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Wonder Woman/Superman Superfood Salad

Wonder Woman/Superman Superfood Salad

Curried Avo Dressing on Superfood Salad in a wooden bowl with serversAre you still coming off that turkey coma from last week? Did you feast yourself silly?? Be honest – how many slices of pie did you do? This year we have the rare gift of an extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So here’s a dish that will ramp up your detox, so you have plenty of time to retox later. I bring you the Wonder Woman Superfood Salad. Or is it the SuperMAN Superfood Salad? Up to you.

Those who know me know that I am about as far away from being vegan as you can get. Indiana, people. We like our beef corn-fed. Sugar steak. Brats. Pork tenderloin sandwich (smashed and fried to within an inch of its – or my – life). Seriously, if you don’t know what that is, click on the link to see a photo. The damn thing is twice the size of the bun.

Vegan, not so much. But there’s something you may not know. I pretty much stick to plant-based protein for the first two meals of each and every day. Along the way (and thanks to Lyn-Genet), I have found that getting protein from seeds, nuts, and vegetables (broccoli!!!) gives me more energy than a big ole turkey sandwich on white bread. No more post-lunch slugging around. A plant-based dinner is not so far-fetched; it’s free-will choosing to venture to a vegan restaurant that’s outside my zone. Luckily wiser minds prevailed and the good people at Mambo Sprouts hosted a lovely dinner a few months back at Zest Kitchen in Salt Lake City. Shout out to Celiac and the Beast, Just Crumbs, Tea and All Its Splendor, and Delicious Table, among others who made the meal so special.

Superfood Salad – The Green Machine

This superfood salad is somewhat loosely based on the dinner I had that night.  And with all the beautiful winter greens in the market now and feeling the need to clean up my act before I do it again, this seems to be the perfect time to hit you with it and get you jamming on my superfood wavelength. Consider this an un-recipe. I don’t give proportions because you can do that. You also are not remotely locked in to all – or even any – of the ingredients I list. So please don’t be daunted by the long string of ingredients below. They are all chef’s choice. Being the overachiever that I am, I may have used all those things listed (I did!) in one salad. Don’t judge. To be fair, I was filling a salad bowl the size of a hula hoop and serving about 30.

One of my favorite dark leafy greens is Tuscan kale. You may also know it as lacinato. Or dino. Or dinosaur. Or black. Or cavolo nero. It goes by so many names. A few years ago, recipes called for you to massage it with salt, but the way I see it…I don’t get salt scrubs and there’s no way my kale is getting better treatment than I. Just sayin’. As with all coarse greens, I stack them (having removed any tough ribs), roll tightly, and cut into the thinnest ribbons. This keeps you from getting a big bite of woody, tough greens.

Power Greens Superfood: lacinato kale, curly kale, microgreens and herbs

So many of the fancier greens now are available in baby style. Check out this gorgeous baby kale I found at the winter farmers’ market. It needs nothing more than a quick rinse and a turn in the salad spinner. Dark leafy greens are all high in nutrients, but are especially rich in Vitamin K, iron and calcium, essential for building healthy bones. Eating these greens raw maintains the high levels of all nutrients.
Market Greens, Baby Kale

Adding Crunch

Once you have picked your greens for the base, play around with what I call the chunkies. Grated vegetables that add contrast in color, texture and taste. I used grated carrots, turnips, purple cabbage, some steamed and chopped broccolini, and avocados. Ultimately it will all get tossed together, but it’s nice to present it composed so you can show off all the wonderful choices you have made, at least when it comes to salads.

Composed Superfood Salad of daikon, cabbage, shredded carrots, microgreens, lentils, quinoa, kale, broccolini

Power of Protein

Giving up on meat doesn’t mean going protein-free. Did you know that pumpkin seeds have about 9 grams of protein per ounce? That’s only a small handful. And hemp hearts are slightly higher – 10 grams per ounce. Those are the mainstays of my daytime meals, along with some sunflower seeds, chia and flax. Sometimes I add lentils or quinoa to the salad. Both require cooking – pretty fast – and both bring additional protein.

Assembling Superfood Salad; avocado, microgreens, shredded carrots, hemp hearts, caviar lentils
And I love microgreens. These jewels have been popping up in restaurants in recent years as a delicate garnish to sandwiches, salads and entrees. But in fact they are not so delicate when it comes to flavor and nutrition. Their nutritional value is about five times higher than their older sisters, and the flavor they deliver is quite concentrated. Have you ever tried a radish microgreen? Wowza! In the lifecycle of greens, microgreens come between sprouts and baby leaves or baby vegetables. Give them a whirl next time you see them.
Micro Sprouts

Curried Avo Dressing

Because there are a lot of textures in this salad, I wanted a creamy dressing to pull it together. And because many of the ingredients are a bit earthy, I wanted a bright flavor profile in that dressing. Avocado brings the creamy, and curried spices – cumin, coriander, and turmeric – bring the bright flavors, with an underlying earthiness that matches up with the greens. Because this dressing was made for a lot of hearty, sometimes bitter greens, I did not use a light hand in the flagrant flavor department. If you want to use this dressing on a lighter dish – say a chicken salad – you might want to cut back on the garlic and red pepper flakes. Then again, the full flavor version in the recipe below might turn your chicken salad into something pretty special. This is the best curried avo dressing around. Toasting the spices first brings depth of flavor and makes this dressing sing.

Don’t limit it to a green salad – veggie dipper, sandwich slather, pita topper, fish sauce-r. Go! Now!

Creamy Curried Avocado Dressing in a food processor work bowl on burlap

To add a little pop of sweetness to balance the full flavored dressing, I threw in a handful of golden raisins. It is a nice little surprise for the old tastebuds.

Lots of Superfood Protein: quinoa and pumpkin seeds on avocado

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Curried Avo Dressing with Super Greens: arugula, cabbage, shredded carrots with hemp hearts and pumpkin seeds

Wonder Woman Superfood Salad with Curried Avocado Dressing


  • Author: Katy Keck
  • Yield: Chef's Choice

Description

This superfood salad with creamy dreamy curried avo dressing will make you feel good about every decision you have ever made. It’s mean, it’s green, it’s vegan, and it’s chock-full of protein. But forget all that, it’s super delicious and oh so satisfying. 

 

Ingredients

Scale

Greens

  • Tuscan kale (aka lacinato, dino, cavolo nero or black kale), cut in thin ribbons
  • Rainbow chard, sliced
  • Baby kale
  • Spinach, chopped
  • Arugula, torn
  • Watercress
  • Pea shoots

Veggies

  • Grated carrots
  • Grated turnips
  • Grated radishes
  • Purple cabbage, thinly sliced
  • Steamed broccolini, chopped
  • Avocado, chopped

Plant-based Proteins

  • Quinoa, cooked according to package
  • Beluga lentils, cooked according to package
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Hemp hearts
  • Chia

Toppings

  • Golden raisins
  • Microgreens

Curried Avocado Dressing

  • 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 1/2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, cut into chunks
  • 3/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup water, or as needed

Instructions

Make the Dressing:

In a small sauté pan, toast the cumin, coriander and turmeric for about one minute, until fragrant.

With the motor running, drop the garlic into the bowl of a food processor. Turn off and add the avocados, pulsing a few times to a chunky puree. Add the vinegar, toasted spices, salt and peppers and pulse several times until combined.

With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until smooth, adding water as needed to desired consistency.

Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container until ready to use. 

Assemble the Salad:

Combine any or all of the ingredients listed, arranging colorfully in a large serving bowl. 

Drizzle with the curried avocado dressing and toss to coat the vegetables. 

Notes

Makes 2 1/2 cups dressing. Store in the refrigerator, in an airtight container.

This dressing is designed for a hearty green and grain salad so is aggressively seasoned. If you want to use this creamy green goodness in a more delicate dish, cut back on the spices and garlic a bit.

If you don’t have white balsamic, use another mildly flavored and light colored vinegar, like rice vinegar.

Curried Avo Dressing is wonderful as veggie dip, a sandwich spread, fajita topper, potato salad dressing and so much more.

  • Category: Entree, Salad
  • Cuisine: Vegan

How powered up are you now? I promise if you dive right in to the Wonder Woman Superfood Salad, you will feel good about every decision you’ve ever made.

Dressing the Superfoods with creamy avocado curried dressing

© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2017. All rights reserved.

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Harvest Grains Salad with Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Harvest Grains Salad with Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Harvest grain salad with slivered almonds, oven dried tomatoes and herbs

When I find something that will change  your life – FOREVER – I must share. I’m not such a fan of pre-seasoned packages, like those dried bean soup mixes loaded with some heavy doses of sodium, but I recently stumbled across this beauty at Trader Joe’s. It’s simply called Harvest Grains Blend and can quickly become the rock star of a wonderful fall Harvest Grains Salad. I wanted to take issue with the fact that orzo is a pasta  and not technically a grain, but I guess pasta started as a grain, right? There’s really no reason to get cranky, because this is a great Mama’s helper. It has Israeli couscous (the jumbo pearl size), three colors of orzo (plain, red pepper and spinach), split baby garbanzo beans (so cute), and red quinoa. The beauty of the pre-package is that it takes the guesswork out of cooking. You can easily make your own blend, or even just use one single grain/pasta. But if you are mixing, you need to pay attention to cooking times so you don’t, for example, throw couscous and wild rice into the same pot at the same time. Cooking time here is a mere ten minutes.

Harvest Grains with Trader Joe\'s bag in background

Israeli couscous and Orzo and parsleyIsraeli couscous is larger than standard coucous and is slightly chewy and comes in a variety of flavors. Shown here is  a tri-color blend, including unflavored, spinach and tomato. The pasta in the center is orzo.

I hope you are taking advantage of the last of the season’s juicy tomatoes. I have detailed before how you can simply split them, put them cut side up on a sheet pan, sprinkle with salt, and slow roast them to concentrate the flavors and dehydrate the liquid. From there, once cooled, they are easy to Ziploc and freeze. I  use them all winter in frittatas, cornbreads, pastas, soups and stews, on pizzas, focaccia, and in salads.  They are a sweet treat come February, and now is the time to make it happen!

Oven Dried Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a natural BFF to blue cheeses.  While blue can be made with cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk, all varieties share a common production technique which involves ripening them using cultures of the mold Penicillium. The green or blue veins are created during the aging process by spiking with stainless steel rods to aerate the cheese and encourage the mold’s growth.  It’s not hard to see where the spikes went in on this hunk of Glacier Wildfire Blue. To learn more, check in with our friends at The Cheese Lady for great info on many cheeses, blue and beyond.   

hands holding two pieces of Glacier Wildfire Blue cheese revealing the veins

For this salad I chose Delft. It’s a buttery cow’s milk cheese with a clean finish – a bit sweet and not too salty. This cheese comes from the Netherlands and is so named for its resemblance to Delftware pottery. The blue veins and milky whiteness resemble the lovely pottery, as if broken and put back together.

Delft Cheese on black slate

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Harvest Grains Salad with Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Harvest Grains Salad with Oven-Dried Tomatoes


  • Author: Katy Keck
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4 - 6 1x

Description

A new twist on pasta or grain salad, this dish uses a Trader Joe’s pre-packaged combo and includes Israeli couscous, tri-color orzo, split baby garbanzos and red quinoa. While you can, oven dry some end-of-summer tomatoes and stash them in your freezer. They will add a nice flavor boost to salads like this, as well as pastas, soups, stews and anything else you might make this winter when the tomatoes in the store then will taste like cardboard.


Ingredients

Scale

Vinaigrette:

  • 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salad: 


Instructions

Make the Vinaigrette:

Whisk together the ingredients and refrigerate until needed. 

Make the Salad:

Cook grains or pasta according to package directions.  Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add tomatoes, cheese, parsley, and scallions.  Stir to combine.

Toss with the dressing and refrigerate until serving time. Before serving, taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more lemon juice if needed and adding the almonds.

Notes

I used Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains blend, but you can make this with pasta, or your own combination of couscous, both regular and/or Israeli, orzo, quinoa or other favorites. 

This salad is perfect for extra add-ins. I’m keeping it pretty simple here, but feel tree to add other vegs, bacon, different cheeses or whatever your little heart desires. 

Makes 1 quart.

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Category: Sides
  • Method: Stovetop

Keywords: cous cous salad

Don’t you want to just dive headfirst into this Harvest Grains Salad? 

Harvest Grains Salad with Deflt Cheese and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2017. All rights reserved.

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My Big Fat Greek Salad

My Big Fat Greek Salad

Quinoa Greek Salad in a blue bowl with feta, tomatoes, cucumber, scallions and parsley

I created this salad earlier this summer – in part because it is so tasty (of course), and in part because it is a starch that is hearty and filling without being potato salad. Yawn.  Plus that whole mayo aversion thing I got going.  It made its first appearance at the Burger Pot Lucky.  And ever since, I have been getting requests for the recipe.  One of the great things about adding grains to any salad is their ability to stretch.  The ingredients normally found in a Greek salad are all primo, which is to say pricey.  The addition of quinoa gives you bang for the buck.

Red Quinoa in a measuring cup, spilling onto a board with fresh mint

If you aren’t familiar with quinoa, get to know it.  It’s kind of a miracle food: it comes in several colors including black, white and red, cooks in 10-15 minutes, is high in protein, fiber, and folate, is gluten-free, and is a decent source of iron, zinc and magnesium.  First cultivated in the Andes (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador) some 4000 years ago (with non-domesticated sightings dating back more than 7000 years), Incans considered quinoa the “mother of all grains” and held it sacred, which caused the Spanish colonists to consider it pagan and led them to forbid it.  But, quinoa is finally having its day – the United Nations General Assembly gave quinoa its own year – 2013 the International Year of Quinoa – to celebrate the Incan ability to preserve this ancient tradition and live in harmony with nature.  Hallelujah!  It was the hope of the UN that quinoa would be a major player in attaining MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) and be instrumental in maintaining SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) by providing food security, nutrition and aiding in poverty eradication.  And while you are getting to know quinoa, get to know the UN and its work on food security.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen: I know I can only ask you to pit olives so many times in one summer (looking at you panzanella), so here I am telling you to pick up a jar of an olive relish or tapenade or bruschetta topping – grab a product that has done the heavy lifting for you – and make that the base of your dressing.  I’m all about short cuts in cooking when possible.  Trader Joe’s has a green olive tapenade that I really like and it makes a super tasty green olive vinaigrette, but check your condiment section at the grocery and see what you have available.  If you can’t find something olive based, then try a pepper relish or whatever kind of bruschetta or crostini topping your joint offers.

My Big Fat Greek Salad

Quinoa Greek Salad in a blue bowl with feta, tomatoes, cucumber, scallions and parsley

Green Olive Vinaigrette:

  • 1 cup green olive tapenade (I like Trader Joe’s and use the whole 10-ounce jar.  But you can also use any kind of tapenade or bruschetta spread, or just use 1 cup chopped oil-cured green or black olives.  Please! No California black olives in water!!!!)
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup EVOO
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper or favorite pepper blend (lemon pepper would be amazing)
  • Zest of two lemons

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl.

Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container.

Makes 2 cups.  (This salad will use about 1/3 of this Vinaigrette recipe.)

Prepping the Ingredients for the Greek Salad with Quinoa: quinoa, scallions, feta, garbanzo, cucumbers, tomatoes

Greek Salad:

  • 1 cup raw quinoa (red or white)
  • 1 16-ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • ½ seedless English cucumber, cut in ½” dice
  • 4 scallions, sliced
  • 1 ½ cups halved cherry tomatoes
  • 8 ounces feta, cubed
  • ¼ cup each: chopped parsley, mint, dill and cilantro

Rinse and drain the quinoa, then add to a pot with tight-fitting lid along with 2 cups water or stock.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and cool.

When cool, add garbanzos, cucumbers, scallions, tomatoes and feta.

Dress the salad with the green olive vinaigrette, using about 1/3 of it or more, as needed.   Refrigerate until ready to serve, then add chopped herbs and check seasonings. I like to finish it off with my beloved Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. This dish can easily be made a day or so ahead, but add herbs and check seasonings and acidity at serving time.

Makes about 1 ½ quarts.

Burger and a Salad - a Greek Salad with Quinoa on a blue plate with fresh mint

This post contains affiliate links.  For more of my must-have faves, check out my shop.

© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2016. All rights reserved.

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Rustic Tuscan Panzanella Bread Salad: Best-Ever Bread Salad with Peak of the Season Tomatoes

Rustic Tuscan Panzanella Bread Salad: Best-Ever Bread Salad with Peak of the Season Tomatoes

Rustic Bread Salad in a square white bowl with olives, caper berries, bread, scallions and tomatoes

This time of year when the tomatoes are hanging ripe and juicy, heavy on the vine I am often reminded of two lively ladies from London whom I met styling Panzanella Bread Salad at the Today Show for their River Café Cookbook.  Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers set up shop in the Hammersmith section of London along Thames Wharf in the late 80s. It was a stylish and very popular place (still is) and a launching pad for the new generation of star chefs, Jamie Oliver and April Bloomfield, among them.  But despite its iconic status and reputation for exclusivity, the restaurant is most famous for serving the kind of familiar food you might eat in an Italian home.  Simple, rustic and full of flavor.  But don’t be fooled by the seeming simplicity.  It takes a lot of work to look that simple.  The recipes in that first book were extremely demanding and there is some chance that I resented all those details, if ever so slightly.  I had to squeeze and sieve tomatoes by hand to get cups and cups of tomato juice.  I had to make A LOT of dishes and each seemed to have endless lists of both ingredients and steps.  But I did get what they were doing. They had an immense respect for ingredients and exerted what some called a “moral pressure” to be precise.  I like to think I am a bit more of realist than they, and I always point the way toward short cuts when possible.  But then again, the Queen hasn’t awarded me with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  Yet.

Sourdough bread with garlic head and tin of olive oil

Panzanella – a Tuscan bread salad which incorporates day-old bread – is best when tomatoes are at their peak.  N.O.W. Authentic bread salads do not toast bread, but rather rely on stale bread.  The traditional panzanella is made with a bread that stales quickly on its own, having been made without salt, a tradition that dates back to the days when salt was heavily taxed and therefore used only for essentials like curing meat and preserving milk (cheese).  Bread made without salt will dry out quickly – hence the abundance of Tuscan recipes using stale bread, many of which Ruth and Rose served at River Café: bread soups like ribollita, pappa al Pomodoro or acquacotta.  These recipes use this very stale bread, soak it in liquid, and then crumble it into the dish.   In our modern American lifestyle, we’re less likely to have stale bread laying around, so I stale it up here by rubbing with garlic, brushing with olive oil and putting the slices on the grill (or under the broiler), then hand tearing and leaving the cubes out to stale a bit more.

Salted Anchovies straight from the tin

Another precise ingredient Ruth and Rose call for in this recipe is salt-packed anchovies. I know you are already moving toward delete and curling your lip. Stop it. Right now!  I promise there are other options, but let me make a brief case for the lowly anchovy, starting by pointing out that I think I know why you are not a fan. In the US, we are exposed to tiny tins of little hairy fish often slapped atop pizzas. Why? Exactly! Why? They are hairy, oily and full of little bones.  On the other end of the slimy fish spectrum (trademark pending) are salt-packed anchovies, bearing little resemblance.  They are big enough to pry open with a thumbnail and easily lift out the bones.  And the salt has wicked away the nasty fishy oils that we don’t so much like.  The rich and unctuous saltiness amplifies other flavors and provides an umami (the fifth taste after sweet, salty, sour, bitter) that is impossible to recreate with salt alone.  #depthofflavor  You won’t have a clue there are fish in this, but you will wonder how tomato juice got this damn tasty.   If you don’t want to take the trouble sourcing them (Trouble? Really? Salt-Packed Anchovies are in my shop and available at amazon prime!), go ahead and use the hairy fellas in the little tin.  Just cover them in kosher salt and set aside for 20 minutes.  That is the easiest DIY way to pull out the fish oils.  Just be sure to rinse well and pat dry.  These little ones are okay to throw in the blender whole, as their bones will pulverize.  If you go the distance – yeah, you! – don’t worry about all the leftovers.  Just transfer the remaining salt-packed anchovies from the metal tin into a glass container with air-tight lid, and cover with sea salt and a few drops of water to dissolve the salt. They will keep for a very long time, refrigerated and covered.

Rustic Tuscan Panzanella Bread Salad

Full disclaimer: you would be hard-pressed to find a salad in Tuscany that looks like this.  I have taken the liberty to super-size it American-style:  Bigger, less delicate, chunks and a combo of ingredients (in addition to the ubiquitous bread, peppers, and tomatoes) that add both pops of flavors and texture contrasts. Caper berries and oil-cured olives are mine, all mine.

The panzanella bread salad below will use a bit more than half of this dressing.  But if you are putting the time into sourcing the ingredients, you will be sorry if you don’t have leftovers.  I stopped short of giving you the ratios needed to fill a tub, but you may want to bathe in it.  It’s that good.  I have short cut the hand squeezing of tomatoes, so use that time to try to find oil-cured olives. Of course you can use pitted water-packed canned black olives….if that’s your cup of tea.  But some day give the oil-cured olives a whirl. They are what olives should taste and feel like.  And when you are pitting them by hand, don’t cuss at me – think of Rose and Ruth, putting a little “moral pressure” on you.

Oil-Cured Olives, Caper Berries, and Salted Anchovies and a lemon, halved

Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette:

  • 1 1/2 cups tomato juice (or two 5.5 ounce cans)
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 6 Salt-Packed Anchovies, soaked for 5 minutes, rinsed, bones pulled out, and patted dry (see notes above and below about anchovy options)
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup EVOO

Combine all the ingredients, except olive oil, in a blender and puree until the garlic and anchovies are incorporated.  With the motor running, pour the olive oil in a thin stream, until all is incorporated and the dressing is emulsified.  Listen for the motor to change sounds as you finish with the oil and saturation is reached with the emulsification.  It should go from a noisy high-pitched whine to a smooth whir.

Keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container until needed.

Makes 2 2/3 cups vinaigrette.

Grilled Bread

Panzanella – Best Ever Bread Salad

  • 1 pound loaf 1-2 day-old chewy good-quality bread (I used sourdough with seeds), cut in 1 ½” wide slices (about 5 slices)
  • Garlic and oil to brush the bread
  • 1 ½ cups Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette
  • 3 large ripe tomatoes (combo of red and yellow), cut into large chunks
  • One 12-ounce jar of roasted red peppers, drained and diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
  • 1 bunch of watercress, stems removed and torn into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 bunch scallions (about 5 or 6), sliced
  • ½ cup pitted oil-cured black olives (or whatever olive you prefer)
  • One 4-ounce jar of Caper Berries in Brine (or capers), drained
  • ¼ cup coarsely chopped parsley

Rub the bread slices on both sides with a smashed garlic clove and brush with olive oil.  Grill over a hot grill or toast both sides under the broiler or in toaster.  Let cool, and then tear into large bite-sized pieces.  You should have about 8 cups of bread chunks.  Spread out on a sheet pan and let “stale up” a bit more.  You can prep to this stage several days ahead.  Once they are dried out, store in a zip bag.

Two hours before serving, toss the stale bread cubes with ¾ cup Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette. Set aside.

When ready to serve, add the remaining ingredients and toss with additional vinaigrette, as needed.  This is where I normally say taste seasonings and adjust, but this is so full of flavor I can’t imagine what you could do to improve it.  Damn, that’s tasty!

Closing arguments for the Case of the Anchovy:  If you really really really can’t see your way past their bad reputation, use salt to taste, and maybe even a splash of soy in your vinaigrette. Soy Sauce in all its fermented glory might give you a hint of the umami you’ll be missing. Just know that Rose is rolling in her grave and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Ruth will ever confirm your dinner reservation.  Choice is yours.

Serves 8-10 and makes fabulous leftovers.

Rustic Bread Salad in a square white bowl with olives, caper berries, bread, scallions and tomatoes

This post contains affiliate links.  For more of my must-have faves, check out my shop.

© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2016. All rights reserved.

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Salad Days of Summer: Farm Fresh Summer Squash & Arugula Salad

Salad Days of Summer: Farm Fresh Summer Squash & Arugula Salad

overhead shot of a white plate filled with Summer Squash Salad, edamame fritters and spicy grilled shrimp

How is it exactly that “Salad Days” has gone from meaning green and naïve (Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra) to the more current American connotation of being at one’s heyday or pinnacle?  So American, right?  Wait long enough and it can mean whatever you want.  And what I want is green – as in green salad with green (and yellow) summer squash.  It’s reparation for making you go to that 425o kitchen last week, chasing a cherry pie.  This one is perfect for these oppressive muggy days. You won’t have to turn on a thing.

I have to admit, I never really thought about raw squash as a tasty treat, finding it a bit pithy and bland. However a couple summers ago I was on a media tour for a client and met a journalist at a farm to table restaurant in NYC where I promptly fell in love with a version of this salad.  The trick is to thinly slice the squash – as paper thin as possible.  I like using a mandoline and particularly like the Matfer Mandoline.

Thinly slicing squash on a mandoline

I once styled a cooking segment on the Today Show for the best chef in the Army, and he turned me on to this fine piece of equipment. I have had it for 15+ years and it is still in great shape.  It’s got good safety features, so it’s not scary like some mandolines, and it doesn’t pit or corrode like the one I got in France a zillion years ago and need to toss.   Chef arrived on some kind of Army transport so he didn’t have to worry about blades at TSA.  However his most important travel companion was an 8 1/2 x 11” flat piece of striped genoise sponge cake that was created by piping razor thin lines of alternating chocolate and vanilla batter.  He used it to line a tall glass trifle bowl for an elegant presentation.  And he carried it in a manila file folder.  Filed under P for pastry?  I was pretty much speechless. Given the turn of world events, I often wonder if our military still carry pastry in their file folders.

After first tasting that salad in NYC, I have tweaked it pretty much every time I make it and this is how it rolls this summer.  A dear friend recently delivered a spice jar filled with a pepper blend which I found I couldn’t live without. I burned through that jar in short order and have now made my own.  Mine seems a lot darker than hers so I suspect mine has more black pepper.  She even recommends adding green peppercorns to the mix, but so far I have not tried that.   I love the KitchenAid coffee grinder to grind all my spices  – and now they have an even better model that comes with an additional bowl fitted with a blade optimized for spices, in addition to the primary bowl specifically tooled for coffee – two gadgets in one – KitchenAid Blade Coffee and Spice Grinder Combo.

Pepper, Cardamom & Coriander

Zesty Pepper Blend

  • 1 cup ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup cardamom seeds
  • 1/2 cup coriander seeds

Grind each seed separately in a spice grinder or mini chopper.  Mix all spices together and store in an airtight container.

Summer squash with spice blend mixed with arugula and topped with manchego

Summer Squash and Arugula Salad

  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 3 cups arugula
  • ¼ pound sheep’s milk cheese, such as Ewephoria, cut in shards or with a cheese planer
  • Seasoning: flaky sea salt like Maldon Sea Salt Flakes and zesty pepper blend
  • Dressing: equal parts fresh lemon juice and EVOO, whisked together

Trim the zucchini and yellow squash and slice thinly by hand or using a mandoline.

Arrange the summer squash and arugula on four salad plates. Grate the sheep’s milk cheese on top and season with salt and zesty pepper blend.

Drizzle with lemon vinaigrette.

Serves  4.

Summer Salad with Grilled Shrimp on a square white plate

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