Green Carrot Club

My fellow salad club member got a raw cookbook for her birthday and this is from that book.  Raw doesn’t seem that far fetched for salads, but actually a lot of ingredients in salads are cooked.  This one has sprouted wheatberries, which are on the bottom of the bowl here, so you can’t see them.  To sprout wheatberries, follow these directions:

1. Soak seeds in cool water overnight.
2. Transfer soaked seeds to a colander and rinse with cool water.
3. Drain seeds, and either leave in the sink if you have room, or place on counter with a paper towel or towel to catch the excess water.
4. Cover colander loosely with either a plate or paper towel.
5. Rinse and drain the seeds (re-covering each time) twice a day for two days or until the sprouts have reached the same length as the grain itself (this is when the sprouts are typically the most nurtitious).
6. Once seeds have sprouted, wrap them in a dry piece of paper towel and transfer them to the refrigerator (they last 4 days to a week according to the book, but in my experience they start to dry out after about 4).

Here they are.  No those aren’t little bugs or cheese.  Those are the sprouts on the berry.  They are pretty chewy, but a fairly good substitute for pasta or rice (or cooked wheatberries).  This salad also has shelled english peas in it, that you can find at Trader Joe’s.

This recipe comes from the book The World Goes Raw by Lisa Mann.

Ingredients

makes 5 servings

Dressing:

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I wish I had tried this salad.  It looks very good.  This is again one from when I was gone on my work trip.  Hopefully someone will make this again soon.  It looks like it’s kind of involved (boiling and roasting and a lot of chopping), so be prepared.  I’m very impressed with our member who made this one.  Not sure if I’d have the patience for it.

It is from Catherine Walthers’s book, Raising the Salad Bar.

Ingredients

makes 5 servings

• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 medium yellow squash, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cored and diced
• ½ red onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, halved lengthwise (do not peel)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• ½ pound Italian or Israeli couscous
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley

Dressing:

• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Divide the zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, red onion, and garlic cloves between two baking sheets (don’t crowd the vegetables or they will steam instead of roast) and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil.  Mix well.  Season with salt, and bake until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the large couscous in a large pot of boiling salted water, according to package instructions.  Drain well and add 1 tablespoon of the oil.  Shake strainer to incorporate the oil and let couscous cool.

Remove the roasted garlic cloves from the baking sheet and remove their skins.  In a small bowl, mash the garlic, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon oil, and salt and pepper.  Transfer pasta to a large serving bowl or platter and mix with the dressing.  Stir in the vegetables and parsley, and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

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Ok, one more salad from the last month.  This one was a good one.  The mango and red pepper it make it very bright and colorful.  The  feta is a nice salty contrast to the sweet of the mango and orange in the vinaigrette.

Cutting a mango is similar to cutting an avocado, although you won’t be able to use a butter knife.  This video shows nicely how to get diced pieces of mango.

This one is adapted from the Love of Salad cookbook.

Ingredients

makes 5 servings

• 1 large ripe mango, diced
• 2 bags of mixed greens
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/3 cup of red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup of feta

Dressing:

• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Whisk together dressing ingredients to make vinaigrette.  Toss dressing with salad ingredients.

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I have been really bad about making time to post salads lately.  It all started when I was out of town for work.  My list of un-posted salads is snowballing out of control.  I think I may have to cut my losses and just move on.  And with our new schedule there are 4 new salads a week.  There is no way I can keep up with this.  My plan from here on out is to post one salad per week.

This one is from last week, but it was really good and the picture came out nice so this is the last salad from the past that I will share.  This salad is really green.  It’s simple to prepare, especially if you get lazy and just buy pre-cut broccoli from Trader Joe’s.  I tend to stay away from these bagged veggies, but I’ll admit it did save a lot of time.  I was surprised that Trader Joe’s didn’t have sprouts.  But I did find them at Safeway.

This recipe is adapted from Heidi S.  I used a lot less ingredients than her, but I don’t think it was missing much.

Ingredients

makes 5 servings

• 1 cup dried orzo pasta
• 2 medium heads of broccoli, cut into small pieces
• a small handful of sprouts
• 4 small cucumbers, cut into small pieces
• 1 medium avocado, sliced into small pieces
• 1/4 cup feta, crumbled

Dressing:

• 1 small clove of garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Boil the orzo per package instructions.  Just as the orzo is done, add the raw cut broccoli to the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds.  You will see the broccoli turn bright green.  Drain the orzo and broccoli together, rinse with cold water.

Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and more salt (if needed) into the dressing.

When you are ready to serve the salad toss the orzo, broccoli, cucumber, sprouts and feta with the dressing.  Cut avocado just before serving to avoid it turning brown.  An easy way to cut the avocado into pieces is to do it right in the shell.  This video shows it nicely, and makes a good safety suggestion to use a butter knife, which I have never thought of doing.  Plate each salad and top each with several pieces of avocado.

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One day White Bean, the next day Black Bean.  The recipe calls for using giant black beans, but looks like we just used regular canned black beans.  And gasp, it looks like we used mustard today!  Oh no.

Again, this one is inspired by Heidi S.

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

• 2 -3 big handfuls baby arugula, washed and dried
• 3 cups canned black beans, drained
• 1/4 cup feta, crumbled
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 small jalapeño, seeded, deveined and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard (Beaver Sweet Hot Mustard recommended)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a mini food processor puree the lime juice, vinegar, honey, jalapeño, salt, garlic and mustard.  Next add the olive oil and puree again until everything comes together.  Depending on taste, add more salt, honey or lime juice.  Just before serving, toss the dressing with the arugula, beans, cheese and almonds.

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Sorry, I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks.  I was gone on an extended work trip to Toronto.  Salad club continued without me though.   Hooray!  These next 3 posts will be the salads they made while I was gone.  I have pictures, but I won’t be able to comment on how they tasted, but I’m sure they were delicious.

This was inspired by Heidi S.

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

•  2 big handfuls baby spinach, washed and dried
• 2 big handfuls mixed greens, washed and dried
• 2 cans white cannellini beans (or freshly cooked equivalent)
• 2 handfuls walnuts, toasted
• some sliced hard goat cheese

Dressing:

• a couple glugs of blood orange-flavored olive oil
• a small splash of white wine vinegar
• a few pinches fine-grained sea salt

Rinse and drain the beans.  Combine the greens, walnuts and beans in a large bowl.  Whisk together dressing ingredients.  Toss dressing with ingredients in bowl and top with cheese.

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I found myself at the grocery store this weekend without a recipe.  I knew I had leftover celery and romaine to use up from last week, so I just decided to do a normal veggie salad today.  It kind of looks like a side salad you’d get at Chili’s.  It did take quite a bit of chopping.  It’s very colorful, if not all that special.

I usually buy the small persian cucumbers at Trader Joe’s that are seedless.

Thanks San Francisco for composting!  I made a lot of it today.

Ingredients

makes 8 servings

• 4 romaine hearts, torn
• 2 red bell peppers, chopped into 1″ strips
• 1/2 box cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 4-5 small cucumbers, choppped
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup lightly seasoned croutons

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste

Chop all the veggies.  Tear the romaine into bite size pieces.  Whisk oil & vinegar together.  Toss veggies, lettuce, and croutons with dressing.  Season with salt & pepper.

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This salad was really flavorful and tangy.  We used canned chickpeas here, but I’ve always heard making them from the dried ones is so much better.  I will try this someday when I have lots of time.  Speaking of chickpeas, this weekend we went to Vik’s Chaat Cafe in Berkeley.  If you’ve never been, you have to go and try the Cholle Bhature.  It’s this big puffy thin dough thing that you dip in a chickpea curry, yummmm.  Sorry, I digress.

Back to chickpea salad….Be sure and toss ingredients with dressing right before serving.  Items like cucumbers can get soggy if dressed too far in advance.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

Dressing:

Whisk olive oil, lemon and spices together.  Toss ingredients together with dressing right before serving.

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We have made this before, but this time we added chicken.  And this time we took a proper picture (vs. my last few bites).  The chicken is easily prepared with a simple marinade.  It can be baked or you can also use a George Foreman grill.  The recipe calls for slivered almonds, but we used whole ones this time.  These work too, but just makes for more chewing.

Ingredients

makes 8 servings

• 1-2 chicken breasts, butterflied
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 head napa cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch minced green onions
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles, broken
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 cup slivered almonds

Dressing:

• 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together 1 Tablespoon soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil.  Brush chicken breasts with this.  Arrange in a baking dish and cook for ~15 minutes, or until juices run clear.  Allow to cook and cut into1/4 inch slices.

Finely shred the head of cabbage; do not chop. Combine the green onions and cabbage in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Make the ramen crunchies: Melt the butter in a pan. Mix the ramen noodles, sesame seeds and almonds into the pot with the melted butter.  On Medium heat toss the mixture around until lightly browned.  Keep an eye on this or it will quickly burn.

For the dressing mix the vinegar, oil, sugar, and soy sauce.  Combine dressing, crunchies, and cabbage immediately before serving. Serve right away or the crunchies will get soggy.

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First prepare some Emeril’s Essence creole seasoning.  I first saw this in a recipe for chicken marsala and it’s pretty good.  It’s just a combination of some basic pantry spices.  I cut the salt in half.  From experience, 2 tablespoons left things too salty.

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Keep this in an airtight container and use for seasoning other dishes.  This will be used to lightly marinate the chicken before baking. If you can prepare the chicken the day before, do so and then store in the fridge.  That way it will be cool when you use it the next day in the salad.

I chose to use plain yogurt to hold the salad together instead of mayonnaise.  I think it works well and it’s better for you.  I originally used 1 small plain greek yogurt container, but this didn’t end up being enough, so I added another small container of just plain yogurt.  You want it to be pretty moist.  If not serving right away, store chicken salad in an airtight container.  I have some cheap Ikea containers that I mistakenly used this time.  The onions definitely wafted through and I just hope nobody on the bus could smell them too.

I really wish they sold celery by the stalk or at least half a head (is that correct, a head of celery?).  I usually only use a couple of stalks and then end up watching it wilt and turn whitish-green in my fridge.  Supposedly wrapping leftover celery in foil will preserve it for longer.

Instructions

makes 3 servings

• 2 chicken breasts, butterflied into 4 thin pieces
• Emeril’s Essence creole seasoning
• 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 12 oz. plain yogurt (greek or just plain)
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup celery, diced (~2 stalks)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 romaine hearts, torn into bite size pieces
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• juice from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine ~1 Tablespoon of Emeril’s Essence with 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sized bowl.  Mix chicken with this until evenly coated.  Place coated chicken in baking dish and bake for ~20 minutes or until juices run clear.  Another easy way to cook the chicken is on a George Foreman type grill.  Once cooked, allow to cool and shred chicken using a fork.  Once you find the grain of the chicken go to town, using the fork face down.

Mix chicken with yogurt, onion, and celery.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk together olive oil and lemon.  Toss romaine and tomatoes with dressing.  Top with a big spoonful of chicken salad.

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