianna’s Real French Vinaigrette and added a splash or two of red wine vinegar, as I think the ratio of vinegar to oil is a bit too low in many commercial dressings. I buy both of those things at Ralph’s.

 To the bowl, add the following:
About 2-3 cups baby greens, loosely chopped
1 large tomato or three medium on-the-vine tomatoes (from Costco), chopped
1/2 small jar of sun-dried tomatoes (about 2 ounces, from Trader Joe’s.  The variety I chose were already cut into strips so I just threw them in.)
1-2 ounces (about a handful) of toasted pine nuts (also from Trader Joe’s.  You can buy regular pine nuts, then toast them slightly either under the broiler and a watchful eye, or tossing them lightly in a non-stick skillet)
2 ounces feta cheese–I buy mine in a brick (keeps fresh longer) lop off about an inch worth and crumble it by hand
Chopped red onion.  I cut off 2 slices for a large salad, each slice about 1/4″ thick.  Then I chop those slices into a medium dice, of about 1/4″

Then I tossed everything lightly. Check for the salt/pepper balance.  I found it needed quite a bit more salt than pepper.  Since I always like to heighten the flavors a bit on grain salads, I used a light shake of cayenne powder, then tossed really well.  My cayenne is on the old side, so I use two light shakes.  To make sure I know how much is going in, I “shake” it into the lid, check (that I haven’t dumped half the bottle in), then sprinkle it over the salad.   Serve with a La Brea baguette, or some other fine piece of bread.

I think you could add some deboned rotisserie chicken to this, if you want to move it beyond vegetarian.  I always have some chicken in the freezer, ready to go, but it’s really a fine salad by itself.

Roasted Beets, Citrus and Spinach Salad

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This recipe, originally from Bon Appétit (February 2011, by Myra Goodman and Sarah LaCasse; their photo is being used) was the salad I chose to use for our Valentine’s Day Dinner this year.  I don’t know why we didn’t go out.  We both seemed to be moving at glacial pace at home, with job and church responsibilites sapping all our energy to look up a restaurant, make the reservation, change our clothes, pay 60 bucks a person for a Valentine’s Day meal of some significance.  We could have paid only 20 bucks a person at Chili’s or something, but just try and have an intimate conversation in THAT place.

Yield: 4 servings   —  Active Time: 20 minutes, with Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes (includes roasting and cooling time) We found that this filled us up quite a bit–if I were to use this as a first course again, I’d eliminate the feta cheese.

Ingredients

Vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
2 teaspoons finely grated grapefruit peel
1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make: whisk vinegar, mustard, citrus peels, and honey in small bowl. gradually whisk in oil. Season vinaigrette with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Salad:

4 2 1/2-inch-diameter unpeeled beets, tops trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 6-ounce bag baby spinach
2 small pink or ruby grapefruits, all peel and pith cut away, segments cut from between membranes
2 oranges, all peel and pith cut away, segments cut from between membranes
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (4 ounces)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss beets and oil in large bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap each beet in foil. place directly on oven rack; roast until tender, 60 to 70 minutes. I ended up roasting mine about 90 minutes; somewhere I read that the more the merrier as it carmelizes the sugars in the beets and makes it incredibly delicious.  Agreed!  Open foil; cool 30 minutes. Rub skins off beets; cut each into 8 wedges. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If your beets are big, you may want to cut them in half.

Place spinach in large bowl; toss with 2 tablespoons vinaigrette. Divide among plates. Add beets and citrus segments to same bowl. Add 2 tablespoons vinaigrette; toss to coat. Arrange beet mixture atop spinach; sprinkle with cheese and chives. Serve, passing any remaining vinaigrette.