Kale Salad is Addicting

I first had Kale Salad about two years ago in Los Angeles.  My oldest son had learned how to make it from a friend who worked in a restaurant.  He told me the secret was to let the lemon juice "cook" the Kale.  Since then we have made Kale Salads of many different iterations from Kale with grapes, feta and walnuts, to Kale with Avocado, red onion, blue cheese, pine nuts, etc.  You get it.  Last week I made a Kale Salad for lunch that my husband could not get enough of.  He said, "It's addicting."

Remove tough stem

To prepare the Kale, fold it in half and cut out the tough stem with your Chef's knife.  You can use any kind of Kale you like.  I love the dark dark green curly kind.

Place the Kale in a bowl and squeeze just enough lemon juice over it to lightly coat it and massage it in with your hands.  Don't use too much!!  It has to balance with the Olive Oil or Grape Seed Oil added later.

massage in lemon juice

Salad with ingredients on top before tossing

Then add your selected vegies on top.  This is a mixed salad.  I used nuts (sunflower seeds are also good), sweet onion, carrots, avocado, kidney beans, and feta.  

Drizzle with good quality oil:  Olive Oil, or Grape Seed Oil if you want a neutral oil, and toss.

Below is the finished product.

Yummy and Addicting

Rice Salad Primavera and Freud

In the middle of Civilization and Its Discontents Freud confesses that in none of his previous writings has he had such a strong feeling that what he is describing is common sense and that he is using up paper and ink to expound things that are self evident.

I felt that way when I found about a cup and a half of short grain rice in my refrigerator today and decided to make a rice salad.  Not worth writing about, I said to myself,  just leftovers.  But once I tasted it I was compelled to share how good it was.  No one ingredient should dominate so use your judgment when adding things and be creative!

Rice Salad Primavera

Cooked short grain brown rice
Chopped cucumber, green onion, avocado, celery, parsley
Chopped Radicchio, sliced black or kalamata olives, kidney beans
Asparagus and snow peas, blanched for about two minutes then chopped in 2 inch pieces

Dressing:  basic olive oil and vinegar with about a tablespoon of greek yogurt, salt and pepper

Barbecue Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinegar

My hubby is the best at barbecuing chicken.  So when we had leftover chicken, I saw my opportunity for a chopped chicken salad with basil and balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

Barbecue Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinegar
Mixed spring greens (not too much lettuce in this one!)
Red endive chopped
Carrots, yellow or orange bell pepper, persian cucumber, cherry tomatoes, avocado, onion all chopped
Basil chopped (generous amount)
Barbecued chicken in cubes

Dressing:
Olive Oil and best available Balsamic Vinegar--It makes a huge difference!
Two of the best Balsamic Vinegars I've tried are pictured here.  Raleys makes an excellent brand.  Copper Hill is made in  Woodland, California.  It should be thick.

 I don't measure when I make dressing.  It just takes too much time.  Learn to eyeball the amounts you will need.

Mediterranean Green Salad for Spring

Although it is more cost effective to buy and prepare lettuce, sometimes I want to make a quick salad from prepared ingredients without all the washing and drying.  I recently purchased the Herb Salad Mix from Trader Joe's (washed three times and ready to use).  I added some of T.J.'s chick pea mix called Balela (garbanzos, tomato, and black beans) along with a few other crisp spring ingredients.  The celery heart is from the bottom of the celery, the part you usually throw out, cleaned and sliced thin.

Mediterranean Salad with Chick Peas and Herbs
Herb salad mix
Balela mix (see above)
Belgian endive chopped
Persian cucumber in half and sliced thin
Red pepper, diced
Celery heart sliced thin
Avocado and Cherry tomatoes
Sunflower seeds

Celery Heart

Dressing
In a small bowl combine one or two tablespoons olive oil with about two teaspoons vinegar of your choice (I used white wine vinegar), salt and pepper.  Beat to emulsify and dress salad.

Endive

Persian Cucumber

The Avocado: Genetics or Environment?

Hawaiian Avocado

I recently returned from Hawaii where we purchased our favorite Hawaiian foods (Mango, Papaya, Persian cucumbers, sweet onions, HUGE avocados) at the Farmer's Markets held each day in different locations around each island.  The market in Kapa'a on Kauai was a mob scene.  I romanticized that the avocados tasted creamier and were larger there just because they originated in Paradise.  I found out the variety grown most widely there, the Sharwil (grown for production and export in Kona but also by many people in their yards) originated from a volunteer plant on a farm in Australia in 1951 and was brought to Hawaii in 1966.  It is larger with a looser pit and thin green skin that doesn't get dark when ripe and actually stays fairly hard and leathery.  You can purchase these avocados on the mainland at various times of the year.  US consumers prefer the smaller, firmer Hass variety because they can tell it is ripe by the black skin.  Don't get in the same rut!!  The great reward for branching out is the incredible subtle and creamy flavor of this larger avocado.  We ate off of it for a week in salads and it stayed beautiful just like this, loose pit and all.

isalad: Chef Salad Your Way

I was contemplating my waistline in light of a trip to Hawaii.  My diet recipe book advised me to have a Chef's Salad for lunch.  What is a Chef's Salad?  A salad made by a chef:  me––or you, using creative license.
isalad
Greens:
red leaf lettuce cut up
endive sliced
arugula cut up
basil chopped
Add:
red onion chopped
cherry tomatoes halved
mushrooms sliced
ham diced
Alpine Lace cheese chopped
green beans (leftover cooked) chopped
black olives sliced

Dressing:  Pour a couple of tablespoons of good quality olive oil in a bowl.  Add about one tablespoon red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and small amount minced shallot.  Beat with a wisk or fork until it is creamy and emulsified.  Remove your chef's hat and enjoy.

Brussel Sprouts, Grapes, and Endive Salad

Got Brussel Sprouts?  I was served a version of this salad at the Highland's Inn in Carmel last fall.  Yesterday, with fresh brussel sprouts on hand, I had a hankering for it.  My hubby loved it!!

Brussel Sprouts, Grapes, and Endive Salad with lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Cook a small serving for two of brussel sprouts in boiling water for five minutes, drain, slice in circles
Slice a handful of red grapes in half
Wash, separate and chop one endive
Add about 2 tablespoons of diced red onion
Sunflower seeds

Dressing:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice or slightly less
Parsley chopped fine
Shallot chopped fine

The combination of endive, red onion, and brussel sprout is complex and satisfying.  The restaurant version included diced pancetta and dry ricotta but the salad is delicious without these two items which you may not have on hand.

Modern Coleslaw

Men love Cabbage Salad.  We are fortunate to have a small food coop that brings us fresh lettuce, arugula, and cabbage from local green houses, even in Winter.  Today, I was talking to my Mom about coleslaw.  She makes the best traditional coleslaw ever.  I decided to make some for lunch, but with a few modern twists.

Modern Coleslaw

1 wedge cabbage, sliced thin and diced
1 carrot, grated
3 green onions, chopped
1 small shallot, sliced and chopped
Red, green, yellow diced peppers (about 1/3 cup)
Broccoli florets sliced thin and chopped (about 1/3 cup)

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons of some combination of the following:
Sour Cream
Mayonaise
Greek Yogurt
1 or 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Dill, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of each salt, sugar, pepper (possibly additional salt)
Pinch curry powder (you won't taste this, it just adds a level of complexity--a friend told me that)

Things you could add to the salad to change the character (but I did not--it looked too delicious as is)
Either halved cherry tomatoes or halved grapes (not both!!)
Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
Chopped avocado or chopped artichoke hearts or chopped green apple

Green Salad with Pears and Grapes

Farm to Table

Last weekend we were invited to dinner with friends and our hostess asked me to bring a salad with fruit (not a fruit salad because I asked.)  This threw me for a loop.  Then she suggested pears.  Ah ha!

Everyone has had pear salad with onions and blue cheese.  It can be tricky because the pears turn brown after they are sliced.  I threw the salad together ten minutes before we left  and took the pears along with me to add just before we sat down along with the emulsified vinaigrette.  The salad was a hit––I think because of the grapes.

Green Salad with Pears and Grapes

Lettuce, endive, basil, all chopped & mixed
Red onion thin sliced and quartered
Avocado diced
Cucumber seeded, thin slice then in half
Red grapes cut in half
Toasted hazelnuts (walnuts would also be good)
Blue cheese crumbled
Pears:  sliced in mouth sized pieces, place in small bowl with a couple of tablespoons of mild (like Meyer) lemon juice or one tablespoon lemon juice and one tablespoon water just before serving.  Toss gently then remove pear slices and let drain briefly on a paper towel before adding to salad.
Dressing:  Olive Oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper.  Whip with a fork until thick and creamy.

From Corning Tasting Room

Avocado Salad with Spicy Dressing

A couple of years ago my Mom brought me a recipe that my Oregon cousin's wife had made at a family event.  She specifically asked for the recipe for me because, she said, "it was so colorful."  Today, faced with two ripe avocados I dug around in my hopelessly disorganized recipe cache and found it!  Because we often eat Mexi, I had all the ingredients on hand.  This is the slightly modified version I made:

Sweet cherry tomatoes, halved
Yellow bell pepper, diced
Black beans from can, drained and rinsed
Diced Red Onion
Cilantro, chopped
2 ripe avocados, chopped
Thinly shredded lettuce

Dressing:
lime zest
lime juice
olive oil
salt, pepper
garlic diced to flavor (when you dress salad use your fork to strain out the garlic chunks)
a pinch or so of cayenne

Toss and top with a few broken tortilla chips.  So delicious I can't believe I waited this long to make it.

*If you don't like black beans, you could substitute cooked rice and sliced black olives

Salad for Breakfast?

Breakfast salad with tri-color pepper and mushroom frittata

Again, the theme is spring, enticing because out of reach for us.  When hubby and I were staying in Santa Monica last year, we loved to walk in the balmy air each morning to the Urth Cafe on Main Street.  We sat outside, ate omelets with salad, and eavesdropped as young scruffy men discussed their latest film projects.  At first when I was served salad with an omelet, I thought it was a lazy way of adding an easy side.  I was wrong.  I became an advocate of salad for breakfast with eggs.  It tastes delicious, better than any heavy, fried food, because in the morning we are naturally thirsty.  The salad we were served was a plain lettuce salad of baby greens dressed simply in good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Since then, I have been a convert to the breakfast salad.  I buy special lettuce just for my breakfast salads.  (Sorry about all the salt and pepper in the photo.)

Ground Hog Day Salad

 For a year this tiny clipping was stuck to the wall in my kitchen.  The salad sounded simple and good.  Last Saturday, craving spring in a snowbound land, I decided to make it.  (The salad was served at Cindy's Backstreet Cafe in St. Helena and reviewed by Michael Bauer.)

Clipping from SF Chron

I ran into trouble immediately.  My arugula was not "pristine," and my artichoke hearts were canned.  I was able to "perfectly cook" the hardboiled eggs and our local bacon is excellent.  In order to keep the dressing light, I used Grape Seed Oil and white wine vinegar with the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper.
I was hopeful, because the salad fit the weekend requirement of being brunch-like by including eggs and bacon.

Eggs and Artichokes

As I made the salad, I felt like a cat in a straight-jacket.  I kept wanting to alter or add to the ingredients.
The finished salad, while beautiful to behold, did not convey the promise of spring.

While I was eating it, I keep thinking that it had not quite come together.  The various parts needed to be crumbled, cut-up, and tossed.  Also, the dressing, while tasty on its own, had not helped the artichoke hearts taste anything but canned.  They were slippery and chewy but not buttery and flavorful.
Today I started over.  Instead of just Arugula, I added spring greens and red onion.  I chopped everything and mixed it well with an olive oil dressing.  Also, I had no bacon since my hubby ate it yesterday--but I didn't need it because hazel nuts add an earthy bacon quality.  I added sunflower seeds and avocado.  Voila!!  Spring in every bite.

Ingredients:
1/2 Arugula chopped
1/2 Spring Mix chopped
Red Onion thin slice halved
4 cherry tomatoes quartered
Hard boiled egg, crumbled
Artichoke hearts dressed and chopped
Avocado
Toasted Hazelnuts, chopped
Sunflower seeds
Olive Oil/Vinegar dressing

Leftover Chicken & Artichoke Salad

Today I used a leftover cooked skinless chicken thigh (excellent flavor cooked bone-in) and some artichoke hearts to make the following salad:

Mixed Greens
Arugula
Green Onions chopped
Chicken pieces chunked
Artichoke hearts
Pine Nuts
Salt, pepper

Dressing:
Good quality olive oil
champagne vinegar
salt, pepper

Nude and Raw

You are about to step into the shower and you catch a glimpse in the mirror––you know how hard it is to hide anything in that circumstance.  This is also true about salad.  Everything that goes into it is usually nude and raw.  You can't hide the imperfections.

The most important rule about salad making is to respect your ingredients.  If your lettuce is too wet or if it came from a bag in which select leaves began to decompose, don't expect stellar results.  If you didn't peel your carrots, don't expect that bright color.  If your avocado is brown or overripe (under ripe is better), your salad will taste like mush.

Dressed but not tossed

We had a salad on Saturday night that was lifted a notch by the presence of fresh Basil from a plant I purchased about two months ago from Trader Joes.  It is a spindly thing but still growing and trying to bud in our bathroom.

Veggies Chopped by Hubby

Basil from Trader's

A Tale of Two Salads

A salad makes the first impression when eating out and can set the tone for the entire meal.  So why is it hard to get a good salad in a restaurant?  Too often chefs abdicate responsibility to servers who place a stock list of items concocted from a bag, can, or bin, on a plate with a cup of prepared dressing alongside.
Two weeks ago I was served the salad on the left (with the miniature corns) at a luncheon at our local golf club.  There was nothing obviously wrong with the salad.  It had color and eye appeal.  In addition to lettuce, the salad included grated carrot, grated beet and cucumber.  The dressing (the ubiquitous balsamic vinaigrette), was on the side.  But none of the salad's ingredients had pronounced flavor--that unfortunately came from the bottled dressing.   It was almost as though the ingredients had been refrigerated for too long. The cherry tomatoes were pale and mealy, the corn was tasteless, the croutons were like sawdust.  I was thinking that this restaurant had an opportunity to impress a group of local woman with an amazing salad––something that would make them sit up and take notice––and bring their husbands back for dinner.
Today I met a friend for lunch at another local place where the food is known to be good.  I rarely order Caesar Salad because it is tricky and can be soggy.  But today I was did and I was glad.  The lettuce, fresh and flavorful, was crunchy, crisp and moist at the same time, the dressing was obviously freshly made with lots of garlic and good quality parmesan cheese.  The croutons (the place is a bakery) were made from their own foccacia bread.   This salad made an excellent first impression.  And the soup was good too.  I'm taking my hubby back.

Toasted Hazelnuts in Winter

 

I keep hazelnuts in my pantry because they will take any winter salad up a notch.  I toast them in the toaster oven for the same amount of time as a piece of toast, rub off some of the skin, and rough chop.

Their unique flavor is excellent with pomegranate seeds which I also happen to have on hand, or with dried cranberries.  Today, I used the hazelnuts on a traditional green salad with yellow bell pepper.  The salad made it easy for me to segue from an indulgent celebratory weekend to lighter fare.    

I added lemon zest and chopped mint to my usual good quality olive oil and vinegar for the dressing because, even with snow on the ground, the sun gave us spring like conditions.  That and the newspaper made for a satisfying, almost indulgent, weekday lunch.

Flavor without calories

Today's salad was so tasty with very few calories!
crunchy green lettuce.
chopped radicchio,
yellow, red, green bell pepper chopped,
cucumber chopped,
green onion chopped,
mushroom chopped,
carrot, thin-sliced,
cherry tomatoes in half (Nature Sweet Cherubs),
basil, mint, parsley chopped,
smoked turkey from the deli, shredded.

dressing:  good quality olive oil, red wine vinegar, thyme leaves, salt, pepper

Chicken Apple Salad with Pomegranate Seeds

Chicken/Apple salad with Pomegranate seeds

It's Diet Time.  Yesterday I realized my ski pants were tight.  Frightening since we have been out exercising nearly every day.  So, today I wanted to make a more substantial lunch salad with protein.  My hubby roasted a whole chicken last night so I had the opportunity to make a chicken salad with one half green apple diced, pomegranate seeds, and dressed in an olive oil pomegranate dressing.  The picture shows the salad before dressing because balsamic vinegar darks.  (I keep the onions separate because hubby doesn't like onions in his lunch salad but I do!)
I combined the following:
Red & green leaf lettuce plus raddicchio and small amount parsley, apple diced, red pepper diced, mushroom diced, green onions, chicken shredded, pomegranate seeds.  I did not have celery or I would have added it.

See the amount of dressing in the small bowl?  Anyone can make this.  You just emulsify it with a fork and dress.  I did have pomegranate balsamic vinegar on hand which made it all come together nicely.

Confessions of an overachiever

Purple Carrot and Pea Salad

There is always the temptation, with lots of goodies on hand, to throw everything into the salad.  When my roommate in college taught me how to make her salad, she called it, "garbage salad," because she did just that.

Today, I made a purple carrot and pea salad.  Last week  our local market sold multi-colored carrots in a bunch.  I was not sure how the purple ones would look cooked, so I grated them and added them to the salad with peas from the freezer that I soaked in hot water from the tea kettle for a minute or so.  But then I was tempted to throw in everything else, (which made me think of my college friend.)  I limited myself to tomatoes, bean sprouts, green onion, and some mixed herbs (mint, parsley, basil).

As I ate it, I realized what was missing--the egg that my roommate used in her dressing.  She crumbled a hard boiled egg in the dressing before she emulsified it with a fork.
Next time!!

Imposing Restraints

Anyone who has watched the Iron Chef (or something like that) knows that to achieve creativity it sometimes is necessary to impose restraints.  Today my restraint was a small bowl of left over lima beans.  Most people would have tossed them.  But the petty moral economy of leftovers can be inspiration for a salad.  I decided to build around their meaty flavor by adding lettuce, green onion, sweet cherry tomatoes, avocado, chopped parsley, and homemade croutons.  You will need to employ positive visualization because it was so good we ate it immediately.  The combination of meaty (beans), fresh (parsley), crunchy (croutons) and lighter than air (red leaf lettuce) was irresistible.
To make the croutons quickly, cut a garlic clove in half and rub over a couple of slices of stale, yet good quality, bread.  Butter, salt, then cube.  Toast in toaster oven in a pan as long as you would a piece of toast.  You can forget about them in the dry hot air while you make the salad.  Use a simple olive old and red wine vinegar dressing.

Oranges instead of tomato

In winter when it is hard to find a tasty tomato, oranges make a great item in a green salad but preparing the orange is the important part.  You want the succulent juicy segments without the fiber.  Begin by slicing off the ends and then peel the orange by following the line of the rind with your knife around the orange with each slice.
When the orange is completely peeled, insert your knife into a segment and cut out just the juicy part between each fibrous divider (see pictures).
Toss with dried cranberries, avocado, red sweet onion, lettuce, chopped parsley, your choice of nut or seed and your own special vinaigrette.

Addicted to Salad

What is an addiction but a habit your body has come to depend upon?  About a year ago, I began to make and eat a salad each day for lunch.  At first it was a way to lose weight but now if I don't have one, I develop a craving.  When we got back to Mount Shasta after the Christmas holidays I found myself going from store to store, choosing fresh and off-beat items for my daily salad.  My mouth watered the entire time!
Lettuce must be cold, crisp, and dry.  If you are in a hurry and just purchased the lettuce, after using the spinner, you can place a paper towel in the bottom of the bowl while you assemble your salad.  Then once everything is in the bowl (and before adding the dressing), just roll up the towel, gently compress, remove, dress and eat!
In Europe we found that many restaurants did not offer elaborate salads like we routinely have in California.  In Italy, when we asked for salad, we were served a bowl of plain lettuce with some carrot grated on top.  We fought over it!  It's an addiction.