blood orange, beet, and fennel salad

Happy Leap Day!  I had a different post prepared for today (a satisfying and substantial dinner), but I am going to save that for tomorrow and give you something a little bit unusual instead.  In honor of Leap Day William, it would be cool if each of you ate something today that you wouldn't ordinarily eat any other day of the year.  Take a leap of faith.  Try something new.  Live on the edge.  If you're at a loss for ideas, you can try this salad.  I know it is a bit weird, but trust me, it's completely awesome.

 

Some people buy candy as a once-in-a-while treat from the grocery store checkout line.  I buy cooking magazines.  (Unless they have peanut butter M&Ms, in which case I buy both.)  When I saw this recipe in January's Bon Appetit, I knew I had to make it.  I have had a raging obsession with fennel since visiting Italy last summer, but as it is almost as unwieldy and intimidating as butternut squash, I've never made anything with it myself.  Luckily, I soon learned fennel is pretty easy to prepare if you just read a little bit about it first.  The entire plant is edible - from its white, bulbous base, to its green, celery-like stalks, and its feathery, dill-like leaves.  It's also super versatile.  It is delicious raw - either shaved thin in salads, or alone with a drizzle of good olive oil and sea salt.  When prepared by braising, sautéeing, roasting, or grilling, the bulb softens and the flavor mellows.  Oh yeah, that's the best part about fennel.  When raw, it tastes like black licorice.  When cooked, it becomes a little sweeter and less powerful, but the notes of anise still shine through.  Yum. 

But enough about fennel.  This recipe also includes my other favorite things - beets and winter citrus.  In fact, the stars of this salad are actually the blood orange and the beet, with the fennel taking a supporting role.  Blood oranges are small, but powerful, and replete with fiber and antioxidants.  The tart flavor pairs amazingly with the inherent sweetness showcased in roasted beets.  (If you have missed my love affair with beets, you can read more about it here.  I know I wax poetic about a lot of vegetables, but I am particularly fond of beets.)

I followed this recipe almost exactly, but I've changed the wording in the recipe because some of the original verbage is confusing and misleading.  I also used parsley instead of cilantro, and I threw some fennel fronds in for good measure, too.  Enjoy!

Blood orange, beet, and fennel salad
Serves 2
adapted from bon appetit

4 medium red beets, tops trimmed 
2 blood oranges 
1 medium navel orange 
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
6 slices of fennel, sliced very thin on a mandoline
6 slices of red onion, sliced very thin on a mandoline
High-quality extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon chopped parsley and fennel fronds, for garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 400°. Scrub beets, wrap individually in foil, and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour. Let cool.
2.  Meanwhile, using a sharp knife, cut all peel and white pith from all oranges; discard. Working over a medium bowl, segment one of the blood oranges by slicing between each membrane and allowing them to fall into the bowl.  Squeeze excess juice from membrane into bowl and discard the membranes.  Slice remaining blood orange and navel orange, either crosswise into thin rounds or segmented.  Place in the same bowl and allow to stand for a few minutes in the citrus juices.
3.  Peel cooled beets. Slice beets into thin rounds, wedges, or both.  Layer beets and oranges (without juices) on plates, dividing evenly. Arrange fennel and onion over beets. Spoon reserved citrus juices over, then drizzle salad generously with oil. Season to taste with coarse sea salt and pepper. Let salad stand for 5 minutes to allow flavors to meld. Garnish salad with parsley and fennel leaves. Pin It Now!

grapefruit & avocado salad (with chicken)

 

For some reason, I have been thinking a lot about chicken breast.  And I'm not sure why.

It's just chicken breast.  The most quotidian of animal proteins.  Sure, it's versatile, in that it can take on many flavors and cooking methods.  Grill it, bake it, roast it, poach it.  Ditto with flavors - it's essentially a blank canvas, so let your spice rack have its way with it.  But still...kind of boring and uninspired, right?

Maybe the reason why I have been craving chicken breast is that it's been a while since I've eaten it.  I used to eat chicken breast all. the. time.  But after my stint as a temporary vegetarian last year, I started to eat less meat in general - and a whole lot less chicken breast.  When I do want carnivorous fare, I usually invite friends over because it's easier to cook for four than it is to cook for one, and chicken is a pretty safe bet.  I'd say in all, I only eat chicken breast a couple times a month, at most.  What a change from three times a week.*

But one thing I've learned from changing my diet over the years - with both small changes and large overhauls - is that your body is like a toddler, no matter your biological age.  When you change its routine, it's going to freak out.  Eventually, though, it will settle into a new groove and forget its old ways.  Like a toddler, you also have to know when to listen to it.  It may ask for something once, and it's okay to ignore it.  You don't want to risk spoiling it and doing things just to shut it up - this will backfire.  But, when it asks over. and over. and over again.  You should listen.  So when I start thinking about chicken breast as I'm grooving from column to column in Excel...chicken I will eat.

I know that when my body specifically asks for chicken breasts, it doesn't want anything fancy.  Just add some lemon, olive oil, and thyme, prepare simply, and enjoy with rice and vegetables.  So I baked a couple of breasts on 350, ate one for dinner in this simple way, and saved the other for a lunch salad a couple of days later.

There's no real recipe for this because I think salad recipes are BS, as they're infinitely adaptable, hard to mess up, and you're pretty much guaranteed that somebody has made that salad before.  Last year I wrote a post on salads here.  Check it out if you need some inspiration.

My salad was made with utility in mind, but I knew the flavors would work well together, as this is a classic combination.  My mom had given me some grapefruit and avocados to take with me back to DC after a trip home last weekend.  Despite her enthusiasm for "guacs", as she calls them, she and my dad cannot possibly go through a Costco bag before they go bad.   So these were the perfect salad components.  I just love the tart winter citrus paired with the creamy, heart-healthy avocado.  A light sprinkling of tangy feta cheese goes a long way, and the addition of a crunchy nut, such as walnuts or pistachios, is always great too.  Leave out the chicken if you want - the salad is just as wonderful without it.  For the pescatarians out there, add some shrimp and roasted red peppers (another one of my favorite combinations).  For dressing, the juices from the grapefruit will dress the leaves, but feel free to add balsamic vinegar or maybe a hint of walnut oil.  Just like that, a boring protein becomes a part of an amazing salad.

*I know my mother is probably having a conniption right now as she thinks I've become one of those snobs/freaks who won't eat normal food.  Not the case.  I will always eat what others make for me, but until I'm routinely cooking for someone other than myself, I am backing off the chicken breasts.

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just beet it

lentil salad with beets, green beans, and goat cheese

 
To me, beets are the perfect example of two things - a) don't knock it till ya try it (twice), and b) there are some things that absolutely cannot, and should not, ever be eaten out of a can.

There are a lot of people out there who can't fathom the idea of beets.  And I get it; I honestly do.  I used to be right there with y'all.  I didn't eat beets until about a year ago.  In fact, the only time I ever even saw beets prior to that was at my grandparents' house. Every few Sundays, we'd get in the car and drive a half hour to their house, and Dad and/or Uncle Jim would take my grandfather to the Methodist church.  While the men were at church, my mom and grandmother would cook the sides for lunch later that day, while Bollie, Jamie, and I would "play" the piano (I had no formal training, but I thought that four years of violin gave me a solid foundation) or run around in the back yard.  My grandparents had a sprawling lawn with tons of tall pine trees, and Paw-Paw would give us a dollar for every trash bag of pine cones we collected.  When I look back at this, I realize how much of a steal he was getting, and all I can do is laugh...he really was so cheap.

Church was at 11am, but if it lasted more than an hour, Paw-Paw would walk out.  I wish I were kidding. He once told the minister that the church didn't pay overtime, a story fondly retold during his eulogy.  Just after noon, the men would come through the back door with Hardees boxes of fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits.  And we'd feast.  Heaping platters of succotash, green beans, and sauteed spinach, all things my Dad loves, littered the table.  We'd help ourselves to chicken, biscuits, and the sides, passing the plates around for seconds and thirds until we were fully sated.  At the end of the meal, there was no chicken, no biscuits, no succotash, no green beans, and no spinach.  But there generally was a little plate of canned beets left over.  Slimy, icky canned beets, (too) perfectly trimmed (manufactured?) into circular disks.  The plate looked as if one or two beets had been picked off, but they mostly looked lonely sitting there, like the last kid picked in PE class awkwardly looking down at his Chucks until the last team captain called his name.  It was a shame, really.  The little congealed beets got no love.  My grandfather made me try one once; I think I took one bite and didn't eat a beet again until last summer, a good fifteen years later. 

I ended up with a bunch of dirty purple beets before my cousin/aunt/relative Angelita was going out of town.  (I don't know what it is with people always dumping their unused produce on me, but I'm not complaining!)  I searched for the perfect beet recipe for a few days - I was determined to find the proper vehicle to reintroduce the villain into my diet.  Every recipe said that roasting the beets was the failsafe way to bring out the flavor, preserve the texture (no slime!) and make them look pretty, too.  So I gave it a shot.  And I forgot to set the timer, and they cooked an extra twenty minutes longer than they should have.  Despite this slip-up, the final result was a caramelized, candy-like bulb, sweet and savory all at once.

So then I bought beets for the first time.  And then bought them again.  I tried boiling them once, but they're just not the same as when they're roasted.  Roasted beets are a versatile addition to several dishes.  I like them in salads with goat cheese, avocado, and citrus, or simply tossed in a bit of balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I recently put some roasted beets into a warm salad with lentils and green beans and topped with creamy goat cheese (when the opportunity presents itself, I top everything with goat cheese).  It does take a while, but it's not a lot of hands-on time.  It's also great kitchen practice, as it utilizes a few different cooking methods. 

The pink tinge of the beets actually makes the lentils kinda pretty, which, as we have discussed before, is hard to do.  It's like putting lipstick on a pig.  A tasty pig.  If the pig were a vegetarian.

Alright, so maybe that metaphor doesn't hold.  But just give beets a chance.  Please and thanks.

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Beets and Green Beans
Serves 3

1/2 pound uncooked brown lentils (or 1 heaping cup)
6 baby carrots or 1 regular carrot
2 sticks of celery
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 bay leaf
4 sprigs thyme
3 cups vegetable stock
3 beets
1/2 pound green beans
3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (omit if you want a vegan version)
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar or maple dijon viniagrette (recipe found here)

1.  Preheat oven to 425.  Rinse and scrub the beets with a brush, if you have one, and chop off greens about 1/2 inch from the top of the beet bulb.  Do not remove the root of the beet.  Wrap each beet in tin foil and place in a roasting dish.  Let roast in the oven for about an hour, or until the beets can easily be pierced with a fork. 
2.  While the beets are roasting, heat olive oil and garlic in a pan and saute chopped onion, garlic, and carrot on medium-low heat, about five minutes (this is called mirepoix, and is the base for much of French cooking).  Add lentils, herbs, and vegetable stock.  Bring to a boil and cover.  Reduce heat and let simmer 20 minutes, or until lentils are soft.  The dried lentils should make about 3 cups of cooked beans.  Drain.
3.  Remove ends of green beans.  Place green beans in steamer dish in one inch of water.  Cover and let steam five minutes. 
4. When beets are ready, remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes.  Remove the foil from the beets and peel skin.  The skin should easily peel off, no knife is required.  You may want to wear gloves if you don't want pink fingers.  Be warned that the beet juice can stain, so if you get some on the counter or clothes, wash immediately.
5. Chop beets and green beans, and toss with lentils.  Top with salt and pepper and coat with balsamic vinegar or maple dijon viniagrette.  Top with goat cheese and serve. Pin It Now!

my go-to: strawberry salad

Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Almonds, Craisins, and Goat Cheese

Last night I had dinner at Hook, a seafood restaurant in Georgetown.  I was planning on taking pictures and writing a review for today's post, but I had a really long day yesterday and completely flaked as soon as my dinner was set before me.  Here's a back-up post instead.  Sorry to drop the ball...

Florida strawberry season is in full swing right now, which means that berries are inexpensive, flavorful, and plentiful.  A few weeks ago I bought a four pound box of delicious strawberries at Costco for $5.99 - which lasted six days in our fridge.  What I mean to say is not that they spoiled in that period of time, but rather, they were so good that two little girls  young women demolished them in less than a week. 

That very night, I sliced some up and topped them with a bit of whipped cream for a post-dinner sweet treat.  After I took the first bite, I almost fell out of my chair.  Y'all, as much as I dislike hyperbole, I do believe that they were the best strawberries I have ever bought from the grocery store, bar none.  They were huge, bright red strawberries bursting with sweet flavor.  The kind in which the juices dribble down your chin and you scramble to catch the runoff before it drips onto your white pants.  They tasted fresh-picked from the farm - just like the ones my mom picks in Pungo each summer.


The thing with these fresh strawberries, especially the first ones of the season, is that you want to showcase them.  It's sacreligious to mix them with sugar and bake them into some sort of pie, shortcake, pudding or compote.  That's a practice reserved for the dog days of August when you think you might turn into Violet Beauregarde if you eat another berry, but you need some sort of fruit in your rotation before good local apples are available again.  Heck, for the season's very first berries, it even seems backwards to mask the flavor in a bowl of oatmeal, yogurt, or a smoothie.  So, besides berries-n-cream dessert, how else does one go through four pounds of berries in a less than a week?

If you say chocolate-covered strawberries, you're wrong.  I'm not doing that sort of romancin' over here in Kitchen 203.

So you make a lot of salads.  

Strawberries in a salad may sound strange, but this is my favorite salad.  And by favorite, I mean, I’ve been known to eat it, or some variation of it, four times a week when it's berry season.  Some things just don’t get old to me.  It's perfect for when I am pressed for time, not too hungry, or craving something sweet (I've been told it's not okay to eat a box of caramels for dinner.)  This salad is light, crisp, refreshing, and incredibly easy, and can also be varied depending on what you have in your own kitchen.

How to build your own go-to strawberry salad:

Base:  Generally spinach, but sometimes mixed greens, if that's what I have

Main component:  Sliced strawberries (can also use raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, or some combination if you prefer)

Protein:  Almonds or walnuts, though I sometimes use chicken breast when I'm not a temporary veg, and scale back or eliminate the nuts

Creamy goodness:  Optional, but I like to use about 3/4 ounce - 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese 

Extras:  dried cranberries

Crunch components:  diced celery, cucumber, or green onions (optional, and don't go overboard, just chop enough to get a nice texture)

Dressing:  Brianna's blushwine viniagrette, Annie's raspberry viniagrette, or just some balsamic vinegar and olive oil

Deeeeeeelish!

Everyone have a great Thursday and look out for tomorrow's Friday Breakfast.  It's gonna be a good one!

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israeli couscous with basil, portobellos, and sundried tomatoes

Israeli couscous with basil, portobellos, and sundried tomatoes

Paging the fail whale. I made a mistake in Blogger last night and accidentally published the post that was meant for this morning.  It can be found here.  Therefore, this post is sub-par - a straightforward recipe with no anecdotal backstory.  Sorry to let you down, but it's better than a no-post Monday. 

Lots of people try to eat lighter in January after enjoying the holidays.  My eating habits don't run on a yearly cycle, but rather a weekly one.  My Friday through Sunday is analogous to Thanskgiving through New Years, and come Monday my body actually craves simple, healthful food.  This very easy and healthy couscous salad does just the trick.  The secret to the recipe is a bag of Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend Couscous - a one-pound bag of Israeli-style couscous, red and green orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa.  Like so many other 40-day Vegetarian recipes, it can (and should) be easily adapted to whatever you have on hand, and whatever you feel like eating.  I'm thinking maybe I'll make it later this spring with peas, artichokes, asparagus, and green onions.  It's the perfect side dish or main course.

Israeli Couscous with Chopped Vegetables, a 40-day Vegetarian original
Serves two

One handful spinach, chopped
One handful sundried tomatoes, chopped
Two portobello mushroom caps, chopped
Three artichoke hearts, chopped
fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup Trader Joe's harvest grains blend Israeli couscous
3/4 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste

1.  Heat half of the olive oil and all of the garlic in a pan, add the onion to saute a few minutes.
2.  Add 3/4 cup of stock and 1/2 cup Israeli couscous blend.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until water is absorbed, about 12 minutes.
3. Saute the spinach and mushrooms in the other half of the olive oil to wilt the leaves and soften the caps, 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts, stirring to combine.
4. Toss chopped vegetables with cooked couscous and season with olive oil, salt, pepper, and balsamic or red wine vinegar.  Top with fresh basil.

That's it - sorry this post is so lame.  I will make it up to you tomorrow! Pin It Now!

in-between salad

In-betweeny salad

When the weather is nice, I run after work most days.  Last week the weather was consistently in the high 50s to mid 60s, so I set out on a longer run from my office down to the Lincoln Memorial and back.  It's about a six mile stretch that crosses Capitol Hill, passing the Supreme Court on my left and the dome of the Capitol on my right, and then traverses the length of the National Mall.  When I'm fully hydrated, the temperature is right, the route is clear of confused tourists, and my allergies aren't yet in full swing, it's delightful.   That was how it was last week.  Three days of mid-length, mind-clearing, refreshing runs.  But yesterday afternoon, I set off to do the same thing, and it was terrible.

Why?  Because sometime between Thursday and yesterday, we have switched seasons.  I set out yesterday afternoon and was delighted to see the cherry blossoms on the Hill in full bloom.  Then I sneezed.  My nose, and more specifically, my congested nasal passageway, was not so happy to see the pink flowers.  Then I got down to the Mall, streaked with school groups and foreign tourists.  (Why do they always ask me to take their picture as I'm running toward them?  Do I look that nice?) Dodging the throngs of people felt like I was poor Frogger trying to cross the road without getting hit by a car.  Yep, it was clear - sometime between last week and yesterday, Spring has SPRUNG in the District.

So how appropriate it is that I made a delicious "in-between" salad last week.  I never posted it because I had enough recipes to cover the blog for the week, and also, it really gets my goat when bloggers post salad and sandwich "recipes."  I mean, come on.  Do you really think that you're the first one to come up with that salad combination?  Or the first person to realize how "lovely" carmelized onions and mushrooms are on a grilled cheese?  That's why I've been blogging for almost two weeks and I've yet to post a salad.

But, a lot of you have told me that you lack creativity in the kitchen; not so, you just haven't found it yet!   I'm willing to talk about salads for a bit, and how to make a daily staple turn into a dish that's different each time.  This salad was born completely out of desperation.  I basically just took everything I had, roasted it, and threw it on top of a bed of spinach leaves.  I roasted the last of my winter squashes in the pantry (an acorn squash, to be precise) with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a hint of maple syrup (from my friend the Canuck.)  I also threw in some wintry brussels sprouts along with 'em.  At the grocery store, I had picked up an artichoke, some plum tomatoes, and skinny asparagus.  I roasted those as well, topped with some feta, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and voilà!  A delicious betweeny salad. 
 
Some of you have said that you don't like salads, or you would never choose to eat them.  I think that is because too many people think of salads as synonymous with house salads.  You know the deal - cucumber, tomato, and croutons all atop a bed of romaine.  Boring!  Salads, by their very nature, are flexible.  Don't get stuck in the same old salad rut all the time - that gets tiresome and you will become uninterested!  Be creative with your salads!  Unsure where to start?  Here are some tips for making a delicious salad time after time.

1.  Mix up your base - I love spinach as my base but also like mixed greens or arugula from time to time.  Romaine is fine, though it isn't a nutritional superstar like the other two.  Remember that the deeper and darker the leaf, the more nutrients the green contains.  (That means that there is absolutely no nutritional value in iceberg.)
2.  It doesn't have to be raw - A lot of people don't care for crudite, but have no fear!  Roasted vegetable salads are great.  Just remember that if you're roasting vegetables in olive oil, you should go easy on the dressing.  You don't want your salad base to be bogged down in oil.
3.  It doesn't have to be all veggie - Pears, apples, berries, grapes, oranges, and grapefruits are all delicious options for a slightly sweet salad.  Think of a classic Waldorf with grapes, red onion, avocado & grapefruit, or roasted beets with feta & orange.
4.  Eat with the seasons - For fall and winter, go with broccoli and cauliflower, acorn squash, brussels sprouts, and big bad Mr. Butternut.  Choose juicy heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini in the summer.  Spring is the time for asparagus, artichokes, and vidalia onions.  When you eat with the seasons, your food will have so much more flavor (and it will be cheaper, too!) 
5.  Texturize like you'd accessorize - Crunchy items like celery, cucumbers, bell peppers, walnuts, almonds, or apples provide a stark contrast to soft or creamy salad toppings like chickpeas, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, avocado, or roasted mushrooms and squashes.  Opposites attract!      
6.  Go with the flow - change up your dressing!  A little bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil is my favorite, but I also love a good cilantro-lime dressing or a honey-dijon vinaigrette.  I barely ever buy pre-made dressings anymore, but I do have a few brands that I love: Annie's Naturals (I am obsessed with her Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette), Brianna's (very good Blush wine Vinaigrette and a delicious Ginger Mandarin dressing), and Virginia Brand Vidalia Onion dressing (Dad's favorite!  You can get it at Costco).
7. Walk the balance beam - This is probably the most important tip.  Don't think of salad as diet food, think of it as a delicious way to get nutrients.  Sure, if you're looking to add volume to a meal, keep it small, simple, and don't go overboard.  However, if you're eating a salad as your main course, you will want to get a good mix of healthy fats, proteins, and complex carbohydrates, just like any other meal.  You can get healthy fats and proteins from nuts, beans, and cheeses.  I am partial to feta cheese or goat cheese on salads. Vegetables are a natural source of complex carbohydrates; you could also toss some grains on your salad like couscous, orzo, or quinoa (okay, I know I said quinoa isn't a grain, but it kinda is...)

Follow those tips and you're sure to get a great salad 90 percent of the time.  (The other 10 percent of the time I end up with a "kitchen sink" salad, in which there's a couple of ingredients that just don't belong). I eat some sort of "salad", whether it's a side salad or entree-sized, almost every day, even when I wasn't a sometimes-vegetarian.   Salads are a great way to boost your vegetable intake and add volume to your meals without a lot of unwanted fat and calories.  I've noticed that getting in a salad a day gives me more energy, clearer skin, and even makes my hair shinier!  And you know what, it never gets boring!

What do y'all like on your salads?  Roasted veggies or raw?  Sweet or savory?  Let me know in the comments! Pin It Now!