Jicama, Orange, and Fennel Salad

Sunday evening we had an impromptu dinner party. Very "Hey, I just bought all of these ingredients and it'll make a bunch, let's invite friends!" So we did.  I followed Shutterbean's recipe for homemade pizza and paired it with Moosewood's Jicama, Orange, and Fennel Salad. I know it's in bad taste to "try out" recipes on friends, but I was confident and calm and I've been drinking lots of water and getting great nights of sleep! I was up to the challenge.

Jicama is a crazy huge root vegetable that tastes like a raw potato. It's not my favorite thing, but once peeled and cut up it added a delicate crunch to the salad.  Fennel bulb is one of my all-time favorite flavor punches.  Without a mandolin, it is difficult to slice thinly (almost typed "thin slicely") but I did my best and nearly hit the mark.

The salad also has slices of orange, a little arugula and spinach, and a very simple balsamic dressing. The recipe describes plating the salads elaborately with starbursts of spinach laid out and drizzles of dressing on each plate. I went the easy route and tossed everything together. Next time I will be fancy!

Salad Sandwiches

I know it sounds a little crazy, but these Salad Sandwiches were sans sliced meat and cheese and were TOTALLY BODACIOUS! As a recently recommitted full fledged vegetarian, I have been relying heavily on cheese for fun and flavor. This meal showed me that you can have substantial taste without the added fat and calories from cheese.

I began the spectacular salad sandwich journey by gathering the necessary ingredients.

I'd like to take a moment right now to apologize for the lighting in my kitchen. It's terrible, I know. I don't have the time and patience to make beautiful food in beautiful daytime light everyday, so my post late night school situation will have to do from time to time. I hope you will still date me.

After gathering came rinsing, slicing, and shredding.  The crispy lettuce was rinsed and patted down, the cucumber, onion, and tomato was thinly sliced, and the carrot was shredded. I decided, before embarking on this sandwich adventure, to have all of the toppings ready to go for assembly.  I wanted the real sandwich deli effect here, folks!

The recipe called for "slices of great bread."  In this house, we go for the greatest: Dave's Killer Bread! This bread seriously rocks. It is organic, vegan, and comes with an inspiring message. A thin layer of mayonnaise went on the bread, followed by some salt and pepper, the veggies, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.  I accidentally forgot to put the lettuce on the sandwich, so I improvised and put it under the bread. Truly a salad sandwich!

I served the salad sandwiches with some extra slices of cucumber and some delicious tots (so much for the calories and fat slashed from cheese!). Here are a few rare photos of myself enjoying my sandwich. I don't like to slather my face all over this blog, but this sandwich was so out of this world delicious, that after my first bite, I knew the goodness needed to be documented!

Thanks for reading!

March Hare

March Hare is a simple salad made of cottage cheese, seeds, and veggies. The month of March is almost over so I thought I'd sneak this recipe in while we're still in it!

I toasted sesame seeds and sunflower seeds on the stove. In a bowl I combined cottage cheese, carrot, tomato, bell pepper, celery, cucumber, and parsley. The only two veggies I was missing for the recipe were green onion and alfalfa sprouts, but it turned out OK without them!

After the seeds were toasted, I added them to the bowl along with a hard boiled egg. Everything got mixed together. The salad was crunchy and fresh. The egg and cottage cheese provided some lovely protein. This would be a great snack for school or work!

Waldorf Deluxe

I made Waldorf Salad for a school potluck the other night, but not just any Waldorf Salad... Waldorf Deluxe!

I started with three large and lovely organic Granny Smith apples. I love the tartness of these apples and often I eat them plain.  I was thankful for this hand apple slicer and corer as I sliced them up.

After dicing the apples and mincing the celery, I cubed some cheddar cheese and toasted pecans. The dressing had four ingredients: plain yogurt, a skosh of mayonnaise, orange juice, and orange zest.

I should also note here that there were two ingredients I left out: grapes, as they are not in season, and dates, because I made a mistake! I had some dates, but I most not have stored them properly, because they were very dry when I went to mince them up. A bummer, because they are like candy fruit to me, but I will surely make this salad again and add them next time.

Since I was serving this salad at a potluck, I wanted to be sensitive to the varying diets of my fellow classmates. I decided to serve the salad deconstructed.

I thought the salad was quite good! I am glad I served it this way as I like a lot of apples, but just a little bit of yogurt dressing. The cheese and pecans were a nice addition too.

I am glad everything traveled well as I transported it to school that night!

Gado Gado

Amidst the family gatherings, end of the quarter celebrations, and general holiday festivity, it has been hard to eat healthy this week! I had a magnificent Southern meal last night with Charlie with melt-in-your-mouth collared greens. The director of my program hosted a holiday party at her home last Friday with pesto pinwheels, olive poppers, and champagne. My mom returned home from work recently with a Tupperware full of homemade cookies made by her school's PTSA. Needless to say, my body (and brain) have been aching for a healthy meal, and tonight was the perfect chance. I made Gado Gado for myself, with plenty of leftover ingredients to make it again this weekend.

Gado Gado is an Indonesian salad with yellow rice and a ginger garlic peanut dressing.  I started the dinner by cooking brown rice in water with a sprinkling of tumeric. I gathered the rest of the ingredients while the rice simmered.  After the rice was tender, I layered the following on a plate:

1. A bed of spinach
2. Yellow rice
3. An assortment of vegetables; I used shavings of carrots, edamame, and cucumber
4. Hardboiled eggs
5. Super delicious peanut dressing: peanut butter, garlic, fresh ginger, brown sugar, cider vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and crushed red pepper blended up with hot water. It turned out a little too thin, but the flavor was so intense and scrumptious, I think I'll let that slide.

This was such a fresh, delightful dinner. I need to remind myself sometimes of these healthy foods, especially in a month where rich foods are prominent!

Lentil-Bulgur Salad

Events leading up to the creation of Lentil-Bulgur Salad were not awesome... I dropped a big, expensive bottle of California olive oil, sending the shattered bits of glass all over the kitchen. I couldn't locate the salt and pepper shakers for the life of me. Oregano could not be found. It seems that this salad just wasn't gonna come together quite as expected, but somehow I pulled it off.

I used bright orange lentils for this salad. The color makes them look a little like cheddar cheese bits in the mix. Other chopped and minced ingredients included: garlic, fresh mint leaves, dill, Italian flat leaf parsley, red onion, red bell pepper, celery, feta, olives, and tomatoes.

The salad is an intense mix of flavors. The feta and olives remind me of pizza or the filling in a veggie gyro. It's a super yummy salad from the little bites I've tried. I plan to serve it for lunch tomorrow with some toasted whole wheat pita bread, per Mollie's suggestion. :)

Alsatian Salad

If you follow my twitter, you would know that I unintentionally spent $25 on baked tofu the other day. I bought the tofu for Alsatian Salad. This salad calls for either cheese or baked tofu, and I decided to do a little bit of each. Unfortunately, the grocery store I chose was a liiiiiittle pricey. Oh well.

The salad is a combination of cubed tofu, low moisture mozzarella, cucumber, red bell pepper, and a little green onion. The dressing is yogurt, a skosh of mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, horseradish, and a pinch of herbs. Super light! I served the salad over a bed of greens. Mmm!

Raw Vegetable Salad with Very Green Dressing

Mollie Katzen writes that "most vegetables can be eaten raw if cut properly... chewing is light and delightful and not a cumbersome chore. Visually, Raw Vegetable Salad can be beautiful, like edible confetti." This makes my heart sing. As someone who has a love/hate relationship with salad, I found that sticking to her instructions and cutting the vegetables smaller than I normally would made the salad much more enjoyable.

I made Very Green Dressing for the salad. It is an oil free dressing with many fresh herbs and a touch of buttermilk. The ingredients were whipped up in the food processor and spooned over the salad. While the dressing was a tad bitter, it was still tasty. I even dipped a little whole wheat pita bread in the dressing. Mmm!

Thai Salad and Whole Wheat Pitas

Last night Dianna and I made Thai Salad and Whole Wheat Pitas. It was a really good meal: filling, but not rich! The salad components were: romaine lettuce, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, potato, hard boiled egg, tofu, fresh basil, and a lemon wedge. I had never had cooked potato in a green salad before and I really liked it! The dressing was peanut butter based with a little salt, honey, garlic, and spices in it. While it was a little too runny, it flavored the salad well.

The pitas ended up being a little crispier that anticipated, but totally delicious. Pita bread is one of those things I never really thought to make from scratch. But it was so stinkin' easy to do (yeast, water, honey, salt, flour) that I will make them myself instead of buying them at the grocery store from now on!

Additionally, check out these adorable Norwegian napkins we used with dinner. Dianna translated for us: "Welcome to our home." Perfect!

Tofu Salad

Tofu Salad: pieces of tofu marinated in a garlicky sauce. Served with sliced mushrooms, shredded carrots, red pepper, and green onion. The salad only got better with time.