Coleslaw--your versatile friend.

To me, you can judge a restaurant by it's coleslaw.  Big awkward slices of cabbage mixed with mayo does not a coleslaw make.  Remember, cabbage is a leafy green, and we need to think of coleslaw as a salad.  A delicious crunchy bite of something cool and green to have in between courses of spicy food (bbq, tacos, etc).  I don't even put mayo in mine (gasp!)--I am a firm believer that coleslaw should be vinegar based.

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup white vinegar (or half white vinegar and half cider vinegar)

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp salt

Mix the above in a large bowl, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the following ingredients to the bowl:

1 cabbage, finely shredded

1 small bell pepper, minced

1 T. minced pimentos

1 small vidalia or sweet onion, minced

Toss well and mix.  Transfer to a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.  This coleslaw gets better the longer it sits, and it can last up to 2 weeks in the fridge.  

GOOD WITH: bbq, beans, tacos, sandwich filling, hot dogs, veggie dogs, burgers, seafood.

Grated Zucchini and Summer Squash Salad

This salad is so easy--it's perfect for a super hot summer day when you don't want to cook. It's also a great way to use up the cheap squash found at the farmers markets right now.

1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow summer squash
1/2 or 1 whole lemon
sea salt

Grate the zucchini and summer squash, then throw them both in a ziploc bag. Sprinkle lightly with a bit of sea salt. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon over them, adding up to 1 whole lemon if you are a big lemon fan. Zzzzzzzzzzip up the bag, shake (to coat with the lemon juice), and throw it in the fridge. I think you need to leave it in there for at least 30 minutes. I usually make this in the AM before work and put it in my lunch box, so it sits for about 3 hours.

The acidic juice of the lemon starts to "cook" the squashes, which makes them tendor. Toss just before serving.
PS--you could add some crumbled feta or a dash of rice vinegar to this before serving if you like. Sometimes I even rip up a bit of basil over it too.

Salads

I read Joel Fuhrman's Eat To Live book. He makes some great points about the American Diet, disease, weight, etc. The book is really detailed, but the bottom line of it is he recommends people eat 90% of their diet from unrefined plants. This includes veggies, fruit, and beans. Only 1 serving of complex carbs daily. 10% of your diet (calories) can be from animal protein. And most importantly, you should eat 1 pound of raw leafy greens a day. ONE POUND!!! And work up to also eating 1 pound of cooked green veg a day. Wow.

Well, I've been doing it for 3 weeks now. And you know what? I feel better than I have felt in a long time. I never thought that 1 pound of lettuce/spinach/kale would keep me so full. I know, all of this sounds crazy, but just read the book if you want to understand the madness.

The point of all of this is that I am coming up with some creative (but simple) salads these days. Ol' Dr Furhman is against oil--even olive oil--for 6 weeks, so this is requiring some thought. I've had some good salad, and some really bad salad. As I eat a delicious salad I will post the components, mostly so I can remember them for later.

Kale/Carrot/Raisin:
Blanch 1 bunch of kale. I use the red kind for color. Disgard tough stems, and chop the leaves into 1/2 inch strips. Grate 1-2 carrots, and throw 1 box of raisins on the kale. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon on the whole thing and toss. It's better if you keep it in the fridge overnight before eating. I think the lemon juice breaks down the kale, and the sugars from the raisins sweetens everything. Drizzle with tahini before serving. And yep, I eat the whole thing in a day. BTW--I HATED kale before discovering this recipe, which is an adaptation from a recipe a girl at work gave me.

Romaine/Pea/Tofu:
Chop 1 head/heart romaine (I use the heart only, because I can buy a 6 pack for $4 at the store), and toss in 1/2 lb. of frozen (thawed) green peas. Pour 1 T. apple cider vinegar over, and toss. Quickly sautee 1/3 lb firm tofu, cubed. I press the tofu while it's cooking to get some of the water out of it. Nope, no oil, just straight tofu in a frying pan. After about 4 minutes, splash some Bragg's Liquid Amino's on the tofu, stir 1 minute, then turn off heat. The Bragg's taste just like soy sauce, but without the sodium. Throw the tofu on top of the lettuce/peas. Drizzle with tahini (yes, I do alot of tahini drizzling) and serve. Fantastic.

Red Lentils:
I love red lentils, especially when they are mixed with a tomato broth. The 2 were just made for each other! Red lentils are great because they cook much faster than most beans, and do not require a pre-soak. So here we go:
Take 1 cup dried red lentils and put into a pot. Add 2 cups low sodium veggie broth, 1 cup Imagine creamy (vegan) tomato soup, and 1 cup water. Turn on high heat till boil. When it boils, turn down the heat to a low simmer, and cover. Cook for 45 minutes, then turn off heat and let sit for 15 minutes. If you want this more "soupy" increase liquid by 1 cup. This is great served next to steamed brocolli drizzled with (you guessed it) tahini and hot sauce.

Potato salad, white bean dip, pita & eggs

2 New Recipes
I just made these up one day--and they are great!

Potato Salad
I get sick of super heavy mayo deli salads. This one still has mayo, but is lighter and more flavorful. This is fantastic when you can get hold of those tiny little red new potatoes when they come into season in the spring. I didn't measure anything, so y0u will just have to taste as you go along.
Basically I just make a dressing first: a few spoonfuls of lite mayo, a teaspoon of dijon mustard, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt, pepper, garlic powder & onion powder. Mix, then add your herbs. Now, I used dried parsley and dill, but if you have fresh it would be so much better. If you only have dried, try to make your dressing about 30 min ahead of time and let it sit. That way the herbs can kinda reconstitute. Anyway, after adding your herbs, carefully measure out and add 4 T. olive oil. Whisk together and let sit for at least 10 minutes.
After boiling the potatoes, let them hang out in the collander for about 10 minutes or so. Chop up 1-2 stalks of celery, and toss into the dressing. Then add your potatoes and toss & mix really well. Serve at room temp--that's the secret! You think potato salad should be served cold because that is what we are all use to, but room temp really brings out all the flavors.

White bean dip
This is basically a bastard hummus, because I was out of chickpeas. Aaron went crazy for it and has asked for it again.
1 can white beans (cannelli, great northern, or navy will all work fine), rinsed and drained.
3 cloves of garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 t. dried parsley (or fresh, if you've got it)
olive oil

Throw everything into a food processor, and add maybe 4 T. of olive oil. Whiz it up, adding more olive oil if it gets too chunky and needs to be loosened up. That's it. Will keep in the fridge for up to 7 days.
I love love love this with homemade pita. There are many homemade pita recipes on the internet, but here's my favorite:
http://momgrind.com/2009/02/26/pita-bread-recipe-homemade-soft-and-fabulous/
This is from a blog called momgrind. I haven't tried any of their other recipes, but this one is amazing.

Besides the above, we are still cooking pizzas like crazy. I've also been making devilled eggs because they are so yummy.

Easy recipe there: take the boiled egg yolks, mash with a fork, and add mayo, mustard, celery, pickle or relish, salt & pepper. Mix and scoop back into halves of the boiled egg whites. Serve with a sliced green olive and sprinkled paprika on top.

I think I'll go make some now...

Cucumber Feta Salad

I got this one from my favorite greek cookbook. Of course I have no idea where it is right now so I can't give you the name and author. It's a really great cookbook, so as soon as it surfaces I will come back to this post and add the info.

* 2 cucumbers, peeled and diced (any cucumber will do with this recipe. The original recipe does not require the cukes to be peeled, and they are sliced in rounds, but I like it better peeled and diced.)
* 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (Use the nice sheep or goat kind from either France or Greece. Cheap, crappy, pre-crumbled feta will ruin it. Believe me, its worth the extra $$)
* 1 big handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped (You have to use fresh mint for this one, dried will not do. If you find yourself completely mintless, subsitute fresh or dried dill instead.)
* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
* salt & pepper to taste

Throw your cukes, feta, and mint leaves in a bowl and set aside. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper. (Remember, if you make an adjustment to the quantity of dressing, always keep the ratio 2 parts oil to 1 part lemon juice.) Pour dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve at room temp immediately.

Notes:
This will keep in the fridge for 1-2 days, but make sure you bring it out about 1 hour prior to serving so the oil can come back up to room temp. Toss well again.

I LOVE to eat this with a nice crusty baguette. This salad is meant to have alot of leftover dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl, and its very yummy to sop it up with a baguette.

Remember that if you subsitute the fresh mint for dried dill, only use about 1/3 of the amount.

Bread Salad

There are a million recipes out there for bread salad, so you will probably end up playing with this one to make it suit your tastes. This recipe was originally designed for using up stale bread, but it is also great if you have a tomato overflow.

* 1/2 loaf stale italian or french bread, cut into cubes (you can use fresh bread, but you will need to toast it first)
* a couple of big super ripe tomatoes, cut into cubes & salted (I like to seed them first, but most people just cut 'em up and toss 'em in, seeds and all)
* Vidalia or sweet onion, sliced very thin (again, add to taste. I'm not a huge fan of raw onion, so I only add about 1/4 of a medium sized one. Some people might add up to a whole onion if they dig it.)
* a handful of fresh basil
* Salt and pepper to taste (I only use sea salt and fresh ground pepper these days. It makes a huge taste difference)
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* half of a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I'll explain later...)
* 1 small clove garlic, minced

So this is pretty easy. Just throw your bread, tomatoes, and onion together in a big bowl and set aside.

Lets start on the dressing, because this is where it can get weird. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, & garlic together in a small bowl. Now, in my opinion this amount of dressing is way too much for the amount of salad we have made. I recommend that you add 1/2 of the amount of dressing here, toss first, then taste. With the dressing all you want to really remember is this: 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar, then add garlic. You can add as much or as little dressing as you like. I find that too much really overpowers the salad.

When you figure out your dressing, pour it over the bread salad, toss, and let sit (room temp) for 30 minutes. I like to toss a few times during that 1/2 hour. This allows the salad to sop up all that good dressing. After 30 minutes, add basil, salt & pepper to taste, toss & serve.

Notes:
This salad does NOT keep well in the fridge overnight as the bread becomes soggy. Just make what you need for each day.
Bread: My favorite bread to make this with is ciabatta or tuscan. An old baguette works great too, but you might want to cube it the day before, because cutting a day old baguette is nearly impossible. I don't recommend using pre-sliced sandwich bread for this recipe, but if you try it and it works, let me know your secret.
Feel free to add anything else you like to the salad: olives, capers, anchovies, etc.

Great paired with: a cheese plate, mixed grilled meats, appetizers.