My Tomatoes Runneth Over...

If you are a tomato person, you will want to check back here from time to time and here's why:  I have an exploding tomato population.  As someone said to me a few days ago, this is not a bad problem to have! 
So let me just tell you now that for the next few months, there will likely be a number of recipes here using tomatoes...  Salsas, tomato tarts, tomato jam, tomato soup, etc.

Sometimes I am hesitant to put recipes here that I think will be too simple or maybe you just won't find that interesting.  Recently, there was a discussion amongst a few of my foodie friends regarding the subject of "overdoing" food. 
Example: a cookie inside of a brownie inside of a cupcake inside of a pie, then deep fried and topped with caramel and chocolate sauces, whipped cream and sprinkles.
Obviously this is a gross exaggeration, but you catch my drift.

My point is, sometimes food doesn't need fussing with.   When you are working with gorgeous produce (or any other food for that matter), it's ok to let it stand on it's own.  If something is at it's absolute best, let that be the focal point.
When things are doused in sauce or coated with too much crap, I often wonder what the cook is trying to disguise.  Sometimes it's nothing, but there are times when the product needs a little help or it's about to turn, and that's fine too if it prevents food from going to waste.
We've all been a bit overzealous in our purchases from time to time and there have been occasions when we just can't get to everything before it goes bad. 
This is the salad to make when everything you have is at it's peak.

This salad is the perfect light and refreshing side to grilled fish or chicken.  It is a healthy swap for  potato chips when you need something with a little crunch and texture alongside your sandwich.

If possible, use a variety of tomatoes as they each have slightly different flavors and textures. 
The mix of colors will also make it more visually appealing.

Tomato & Cucumber Salad

1 English cucumber, quartered & sliced
2 large tomatoes, diced or 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved or whole
1 cup marinated quartered artichoke hearts
1/2 cup pitted mixed olives
1/4  lemon, sliced paper thin
1 tsp lemon thyme (or regular thyme), chopped
2 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh chives, chopped
3 - 4 tbsp Olive oil
1- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
pinch pepper

-Place all ingredients in medium bowl and mix to combine.  I usually let it sit for 10 minutes or so, that's about the extent of my patience.   Dig in!

One Last Bite of Summer...

Labor Day has passed and thus marks the unofficial end of summer (moment of silence, please).

Once again, it is time to put away the bathing suits and sunscreen.  No more tousled beach hair, salty lips from the sea or digging your toes into the sand.  Summer fruits and vegetables are still here for a few more weeks and I try to get every last bite I can before they disappear until next year.

Tomatoes will soon be those pale pink, insipid, cellophane-wrapped globes trying to pass for the real thing and even though we know better, some of us will buy them anyway...  only to be thoroughly disappointed.

I usually make a last-ditch effort this time of year to get the last of the summer produce before I am limited to root veggies.  Fall produce is wonderful and I love it,  but there's nothing like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, corn, etc. during the summer months.

This salad makes wonderful use of what most people grow in their gardens, so if you are lucky enough to grow some of your own veggies, you may not have to go farther than your back yard to get your ingredients!

I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to the sunshine and long days just yet...

Israeli Salad

• 3 tomatoes
• 4 mini cucumbers
• 1- 2 bell peppers
• 2 scallions
• 2 tbsp parsley, minced
• 1/3 cup good quality olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sumac
• 2 - 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

1. Seed and finely chop tomatoes, bell pepper and cucumbers.  Thinly slice scallions.  Combine in medium bowl.  The key to this salad is to cut everything very small.  It takes a little more time, but the payoff is worth the effort!

 

2. Whisk together remaining ingredients, add to vegetables and stir to combine.
 

3. Dig in!  Can be eaten as a side dish, pile it in a pita for a light lunch or scoop up with toasted pita chips for a snack.  Or my personal favorite: with a big spoon straight out of the bowl.

*If mini cucumbers are not in your market, buy the long, thin English cucumbers.  Avoid the "regular" cucumbers, their flavor and texture is not as good.

*Sumac is a ground spice which is considered essential in most Middle Eastern cooking.  It is deep brick red in color and adds a bright, lemony tartness to the dish.  If you are not near a specialty store or Middle Eastern grocery store, you can find it here.
 

*For a more colorful salad, use a combination of red & yellow tomatoes and choose a purple or orange bell pepper instead of/in addition to red


 

Thai Chicken Salad

In my continuing effort to avoid turning my kitchen into the sweltering fires of hell,  I decided that this time I would cheat a little.  Just a little,  and it's for the greater good.   The heat index is hovering in the triple digits while beads of sweat are pooling at the nape of my neck.  The least entertaining thought at this moment is "let's fire up the oven".

Store-bought roast chicken: In the winter months, this would be considered sacrilege... but in the blistering heat of summer, it is sweet salvation! 

As if buying the chicken wasn't enough, the food processor is going to do the majority of the work!  Yep, this might be the perfect summer recipe.  The amount of work involved barely even registers.  If you don't own a food processor it isn't the end of the world, just a bit of chopping & grating.

For this recipe I only used the breast meat,  reserve the rest for sandwiches or soups,  the carcass for stock, etc.

For the dressing:

• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• zest and juice of 2 limes
• 4 tbsp vegetable, canola or grapeseed oil
• 1/2 shallot, finely sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 red Thai chili (green if you can't find red), minced 
• salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

I went to 5, yes FIVE stores trying to find a red chili but with no luck, so I ended up with green.  The main difference is the heat level.  I couldn't find a pepper with a decent amount of heat to it, so I had to use what I could find.  If this happens to you as well and you like a little heat in your food, you can add a dash of sriracha or any other hot sauce that you like.

Combine all ingredients and set aside.  Let dressing sit for at least 30 minutes.  The acid will help break down and mellow garlic & shallot and the flavors along with the chili pepper will infuse dressing.   I like the acidic bite of vinegar & lime juice however, if you find it's too much cut the limes to one.

Thai Chicken Salad

• 1 small head green cabbage
• 2 - 3 medium carrots
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or finely sliced
• small handful of salted peanuts, roughly chopped
• 1 bunch scallions (green onion), sliced on bias
• 1 cup snow peas, thinly sliced on bias
• 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp Thai basil, chopped
• 2 tbsp mint, chopped
• salt & pepper to taste

Shred cabbage and carrots in food processor. 

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, pour dressing over top and mix thoroughly.
How's that for easy?!

Can't Stand the Heat...

Summer time is when I really enjoy salads.  The anemic tomatoes of winter are happily forgotten and replaced with gleaming, juicy, bright red beauties.  The delicious, but boring cucumbers can go on hiatus along with their carrot friends. 

The same ol' stuff that routinely finds its way into your salad can go by the wayside to make room for things like stone fruit! 

Sometimes we are on auto-pilot and occasionally get stuck in a bit of a rut. Considering all of the amazing things available to us in the summer, this is the time to branch out and mix it up.

Making a salad for dinner is a great option. The clean up is pretty minimal and the ingredients are merely a suggestion.  Use it as a jumping off point for an idea;  if you don't like an ingredient, swap it out for something you do like...

Perhaps the most important reason to go with a meal that takes about 10 minutes from start to finish:

Generally speaking, most of us are less inclined to spend hours in front of a stove during a 90+ degree heat wave.  The air is stagnant.  It just hangs there... completely still, while your tolerance for anyone within a 5 foot radius decreases exponentially by the minute.


Spinach Salad with Nectarines & Blue Cheese
serves 1 hungry girl

• 3 oz fresh baby spinach (a little more than half of a 5oz container)
• a handful of toasted, sliced almonds
• 5 -6 dried figs, sliced in half or quarters
• 1 ripe nectarine, pit removed & thinly sliced
• 2 oz blue cheese, broken into bite size pieces

Mis-en-place

There are only 5 ingredients in this salad, so make sure they are of the best quality you can get.  Spring for the good cheese, don't buy the stuff that is already crumbled.  It tastes like Styrofoam.  Make sure the nectarine is ripe & luscious, under ripe fruit doesn't have any flavor.

Normally when I make this salad, I add in crispy prosciutto.  Place a few paper-thin slices of prosciutto on a non-stick (Silpat) silicone baking sheet if you have one or parchment paper if you don't, put this on a rimmed baking (cookie) sheet and bake at 350 degrees until super crispy.

Fresh mozzarella works beautifully in this salad if you don't like blue cheese.  As with the blue cheese, get the good stuff, not the shredded cheese in a bag that you would throw on a pizza.

Fig Vinaigrette

• 1/2 shallot
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 3 tbsp fig balsamic vinegar (not the sweet, reduced balsamic glaze)
• 1 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a blender (or with a stick blender) combine all ingredients EXCEPT oil.  Blend on medium speed until thoroughly combined, then lower speed and slowly drizzle in olive oil. 

(If you are fighting the urge to do your worst Bill Cosby impression, then clearly your dressing resembles chocolate pudding and you've taken your vinaigrette too far.  Thin it out with a splash of vinegar or a tbsp of water.)

Devour.



.

Not just for rabbits anymore...

Now that Spring is in full swing and the Farmer's Markets are replete with the good stuff, it's time to start putting those veggies back into the rotation.

Some people tend to look at salads as the obligatory precursor to the main event.  Granted, if someone serves you a bowl of pre-cut lettuce and gloppy dressing, it is barely even that...  however, with a little creativity and a blender you can make something that is beautiful, delicious, good for you and even those that tend to resist eating "rabbit food" may even get on board.

Doing quick dressings in jam jars is a wonderful time saver, but this time we are breaking out the blender and making a proper emulsion.  It doesn't take much more time than shaking a jar, but the end result is something you can not get out of a bottle.

The best part of this whole endeavor is there is really only one rule: the oil to acid ratio (3:1). 
That's it.  Everything else is up for grabs.

Baby greens with dried Apricot, Cranberries, Pistachios & sliced Strawberries

Spring Mix Lettuce, Arugula, Grapes, Raspberries, Mango & Cashews

Spinach & Arugula with Grapes, Blueberries, Apples and sliced Almonds

Baby Spinach with Roasted Butternut Squash, Pine Nuts & Goat Cheese

Spring Mix, Dried Cherries, Pomegranate seeds, toasted Pine Nuts & Manchego cheese



Sherry Lime Vinaigrette

makes 1 quart

• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 - 3 tbsp honey
• 1 sprig thyme, chopped
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 cups olive oil

1. Put all ingredients except the oil in the blender.  Turn on low speed until mixture is homogeneous, then increase speed slightly and drizzle in the oil in a thin stream until it is fully incorporated.

Lemongrass Basil Mint Vinaigrette

makes 1 quart

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 piece lemongrass, inner leaves only, minced
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, roughly torn
• 3 tbsp mint leaves, roughly torn
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 cups olive oil

Follow directions from above.   Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

It's all Greek to me...

Most of us are trying to eat healthier these days & lose a few pounds before we have to put on the dreaded bathing suit.  I am among the masses doing the very same...   I've been eating so much lettuce I'm afraid my front teeth are about to elongate into Bugs Bunny teeth.

The problem with salads, although to be quite honest I do like them,  is the dressing.  You think you are making a good choice by eating a salad for dinner and then you pour on a claggy dressing that has a ton of fat in it so you opt for the (sometimes chemical-laden)  fat free variety,  which in my book isn't always the lesser of two evils.

Making salad dressing at home takes 5 minutes at most and is so much heathier and tastier that it really is worth the very minimal effort.

Tonight's dinner was a Greek salad and chicken, so I made a Yogurt Dill dressing to tie the flavors together.

(A helpful hint to catch the lemon pits is to put a small strainer on top of the blender)

Yogurt Dill Dressing
juice of 2 1/2 lemons
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 seedless English cucumber, diced
7 oz  2% greek yogurt
1 bunch dill, chopped
3 TB avocado oil or grapeseed oil
1/2 clove garlic, minced

-Put all ingredients into the blender & let it rip!

yields: 2 1/2 cups


Store the dressing in a glass jar, refrigerated,  for up 5 days.

*side note:  if you like thicker dressings:  grate the cucumber first and put the pulp in the strainer to let it drain before putting it in the blender.