Strawberry Feta Salad with Candied Pecans

Super simple salad that's great for a hot summer night. This isn't much of a recipe, more like combining several things, but the flavors are really nice.

Ingredients
-Arugala and/or baby spinach
-Handful of strawberries, sliced
-Half a shallot, julienned
~2 oz crumbled feta
-Chicken tenders (cook according to package)
-Poppy seed dressing, such as Paul Newman's

Candied Pecans
-1 C pecan halves
-1.5 TBS brown sugar
-1.5 TBS water
-1/8 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp vanilla

Steps
1. Cook chicken tenders according to package.
2. While tenders are cooking, make candied pecans. To do that, combine brown sugar, water, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl; mix to combine. Heat 1 C pecan halves in a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes while stirring frequently to prevent burning. Once the nuts are toasty, remove from heat and pour the sugar mixture into the skillet and stir to coat the nuts evenly. Transfer the nuts to foil or parchment paper and let cool in a single layer.

3. Next toss your salad greens with poppy seed dressing. Top the greens with sliced strawberries, feta, shallot, pecans, and sliced chicken tenders.

Easy Quinoa Salad

I made this super easy salad over the weekend. I'm planning on serving it over a bed of baby spinach along with a hard-boiled egg and I think it will make for some yummy lunches this week.

Ingredients
-1 C quinoa, cooked as directed
-1 red pepper, diced
-1 large handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
-1 handful of raisins
-2.5 oz of dried cherries
-1 bunch of green onions, diced
-Juice of one lemon (about 1/3 C)
-1/4 C EVOO
-1/2 tsp salt and pepper

Steps
1. Cook quinoa as directed.
2. While quinoa is cooking, dice your pepper, green onion, and walnuts. Add to a large bowl and throw in raisins and cherries.
3. Once quinoa is done, add to the bowl.
4. Whisk your lemon juice, EVOO, salt and pepper and pour over salad. Toss well to combine and chill for 10 minutes before serving.

Roasted Corn Salad

I keep forgetting to take pictures of this, so this is just a shot of the left-overs, but you get the idea. Corn has been super cheap and in abundance at the grocery store recently. Couple that with awesome summer weather and basically we've been making this salad/salsa about every week. It's super easy and very fresh and flavorful. If you're not grilling, you can boil the corn (which we've done when rain cancelled our grilling plans). We have combined it with black beans and served the bean/corn mixture over lettuce as a light supper.

Ingredients
-4 ears of corn (in husks if grilling)
-1 red pepper, diced finely
-1/2 red onion, diced finely
-1 bunch cilantro, diced finely
~1/3 C feta cheese (optional if making vegan)
-2 jalapenos, diced finely (optional)

Dressing
~1/4 C EVOO
-juice from 2 limes
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Run corn (in husks) under running water for a minute.
2. Grill in husks for about 15-20 minutes, rotating at least once. Our internal grill temperature was about 350, and we did direct/semi-direct heat. If boiling, you'll want to clean the corn and boil for about 20 minutes.
3. Slice corn off husks and combine with other salad ingredients. Whisk dressing together and toss with dressing.

Massaged Kale Salad

Huge thanks to my good friend, Amy, for making this salad and turning me on to its deliciousness! Also, big thanks to Amy for showing me that by "massaging" raw kale you can make it taste just like quickly blanched kale. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make this the way Amy did, so I'm posting both her version and mine, which I improvised with what we had on hand. Both were great and I'll definitely be making the her version soon. Basically I think you can take the base of this salad and add all types of different toppings (e.g., cranberries, seeds, nuts, etc.).

Ingredients (Amy)
-1 bunch kale
~3 oz feta
-1 apple, chopped into bite size pieces
-handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-2 T red wine vinegar
-1 T EVOO

Ingredients (as pictured)
-1 bunch kale
~3 oz blue cheese
-1 apple, chopped into bite size pieces
-handful of pecans, roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-2 T red wine vinegar
-1 T EVOO
-Quorn Chik'n Tenders (you could use real grilled chicken if you prefer)

Steps
1. Start cooking Quorn Chik'n Tenders as directed.
2. Remove spines from kale, wash kale, and dry kale thoroughly.

3. Tear kale into small pieces and place into a large bowl. Sprinkle kale with 1/2 tsp sea salt and massage kale with your hands for about 2-3 minutes, or until reduces in volume by about half.
4. Whisk EVOO and red wine vinegar together in a small bowl and pour over kale.
5. Add in chopped apple, blue cheese, pecans (or walnuts and feta if making Amy's version) and toss well.

6. Top with sauteed Quorn tenders.

Broccoli Salad

Thanks to my good friend, Lauren, for this fresh, delicious, and easy salad recipe! You know it's good if my husband, who proclaims to hate broccoli, goes back for seconds. This was still really good two days later.

Ingredients
-1 package shredded broccoli slaw (pre-packaged)
-1 chopped cucumber (I used an English hothouse cucumber)
-1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
-1 chopped avocado
~1/2 bunch roughly chopped cilantro (I just cut the top leaves off with a scissors)
Dressing
-fresh squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon or about 1/3 C)
~little less than 1/4 C EVOO
-1 T dijon mustard
-1-2 cloves garlic, finely diced
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-1/4 tsp pepper

Steps
1. Toss everything together in a large bowl!

Beet and Quinoa Salad

I used to think I hated beets...turns out I love them! This was a really quick salad to make (though I cheated by using pre-cooked beets) with a lot of great flavor. Big thanks to my friend, Liz, for the recipe.

Ingredients
-1 C dry quinoa (cooked according to package instructions)
-3 beets (or 2 packages precooked baby beets from Trader Joe's)
-1 medium-large cucumber
-8 oz feta cheese crumbles
-1 can white beans
-1/8 C EVOO + 1/4 C red wine vinegar (I used some blood orange EVOO and white pear vinegar I got from this store)
-1 shallot, diced
-fresh pepper (to taste)

Steps

1. If cooking your beets...Wash beats, place on pan (foil lined), with oil/salt/pepper. Roast beets in the oven, 45 mins at 375 degrees.
2. Once beets are cooked and have cooled for about 10 minutes, peel them and dice them.
4. In large bowl, toss cooked quinoa, beets, cucumber, shallot, beans, and feta.
5. Whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, and pepper in separate bowl. Pour over the quinoa salad and toss to combine.

Coconut shrimp salad with grapefruit dressing

(This is an adapted recipe from Cooking Light.) This salad is super refreshing! The creamy avocado, tart grapefruit, and sweet coconut all went really well together. I'll definitely be making this again.

Ingredients (makes enough for 3 large salads)
-18 frozen coconut shrimp
-Head of Romaine lettuce, roughly chopped
-1 avocado, cut into cubes
-1 grapefruit
-1 shallot, finely diced
-2 T EVOO
-1 T sugar
-salt & pepper

Steps
1. Cook shrimp as directed
2. While shrimp is cooking, make dressing. Peel and section grapefruit. (To peel the grapefruit, I cut it in half and then just cut the peel off in pieces with a knife.) Juice 1/3-1/4 of the grapefruit (you want about 1/3 C of juice). Chop the rest of the grapefruit up into small pieces. Add scallion, EVOO, sugar, salt, and pepper to juice and whisk.
3. Make salad by topping lettuce with avocado, grapefruit pieces, shrimp and topping with dressing.

Egg Salad Salad

This salad satisfied my occasional egg salad craving without totally alienating my husband. Also, the vinaigrette was really tasty.

Ingredients (for 2 salads)
-1 bag baby spinach
-6 pieces turkey bacon
-5 hard boiled eggs
-1/2 cucumber, cut into slices

Dressing (whisk all of the following together)
-4 T balsamic vinegar
-2 T Dijon mustard
-1 clove garlic, minced well
-1/3 - 1/3 C EVOO
-Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Steps
1. Hard boil eggs (see this link for my suggestions about hard boiling)
2. Cook bacon until crispy then chop into small pieces.

3. Arrange spinach, cucumbers, eggs, and bacon on a plate and top with whisked dressing.

Basil Lemon Chickpea Salad

This is another recipe courtesy of Chef Adam Hume. It's super flavorful and comes together in about 5 minutes. It's great as a side dish or a even a main served with lettuce or tossed with pasta in a pasta salad.

Note: This is best if you let it sit for at least an hour to really let the flavors meld.

Ingredients
-3 cans chickpeas
-juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 Cup)
-zest of 1 lemon
-1/4 Cup EVOO
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-2 handfuls basil, chiffonaded
-2/3 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
-course ground salt and pepper

Steps
1. Combine rinsed and drained chickpeas, chopped fresh basil,  fresh lemon juice, EVOO, and minced garlic in a large bowl. Add grated Parmesan cheese and toss gently to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Season chickpea salad to taste with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Avocado Salad/Santa Barbara Farmer's Market

Well, we made it to Santa Barbara!

However, our stuff has not :(. But it should arrive by next weekend, at which point I hope to get back to more regular posting. Until then, I'll try to post about some of the awesome restaurants we've been eating at.

We haven't been able to cook really anything, as the only utensils I have are plastic. And we only have one bowl and two coffee cups to eat out of.

But we did venture down to the Farmer's Market today, which was amazing, and I picked up the ingredients for guacamole. The avocados weren't quite ripe enough to mash with my plastic fork, so instead I left the pieces in chunks. I added some diced baby heirloom tomatoes, white onion, and lots of fresh lemon juice, and viola, we had a really yummy salad that we ate with flax seed chips.

Tofu Miso Salad

This is going to be my new lunch go to! I had picked up a small container of tofu miso salad from New Leaf and was really enjoying it so I looked at the ingredients. Come to find out I had most of them on hand so I decided to recreate it myself. The original had sunflower seeds, but I used crushed peanuts instead.

I've been eating it plain, but I think it would be great in a sandwich or on crackers.

Ingredients
-1 package firm tofu, sliced and pressed for about 30 minutes
-3 carrots, grated or cut into fine matchsticks (or you can just use a handful of pre-cut matchstick carrots)
-3-4 green onions, chopped
Dressing
-2 TBSP white miso paste
-1 TBSP tamari or soy sauce
-2 TBSP lime juice (about 1 lime)
-2-3 garlic cloves, finely diced
-2 TBSP EVOO
-1 small handful peanuts, crushed or chopped
-2 pinches nutritional yeast (optional)

Steps
1. Press your tofu for about 30 minutes. I do this by cutting it into about 6 slices and then sandwiching the slices in between a dish towel. Next I place something heavy (like a stack of books) on the tofu to press out the water.
2. While you're pressing your tofu, chop your carrots (I have a really cool set of peelers from my Aunt Gail that make match sticking really easy. You can purchase them here if interested.).
3. Chop you green onion down to the green part. Crush or chop up your peanuts.

4. Make dressing by mixing all dressing ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork. Dressing will be a thicker consistency.

5. Once tofu has set for about 30 minutes crumble it with your fingers into a large bowl. Add other ingredients and toss with dressing.

Pasta Caprese

This recipe comes direct from Chef Adam. I decided to leave it unchanged and have made only minor additions (in italics).

Ingredients

- 1 lb. Penne pasta

- 2 - 2.5 lbs plum tomatoes

- 3 TBSP EVOO

- 1-3 TBSP red wine vinegar (depending on how sour you like the tomatoes)

- Juice from 1 lemon or lime

- 8oz Mozzarella cheese

- 3T basil chopped (one of those packages with fresh basil at Publix will do) 

- Salt & pepper to taste

- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

- Chilled Vodka 

- Romaine lettuce (optional)

Steps

1. Wash your hands.  

2. Retrieve vodka from freezer and mix with whatever sour-mix, soft drink, or, depending on your bravery, other alcohol that is readily available and proceed to imbibe.  

3. The original recipe calls for “seeding” the tomatoes and this is the best method that I have found for doing so: Rinse and cut the ends off the tomatoes then cut them in half lengthwise.  Using your thumb, remove the seeds, you may need to make extra cuts in the tomatoes to get to the other compartments as halving them sometimes does not expose all the seeds.  (I used a melon baller and that worked really well.) Once finished, chop them up and place in a large plastic dish.  

4. Continue drinking vodka, you should be on glass #3.  Ignore the large gash you have inflicted upon yourself during the tomato cutting phase.  If asked about the gash, brush it off as the remnants of the tomato paste balsamic bald eagle skull wine reduction that you just whipped up in order to make what you now call the “Great Meal of Unending Happiness and Perpetual Tranquility” more enjoyable.  

5. Cut mozzarella cheese into bit size pieces, place in dish with tomatoes along with oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, & pepper (and garlic if used).  Let marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes - 2 hrs.  

6. Relax and watch “Rock of Love” remarking how stupid the human race is.  

7. Cook and drain pasta, mix with tomato mixture, adding basil and a dash more salt/pepper.  

9. Serve and enjoy, making sure to exclaim how amazing the food currently numbing your mind of all toxic thoughts is, thanking the person whom sent this recipe to you (i.e., Adam).  

10. Optional: Serve over romaine lettuce.

Seared tofu salad with miso-ginger dressing

Alright, this recipe was a big blog win. The dressing turned out to be amazing, and I am regretting that I didn't make more. Also, this was my first time frying tofu and it was surprisingly easy and tasty. The trick appears to be allowing enough time for your tofu to drain before frying it.

Ingredients:
Dressing
-1/3 C white miso (I bought this at a local co-op)
-1/3 C mirin
-1/3 C rice wine vinegar
-2 T EVOO or sesame oil
-1 T fresh grated ginger
-1/3 C chopped peanuts

Salad
-2 14oz packages of extra firm tofu
-3 C salad greens
-1/2 red pepper, julienned
-1/4 red onion, julienned
~3 T EVOO or canola oil

1. Slice your tofu blocks in half, and then into fourths (like in picture).

2. Place slices on several layers of paper towels and then cover with more paper towels. Place heavy objects (like pans, teapots, heavy bowls) on top of the slices to help squeeze out the water from the tofu. Allow tofu to drain for at least 30 minutes.

3. While tofu is draining make your dressing by whisking together all of the dressing ingredients. Set aside.

4. After tofu is done draining, heat two large skillets to medium. Add 1 T of EVOO or canola oil to the pan and place tofu slices in. Cook tofu on each side for about 4-5 minutes or until it becomes a golden color. Once tofu is done, set on paper towels.

5. Drizzle some of the dressing on the salad, add tofu slices, and add more dressing. Top with more peanuts if you like.

Jicama Slaw

The first time I tried to make this it was a pretty big fail because I accidentally bought yuca instead of jicama. I had never before bought jicama and had no idea what it looked like, so the yuca that had snuck its way into the jicama bin seemed like it would work. It did not.

So this time I looked up what jicama looks like (see picture below) and made sure to get the right thing.
I have to say, this slaw turned out really awesome, was very easy to make, and will now be in direct competition with my other favorite slaw. The dressing is limey and tangy and I think this would be great as a side dish. We served it on top of veggie hot dogs to make Slaw Dogs 2.0.

Ingredients (makes a large batch, so you may want to half)
-2 jicamas
-1/2 head of red cabbage
-1 whole bunch of cilantro
-1/2 red onion
-3 carrots
Dressing
-3-4 limes, juiced (you want about 1/2 C of lime juice)
-2 T honey
-1/4 C rice wine vinegar
-1-2 T EVOO
-pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

Steps
1. Peel your jicama with a sharp peeler (be careful not to slice off the top of your finger and nail like I did).

2. Use a grater to grate your jicama and carrots.
3. Cut onion and cabbage into thin strips.
4. Use a scissors to chop up all your cilantro.
5. Whisk your dressing ingredients together and toss with salad ingredients.

Tofu Orzo Salad

I got this yummy and super simple recipe from my friend and colleague, Therese. It's actually really similar to the Roasted Shrimp and Orzo salad I posted earlier. Her original recipe called for chicken, which she marinated in Greek spices, which I'm sure would be delicious. However, over the summer we've been trying to cut down on meat (and expenses), so we subbed tofu for the chicken. Also, we marinated our tofu in balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients
-1.5 C orzo, cooked per package instructions
-2 small cucumbers, diced
-3-4 Roma tomatoes, diced
~1/2 C feta cheese
-1 package extra firm tofu, diced and marinated 
~2 T balsamic vinegar

Dresssing
-Juice from 2 lemons (about 1/3-1/2 C), and zest of one lemon
-2 garlic cloves, mined
~1/3 C fresh dill, chopped
~2 T EVOO
-salt and pepper, to your tasting

1. Basically just do the following: marinate your tofu, cook the orzo, chop the veggies, tofu, and dill, whisk up your dressing, combine everything, and enjoy!

Lemon Basil Egg Salad

Much to my fiance's chagrin, every now and then I make egg salad (he thinks it's gross and smelly...I think it's comforting and yummy). This weekend I got a craving for it, and was pleased to see that we already had all the ingredients to make it on-hand--except dill. So I looked around and decided I would try subbing basil, seeing as my basil plants could use some trimming. I also added some lemon juice, onion, pickles, mustard, and crumbled bacon, and I have been happily munching on the super tasty end result for the past few days. See below for more detailed recipe.

Ingredients
-5 hard boiled eggs
-3-4 T red onion, finely diced
-4 pieces cooked turkey bacon, crumbled
-2 T mustard
-3-4 T pickles (I highly recommend the bread and butter kind)
-2 T fresh basil
-1.5 T lemon juice
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Hard boil your eggs. I assume there are many ways, but I usually add my eggs to a pot of water, bring the water to a boil, then I turn off the heat, cover the eggs, and let them sit in the water for about 20 minutes. Then, I rinse them under cold water until they are cool enough to handle.
2. Dice your eggs and place in a medium sized bowl.

3. Chop up your pickles, onion, basil, and bacon and add to bowl.

4. Stir in mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
5. Serve on toasted bread with some lettuce.