Avoca's Broccoli Feta Hazelnut Salad

This salad is simply delicious, incredibly easy to make and pretty addicting.

What you'll need:

1 head of broccoli

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 cup cubed feta (get the good stuff)

1/2 cup hazelnuts

s+p

For the dressing: mix together equal parts red wine vinegar, olive oil, honey and lemon and shake well.

Steam the broccoli and chop into bite size pieces.  Cut the tomatoes in half.  If you'd like skinless hazelnuts, roast them at 350 for 10 minutes and then rub the skins off.  I don't mind the skins, and I found the skinning process kind of tedious.  Combine the ingredients together and dress with the dressing.  Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Seared Corn and Feta Salad with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

This salad doesn't need much introduction other than it is a really delicious, light and refreshing summer meal.  It is perfect to bring to a bbq, and it has way more complex flavor than you'd expect from just a few ingredients.  Have you ever seared corn?  Well, searing the corn gives it a smoky taste, turning it into an almost popcorn-like flavor.  The light dressing adds a tang and sweetness, and the feta adds some saltiness.  Tomatoes and onion round out the dish and just make it really, really yummy.

What you'll need:

Corn and Feta Salad

3 cobs of corn

1/2-1 cup crumbled feta

1/2 chopped red onion

1/2 pint grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

1 cup loosely packed cilantro

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon honey
salt+pepper to taste

1/2 cup canola oil

Boil the corn for about 4 minutes in salty water.  This will slightly under cook the corn but you will be finishing it off in a pan so this is the goal.  While the corn is boiling, put the vinaigrette ingredients, minus the oil in a food processor or vitamix.  Pulse a few times, and then pour in the oil slowly while mixing.  This will create a very pleasing light green dressing that is sweet, tangy and light.  

 

 When the corn is done, carve the corn off of the cob, season it with salt and pepper and begin heating 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a cast iron or non non-stick pan.  When the oil is hot, and nearly smoking, put the corn in the pan.  Place a cover partially over the top of the pan so as to not hurt yourself because these corn kernels will pop.  And they hurt, too.  Don't touch the corn for about a minute or so so it browns on one side, and then (very carefully) take a spatula and flip the kernels.  The corn is done when it is slightly brown on each side.

 

Toss the corn, feta, onions, tomatoes and dressing together while warm and serve.  The salad tastes just as good the next day, cold, from the fridge.  

Enjoy!

Buffalo Southwest Salad with Homemade (light-er) Blue Cheese Dressing

If you know me, you know I love buffalo wings and am kind of a sucker for anything "buffalo."  But, ya can't have buffalo wings every day so buffalo salad makes a perfectly fine substitute.  Pretending it's healthy with that lettuce, its really just buffalo on crack, with crispy buffalo chicken, blue cheese dressing on top of crumbled blue cheese, with buttery avocado, bright and tangy tomatoes and sweet corn.  Nope, it is not the healthiest, but it is a touch better for you than being totally fried and swapping greek yogurt for sour cream in the dressing is a nice touch that lightens it up and adds a great tang.  I made this back at home for my fam and everyone ate a HUGE bowl's worth of this salad.  EVEN my meat-loving carnivorous brother ate it all AND enjoyed it.  Now, that is a successful dinner. 

Homemade (lighter) Blue Cheese Dressing

What You'll Need (makes about 3 cups)

3/4 cup 0% or 2% Greek Yogurt

1 cup mayo

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

Simply mix and let sit while you prepare the salad to let the flavors meld.  The dressing will stay good in an airtight container in your fridge for over a week and is great on sandwiches, salads and as a veggie dip.  

 

Buffalo Southwest Salad

What You'll Need (serves 5)

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese (or enough to sprinkle on 5 salads)

3 heads of romaine lettuce, chopped and cleaned

3 cobs of corn, boiled in salted water for 5 minutes and de-cobbed

1 pint cherry tomatoes. sliced lengthwise

2 avocados, cubed

1 pound chicken breast, cubed (or tofu, cubed for the vegetarians)

Panko bread crumbs

2 eggs

Buffalo Sauce (you can use any brand you like, "Frank's" brand is generally good)

Begin by preheating the oven to 400 degrees.  Set up a "dredging station" by beating the two eggs, and placing next to a plate of panko bread crumbs.  Season the eggs with salt, pepper and a dash of the hot sauce.  Coat the chicken in egg, then cover in panko, and then place in a roasting pan.  Roast for about 10-15 minutes, tossing once.  The chicken should be cooked through (not pink on the inside) and somewhat golden.  

While the chicken is cooking, assembled the salad by placing lettuce on bottom, and the corn, tomatoes, blue cheese and avocado on top in amounts and variations requested by picky eaters.

When the chicken is done, toss with buffalo sauce while warm and place on top of the salads.

Got a vegetarian in the house?  Drain and pat dry tofu.  Spray a pan with pam and pan fry over medium heat until the tofu is golden.  Toss with buffalo sauce and place on top of the salad.

Serve with the blue cheese dressing and enjoy.  Seriously, sit outside with this salad and a cold beer.  While not as messy as wings, this is almost as satisfying and a great and easy weekday meal. 

Bean Salad: Straub's Wannabe

Here's a quick recipe for an easy, delicious and refreshing bean salad first found at Straub's in St. Louis.

What you'll need:

1 can of white beans

Juice of 1 lemon

Dill, finely chopped (add more or less depending on how much you like dill!)

1/4 fresh red pepper, finely chopped

1/4 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

First, rinse off the beans.  Then, add the rest of the ingredients, with the salt and pepper to taste.  This is a wonderful salad to have around and snack on.  It keeps in the fridge for a few days, but I guarantee you won't have it around for that long!

Enjoy!

Roasted Beet and Orange Salad with Toasted Walnuts

My valentines day present also included beets, whole and intact--not from a can, imagine that!  I love beets and always order them when I see them on menus, but I've never tried roasting them myself.  Well, I'm glad I learned how to cook these babies because they turned out super delicious, looked incredibly beautiful and went wonderfully with bright oranges and toasted walnuts.  I even got to take a friend's beet v-card, and she loved them!

What you'll need:

1 bunch fresh beets 

olive oil

salt+pepper

2 oranges

walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 and start by cutting off the beet greens, and rinsing the beets

As a side note, I didn't end up doing this myself, but the greens are apparently really delicious sauteed like spinach with garlic and olive oil

Next, wrap them in tin foil and pour a touch of olive oil over the beets

Wrap up the tin foil to make a little packet

 Put the packet in the oven and don't touch it for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the beets are fork-tender

While these are cooking, chop up walnuts and put them into a pan over low heat

 

Toss occasionally until the walnuts are lightly toasted 

After the walnuts are done, let them cool off and get started on peeling the oranges and cutting them into slices

When the beets are done, take them out of the oven and open the foil packet

It'll be all steamy and smell good

 Let the beets cool off.  You have to take the skin off of the beet, but that's the messy part so I looked up how to do this and found a cool trick.  Run the beet under cold water as you gently rub the skin off, and the dye will wash away with the water, staining your fingers minimally.

Cut the beets into fourths and toss with the oranges and the walnuts

Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some sea salt

The dye from the beets will turn the oranges a beautiful pink 

This is a perfect, non-traditional salad or side dish and was lovely with some chickendorisgordon!

Enjoy!

Thai Noodle Chicken Salad: Chinatown Forays

Recently, I've started hearing the same complaint from my my friends---they can't seem to find good fresh groceries for reasonable prices.  Or, actually anything for reasonable prices in NYC.  I'm no expert on bargain hunting here, but I have found a few good deals that I'll share over the next few posts, or whenever I remember.

 This post is about my first, and best discovery about Manhattan, or anywhere that has a Chinatown.

Anyone who knows me knows I love Chinatown.  I live in Manhattan now, but I don't discriminate--I love Chinatowns everywhere.  There's something about the little shops, the mysterious menus, the dirtiness and crowds that I just can't stay away from.  And, I just loooove me some cheap Chinese food.  I can't help it!  Chinese food is my comfort food, which my friends can attest to after being dragged for dim sum, for Chinese baked goods or just for dumplings, many, many more times than they'd care to admit.  I've even rubbed off on a few of them to the point where they've become dumpling addicts too (cough cough sorry Cap).

Located deep in the heart of any good Chinatown is about the secret I'd like to share with you today--Chinese grocery stores.  If you go to the right one, they have, far and away, the freshest, cheapest groceries in New York City that I've found to date.  Yes, the employees probably don't speak English, and yes, you may have to wad through aisles of soy sauce before you get to the goodies (although in my opinion, soy sauce IS a goody!) but where else can you get avocados and bok choy and already peeled garlic for 1/3 of Food Emporium's price?  Hong Kong Supermarket, on 157 Hester Street, that's where.  (If you happen to be in St. Louis--check out the grocery store on Olive st.!)

Go, right now!  Because not only can you get fresh fruits and veggies, you can get all sorts of delicious sauces, noodles, and your very own set of chopsticks!  I headed down there this time because I was on the hunt for Fish Sauce, which is a staple in Thai cooking.  I, for some reason, was having a craving for a Thai-inspired salad.

Fish sauce smells kind of funny, but it adds a saltiness similar to soy sauce in dips, marinades and dressings.

It was going to be the base for my Thai inspired salad dressing.

The next thing on my grocery list was rice noodles.  Rice noodles are super cheap and last nearly forever on your shelf.  They're excellent to have around for an impromptu, or quick dinner.  To prepare them, you simply need to soak them in lukewarm water and then boil them for about 2 minutes.

   

The rest of the ingredients for the salad and dressing you probably already have around.

(before you put the dressing together, boil a pot of water)

For the dressing:

about 2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 tablespoon of peeled and chopped ginger

1 chopped garlic clove

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon of brown sugar (white sugar is also fine)

chopped chilies or sriracha if you like spicy

My dressing looked like this:

 Play with the flavors of your dressing.  It should taste salty, sweet, sour and spicy all at the same time.

While you're assembling the dressing, soak the noodles in warm water.

When the dressing is done, throw the noodles into the boiling water for about 2 minutes.  Then they're done!

Anything can go into your salad.

I peeled and thinly sliced cucumbers, scallions, cabbage, yellow onion and chopped romaine lettuce.

I also grilled a piece of chicken with a little bit of soy sauce.

Toss everything together.

Eat with your new, lovely chopsticks.

Enjoy!

P.S.

Another awesome deal I recently found is for this cool site that will deliver toilet paper, paper towels, makeup, vitamins...basically anything you can get at your local CVS, at a discount AND get this---delivered to your door either the same day or next day FOR FREE.  Talk about lazy AND cheap!

Check it out...

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and get 15% off with this code

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Enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

Despite my (nominal) efforts to stay fairly healthy, I still fall behind sometimes with the simplicity of seamlessweb and the abundance of 5 dollar chinese lunch specials.  I guess I went too many days without vitamin c/greens because I have recently succumbed to a nasty cold.  This cold really hit hard and has me lying in bed and craving and eating so (too) much (hot and sour) soup.  Desperate to restore some balance to my diet I decided to go for a good mix of vitamin c and greens.

Start with:

lettuce of your choice

Butternut Squash (I bought mine already peeled and cut up--pretty cheap at TJ and really worth it to avoid to hassle of cutting up a squash!)

Olive Oil, salt, pepper, hot paprika

Either: Dried Currants, Cherries, Craisins, Golden Raisins

Nuts (I've still got an abundance of TJ's sliced almonds so I went with those)

Goat Cheese

1 can of chickpeas

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cut up the squash into small pieces.  Cover in olive oil, salt, pepper and hot paprika.

Roast for about 20-25 minutes stirring once.  The squash should be tender and slightly caramelized. (It's hard to resist eating the pan once you've tasted one to "see if it's ready"!)

They should look like this:

While the squash is in the oven, rinse off the chickpeas.

Place the lettuce in a bowl and in a circle place: a small handful of goat cheese crumbles, nuts, dried fruit, the squash, and chickpeas

As for the dressing, drizzling olive oil and balsamic should work fine but I go with an easy dressing with an olive oil base+ a dash of: grey poupon, honey, lemon, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper

It's easy, you can play with the proportions until you get something that tastes good and goes with every salad, and it stays fresh in the fridge for a loooong time!

The salad was pretty simple and delicious, enjoy!

Farmer's Market Green Bean and Tomato Salad

I can't help myself when it comes to farmer's markets.  Even if I wander through the stalls for a while without any intention of buying, I must MUST try a sip of freshly made apple cider (my favorite!) or "taste" (is it really a taste if I "taste" four, or maybe....five times??) a sweet New Jersey cherry tomato.

This weekend I had to have these multi-colored green beans.  They were beautiful--purple, green, yellow and instead of cooking them to death, I thought I'd make a salad so they could still (somewhat) retain their pretty natural colors.

Begin with:

Green Beans 

Shallots

Olive Oil

Red Wine Vinegar

Lemon Juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Clean the beans first, then chop off the ends.  Start boiling a pot of salted water, but have an ice water bath ready.  You are going to blanch (! this was my first time doing a fancy cooking move, all learned from Smitten Kitchen) the beans.

The purple beans lost their color in the boiling water, which was pretty sad.  Keep them in the water for about three minutes, or until they are tender but haven't lost their crunch.  Then, throw them in the ice water so they stop cooking.  Chop them up into pretty pieces after you've dried them off.

Mince the shallot, or chop it up finely.  Put about a third to a half cup of olive oil in a pan, and when it is heated, throw the shallots in.  It'll take just a few seconds for the shallots to cook through, just long enough to take the raw, biting edge off for a salad, and just enough time for it to fill your kitchen with amazing smells.

Then, put the oil and vinegar in a bowl.  Put about two tablespoons of red wine vinegar in, a splash of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.  

Chop up whatever (farmer's market or Amish Market) tomatoes you have in the fridge.  I used Amish Market "cocktail" tomatoes.  Throw these, the green beans and the dressing all together.

Enjoy!

Quickie Tomato and Avocado Salad

I first tried this combination at a classy restaurant in Milan, Italy when I was studying abroad.  It seems like such a simple salad, and it really is, but it's a fabulous side dish, or a please-make-me-one-every-day salad for people like my dad.  

I like to use campari tomatoes, but these are a little expensive so use whatever smaller tomatoes  they are selling at the farmers market that day or weekend (in any color--I like to use a mix of red, yellow and orange cherry tomatoes, too).  

Cut bigger tomatoes in fourths, and cherry tomatoes in half.  Cut the avocado in chunks as well.  Toss everything with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Chop up a little basil (take it from the garden if you are lucky enough to have the space for one in your backyard--I don't, but I definitely like to steal it from people that do--thanks mom).  Sprinkle the basil on top, along with some sea salt.

Enjoy!