Greek Salad

I love Greek salads. Maybe it is just the feta cheese. But I think it is the dressing too.

I usually use Romaine lettuce though red leaf or baby green mixes would work. Tossing some baby spinach in would be tasty too. I like the sturdiness of the Romaine with the cheese. It seems to hold on to the cheese and dressing better than something like red leaf. I also like to either tear or chop the lettuce into pretty small pieces so the end result is kind of like a chopped salad. (I didn't quite accomplish that in these pictures.)
In this version, I added hard boiled eggs, garbanzo beans, and kalamata olives so it was a protein-filled salad. It could easily be a meal in and of itself.
I also added chopped cucumber and sliced radishes. I didn't have other veggies at the time but I love celery and tomatoes in a Greek salad.
I added crumbled feta cheese to the salad rather than the dressing but it is easy to do it either or both ways. I have also made Greek salads in bowls with tops so you can seal up the whole salad, dressing and all, and toss it vigorously!
I also didn't have any pepperoncinis but they are nice on the side with a Greek salad.
But the dressing! I make a basic vinaigrette dressing but I use kalamata olive oil and red wine vinegar. I also add plenty of lemon juice and a touch of sugar. I also add fresh ground pepper and crumbled dried mint. I love dried mint. Yum. Enjoy!

Lentils everyone will love!

This is a cold lentil salad that everyone will love. A couple of summers ago my husband's cousin lived with us for a few months. When I would make this salad, which is usually enough as a side dish for about 8 people, he and my husband would polish it off in one night. And neither of them like lentils. Hmmm. The saddest part of that story is that this salad is great the next day so peering in that empty bowl was always a disappointment.

I got this recipe from my aunt who makes this every year at the beach. It is a favorite there too. I am not quite sure how she scales this up to feed nearly 20 people, but it is always a hit!

1 1/2C green lentils

6C chicken stock

1 garlic clove, whole and pierced with a toothpick

1t herbes de Provence

1 small bay leaf

1 tomato (the recipe calls for the tomato to be peeled, seeded, and chopped, but I just chop it)

3 green onions, finely chopped including some of the green tops

1T fresh parsley, chopped (I use about 2T)

1T capers, drained (I use about 2T)

Rinse and pick at the lentils. Put lentils in pan with stock, garlic, herbes de Provence, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer uncovered. Cook the lentils until tender, about 20 minutes, and be careful not to overcook them as they will turn to MUSH! Drain the lentils and leave them to cool. Remove the bay leaf and garlic clove.

Once cool, put the lentils in a bowl with the tomato, onions, parsley and capers. Whisk the vinaigrette (see below), add to the lentils, and toss. Sprinkle crumbled goat cheese (recipe calls for 2 1/2 ounces of chevre and I use about 4 ounces) on top and serve, or chill and serve.

Vinaigrette

1/2C olive oil (I use about 1/4C)

2T lemon juice

1t Dijon mustard

1/2t salt

fresh ground black pepper

Macaroni salad

Just one more quick post for today. I have been experimenting with cold pasta salads this summer. (I posted one with ingredients similar to an antipasto platter.) Since then I have been using the toss-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink method and for the most part they have been tasty, but I have been in search of a simple and classic macaroni salad.

Last night we got a spontaneous invitation from some friends to come over for burgers. It was about 5pm and I asked what we should bring. A green salad, maybe? Both my husband and his friend wanted a macaroni salad. And by 5:30 I had the salad ready to go and we were at their place before 6pm. I used a recipe that was posted just the other day at Simply Recipes. Conveniently, we already had a roasted pepper in the fridge, parsley in the garden, and spring onions from our farm share. And so because we had all the ingredients it was as simple as cooking the pasta and hard boiling a few eggs. I worried that the salad wouldn't be cold enough but running cold water over the pasta after it was cooked did the trick. This is a delicious and simple macaroni salad!

Thursday night.

Dinner tonight...steak fajitas, green salad, and dessert!

I found some sirloin strips for a good price so I snatched them up today at the store. I had planned to make lamb saag tonight but the beef changed my plan. I stuck the meat in a marinade of chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, and oregano. I think I over did it on either the chili powder or the cumin because the meat cooked so fast and one of those powders didn't get to cook off enough.

I grilled green peppers and onions in oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and pepper flakes. And then in a hot pan I cooked the meat in small batches. We ate the fajitas with some guacamole, salsa, cheese, cilantro, and lettuce. YUM!

The green salad was greens and radishes from our farm share and cucumbers and carrots from the grocery store.

And dessert...strawberry and rhubarb cobbler with fresh fruit from our farm share. Only it wasn't as delicious as I'd hoped. The rhubarb needed to be cooked before going in the dish as it was still crunchy. And I added baking soda instead of baking powder and so the topping tasted metallic. And finally there is too much tapioca in the recipe for my liking as a serious jelly developed leaving no juices to be sopped up by the topping. Oh, well.

Garlic Scape Pesto

After discovering that garlic scapes exist, I started searching for various pesto recipes. I didn’t pick one, I just took the general ingredients and ratios and went to town. I started by slicing the 7 garlic scapes from the farm share into 3 inch pieces. 

Then I put the scapes, 1/4C parmesan cheese, and 5T of olive oil in the food processor and mixed. Whoa! Those “mild” garlic scapes are garlicky! So I discovered the trick with this type of pesto is that the greens and the garlic are all in one so it is the other ingredients that have to mediate those flavors.

(I also discovered that it is hard to keep track of my usual method of cooking. I found myself having to make little tic marks on a notecard while I was adding ingredients and then I tallied them up at the end.)

In a food processor mix:

7 garlic scapes

1/2C parmesan cheese

3/4C walnuts

1/2C olive oil

2T lemon juice

1/4C water

 

After the fact, I noticed that at least one recipe suggests mixing the cheese in after rather than processing it. I think this is true of other pesto recipes too. It isn’t what I did, but I think it is a better idea! Let me know if you try it. 

I ate this with pasta and cherry tomatoes, which was tasty. A couple of people who sampled it last night suggested it would be a really good spread for bread or crackers. (I know the picture isn't really appealing, but I wanted to show you that it turns out to be a really light shade of green.)

We had a salad on the side using that beautiful head of lettuce that is now my profile picture. Along with that tasty lettuce, I tossed in carrots, cucumber, those fresh snap peas I picked on Wednesday, scallions, and green peppers. I also added garbanzo beans, which is a salad fave for us. Our grocery store sells 7.5oz. cans, which is the perfect amount for a salad! 

(Note in the picture the beautiful salad hands that my hubby made!)

Antipasto Orzo Salad

Finally, a recipe! So I haven't tried the garlic scape pesto yet, but it is next on my list for the day. I have been anxious to get an actual recipe up so I am going to post this salad, which I made on Monday and we finished the leftovers yesterday.

This is cold pasta salad that combines the flavors common on a traditional antipasto plate. And it tastes delicious the next day for lunch too!

1C orzo, cooked and cooled

2T salami, diced

2T ricotta salata, crumbled (I am sure parmesan, asiago, or fresh mozzarella would be tasty too!)

1/4C olives, diced (I used a combination of Greek green, kalamata, and nicoise.)

1T fresh basil, chopped

1/2T fresh oregano, chopped

½ to 1T olive oil (My husband recently introduced me to Trader Joe’s Kalamata oil, which is delicious!)

black pepper

Served with pepperoncini

I cooked the orzo according to the instructions on the box, while preparing the other ingredients. Once cooked, I strained the orzo and ran it under cold water to stop it from overcooking and to chill it for the salad. I then tossed all the ingredients together and added enough olive oil to keep the orzo from clumping and pepper to taste.

This was tasty with a few pepperoncini peppers on the side!