Maybe it was a month of chocolate recipe testing in February that caused my almost maniacal focus on healthy salads in March. Whatever the reason, I just can’t seem to get enough crispy, crunchy salad.
My Tabouleh
On a recent lazy Sunday, fired up by a surprising desire to eat healthy, my thoughts wandered to Tabouleh, that Middle Eastern salad of whole grain bulgur wheat, cucumber, tomato, red onion, copious quantities of fresh parsley and mint, and a lemony vinaigrette.
March 8, 2012 By 4 Comments
The Green Goddess (Dressing)
Suddenly, Green Goddess Dressing is showing up everywhere. I’ve encountered it on four menus in the past month. And I can’t stop ordering it, even though restaurant versions pale by comparison to what you can make in your own kitchen. Restaurants invariably hold back on the herbs, perhaps to control cost or to appeal to the less adventurous diner. This is a mistake, because this dressing is supposed to be all about the herbs and bold rather than timid.
October 7, 2011 By 3 Comments
Red & Orange Bell Pepper Salad with Mint, Parsley & Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette
Every year about this time, I start craving salads. And by craving, I mean intense, must have it, primal longing. It’s as if my body, as well as my mind, knows that fresh local produce will soon be a fading memory. I find myself at the farmers markets overloading my trusty, ever ready Metro Kart with bell peppers, celery, sweet onions, corn, lettuce, fennel, chiles, and tomatoes. Plus whatever else looks amazing that day.
September 17, 2011 By 10 Comments
Summer Tomato, Sweet Onion & Blackberry Salad with Basil Mint Crema
This salad is the happy result of a recent early morning meander through the Portland Farmers Market. In mid-August, the market is full to bursting and the choices are almost overwhelming.
A huge variety of sweet and chile peppers overflow baskets onto large bunches of just picked basil and mint. Plump sweet onions nestle next to mountains of green and purple beans. Tomatoes are either as small as a marble or as large as your fist and range in color from green, to yellow, to orange, to red. Blackberries, yellow raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries all vie for attention.
August 17, 2011 By 5 Comments
Sweet Cherry & Pea Vine Salad with Basil & Mint
This past Saturday, I walked through the Seattle University District Farmers Market with–gasp–no goal. I let the season’s bounty and the culinary muses set the agenda. The muses, aroused by my atypical lack of planning, whispered sweet nothings in my ear: “cherries, cherries, cherries.”
Luckily, several growers’ tables were piled high with sweet cherries (Bings, Rainiers, and Chelans) and one grower had oh-so-hard-to-find Montmorency pie cherries as well. But at $10 a pound, I will plan what to make with these, perhaps next week.
July 5, 2011 By 4 Comments
Lemon & Thyme Marinated Artichoke, Tiger Prawn & Strawberry Salad
I think of myself as a component kind of cook. Just as I prefer a wardrobe full of separates that I can mix and match as fancy strikes, I also like to mix and match culinary components. What I learn from one dish always has ramifications to another dish later.
Take this new salad for instance. I am in the lingering thrall of the Lemon & Thyme Marinated Artichokes posted last week. They were so good that I can’t get them out of my mind. We had barely finished the first batch of artichokes, and I had another batch marinating in the fig.
May 15, 2011 By 9 Comments
Heirloom Tomato, Sweet Onion & Mâche Salad with Blue Cheese Crema
We were at the Portland Saturday Market yesterday, and I couldn’t resist buying a bag of what may be the last of the season’s heirloom tomatoes. They come in such a variety of beautiful colors, shapes and sizes, and their flavor is incomparable. Nothing like the grocery store tomatoes that we grudgingly subsist on over the long winter.
Over the past year, restaurant menus everywhere were featuring heirloom tomato salads, and I sampled my fair share.
October 17, 2010 By 11 Comments
Connect with LunaCafe