When asked to bring an "alternative salad" to a party, I quickly scanned the contents of my kitchen and googled: sweet potato & salad. I was inspired by this recipe and came up with the following. Basically that disclaimer is to say that there are multiple ways to make a salad. Have fun, look through your kitchen and create something new! :)
-3 large sweet potatoes (cubed) seasoned with Smoked Paprika, oven roasted and cooled
*oven roasting: oil a pan, cube sweet potatoes, toss in the oil, sprinkle generously with smoked paprika and cook at 400* for about 30 minutes, turn and continue to cook till edges are crispy but not burned
-2 c. Corn
-2 cans Black Beans, rinsed and drained
-1 green pepper, diced
- multi colored sweet peppers (Red, Yellow, Orange mini peppers) about 10, diced
-1 bunch Cilantro, chopped
-1/4 Red Onion, minced
- Kale, a couple leaves, minced (very optional, but will make the salad go further)
-2 Avocados, diced
Dressing:
** This is an approximation!! I have never measured this part!! Make to taste, and please taste before you pour over the salad!
-1/2 c. Mayo
- 1 T. Chipotle Tabasco
Before serving pour the juice of 1 lime over the salad and toss.
Note: The sweet potatoes could be made a day in advance and keep well in the fridge.
Showing posts with label Side. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Side. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Wild Rice Cashew Salad
Delicious. Colorful. Easy. Light. Good anytime of year (not just a summer salad). My Husband loves it!
1 1/2 C. Wild Rice, cooked per package directions (add a little chicken bullion for extra flavor)
-Let wild rice cook before assembling the rest of the salad
Half of each color of pepper, diced
Green Pepper
Yellow Pepper
Red Pepper
3/4 c. Cashews, chopped (I think I use more, I just eyeball it)
3 Green Onions, chopped
Dressing: (I double)
3 T. Rice Vinegar
2 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Sesame Oil
1-2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1/4 t. salt
Dash of Red Pepper (I use a squirt of Sriracha or black pepper)
Combine dressing in a small jar with lid. Shake well to combine. Pour over salad just before serving.
1 1/2 C. Wild Rice, cooked per package directions (add a little chicken bullion for extra flavor)
-Let wild rice cook before assembling the rest of the salad
Half of each color of pepper, diced
Green Pepper
Yellow Pepper
Red Pepper
3/4 c. Cashews, chopped (I think I use more, I just eyeball it)
3 Green Onions, chopped
Dressing: (I double)
3 T. Rice Vinegar
2 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Sesame Oil
1-2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1/4 t. salt
Dash of Red Pepper (I use a squirt of Sriracha or black pepper)
Combine dressing in a small jar with lid. Shake well to combine. Pour over salad just before serving.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Mushrooms, glorious Mushrooms!
I'm not sure if it's a pregnancy craving or just a renewed love of mushrooms, but I can't seem to get enough of them these days!! I'm thankful that the other tongues in my house can tolerate and even enjoy them, wheew that's a relief!
My newest and most favorite way to add the delicious, savory, buttery, earthy, goodness to my meal is with Garlic Herb Mushroom Quinoa! It's amazing (I want to put an exclamation point here, but know I've already used too many).
My version is a combination of two different recipes and just some of the typical "what's on hand" adaptations.
Here is one of the original recipes and here is the other.
Or...here is my version.
1-2 cups of quinoa, cooked to the package directions (slightly under versus over cook)
This isn't a recipe that needs specific proportions to turn out, so make as much quinoa as you would want to eat and season with as many or as few of the herbs that smell good to you..make it your own :)
In a skillet with medium heat melt
-1-2 T. Butter
-4-5 cloves of minced Garlic. You don't want to brown the garlic, just cook for a minute to get rid of some of the pungent raw garlic-ness. It will continue to cook with the mushrooms, but I wanted to make sure there were no raw pieces.
-1 8oz package Mushrooms, washed and cut to your size preference
-pinch (1/8 -1/4 t.) of Rosemary. PLEASE crush the rosemary sprigs in the palm of your hand with your opposite thumb before adding to the mushrooms as they will not cook long enough and in not enough moisture to soften the springs and it will feel like you are eating a dried out Christmas tree :(
-1/2-1 t. Thyme
-1/2 t. Parsley
-1/8-1/4 t. ground Sage (optional)
-1/4 t. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Let it cook until the mushrooms have browned and become soft. Add more butter if needed to keep everything from sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can use a lid to help it cook quicker and not need to stir as often.
When mushrooms are soft add:
3-5 T (drizzle over the top of all the mushrooms) Balsamic Vinegar
Let this cook without a lid to reduce (cook off or evaporate) the balsamic vinegar until it is just a glaze over the mushrooms and the bottom of the pan - stir continuously.
Add more butter (1-2 T.) to pan, once melted, stir in the cooked quinoa. Stir to coat quinoa in herbs and butter/vinegar glaze and distribute mushrooms throughout quinoa.
-Salt to taste. I find that when I cook with butter I don't usually need to add butter, so try it first before adding any.
My newest and most favorite way to add the delicious, savory, buttery, earthy, goodness to my meal is with Garlic Herb Mushroom Quinoa! It's amazing (I want to put an exclamation point here, but know I've already used too many).
My version is a combination of two different recipes and just some of the typical "what's on hand" adaptations.
Here is one of the original recipes and here is the other.
Or...here is my version.
1-2 cups of quinoa, cooked to the package directions (slightly under versus over cook)
This isn't a recipe that needs specific proportions to turn out, so make as much quinoa as you would want to eat and season with as many or as few of the herbs that smell good to you..make it your own :)
In a skillet with medium heat melt
-1-2 T. Butter
-4-5 cloves of minced Garlic. You don't want to brown the garlic, just cook for a minute to get rid of some of the pungent raw garlic-ness. It will continue to cook with the mushrooms, but I wanted to make sure there were no raw pieces.
-1 8oz package Mushrooms, washed and cut to your size preference
-pinch (1/8 -1/4 t.) of Rosemary. PLEASE crush the rosemary sprigs in the palm of your hand with your opposite thumb before adding to the mushrooms as they will not cook long enough and in not enough moisture to soften the springs and it will feel like you are eating a dried out Christmas tree :(
-1/2-1 t. Thyme
-1/2 t. Parsley
-1/8-1/4 t. ground Sage (optional)
-1/4 t. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Let it cook until the mushrooms have browned and become soft. Add more butter if needed to keep everything from sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can use a lid to help it cook quicker and not need to stir as often.
When mushrooms are soft add:
3-5 T (drizzle over the top of all the mushrooms) Balsamic Vinegar
Let this cook without a lid to reduce (cook off or evaporate) the balsamic vinegar until it is just a glaze over the mushrooms and the bottom of the pan - stir continuously.
Add more butter (1-2 T.) to pan, once melted, stir in the cooked quinoa. Stir to coat quinoa in herbs and butter/vinegar glaze and distribute mushrooms throughout quinoa.
-Salt to taste. I find that when I cook with butter I don't usually need to add butter, so try it first before adding any.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Eat Mo' Veggies
Roasted Veggies or Confetti Veggie Bowl
If you like a party, you are bound to enjoy eating your veggies this way. The colors are so bright and cheerful. There are no rules, your imagination and tongue can dictate how this side turns out.Veggies we have used:
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Beet, Sweet Potato/Yam, Zucchini, Carrot, Potato, Rutabaga, Radish
Veggies I want to use:
Sweet Peas, Asparagus, Brussle Sprouts, Red Pepper
Edited Entry: The asparagus was not the best choice. It did not cook in time with the other hard vegetables and the flavor did not blend well.
Start with washed and peeled vegetables.
Chop into uniform size pieces.
To get even cooking, cut the soft vegetables larger than the hard vegetables. Ex. Zucchini is cut into larger pieces than sweet potato or beets.
Put everything in a large bowl.
Pour enough olive oil over cut up veggies to coat. Stir to make sure they are all evenly coated with oil.
Mince garlic into the bowl (1 garlic clove for 1 bunch of broccoli, and add a total of 3-4 garlic...depending on how much garlic you like). Stir again.
Pour veggies onto a low pan (jelly roll pan, prepared with tin foil) to cover the bottom of the pan, but only enough for a single layer of veggies. If you pile the pan full the cooking will not be uniform.
When your pans are filled with veggies, sprinkle lightly with fresh cracked pepper and sea salt.
Cook at 375-385* for 15-25 minutes. Check the "hard" veggies around 15 minutes to see how firm they still are and add time accordingly.
We enjoy these veggies drizzled with balsamic vinegar. They are a lovely side to almost any meal. You can vary the veggie combinations and have a different dish (from the same recipe) every night of the week.
Recently I added a large scoop of basil pesto and generous dusting of Parmesan cheese and stirred it up with the olive oil - and it was amazing! The Parmesan cheese makes a bit of a crusty coating which perfectly contrasts the soft inside of the sweet potato. I omit the garlic, salt, pepper and balsamic when I use the pesto and Parmesan.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Cliantro-Lime Rice
Do you ever crave Chipotle?....but live hours away from one!!
Quite by accident I recently made a version of cilantro-lime rice that tasted satisfyingly like Chipotle's. One of the reasons, Denver & I assumed, was that the meal was nothing like Chipotle and I wasn't even trying to replicate the flavors. I have found that a "faint likeness" to something can satisfy a mental flavor/craving easier than when flavors are actually close and in the runnings to be like the real thing...but still off.
We were having a meal of fajitas and I didn't want to use tortillas, so instead, I planned on serving the meal over brown rice. Denver heard about the rice and asked for cilantro-lime rice. I prepared one cup of Trader Joe's Basmati Brown Rice according to package directions. After cooking (but careful to not overcook) I added fresh squeezed lime juice from 1 & 1/2 -2 limes and a good clump of cilantro finely chopped (probably about 1/8 c. when chopped, or about 20 stems - very loose estimation!). This was the most flavorful rice and the most like Chipotle's we have had.
We loved the rice and fajita meal. The next day we used the leftover rice with black beans (instead of the fajita mixture) for a "nacho" (cheesy chip) topping. It was delicious! Layer chips and cheese (pepper jack) then rice and beans and top with a little more cheese! Microwave for a minute and enjoy the deliciousness! The beans tasted amazingly (and surprisingly) like chicken. Even Denver with his non-pregnant taste buds said so. It was seriously SO Good!
Quite by accident I recently made a version of cilantro-lime rice that tasted satisfyingly like Chipotle's. One of the reasons, Denver & I assumed, was that the meal was nothing like Chipotle and I wasn't even trying to replicate the flavors. I have found that a "faint likeness" to something can satisfy a mental flavor/craving easier than when flavors are actually close and in the runnings to be like the real thing...but still off.
We were having a meal of fajitas and I didn't want to use tortillas, so instead, I planned on serving the meal over brown rice. Denver heard about the rice and asked for cilantro-lime rice. I prepared one cup of Trader Joe's Basmati Brown Rice according to package directions. After cooking (but careful to not overcook) I added fresh squeezed lime juice from 1 & 1/2 -2 limes and a good clump of cilantro finely chopped (probably about 1/8 c. when chopped, or about 20 stems - very loose estimation!). This was the most flavorful rice and the most like Chipotle's we have had.
We loved the rice and fajita meal. The next day we used the leftover rice with black beans (instead of the fajita mixture) for a "nacho" (cheesy chip) topping. It was delicious! Layer chips and cheese (pepper jack) then rice and beans and top with a little more cheese! Microwave for a minute and enjoy the deliciousness! The beans tasted amazingly (and surprisingly) like chicken. Even Denver with his non-pregnant taste buds said so. It was seriously SO Good!
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