Israeli Couscous Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

I was watching the Food Network a couple weeks ago (sitting down with a bagel from the local place, a cup of coffee, and Food Network/HGTV has become a weekend morning tradition) when I saw Giada de Laurentiis prepare this recipe: Israeli couscous salad with smoked paprika dressing.
I've never been a particular Giada fan--we have disparate opinions on eating meat and frying things, among other points of culinary contention--but this recipe I absolutely had to make. I love Mediterranean salads in general, and this one made use of two of my favorite ingredients: smoked paprika and Israeli couscous, also known as ptitim.

For the most part, I made the salad as written--but I couldn't help making a few little changes:

• more spinach (and as you can see, the salad still isn't all that green)
• fewer cherry tomatoes (just not crazy about them)
• half as much cheese (it's a salad, after all)
• a can of rinsed and drained garbanzo beans (for extra protein and tastiness)
• whole wheat couscous rather than white (since I had some on hand, and since I prefer the flavor)

The finished product was wonderful, savory and smoky and sweet. I think the salad could use a little kick to balance out the two types of sweet pepper (roasted and paprika), so next time I'll add a pinch of cayenne, or maybe some Aleppo pepper, but there will definitely be a next time.

Bruschetta is just tomato salad on toast

Remember the classic question philosophers ask -- What is a man? The more you think about it, the harder it is to answer, even though you 'know' what a man is. On a more mundane level, we all 'know' what a salad is -- but define it, please. Toss bread and tomatoes and you have panzanella (a salad), but put the tomatoes on top of bread and you have bruschetta. Eat your pasta warm and call it dinner, but chill it and it's suddenly salad. Perhaps vegetarians really do eat nothing but salad ... 


Enough. I'm going to blog whatever recipe I want to use whatever definition feels right to me at a given moment. Today, bruschetta is a salad. Tomatoes are in season and we are eating lots of bruschetta. Yesterday we had Parmesan Pepper bread from Zingerman's, recently arrived from the bread club Kim and Craig gave us for Christmas, and it made a great base.

Classic Bruschetta

ripe, juicy, wonderfully tasty tomatoes
finely chopped red onion
pesto (homemade or from a jar)
a wee bit of crumbled feta or freshly grated Parmesan
pressed garlic (optional -- there's already garlic in the pesto)
a little olive oil (optional, occasionally I add a dab of garlic olive oil)
good bread, sliced and toasted (rubbed with oil and garlic if you wish, not necessary)

Combine everything but the bread, then heap the juicy tomato mixture onto the toast just before serving.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

Aren't these beautiful lentils? I love the streaks of color on each little bean. I bought them from a bulk bin and they weren't labeled, so I don't know what kind they are.

This lentil salad is one of my favorites -- I make it often, especially in the summer. I vary the ingredients a bit, using chopped fennel instead of celery, or adding a shredded carrot.  The red bell pepper was not on the original list of ingredients, but I always add that now because Brian is not fond of the little tomatoes and I like the added color. Sometimes I add the tomatoes anyway (easy enough to eat around them), but I still use the red pepper.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

This salad is especially beautiful with black lentils, which are hard to find around here.

1-1/4 cups uncooked lentils 

2-1/2 cups water

3 Tbs. lemon juice

1-1/2 Tbs. olive oil

1/2+ tsp. thyme (or other herb to taste)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

grape tomatoes (optional)

1 cup diced cucumber (I seed the cuke)

1/2 cup thinly sliced celery

finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (can I make a salad without feta?)

Place the lentils and water in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover; reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 min or until the lentils are tender. Drain well and set aside. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic in a medium bowl; stir with a wire whisk until blended. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, celery, and onion to the lentils and pour the dressing over. Toss gently to coat. 
 This is an adaptation, but I don't know where the original recipe came from.

Leftovers are delicious tossed with a green salad. Add other things, too -- I see some shredded beets in here, and there's probably some other stuff, too...

Could it be a Greek salad?

Pizza and chicken salad -- not exactly my idea of dinner!  But that's what they were serving at a meeting I was going to. I took that as an invitation to bring a vegetable salad to share. What was on hand?

Always, always, a can of chickpeas.
In the fridge I found green beans from the farmer's market.

There were also pitted olives from the deli at the grocery store -- lovely red pepper flakes in the green ones -- and cauliflower florets, chopped red bell pepper, grape tomatoes and baby carrots. And feta cheese! (Turns out that crumbling only l-1/2 oz feta into the salad that filled my 10-cup salad bowl was enough to transform the dish.) The idea of feta sent me off to find a recipe for Greek salad dressing. "Absolutely Fabulous Greek/House Dressing" sounded pretty good, but of course I made some changes. Here's how everything ended up:

Whatever's on Hand Greek Salad

Salad
   lightly steamed or nuked, or raw veggies* (as appropriate), chopped into bite sized pieces
         *I used green beans, red bell pepper, carrots, grape tomatoes, and cauliflower
   good olives, pitted and sliced into halves or thirds
   a little feta cheese, crumbled
   1 can (15 oz) chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained

Dressing (I used less than half of this recipe for a salad that served 14 people)
   3/4 cup olive oil
   1 Tbs salt-free Greek seasoning (from the Spice House in Old Town Chicago)
   1/2 tsp black pepper
   1/2 tsp salt
   1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
   1/4 cup red wine vinegar
   1/4 cup lemon juice

Combine the salad ingredients. Mix the dressing ingredients and pour as much as seems necessary onto the salad. Toss and refrigerate. I made the dressing with only 1/2 cup oil and thought it was way too acidic, so I added more oil. It still seemed acidic, but after the salad sat in the refrigerator for a couple hours, everything seemed to mellow. It was a terrific salad and I was surprised at how quickly it disappeared at the meeting!