Melon, feta and toasted almond salad with honey-miso dressing

The last few months, I have made a lot of delicious salads, but rarely remembered to write them down here. This one I have made again and again. It's simple, but really refreshing.

1-2 little gem lettuces (or butter lettuce, or similar mild/crisp lettuce)
1/2 a small Galia melon (or canteloupe)
1/2 of a 200 g pack feta
approx. 1/4 cup almonds, chopped

For the dressing:
2 tsp white miso
1 tsp honey
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
black pepper and a little salt (not much, the miso is salty)

Wash and chop the lettuce and put it in a medium sized bowl. Remove the peel from the melon, chop it into bite-sized chunks and add to the bowl. Crumble in the feta. Toast the almonds in a frying pan over a medium-low heat until lightly browned (or in the oven, if you feel like switching it on)

In a separate, small bowl, beat together the dressing ingredients. When ready to serve, add the toasted nuts to the salad, then pour over the dressing and toss.


Notes: sometimes I like to add a little chopped mint - not always though, often it's good in it's simplest form. This dressing is in very regular rotation in our kitchen - over all kinds of salads - it's very adaptable - sometimes just a hint of miso, sometimes some mustard too, sometimes lemon juice instead of vinegar, sometimes without honey...

Blueberry and almond salad with blueberry vinaigrette

We biked to Wegmans in Chestnut Hill. It's a big, new supermarket; S was excited to go there. Their main appeal (to us) seemed to be selling fruit and veg in 'family packs'. We were restricted somewhat by having to carry them on our backs, but ended up with a lot of blueberries anyway. We were attempting conversation on our bikes, considering dinner and salad and our recent purchases: I thought S suggested blueberry salad, our wires were crossed, but it seemed like a good idea anyway.

leaves of 1/2 a butter lettuce, washed well and torn into bite size pieces
1 spring onion, washed and finely chopped
~1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1/4 cup toasted flaked almonds

Put the lettuce and spring onion in a serving bowl with a cupful of the blueberries. Put the remaining 1/2 cup of blueberries in a blender with the vinegar and blitz til smooth. Transfer blueberry mixture to a small bowl and whisk with the olive oil, salt and pepper til homogeneous. To serve, scatter the flaked almonds over the blueberries and lettuce in the bowl, then add the dressing and toss.

Apple, kohlrabi, beetroot, leaves and seeds

A daydream of a salad: we had lots of salad greens, but the apple, beetroot and anise were begging to play together. Kohlrabi, onion, poppy and pumpkin seeds jumped into the mix...

2 small apples, peeled and cored
1/4 of a giant kohlrabi, peeled
1 small beetroot (I used candy striped but any would be fine), peeled
juice of 1/2 lemon
~3 handfuls of salad leaves (any)
~1 tbsp poppy seeds
~2 tsp anise seeds
1-2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
~1/2 tbsp finely chopped white onion
2 tsp white miso
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp olive oil
black pepper

Cut the apple, kohlrabi and beetroot into matchsticks. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the apple to stop it going brown. Wash the salad leaves and put them in a serving bowl. Add the apple, kohlrabi, beetroot and seeds. In a separate, small bowl, mix the chopped onion with the rest of the lemon juice, miso, honey, vinegar and olive oil, beat together and taste for seasoning. When ready to eat, pour the dressing over the assembled salad and mix well.


And this turned out delicious. Really pretty: colourful beetroot, shards of apple and kohlrabi, speckles of seeds. Just enough sweetness, loads of textures and crunch. The anise, apple, beet and greens go great together, with the pumpkin and poppy seeds providing an earthiness to counteract the sweet. Love how exciting salads can be, whatever the weather (yesterday super windy and below zero).

Wild mushroom and lettuce 'risotto'

Chicken of the woods (above) has a tendency to be a little dry, especially when it has been sitting in the fridge for a week like the stuff I needed to use up last night. I also had some maitake that had dried out a bit. I'd been wanting to try some form of chicken of the woods risotto as I thought it might be a good way of counteracting the dryness. Both mushrooms have a substantial enough texture (and taste) to hold up to cooking in liquid without losing their shape or going slimy. The problem with real risotto is that it is not good as leftovers (unless it becomes arancini), so I decided to make a kind of pseudo risotto with a different kind of rice. Lettuce also needed eating. I enjoy cooked lettuce and thought its sweetness would go well with the earthy mushrooms and rice.

2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~1/2 cup chopped chicken of the woods
~1/2 cup chopped maitake
1 cup rice mix (brown rice, black barley, daikon seeds - TJs)
2 cups hot veg stock
2 tbsp barley+chickpea aged miso
3/4 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 small lettuce, chopped
2-3 tbsp chopped parsley
soy sauce
salt+pepper
toasted sunflower seeds

Heat the oil in a medium, lidded saucepan. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so til starting to soften. Add the chicken of the woods and maitake and cook for a few more minutes, cover and cook some more until lightly browned. If it started to dry out add a little of the stock. Add the rice mix and stir until the brown rice looks transparent. Add the stock, cover and cook for ~20 min, until all the liquid is absorbed. Add the miso halfway through and mix it through the liquid. Finally, add in the lettuce, parsley and sweetcorn and mix until the lettuce is wilted. Taste for seasoning and add black pepper and salt (and/or soy sauce) if needed. Sprinkle with toasted sunflower seeds to serve.


This is good. I like it.

Easiest beetroot prep: beetroot and brazil nut salad

Beetroot is so beautiful, so tasty, and even comes as two veg in one: greens plus roots. Here is my usual, simplest way to prep the roots - once they are cooked they peel very easily, and can be thrown in any kind of salad or grain dish. Like the one below.

Beetroot prep
 
Separate the beetroot from the greens (save the greens for something else). Scrub the beetroot (but don't peel), then put in a small saucepan and fill with water so covered by about an inch. Cover, bring to the boil, and simmer for 20-30 min, until a pointy knife tip goes in easily (ie they are tender). Drain the beetroot, leave to cool and refrigerate until needed.

Beetroot and brazil nut salad

~6 small beetroot, prepped in advance as above
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
~10 brazil nuts, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
~8 leaves crunchy Romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

Peel the beetroot: the peel should just slide off as you rub your fingers along them. Dice the naked beetroot into large chunks. Put mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium serving bowl, then beat together with a fork. Add the diced beetroot and toss, then add the remaining ingredients and toss some more.


Herb combinations can be varied: chives alone, parsley alone, coriander or mint would all be good. the lettuce is optional (although the dressing quantities could be halved if not using). The nuts can also be subbed: walnuts instead, or toasted pumpkin seeds, or nigella seeds.

Sesame Tofu with Fried Lettuce

I came across this tofu recipe the other day and mentally filed it under simple, interesting and potentially tasty.  Tonight I felt like making it.

1 box firm tofu (about 16 oz)
~1/4 cup sesame seeds
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
a few drops hot sauce
2 tsp veg oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 head Romaine lettuce, rinsed and roughly chopped

Slice the tofu into 8 thin, square-ish slabs. Spread the sesame seeds on a plate, then press all sides of the tofu slabs into them to coat them.

Heat the sesame oil in a frying pan on medium heat.  Place the tofu slabs in a single layer in the pan and fry for 5-10 min on each side, until lightly browned.

Add the soy sauce and hot sauce, turn the tofu squares over, and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Transfer the tofu squares to a plate (leave stray sesame seeds in the pan).

Add the veg oil and the garlic to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds, until golden.  Add the chopped lettuce and cook for few minutes until slightly wilted but still with some bite.


Excited to stumble across the Moosewood recipes - I heard of the place a while back but never thought about looking them up online.  We ate it with some cold soba noodles (with sesame, lime, spring onion and coriander).  So into fried lettuce right now.  I appreciated the lack of prep in this tofu recipe: just tofu straight out of the packet and sesame seeds/oil.  It was great - good balance of crispy edges, toasty sesame seeds and firm tofu texture in the middle.

Fried lettuce

I've never really experimented with cooked lettuce.  But last night I discovered it is awesome.  You need a Romaine or a Little Gem - something with both bite and tenderness, and sweetness.  I chopped the outer leaves and fried them in olive oil with salt and pepper, and I cut the heart in half and fried on both sides in the same pan.  The cooking brings out the sweetness; crunch is maintained in the stems but the leaves go floppy and absorb the seasoning.  Yum.  An especially good idea if the leaves have been in the fridge a bit long and gone a bit floppy.

The best bread I ever made: black olive and sesame bread

I came across this recipe on the Guardian website.  It looked not too taxing and sounded yummy.  Had an evening on my own since S is away right now, so decided to give it a try...

330g jar pitted kalamata olives in brine (used a ~300g tin of black, pitted olives in brine from Trader Joes)
1 tsp fast-action yeast
1 tsp dark brown sugar (used regular sugar)
50g sesame seeds, plus an extra tablespoon to finish
350g strong white flour, plus more for shaping
1 tbsp dried oregano (instead of oregano, thyme and sumac, I used za'atar)
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp sumac, optional but good
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon

Drain the olives, then measure the liquid and top up with warm water to make 250ml (had the right amount of liquid). Cut the olives in half lengthways. Put the strained olives and the liquid into a bowl, then stir in the yeast, sugar and 50g of sesame seeds. Add the flour, mix to a soft, sticky dough, cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Give the dough a short, 10-second knead in the bowl. Cover and leave for 10 minutes more. Repeat this quick knead twice more at 10-minute intervals, then leave the dough, covered, for 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, line the base of a tray with nonstick baking paper, tip za'atar (or finely ground herbs) on to a large dinner plate and mix with a tablespoon of sesame seeds and lemon zest. On another plate, have ready a wet square of kitchen towel.

Pat the dough into a rectangle on a clean worktop dusted with a little flour, then roll it up tightly into a snug scroll, making sure all the olives are tucked in. Next, tightly roll the ends of the loaf, so they pinch in and the loaf has a shape a bit like a lemon. Roll the loaf on the wet towel, then roll it in the herb and spice mix. Place on the tray seam-side down, cover and leave to rise for 90 minutes. Slash the top and bake at 220C (200C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 7 for about 40 minutes.

Bad photo doesn't do amazing bread justice

Super tasty - am having a za'atar moment right now, so happy to use that.  And the nuttiness of sesame plus salty olive taste is wonderful, yet an unusual enough combination to make for a loaf I definitely wouldn't be able to buy.  And I loved the idea of using the brine from the olives - reducing waste and adding taste and colour to the crumb.

Just ate some with a little salad of TJ's cherry tomatoes (they're excellent right now), and freshly-picked mixed baby leaves: rocket and lettuce from the balcony, mustard greens and chives from the community garden (am in my first real week of salad harvest - eating it almost every day!), dressed with olive oil+balsamic vinegar and toasted sunflower seeds... yummm