Tricolore Salad with Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, and Mozzarella

This is another delicious recipe from Plenty. It's a really great, light side dish. The mix of textures is really nice - the soft eggplant and mozzarella and the crispy peppers. It seems like a lot of capers, but they get mixed in and it's just right. The cilantro adds a nice, fresh flavor on top. Can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!

Ingredients:

4 small eggplants, sliced into 1/2" circles

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 yellow pepper, in about a 1/2" dice

15 grape tomatoes, quartered

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 1/2 tbsp capers, plus 1 tbsp of the brine

5oz fresh mozzarella

1 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Barley and Pomegranate Salad

This is another great recipe from Plenty. It's super light and flavorful and perfect after a weekend of eating too much. The pomegranate seeds add such a nice, sweet pop. Looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch this week.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup barley

6 stalks celery, leaves removed and saved, in a small dice

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 small garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2/3 tsp ground allspice

salt and pepper

3 tbsp chopped dill

3 tbsp chopped parsley

seeds from 2 large pomegranates

Tomato, Watermelon, and Feta Salad

I had tomatoes and watermelon and thought they would make a great, light summer salad with a little feta to add saltiness and some dukkah for some extra flavor. This was super refreshing and light and would be perfect for a hot weather lunch.

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced

watermelon, rind removed and thinly sliced

red wine vinegar

balsamic reduction

olive oil

salt

feta

dukkah*

Pretty Salad

Want a really quick way to make a simple salad really fancy and beautiful? Top it with nasturtiums. They're perfectly edible and taste a little bit like watercress. This is some fresh lettuce from the garden and I tossed it with dressing then put some nasturtiums on top. Easy and so pretty and colorful. 

Pretty Summer Salad

This is so simple but so fresh and pretty. We had our first cherry tomatoes in the garden and some cucumbers and nasturtiums. You can eat nasturtiums and they add such a nice pop of color and fancy touch to a salad. I just sliced up cucumbers, topped them with sliced tomatoes, ripped up some nasturtium petals and sprinkled them around, sprinkled on salt, drizzled balsamic and olive oil, then topped with a whole nasturtium. Yum!

Chopped Salad

I love a good chopped salad. I spent last week eating pretty poorly, so I was craving a lot of good, raw veggies and this is the perfect way to get a ton of them at once. It's very easy. Just pick out your favorite veggies, chop the bigger ones into slices or chunks, add some nuts or dried fruit, add some lettuce, and pulse it in a food processor until it's finely chopped. Then add some dressing. That's it.

I used cucumbers, radishes, craisins, snap peas, grape tomatoes, cannelini beans, broccoli, shallots, cashews, and carrots (and lettuce). You can use whatever veggies you like, but I recommend a mix of textures and flavors. Carrots and snap peas add a good crunch, and usually I like putting in avocado because it kind of binds it all together but there were no ripe ones at the grocery.

Decadent Salad Topper

I wanted to make a special dinner for Jamie the other night and thought of this yummy puff pastry, brie-en-croute confection I'd made once in college. I tried it again - wow! I need to do this next time I have people over for dinner. Puff pastry makes everything better. This is so easy, and the warm melty cheese along with the flaky and buttery crust goes perfectly with the acidity of balsamic dressing. I made the salad look all fancy here, but you can put this on top of any green salad and it makes it special and fancy. 

Roasted Eggplant with Saffron Yogurt

Here's another Ottolenghi. This was the first I tried and I was very impressed. It has the tartness of the eggplant, the brightness from the pomegranate seeds, the creamy yogurt, freshness from the basil, and the earthy pine nuts. I'd never tried anything with a yogurt dressing and it's great.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

a small pinch of saffron threads (thanks, Alice, for the Zanzibari saffron!!)

3 tbsp hot water

3/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

coarse sea salt

3 medium eggplants, cut into 3/4" slices

olive oil for brushing

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Bibb Lettuce with Creamy Parmesan Dressing and Cheese Crisps

Another recipe from the wonderful "Stir" cookbook by Barbara Lynch. She said she'd so tired of Mesclun, and I kind of get it. The Bibb lettuce is so crispy and nice. The dressing is creamy and subtle and the cheese crisps are awesome.

Ingredients:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 cup grapeseed oil
3 1/2 cups finely grated Pecorino Romano (she says parm, but I used Pecorino)
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large head Bibb lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into pieces
1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped
Parsley and tarragon, finely chopped

Veggies Week 18 and Caprese Salad with Cucumbers

I forgot to take a picture of the whole garden, but that's what I pulled out! We have SO many tomatoes! Only the smaller ones are ripe so far, but there are green tomatoes all over. The little black cherries are absolutely amazing, and all the others are delish too. Tart and sweet and acidic...yum! We had to do a lot of work staking the cages and tying string around to make sure the tomatoes were supported. (Some of them were lilting or even falling over after all the rain last week - too heavy with all those tomatoes!)

We also had the most delicious salad, sort of like a caprese. Sliced tomatoes, really thinly sliced fresh cucumber, lots of chopped basil, thinly sliced mozzarella, salt, balsamic, and olive oil. It's so great! I'd never had cucumbers in that combination, but they add an extra freshness and crunch. We ate it two days in a row. I love summer!

Shaved asparagus salad

Quick post! Made a super easy super tasty asparagus salad last night. It's so fresh and springy, and healthy. Get fresh asparagus and make it into ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with lemon juice and a little apple cider vinegar and a teeny bit of olive oil. With the vegetable peeler, shred a few pieces of pecorino Romano. Eat!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fresh Corn Sauteed with Chorizo

Jamie and I had this really tasty sauteed corn at L'Artusi the other day and I've been wanting to try it. It was sauteed with chorizo which gave it a great little kick and there were crispy, savory bits of chorizo to go with the sweet corn. Since Long Island corn is at its peak, we've been eating a ton of it and I thought I'd try to recreate what we ate. Honestly, I liked my version better. It was less greasy and the flavor of the corn really shone through. The corn was sweet and crisp and the chorizo added a great contrast with its chewy, crunchy texture. I think it would also be great with frozen or canned corn, but nothing beats fresh summer corn. A great side dish!

(served 4 as a side)
Ingredients:
3 ears of corn, cut off the cob
1 small (4 inch) piece of dry Spanish chorizo, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pinch dried oregano
1 scallion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Chorizo

Directions:

Add the chorizo to a large skillet and let the fat render and the chorizo pieces start to crisp. Add the onion and stir, letting it soften a little, then add the corn and olive oil and stir. Add the oregano and red pepper flakes and satuee until corn has softened a little but still has a nice crunch. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with the scallions, and stir in the butter, then serve!

And of course, after dinner, we finished up with some amazing summer tomatoes, spruced up with ripe avocado slices, thin red onion slices, salt, balsamic, and extra virgin olive oil.

Steak Salad with Chimichurri Dressing

On a hot summer night, a salad always tempts me. I'd also been craving red meat, so a steak salad seemed like the obvious choice. I used this recipe from Epicurious, with a few changes and additions. It was absolutely delicious - great garlic/herb flavor from the chimichurri mixed with the savory of the meat and the creaminess of the mozzarella. Really good summer dish - Jamie was raving about it.

(serving 2)
Ingredients:
1 sirloin steak
1 bunch haricots verts
1/2 container of grape tomatoes, halved
1 bunch parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp chipotle hot pepper sauce
mixed greens
8 marinated mozzarella balls, sliced

Easy zucchini salad

I made myself some not so healthy pasta the other night and wanted a light side dish. I found a great way to have zucchini in a salad sans cooking. Salt tenderizes the zucchini and it's crisp and refreshing.

Ingredients:
Zucchini
Shallot
Salt
Red wine vinegar


Directions:
Slice the zucchini with a mandolin into very thin slices. Put the zucchini slices into a strainer and cover them liberally with salt (you’ll rinse it later). Toss the zucchini with the salt and let sit in the sink – they will sweat. Meanwhile, slice the shallot with the mandolin.



After about five minutes, or once you see the zucchini has tenderized, rinse it with cold water to wash off the salt. Toss the zucchini with the shallots and top with a drizzle of red wine vinegar (lemon would also work well) and some salt. Feel free to add some olive oil. Very easy, refreshing side dish/salad!

Breakfast in Bed

With the 2 slices of prosciutto I had leftover from my PLT, I decided to try making an egg cup. I'd seen it before in a cook book or cooking show and wanted to try it myself. It was easy and very tasty, especially on top of a salad. (I love salad and eggs together.) It looks special and only takes about 15 minutes.

I made it for Jamie, so this is for two people, but just add another egg and prosciutto slice per person.

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 slices prosciutto
non-stick cooking spray
2 thin slices of butter
2 tbsp grated cheese (I used pecorino romano)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375. Spray two cups of a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Cut each slice of prosciutto in half and put one piece down first in the cup, then the other perpendicularly on top so the prosciutto comes up a little above the muffin cup. Do this again for the 2nd piece.

Put half the grated cheese at the bottoms of the cups and put a little slice of butter on each little pile of cheese. Then crack an egg into each prosciutto cup. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a pinch of paprika. Put them into the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending how cooked you want the yolks. (At 15 minutes they will be pretty much completely cooked through.)

I made a simple salad, piled a little on each plate, then topped it with the egg cup. Yum!