Several summery salads

At the end of last week, I was feeling the pull of the farmers market. Crisp colorful vegetables, juicy sweet fruits, locally-made foods just waiting for me to take them home... After dropping The H and the little guy off in the morning, I meandered down there. Incidentally, I also needed an idea for dinner. As I wandered around, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of local food, inspiration struck: summer salads!

I was a little worried about offering a selection of salads to The H for dinner; as much as I love to graze on multiple dishes and don't mind not having meat on my plate, he is very much a "meat + veggie + starch = meal" kind of guy. He usually doesn't mind (too much) when I branch out, and he is starting to as well, but for some reason my mental lack of direction at the beginning of my trip made me wonder how this would be received.

The salads I came up with were tomato-mozzarella, quinoa with balsamic grilled vegetables (zucchini, mushrooms, onion), and cucumber-sweet onion. At the last minute I remembered an uncooked mushroom-swiss bratwurst from Ken's in the fridge, so that was added to the grill with the balsamic veggies.


When I was growing up, my mom would make a cucumber-onion salad similar to this. I could never get used to eating slices of raw onion... I *wanted* to like it, but I just never quite warmed up to it. Since then I've tried making it myself, playing with the types of onions and the dressings I put on them. This one was probably one of my favorites--half of a cucumber from my mom's garden, half of a local sweet onion, kosher salt and black pepper, a little bit of olive oil from the co-op, and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. I sweetened it up with a sprinkle of evaporated cane juice.

Here is what the table looked like when we sat down:

Know what?

There were no leftovers, aside from a single portion of plain quinoa. Summery salad success!

Samosa addendum

Yesterday I reheated two of the samosas for lunch. In a 400* oven for 10-15 minutes, they crisped up nicely and the filling was piping hot.

I did mix up a quick little dip for them using Greek yogurt, a dash of Sriracha, and some dried cumin. It was a delightful combination of cool and spicy, and it complemented the hot-sweet samosa filling just right.

Enjoy!

Sweet potato samosas

Indian food, or even Indian-inspired food, is probably the number-one thing I cannot get The H on board with. He'll put up with my recurrent attempts to sneak curry powder into things, but that's about it. The fact that I cannot find gluten-free phyllo dough (or fillo, depending on the packaging) releases him from the obligation of even a single bite. You're welcome, honey.

This recipe also gave me an excuse to use my new garam masala, courtesy of a trip to Penzey's when we were in Connecticut. 

Sweet Potato Samosas
from Clean Eating Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 7
makes 12 samosas (serving size: 2 samosas)

1.5 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups cauliflower stems and pieces (one small head)
1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3/8 tsp sea salt, divided
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
12 sheets frozen whole-wheat phyllo dough, thawed (my store did not have whole wheat)
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400*. Bring a 3-qt pot of water to boil over high heat. Add sweet potatoes and cook for five minutes. Add cauliflower and cook for an additional ten minutes, until vegetables are fork-tender. Drain and set aside.

2. In a small saute pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil on medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes or until soft and slightly browned. Set aside.

3. With a potato masher, mash potato-cauliflower mixture until smooth. Mix in onion, peas, cilantro, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, curry powder, garam masala, and cayenne.

4. Assemble samosas... this part took me a while to figure out, but once I got it down (two lumpy victims later) it was effortless to reproduce.

Place 1 phyllo sheet on a cutting board and mist with cooking spray. Fold in half lengthwise and mist with spray again.

Place 1/3 cup potato mixture at top left corner. Fold corner over filling to opposite side, making a triangle.

Fold triangle over to meet straight side, then up to the top again.

Continue folding over until you reach the end of the phyllo sheet.

Repeat steps with remaining filling and phyllo.

5. Mist a baking sheet with cooking spray--or use a sheet of parchment paper--and place samosas on sheet. Brush tops with remaining 2 teaspoons oil and bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.

My two folding failures made their way to my plate for lunch, along with some cilantro-lime quinoa and kale chips. While I was convinced that two wouldn't be enough, they were plenty filling.

 

When I have these for leftovers, I will look for a dipping sauce recipe. The flavors are great together, but I felt they were missing *something* like a tangy yogurt dressing that would really push them to the "fantastic!" category. This recipe is pretty labor-intensive, not one I would consider for a quick weeknight meal unless I was planning to use leftovers.

Weekly meal plan

In no particular order, here's what will be made (or eaten) in my kitchen this week:

Pesto pasta
Gluten-free pizza
Sweet potato samosas
Taco bowl with leftover cilantro-lime quinoa
Chicken-salsa-rice with black beans (slow cooker)
Teriyaki salmon from Clean Eating Magazine, with brown rice
Salt and pepper shrimp from the latest Clean Eating Magazine
Homemade chicken nuggets to freeze for an easy little guy meal

Cilantro-lime quinoa

Are you one of those unfortunate souls who can't stand the taste of cilantro?

I'm sorry.

Not that it's my fault, but I'm sorry that you will not be enjoying this deliciously tart, nutty side dish anytime soon.

I've become a big fan of buying ingredients that can multitask, like a bunch of cilantro, without dictating that you make exactly the same meal--or even genre of meal--twice in the same week. For that reason, among others, I was giddy to see a recipe for sweet potato samosas with cilantro in the most recent issue of Clean Eating Magazine...but that's a future post!

Anyway, back to this "recipe." I put a few things into my rice cooker (two rice-cooker-measuring-cups of quinoa, three of water, the juice from one lime, some dried coriander, a sprinkle of kosher salt, a generous handful of chopped cilantro, and a packet of Trader Joe's chicken stock concentrate) and switched it to "cook." Thirty minutes later, we had steamy, flavorful quinoa that was the perfect complement to our grilled chicken and homemade pico de gallo (another use for cilantro). Yum.

Pesto!

This summer I decided to branch out a bit and try growing more than just green beans, since that turned out well last year. Part of this expanded gardening attempt means I now have several basil plants growing in my yard. And yes, they are growing! So much, in fact, that a friend was kind enough to harvest some for me while we were in CT (to keep it happy), and I still had enough to make a batch of pesto with the stuff that remained.

Well, I thought I did. But it would've been a small batch. Not quite enough for the company we were having for dinner. And when I went to my beloved Ken's Fruit Market (they have a website now! isn't it pretty?) to grab another bunch or two, they were out. ACK! My company was on its way, if not at my house already, and I had to decide what to do, quickly.

And thus, spinach-basil pesto was born. Thanks to most of a bag of spinach in my crisper and the end of a jar of Trader Joe's pesto genovese, my meager harvest turned into a giant delicious heap of green goodness. Even the little guy, once we convinced him to just try it already, enjoyed his.

We served this with a salad (I know, leafy green overkill much?) and yellow watermelon from the farmers' market. That was the juiciest melon I've ever had! I think it's called a "yellow doll" or something. The little guy needed a bit of convincing to try that, too (are all newly-turned-3-year-olds this picky?!) but then he couldn't get enough.

These photos are remarkably less staged than even my usuals, since I almost forgot to snap any before we sat down to eat.

I used Bridget's blog for inspiration, mostly regarding the toasting of the nuts/garlic and bruising of the basil, but the quantities I used were based on what I had available. The spinach helped mellow the bite of the garlic and peppiness of the basil, but it still had plenty of flavor. My nuts were walnuts; my oil was grapeseed. I added 8 ounces of cooked chicken to the pasta before stirring in the sauce to make it more filling. And, of course, the pasta I used was gluten-free.

I was right...

I had no idea what day it was when we got home! We left for Connecticut on a Sunday, and returned on the second Thursday. For most of our extended  trips, we are gone Sunday through Saturday. When The H travels alone, he gets back on a Friday. So Friday felt like a Sunday to me and Saturday to him. Now that it's Sunday, it feels like...well, something else. I'm all messed up. What a jumble!

The little guy and I made the best of it, however, and made a stop at the farmer's market on Friday for some deliciously seasonal produce. Here's a couple-days meal plan I was able to concoct:

Friday - chicken tacos with cilantro-lime rice, corn on the cob, and homemade pico de gallo
Saturday - my former running partner's wedding! Leftovers for lunch
Sunday - breakfast-dinner for lunch, then homemade pesto pasta with chicken, watermelon, salad in the evening

My lunches on Friday and Saturday were largely composed of this beauty:

A rainbow of tiny tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, both from the farmers market, with basil from my yard and olive oil/vinegar from the co-op. I enjoyed a side of Greek yogurt with local blueberries and raw honey on the side. It was *almost* as good as ice cream. Don't let The H know I said so.