Heirloom Tomato and Watermelon Salad

I can only take credit for recreating this dish because I hoisted it directly from Tami at Running with Tweezers. It just looked so refreshing and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand. (I wish I could find those green zebra tomatoes she had) This is a visually stunning salad and the sweet tomatoes and watermelon meld together quite nicely. It reminded me that salt tastes great with watermelon.

Heirloom Tomato and Watermelon Salad

Tomatoes

Watermelon

Goat Cheese

Basil Leaves

Salt/pepper

Olive Oil

Put everything together on a plate. Sprinkle with salt & pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

I am categorizing this in both salad and dessert because it could really be the handsome beginning or end of any summer meal.

Rustic Bruschetta & Asparagus Salad

It's been awhile, and it wasn't because I was ordering pizza every night....its just that our meals have been simple, quick and not worth documentation as of late. We're talking tacos, enchilada casserole, turkey burgers and salads topped with chicken nuggets. Hey, I never claimed to be gourmet!

Anyways, tonight I finally had a little time to throw together something. Here is the appetizer we cooked up from ingredients bought at TJ's today. The "par baked panini rolls" were something new to me and were great because by the time you toast the cheese on top, the rolls are not teeth-breaking crunchy as they might be if the rolls were already fully cooked.


Here's how I made it: Melt a frozen cube of crushed garlic (or 1 tsp chopped fresh) in one Tbsp. of olive oil. Brush over the rolls or baguette slices, and give them a quick toast. Add sliced basil, sliced tomato and sliced fresh mozarella. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and toast until melty.

I love the size of Trader Joe's box of basil. It is the best bargain around. I will have to get creative with the rest of it later this week....if anyone has a great basil dish, please let me know. Here is the rest of our dinner, caught in the very last of the natural daylight around 7:30 pm.

Sauteed Asparagus on Field Greens with Chevre and Lemon Zest

Perfectly served with the honey baked chicken over rice recipe from an earlier post.

Saute asparagus with cooking spray and generous salt/pepper. Meanwhile, dress the greens in your favorite salad dressing. Mine is a dijon vinaigrette made from lemon juice, dijon, rice wine vinegar, olive oil and a dash of honey. Place hot asparagus on top of dressed greens, and add the chevre and lemon zest.

I personally love how the hot veggie melts the cheese and wilts the lettuce a bit. I wonder if that's weird. Just like some people cannot handle sweet pineapple on their pizza, I bet the consensus is that a salad should be all cold ingredients. Hmph.

On a side note, I want to congratulate Shawn this week for trying a new dish for her family - chicken picatta. I heard it came out great (maybe a little tart) and she's ready to move on to veal. Way to go!

Curry Chicken Salad Wrap

Tasty lunch today, using veggies starting to wilt and pantry chicken. This is entirely influenced by the Piadini that we always order at Tomatina in Walnut Creek. (Theirs is a salad on flatbread which is smeared with roasted garlic paste - OMG). And although this lacks the homemade rustic breadiness, I felt like I would actually pay cold hard cash for a lunch like this. It was simple yet satisfying and a thumbs up from the tall man living here. Here are the ingredients below:

Chopped veggies or fruit (I used yellow bells, cucumbers and cranberries), can o' chicken, 1/2 tsp. curry, 3 T. light mayo. Apples, grapes, red onions or walnuts would make a great addition. This is another one of those "use what you have" type of recipes.

So, mix it all up. Heat a tortilla on the gas burner until hot, add some greens and top with the chicken salad. You can either roll it or fold in half to eat. It beats a PB&J by a mile.

Jicama Orange Salad

If you've never tried the sweet crunch of a jicama, now is the time. In the produce aisle, you'd never guess what lurks underneath it's dingy brown skin (it almost looks like a big turnip). But get it home and peel it, you will find a wonderful and healthy snack. Most times I just like to chop it up into sticks the size of baby carrots and keep it in the fridge for snacking raw.

This time, I decided on a light and fresh salad, dressed with the juice of oranges, cilantro, cumin and cayenne for a hint of Latin spice.

Jicama Orange Salad

1 small jicama, julienned

1 small avocado, chopped

2 navel oranges, supremed

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup orange juice

1 T. rice wine vinegar

1 T. canola oil

1/4 t. cumin

dash cayenne

salt to taste

Mix first four ingredients. Mix the rest in a bowl and drizzle over the salad.

Grilled Radicchio with Pecans and Chevre

This was my lunch today. I ate every last bit, so I think it was a success. It will also take care of my "new ingredient for the week", a concept that I am trying to uphold by using an ingredient that I've never cooked with. While I've had radicchio tossed into a salad, it has never been the feature ingredient and I have never bought a head of it at the store.

The grilling takes the bitter edge off of the radicchio and the sweet and sour dressing adds the needed tang. Earthy pecans and creamy goat cheese are a perfect compliment to the salad.

Grilled Radicchio with Pecans and Chevre

1 head of radicchio, sliced into thin wedges

olive oil to coat

1 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. aged balsamic vinegar

splash of lemon juice

salt/pepper to taste

2 Tbsp. chopped pecans

1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Coat sliced radicchio with oil and grill on a pan or BBQ until brown on the edges, but not soggy. Meanwhile mix the honey, vinegar, lemon juice and salt/pepper together and once the lettuce is plated, pour the dressing over it. Add chopped pecans and goat cheese. Serves 1-2.

Beet Salad with Feta

Mmmmm....beets. Did I just say that? My only exposure to beets as a child was on the occasional restaurant salad, where they were canned and pickled or something like that. I remember picking them off, but remaining curious about the vibrant pink juice that they produced and how it made my Ranch dressing such a stylish color. They weren't terribly offensive, just not my bag.

When I first started my blog just over a month ago, I stated that my goal was to try a new ingredient each week that I had never worked with before. This qualifies, big time. Other recent ingredients new to me were polenta grits and fennel.

From reading up a little, I gathered that the best way to serve these was roasted or cooked, sliced up in a salad with a light vinaigrette. Sounds easy enough. I didn't want to mess with the oven, so I just boiled them for 10 minutes. After I peeled and sliced them, I found that they were still a little crisp-tender on the inside, which was fine by me. Didn't realize the potency of the juice and the aftermath on my hands:

Anyways, after my experience today, I can't say that I "love" beets, but they were pretty darn tasty and it just felt like they were good for me. They lended a subtle earthy slant to my lunch, which was balanced by the lemony dressing and pungent feta. I only used 2 of the 4 and so you might see a post soon for some kind of beet soup.

Beet Salad with Feta

2 beets, cooked, peeled and sliced

handful of greens (I used baby greens and spinach)

1 T. feta cheese

8 pistachios, chopped

dressing:

2 T. lemon juice

1 tsp agave nectar or honey

1 tsp. Dijon

2 T. light olive oil

salt/pepper

Use most of the dressing to coat the warm beets, and let sit for 30 minutes. Prepare dressing. Lightly dress the greens with rest of dressing. Put everything on a plate and sprinkle with feta and nuts and serve.

Shaved Fennel and Grapefruit Salad

Okay, I loved this salad. It was light and refreshing with an explosion of textures and flavors. The sour citrus, crunchy fennel, salty Parmesan and slightly sweet dressing all on a bed of delicately dressed watercress makes for a party in your mouth. I would absolutely say that you have to like grapefruit to enjoy it.

Shaved Fennel and Grapefruit Salad

1 bulb fennel

1 bunch watercress

1 grapefruit

Parmesan shavings

Dressing:

Juice of grapefruit core

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp honey

1 T. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Cut peel off grapefruit and cut out sections, leaving the membranes behind (use that to get the juice for the dressing) Cut fennel into thin slices. Mix all ingredients of the dressing and lightly dress the watercress with half of it. Place watercress, fennel and grapefruit on the plate, drizzle with remaining dressing and top with Parmesan shavings.