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!

 
 

Eating Well Summer Salads

Just wanted to point out that Eating Well has a bunch of summer salads and slaws. I like their stuff and their criteria for "healthy" is pretty good. Find the recipes here.

Another Saturday Salad with Tofu

Saturday lunches are really great this time of year. I go to the farmer's market in the morning and we have wonderful veggies and fruit and fresh Pekara bread. How much better does it get?

This week we had mixed greens with snap peas, red onion, red bell pepper and grated raw beets (and of course, our choice of salad dressings prepared earlier in the week). I think it was either Mark Bittman or Martha Rose Schulman who first introduced me to grating raw beets into a salad and I have been doing it ever since. Beautiful and tasty!

We also had crispy tofu cubes in this salad. Easy to make and I love having them on hand, though we like them so much they are hard to keep around. I buy extra firm tofu (not silken), cut it into chunks and freeze the pieces on a cookie sheet. When they are thoroughly frozen, I pop them into a freezer container and they are ready to pull out whenever I need them.

Don't be alarmed when your frozen tofu cubes look yellow -- it's not harmful, and the color returns to normal when the tofu thaws. I thaw the cubes in the microwave on high. It takes a couple minutes or so, depending on how big the pieces are and how many you have. Then squeeze (gently) the water out. Freezing releases the water and makes the tofu chewy and absorbent. It will quickly absorb whatever marinade you put it into. There's no need to let it sit in the marinade for a long time, I cook it immediately.

The marinade is your choice. My default is 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce per pound of tofu, with a little Chinese sesame oil added for good measure. If you use more soy sauce than that, it will be ultra salty. You can always add a little water (remember that you lost a lot of water when you squeezed the tofu) to make the marinade go further. I add the tofu to the marinade all at once and toss quickly so it absorbs evenly. Spread on a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake, turning once part way through. You can use most any temp from 350 to 425 degrees, and the time varies accordingly. I cooked mine at 425 for 20 minutes, turning at 10 minutes. So good!

You can also cut the tofu into slabs (I do about 10 per pound) and cook those the same way. Great for sandwiches.

Mango and Black Bean Salad

I went to the grocery store yesterday not knowing exactly what salad I wanted to make, but knowing it would have three key ingredients: peppery arugula, crisp-tender asparagus, and fresh figs or Medjool dates. My grocery store, however, had other plans—none of those ingredients were in stock. (The produce section is decimated on Sunday afternoons.) But I noticed ripe avocados and mangoes, two things that are hard to find out here, so I decided to take my salad in a different direction.

Mango and Black Bean Salad

1 mango, peeled and diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 orange bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 avocado, diced
olive oil
lime juice
chili powder
cumin
salt
mixed greens

Mix the first four ingredients together. Add a dash of olive oil, a much larger dash of lime juice, then chili powder, cumin, and salt to taste. (I used a lot of chili powder, slightly less cumin, and still less salt.) Serve on top mixed greens. Makes about 4 servings.

Roasted Asparagus Salad

Roasted asparagus sprinkled with a bit of herbs -- so good! But I now have two jars of salad dressing in the fridge, so I thought I would try a roasted asparagus salad tonight to go with our pasta e ceci supper. To keep the dressings from mixing, I divided the asparagus between two plates and then discovered it's really hard to take a photo of two plates that shows them both well. Please forgive.

The plate on the left has the Miso Tahini Dressing and the one on the right has Rolf's Mother's Chinese Salad Dressing. Both were good (I had a slight preference for the miso one, Brian for the Chinese one), but neither went particularly well with pasta e ceci. And neither compared to my all time favorite of roasted asparagus with the tiniest drizzle of garlic or lemon olive oil and herbs. At this point I'll quit trying to make a good -- make that great -- thing better and instead I'll try some salads that don't mess with my asparagus.

Out to lunch today with friends, and then dinner out tonight with Brian to celebrate our anniversary, so no homemade salad today.

Kiwi Salad with Miso Tahini Dressing

This was not my usual salad, but that's the point of a salad a day -- trying something different.

I don't often have side salads -- usually I go for a main dish salad -- but I made this to round out my lunch yesterday. It was definitely green -- mixed leaves and a sliced kiwi. And it was delicious! The dressing is one I found on the Whole Foods website and I made it exactly as they suggested. I liked it. I don't usually care for thick, creamy dressings, but this one was tasty and acidic enough to counter the 'creaminess' (in quotes because there is actually no cream in it). I'll use up this dressing and will probably make it again at some point. Since it takes so long to go through a batch of salad dressing, I'll just make half next time.

Kiwi Salad with Miso Tahini Dressing*

mixed greens
sliced kiwi
Ginger Miso Dressing (from Whole Foods ) -- click here for the recipe

* Whole Foods puts ginger in the title, but it didn't taste all that gingery even though there's a big chunk of ginger in there. The tahini is more noticeable. I blended the ingredients in my VitaMix, so I didn't even need to strain out the ginger fibers.

You Call That A Salad?

Why, yes. Yes I do call that a salad. I know there's no bowl or lettuce, but let's not quibble. There's lots of good salad stuff in this meal, and having a 'salad' in addition to this would be redundant. If people can call Jello salad with marshmallows a salad, then this more than qualifies.

The dip is my favorite hummus. I have been very surprised to learn that most people buy ready-made hummus, which is expensive and usually not as good as the homemade variety. It's quick and easy to make it at home and you can vary it in so many ways to suit yourself. The version below, which is lighter and fluffier than store bought hummus, is just a starting point.

Did I dip the tomatoes? Nope (though if I'd had cherry tomatoes...). I had a slice of excellent whole grain bread, which I topped with hummus and tomatoes. But instead of eating more bread, I used the other ingredients as dippers.

Easy Homemade Hummus

1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 - 2 Tbs tahini (sesame seed paste) and/or olive oil
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 - 2 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 - 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup water (approximately)

Combine all ingredients but water in a food processor. Process to mix, then gradually add water until you reach the desired consistency.

A few of many variations -- pulse in raw or cooked greens, from kale or spinach to parsley or cilantro; blend in roasted red pepper; pulse in chopped red or green onions, or blend in caramelized onions; vary the amount and proportion of tahini and olive oil -- you can even omit these altogether if you wish; use flavored olive oil (I love garlic olive oil); change the spices.