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Category: Salads-Fall-Winter

  • Winter Radish Citrus Salad with Cinnamon Vinaigrette

    This is a great salad to add to your winter holiday menu. It’s bright and tangy and crunchy and endlessly adaptable. I used some oranges and candied pecans here. Feta or blue cheese would be great. Celery or onions or apples and kohlrabi, or avocado would be good too. Grapefruit is really good too. The star here is the cinnamon vinaigrette dressing. It’s bright with just a hum of cinnamon spiciness that pulls all the strong flavors of the salad together.

    For this salad use what ever components you like. Here is what I had. There are three oranges there, you can’t see one behind the onion.

    Make the Cinnamon Vinaigrette

    • 1/2 cup citrus juice, any kind. I used orange and lemon
    • 2 Tbls olive oil
    • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
    • 1 Tbls maple syrup
    • 1/4 tsp salt

    Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl mix it really well. Taste it to see if you want more maple syrup or salt or olive oil. I needed more olive oil and cinnamon. You want to really taste the cinnamon.

    • Peel the citrus and slice it into bite size pieces. Thinly slice the radishes and cut into bite size pieces add the fruit and radishes to the dressing and toss so it is all coated.

    • You will have a lot of extra liquid from the oranges.

    Arrange the radishes and oranges in a clean bowl and top your salad with any nuts, cheese, seeds, or anything else you like and pour the extra juice/dressing over the salad. This is a good salad to serve in individual salad bowls.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Celery Salad

    I love celery. I always, always have some in my refrigerator to add to just about every dish I make- salads, stir fry’s, soups, sandwich fillings…I love the crunchy slightly bitterness it adds to dishes.

    I also really like celery salads where celery is the main ingredient. I like crunchy salads like this as a side dish with soups, chili, egg dishes or just with some nice bread and cheese. Celery salads are a great addition to heavy holiday meals and travel and keep really well so they are great for potlucks.

    This is a clean out the refrigerator/use what you have type of dish for me usually. Today I had some celery, a watermelon radish, some blue cheese and walnuts. Almond and parmesan are one of my favorite combinations. Any cheese or nuts you have will do. You’ll probably want some sort of allium in your salad. I had some scallions that I used, any herbs are a nice addition too. I ended up adding some arugula. I had some walnut oil in my refrigerator and decided to use that. You can use any oil and any vinegar, don’t forget the salt and pepper! Whenever I am making an oil and vinegar based dressing I add just a little lemon. I find it balances out the one note tartness of the vinegar.

    You’ll want to wash and trim your celery. I use a really steep bias cut when I cut celery. That reduces the strings per bite and makes for more pleasant eating, I think.

    Cut up the rest of your salad ingredients.

    Put everything in a bowl.

    Dress it with some vinegar, oil and a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper and mix it up.

    I use my clean hands.

    Now taste and adjust the seasonings and enjoy.

    If you have any leftover, celery salad makes the best avocado or cream cheese toast topping you’ve ever had.

     

    Have a great week. I am loving this Fall weather, see you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Kale Caesar Salad

    Last week I posted one of my favorite ‘go-to’ meals. So I thought why not post another?

    I make this dressing and salad so often I have my ingredients and notes on making it taped on the inside of my kitchen cabinet.

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    Using kale or any sturdy green with this Caesar dressing makes a really nice basic salad.  You can change the types of vinegar’s and mustard’s to tweak dressing to make it your own. The one secret to making a really great dressing is to taste, taste, taste as you are making it.

    This makes enough for a really-really big salad. I usually have leftovers. The leftovers keep for a week, so yay! You can have more salad! For the dressing you will need.

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    4 whole anchovy fillets-I know some people have a problem with anchovies, sorry, but you need them here.
    2 tablespoons mustard any Dijon or any grainy mustard will do
    1 tablespoon  vinegar – I almost always use balsamic
    1 dash of Worcestershire sauce
    2 cloves (or more ) fresh garlic, peeled
    1/2 whole lemon, juiced-I often use lime if that is what i have
    1/2 cup-I almost always use 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup neutral flavor oil like avocado, using all olive oil is too bitter for me.
    1 egg yolk OR 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan- I almost always use an egg yolk and not the Parmesan in the dressing, I put the Parmesan ON the salad, but if you want to use both, go for it!
    1 dash salt
    Freshly ground black pepper

    Wash and dry whatever greens you are using and put them in a bowl big enough to really be able to mix and toss the salad.

    Put all the ingredients except for the oils you are using in a food processor or blender and pulse a few time to fully incorporate them all. With the food processor, or blender on slowly drizzle the oil into the other ingredients-slowly, you will hear the ingredients thicken and start to ‘slap”. You’ll know what I mean when you hear it. Taste the dressing and add more lemon or vinegar or garlic if you need to.

    I completely forgot to take a picture of the dressing in the food processor-gack…but here is a picture of the salad before I tossed it. I like to put croutons in with the kale and dressing so they soften up a bit. Start with using about 1/2 the dressing and taste and add as you need it. Now toss-toss-mix-mix-taste-taste- really get that dressing on every bit of the salad ingredients.

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    Now you have a really nice basic satisfying Kale Caesar Salad….

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    ….that you can add any protein or other vegetable or fruit to. We had poached salmon and topped the salmon with this vinaigrette. 

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    Leftovers are great the next day, the kale holds up really well. Hope this becomes your favorite too.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

     

  • Beets Stewed in Wine (a warm beet salad)

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    Boy is this a tasty way to cook beets. Stewing beets in wine brings out the earthy rich flavor of the beets. I usually roast beets in the oven, however, as hot as it has been I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen so I decided to stew my beets.

    So, what is stewing? Stewing is cutting small, uniform pieces of vegetables (or meat) and cooking them slowly, on a low heat, totally immersed in liquid. The slow cooking allows the liquid you are stewing the food in to penetrate and flavor the food.

    You can use any flavorful liquid to stew. I used wine (red this time) and some water. I used about 1/2 and 1/2. I think if I used all wine it would have overpowered the beets. I would have used vegetable stock with the wine, but I didn’t have any. You could use just stock and no wine if you like.
    I don’t really have a recipe for this, it is more a method/recipe. Use what you have and what you like.

    •  Scrub a bunch of  beets and chop them into 1-inch cubes, don’t peel them. If you have greens from the beets you can add them at the end of cooking.
    • In a large saucepan, combine a couple of tablespoons of butter with the beets and wine (I used red wine, you can use white – I would use white if I had gold beets) and water or stock to cover the vegetables. I added half an onion and a bay leaf too and a splash of balsamic vinegar for a little sweetness, you could use sugar or honey, but you do need a little sweetness with this dish. Bring all this to a boil. Cover and adjust the heat so the mixture simmers very gently.

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    • Cook until the vegetables are tender, 35 or 40 minutes. When they are tender add the greens now if you are using them and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.
    • Strain the vegetables from the liquid and add salt and pepper to taste. I added some olive oil and some more balsamic vinegar to dress it, then toss and serve.

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    I topped it with goat cheese and almonds and had a delightful warm beet salad.

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    I will make this again and do something to incorporate all that lovely flavorful stewing liquid that was left and report back.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

     

  • Roasted Chilies Salad Dressing

    I wasn’t going to post this recipe for the sole reason I couldn’t get a decent picture of the dressing or of even one of the salads I made with the dressing. Turns out roasted chilies aren’t photogenic in the least, or I am a bad photographer. Probably a bit of both.

    Blogs are all about photos and I feel strongly that we eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths. But this time, this one time I am going to ask for your trust, to believe me that this tastes a million times better than it looks.

    Let me back up a bit and tell you what inspired me to try to recreate this salad. I was in Santa Fe earlier this summer. One of my favorite restaurants I have ever been to is Pasqual’s in Santa Fe. We had a great dinner (our 20th anniversary!) and guess what? One if the dishes I had was a salad of field greens with ‘fire-roasted Poblano chilies’. As far as I could tell it was just a vinegar based dressing with some Poblanos added. It was simple, delicious and unusual and unlike any salad I have had.

    This is my attempt at recreating it. I have to say I am really happy with the salads I have made with this copy-cat dressing, and so is everyone who ate them.

    I started with some of our roasted peppers. I have used Poblano and Anaheim,  fresh  chilies just roasted and chilies that were frozen and thawed. All are good.

    Look farmilar?

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    For the dressing I used;

    • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
    • 1/4 olive oil
    • about 1/2 a bag of roasted chilies peeled, seeded and chopped
    • about 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander, salt and pepper

    I threw that all in a jar and mixed it up really well.

    See what I mean about the photos? ugg.

    With this ugly dressing I made some really nice salads. I didn’t serve it on field greens like they did at the restaurant. I used what I had from our CSA share.

    One time I had some nice tomatoes and I sliced them really thick and topped the tomato with ricotta cheese and roasted chilies dressing made with Poblanos. That is a shaved Brussels Sprout salad next to it. The chilies look like olives:(

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    This next salad is a sort of chopped salad made the dressing with the roasted Anaheim chilies.  I chopped up what I had; cucumbers, my last tomato (goodbye summer), a Carmen pepper, celery and a little bit of onion.

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    With the leftovers I added some white beans and some parsley and had that for lunch.

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    Hopefully you have a bag or two of roasted chilies in your freezer and might want to try this. I think you will really like how unique the chilies are in a salad.

    Until next time.

    Mo

     

     

     

  • Warm Kale Salad

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    Remember when massaged kale salad was all the rage? I think warm salads are going to be the next ‘thing’. Warm greens are less bitter and easier to chew than raw greens, AND they make great leftovers.

    This salad is a riff on this bitter green salad. I used the kale and turnip greens from my CSA share this week.

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    Turn on your broiler before you start this salad. It goes together really fast and you want the broiler hot.

    I washed and shredded up the greens and dressed them with a really simple vinaigrette dressing and piled the greens on an oven proof platter.

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    Next I sprinkled some cheese on the greens, kind of like you would a pizza, then I pop it in the oven until the cheese melted. I used smoked Gouda cheese and it melted in 3 or 4 minutes.

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    I forgot to take a picture of the melted cheese…sorry. I’m not in the blogging groove yet. Ooops.

    When it comes out of the oven all melty, top it with whatever sounds good; nuts, dried fruit, granola, pretty much anything you have in your pantry would be good I am guessing. I had roasted pecans and dried tart cherries.

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    You can see how the top of the greens sort of starts to collapse but the greens on the bottom are still firm. The melted cheese adheres to some of the greens and cheese and the vinaigrette are really nice flavors with the fresh greens. All the different textures make this salad interesting, different and  kind of sophisticated.

    The original recipe is in the link above. This is what I did;

    Warm Kale salad

    3 tablespoons vinegar – I used red wine and balsamic

    1/4 cup olive oil, Kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper

    1 bunch kale and some turnip greens – feel free to use any greens you have

    a large handful of cheese, grated – I used Gouda

    a handful or more of nuts or dried fruit

    1. Heat the broiler to high. 2. Whisk the vinegar with 1/4 cup olive oil in a large bowl and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the greens and toss to coat them nicely. Taste and adjust the seasoning. 3. Pile the salad on an ovenproof platter and top with the cheese. Broil the salad just until the cheese is melted, about 3 or 4  minutes. Sprinkle with whatever toppings you like. Serve!

    Have a great week.

    Mo

    Note; please use any of my recipes and posts as a guide, they are written knowing that ingredients change by seasons and tastes differ cook to cook.  Adjust freely and accordingly and enjoy the process – I do!

     

  • Roasted Beet Salad

    My middle daughter got married this weekend. The wedding festivities and cleanup went on until late Sunday night so I missed the CSA party yesterday.

    The weather couldn’t have been better for a wedding or a CSA party. I hope lots of you enjoyed the day at the Farm. We had a great time at the wedding.
    wedding dress

    I thought I would share a salad I made for the wedding. The ceremony and party were in our backyard. We hired a wood fire oven and served personal pizzas for the wedding feast. My daughter and I made some salads to go with the pizza. This is the simple salad I made.

    beet salad

    I wanted something I could make ahead and throw together as I needed it during the celebration and not be bothered with lots of mess or prep and this worked out well. I roasted and diced the beets on Wednesday for a Saturday wedding. I made a strawberry vinaigrette with strawberries I had frozen from earlier this season. I dressed the beets with the vinaigrette the night before. I washed and spun dry lots of arugula and had some goat cheese from a friend and roasted some pecans. Here is everything prepped and ready to be thrown together as it is needed.

    ingredients

    This was super simple, but pretty and was easy to eat off a plate on a picnic table. I had to replenish the salad 4 times during the night but it was easy because everything was ready.

    This would be an easy dish to bring to a pot-luck or just have on hand for an easy side dish during the week.
    Phew, what a weekend. I’m spent.

    Please check out my past post on sunchokes as you will be getting those in your CSA share this week. Enjoy this great weather!

  • Roasted Delicata Squash Salad

    Delicata are one of a few winter squash that you don’t need to peel. The flesh and peel are firm with a nutty flavor. I like to roast them in smaller pieces to get more caramelized areas, but you can also just cut it in half and roast it like you would an acorn squash. Delicatas are nice stuffed with grains or vegetables and roasted, too.

    I want to show you one of my favorite winter salads. This is a good way to use up anything you have in your refrigerator.

    Delicata squash work really well with this salad because the flesh is so firm when it is cooked and can hold up to being tossed with vinaigrette and mixed with other ingredients.

    Cut up your squash, removing the seeds and stringy pulp.  Drizzle the slices with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a hot 400˚F oven.
    Sliced Delicata

    Tossed with Oil
    Roast the bejeezes out of it, about 40 minutes. You want these really done, almost dry.

    Crisp Roasted
    Put the cooked squash in a bowl and chop up any vegetables that you have on hand. Make sure you add some sort of onion and some crunchy stuff like celery or peppers. The contrast of soft and crunchy is nice. I wish I had some hard cooked eggs to add here.
    Add to Salad

    I drizzled this with a Dijon vinaigrette but any dressing will do. Mine was 2 teaspoons Dijon, 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I tossed it all and served it on some lettuce. This is also great on grains or rice. The leftovers are so good too. The flavors meld so make lots. You will want more than one meal out of this.
    Finished Salad

  • Kale Salad

    I love this salad. If you try it let us know how you like it. You could use any of the greens you get this week to make this salad. Mizuna, spicy salad mix, or kale.

    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
    • 2 tablespoons of shoyu or soy sauce
    • 1 bunch of kale (or any green), chopped with ribs removed
    • ½ to ¾ cup unsweetened large-flaked coconut. If you use small flaked use less coconut
    • Some crushed red pepper (optional)

    Preheat the oven to 350F
    Dump the washed and chopped kale and coconut with the oils and the soy sauce (and crushed red peppers if using) into a bowl.
    Kale Salad
    Make sure you mix the sauce all over the kale and coconut evenly.
    Chopped Kale
    Spread the contents of the bowl on a baking sheet and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes until the coconut starts to toast. You might need two baking sheets. Stir the kale once or twice while it’s cooking.

    You can eat this as a side dish or I like to add some grains for a meal. I had some leftover jade rice. This is a great make-ahead dish and the leftovers are really good for lunches.
    Sauteed over rice

    – Mo