Got cucumbers? Here's a nice fresh salad:

creamy cucumber salad

My cucumber plant is loaded. I have already made refrigerator pickles and now I'm trying some new salad ideas.  This recipe came from Lemontreedwelling , a nice blog.  I started with her recipe and then tweaked it a bit:

3 cups thinly sliced cucumbers

1 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/2 cup sour cream

1 Tbs white wine vinegar

1 Tbs fresh dill - fresh is so much better

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 /2 tsp shallot salt

Combine the dressing ingredients and pour the dressing over mixed vegetables.

Chill for at least 2 hours....overnight is what I did and the salad was perfect

We'll try this in Nana camp soon

Now I'm looking for another recipe...maybe without dairy

8140 salad- original and 2.0

I live at 8140 Orange Street. I moved here 5 months ago with a very long "to do" list...it's still very long.  A couple of months ago I planted my inspiration garden.  I planted 3 very small citrus trees and then sprinkled flower and lettuce seeds to fill the space.  Now just a few weeks later my lettuces are mature enough to harvest along with a few other goodies from my garden.  I have a pomegranate tree.  My next door neighbor has a blood orange tree with a generous branch hanging over my wall.  I planted radishes AND I have a small herd of goats.  This salad came from my garden.  I'm going to call it the 8140 garden since all ingredients came from the property (well I guess I need to call it the "8140 salad with walnuts"

8140 salad

Start with the arugula:

arugula

Add some sliced blood oranges:

blood orange tree-January

blood orange slices

Well thin slice a couple of radishes:

radishes

Pomegranate arils, goat cheese and walnuts.  I used a little orange juice in the vinaigrette.

So last night I made a 2.0 version:

8140 2.0

My red oak leaf lettuce was ready, sugar snap peas and these lovely nastursiums...yes they are edible.

So my "8140 salad" is any combination of food items that come directly from my property and add a handful of California nut meats.

Bon Appetit!

Sugar snap pea salad with oranges and radishes

sugar snap pea salad with oranges and radishes

Oh this is good:  nice and crunchy, fresh and green with a nice crunch of prochiutto.  I love sugar snap peas and they are one of the first vegetables to plant here in the Spring and one of the great spring vegetables  I watched Valerie Bertinelli make this on her food channel network show last weekend and thought I would try it.  I tweeked the original recipe https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/valerie-bertinelli/snap-pea-orange-and-radish-salad-3679199

The mint and tarragon are essentials to this salad's unique flavor.  Don't forget them.

Here's the recipe:

Sugar snap pea salad with oranges and radishes:

Sugar snap peas - 1 pound

olive oil - 3 TBS

prosciutto - 3 slices or 1 1/2 oz

goat cheese - 1/2 cup

red onion - 1 spring onion or about 2 Tbs of regular red onion

navel oranges - 2 supremed  (peel and pith removed then cut into segments) and 1 for more juice if needed

orange juice, 1/4 cup - use from squeezing extra juice from orange membranes

radishes 6 small, sliced thin.

mint, fresh, 2 Tbs.

tarragon, fresh, 1 Tbs

salt and pepper

The salad dressing is the juice from the orange, olive oil, salt and pepper and the herbs.  

Method:

Briefly cook the sugar snap peas in salted boiling water for 2 minutes.  Then strain and place in an ice bath to cool completely.  The peas will be this bright green and a little softer than raw but still crispy. Remove from the ice bath and place them on an absorbent towel to dry.

blanched sugar snap peas

Heat 1 Tbs of the olive oil in a fry pan and add the prosciutto slices.  Cook 1-2 minutes on each side until crispy.

prosciutto

Now for "supreming" an orange:

Cut the top and bottom ends off of the orange.  Then use the knife to remove the side peel leaving no pith.  Cut on either side of each membrane and remove segment.....each segment is called a supreme

navel orange to supreme

Place the orange juice in a large bowl and add the onion slices and orange supremes while you finish the rest of the preparation.  The orange juice will slightly "cook" the onion and take that raw taste out a bit.

supremes and red onion slice in orange juice

Now for the remaining ingredients:

what's left

Add the sugar snap peas, the remaining 2 Tbs of olive oil the radishes, prosciutto and the herbs to the bowl and toss. 

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the goat cheese right before serving.

ready to serve

This salad is fresh and crispy and very satisfying.  I love the goat cheese addition but when I helped myself to a serving the next day the goat cheese and dissolved into the salad and lost its zip.  If you plan on having this for left overs keep the goat cheese and the prosciutto on the side and add before you serve it....even the next day.

Thank you Valerie!
Buon Apetito!

Two favorite salads

Happy New Year!!! Time to think about nutritious and low calorie salads:  Here are two of my favorites:
Purple cabbage slaw:

purple cabbage slaw

This is perfect for adding to a yummy taco or a stand alone salad.  One of these great salads that doesn't wilt the next day.  Choose purple cabbage over green, red bell peppers over green.....yellow or orange would be good too. Choose red onion over white.  The more colorful the vegetable the more antioxidants they provide.  Purple=anthocyanin and resveratrol.  The red bell pepper=beta carotene!!! Even the cilantro has quercetin.

Here's the recipe:

purple cabbage - 1/2 head- sliced thin - by hand is better than by a food processor

red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin

red onion, about 1/4 or two slices, then chopped

cilantro, 5-6 sprigs chopped fine

your favorite vinaigrette*  here's mine:

                                           1/3 cup lemon juice

                                           2/3 cup good olive oil

                                           2 cloves garlic minced

                                           1 tsp Dijon mustard

Toss the vegetables with the dressing lightly. You can always add more later

mise en place

Salad #2  Carrot salad - sometimes I just call this my orange salad because of the color.

The only dressing is the citrus juice flavored by fresh ginger.  Absolutely no fat or salt in this recipe.  January is a great month for California citrus: oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, blood and cara cara oranges, kumquats.  Use any of these that you have or like.  The grocery stores have a great selection.  Or if you're lucky enough to live in California you can go outside and pick your own.   SOOOOO jealous right now. (It's 17 degrees outside in Denver)

If everything is perfect I choose rainbow carrots, tangerine juice, fresh blood and cara cara orange segments, fresh ginger,  dried blueberries and crystallized ginger.

Antioxidants: anthocyanin, beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, gingerol, lycopene!!!

carrot salad

mise en place

try adding dried apricots ( another orange ingredient) or Trader Joe's dried mandarins

orange segments, crystallized ginger pieces and dried berries

Segments of one blood orange and one cara cara orange, about 4 pieces of crystallized ginger cut bite size and a small handful of dried berries

Here's the recipe:

The only essentials are carrots, citrus juice and ginger

rainbow carrots - pound grated...use your food processor

oranges- 2 segmented ( tangerine, blood orange or cara cara) 

orange juice - 1/2 cup
fresh ginger, about 1 inch grated on a fine rasp or grater

crystallized ginger- 4-5 pieces, cut bite size

dried berries - 1/2 cup 

Toss all together...add more juice if too dry.  The juice helps to reconstitute the dried fruit.

This salad will keep about a week

carrot salad serving

I made both of these salads today.  They will last me all week both lunch and dinner.

Tonight I'll add the slaw to my short rib tacos

I'm sure I'll be healthier by the end of the day!!!

Health food salad!

I love healthy food and I love cooking- but you probably know that already.  It is nothing but brown, black, gray and blue in Denver with not a thing growing in anyone's garden but who says there aren't beautiful fruits and vegetables to eat!  This beautiful colorful- full of antioxidants salad is delicious.  I started with raw beets- red, orange and chioggia and carrots and shredded them in my $15 slicer from Williams-Sonoma.  Then I found blood oranges, naval oranges and mangoes.  I did have some little limes growing indoors so added lime juice, blood orange juice and pomegranate vinegar- oh and a little olive oil for dressing- oh and a little orange zest.  As if it weren't pretty and healthy enough already I added some dried cranberries.  Try it!

Pretty January salad

beets and carrots

Blood oranges, mango, key limes and navel oranges

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

This salad was inspired by our fabulous chefs at Mabel Dodge Luhan House where I stayed last week. I promised my fellow art retreaters as well as my teachers I would figure this salad out and post it. This is one of the FRESHEST salads I have had in a while and it uses some fabulous vegetable. I am posting this with an authentic Caesar dressing but in a pinch use a bottle of dressing or a good garlic lemon vinaigrette. I can't believe I just wrote that.

Caesar kale, radish and fennel salad:

Good wooden salad bowl

5 cups finely chopped kale..demo on how to remove the rib follows
6-8 radishes, thinly sliced...I used amethyst
1/2 bulb fennel..also thinly sliced
pinch of salt
1 lemon, zest and juice (3 TBS)
1/4 cup olive oil
Toss and put aside

In your wooden salad bowl place

pinch of course salt
1 garlic clove, cut and rubbed into the bowl letting the salt break up the garlic
anchovy paste, about 1/4-1/2 tsp
1 egg yolk...Henny Penny donated to the cause....I'll have the white with breakfast tomorrow
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp agave or honey
Whisk the contents of the bowl, then add the kale salad,
Toss well
Serve on plate
Parmesan cheese, grated over top.

If you are not going to make this dressing this way just toss an alternative dressing over the kale, radishes and fennel. I wouldn't forget the fresh Parm on top

Quinoa and kale salad

quinoa and kale salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

A super food salad perfect for a spring day meal.
Have you used quinoa in the kitchen yet? You should. It is a tiny grain (really a seed) originating from South America in Andes cooking. It is very low in the glycemic index unlike rice and wheat and very high in fiber and antioxidants. It doesn't taste like too much alone but mix it with other flavorful foods and your good.
Add kale-another super food. I love kale. I had plenty in my garden last year through Christmas and now my new kale is starting to grow. Use full size kale, ribbed and chopped fine for this salad or simply use baby kale from the salad section in the markets.
Cranberries- enough said, another super food. I use the cranberries dried in apple juice (instead of sugar) from Whole Foods.
Walnuts-I'm tempted to try pistachios but love the combination of walnuts, cranberries and citrus. Yes they are super too.
Tangerines (who doesn't love Cuties?), orange zest and orange juice

Here's the recipe:
quinoa-1 cup cooked in 2 cups water-yields about 4 cups cooked
kale-4 cups chopped or baby kale
cranberries, dried, about 3/4 cups
walnuts, chopped about 3/4 cups
tangerines, 5-6 peeled and cut up
orange zest- from one orange

vinaigrette:
juice of one orange
olive oil
balsalmic vinegar to taste

Toss all together and enjoy your super salad
Bon Appetit!

sweet and spicy coleslaw

sweet and spicy coleslaw, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

The very last of my cabbage patch. I am amazed that it was still fresh and tasty. This is a yummy combination of sweet and spicy, fruit and vegetables using a recipe by Paula Deen that uses pepper jelly, apple cider vinegar and topped with pumpkin seeds. I hope you try it

Oranges & lemons

oranges & lemons, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

When I was a young girl my Christmas stocking was filled with candy, nuts and oranges.....sometimes apples. These were always readily available at holiday time and affordable as well as edible. My children laugh at me when I try to continue this tradition of stocking stuffers. Today it is usually cozy socks that fill the stocking. But as I look around for available Christmas decorations the fruit is perfect. These oranges are Cara Cara oranges....they are very pink inside and a little sweeter than most oranges and they are the first harvest from my little container tree. Gifts from the garden. The Meyer lemons are from my little tree that has been giving me fruit for many years. The tree stands about 3 feet tall.
So I think of my mother and old traditions using oranges and lemons from my garden to create a yummy salad:

Orange fennel salad

orange fennel salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

and Voila! Orange fennel salad:
1 fennel bulb, sliced very thin..use the top for garnish
4 oranges, peeled and also sliced thin, (I used Cara Cara oranges)
spinich or arugula
blue cheese
walnuts, toasted
dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
juice from 2 lemons ( I used my Meyer lemons)
salt
pepper
Mix the sliced oranges and fennel bulb in a bowl and toss with dressing
Lay a bed of the greens on each plate and then add the orange mixture
Sprinkle blue cheese and toasted walnuts on top
Garnish with the feathery tips from the top of the fennel

Post script: tablesetting: 10 lords a leeping (W-S Christmas linens), hand folded Christmas tree made from a retail catalogue.

Salade Nicoise

Salade Nicoise, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

Ah! A classic French salad. Years ago when I was a student at the Cordon Bleu in Paris I, like many other "locals", would spend some of my free time at the cafe sipping coffee, water or wine. Dejeune was sometimes included....not dinner... that was either a picnic or at a bistro. I soon found a favorite in either sliced tomatoes (always vine ripened) and mustard or this classic salad named after the city of Nice. The essential Mediterranean influence ingredients: haricot vert (skinny little young green beans), small potatoes, olives, tomatoes,hard boiled eggs and tuna. Here is the method:
Make a vinaigrette dressing of
olive oil
lemon juice or a good vinegar
mustard...Dijon of course
herbs, finely chopped
Toss the salad greens with some of the vinaigrette and lay on plate
Arrange along the outside the vegetables and eggs
Place the tuna (salmon and shrimp are also yummy) in the center
Drizzle more of the vinaigrette over the top.
Now, open a fine bottle of wine and take your masterpiece outside and enjoy the day.
Bon Appetit!

Quilting and Salsa!!!!!!

corn and black bean salad, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

OK these two ideas don't really go together except at my house today. I "fired" my real estate agent and his broker so I knew I would have no "buyers" coming to my house today so out came the fabric and cutting supplies. I have baby quilts to make for my new "great" niece and my new grandaughter so I got started today. Lots of orange, pink and green! In the meantime I also wanted to make my weekly amount of salad. Here are all of my salsas I made today photographed with some of the fabrics for my upcoming quilts.

Corn and black bean salsa salad
1/2 red onion, "cooked" in
2 Tbs red wine vinegar ( I use William-Sonoma's Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 ears fresh corn, microwave cooked and cut off cob ( any form of corn is good....today I had fresh)
1 bell pepper, chopped
1-2 Heirloom tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 large ripe avocado, chopped
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp hot sauce
cilantro, chopped
I make a batch of this fresh salad every week. It is great fresh or added to lettuces. All of my friends and family have been forced to eat this at least once.

Chez Panisse "Fruit"

persimmon, pomegranate & walnut salad
Originally uploaded by cabanagirl

Persimmon, pomegranate, walnut & frisee salad:

I received a lovely gift in the mail from my friend, Marjorie, today: Chez Panisse "Fruit" by Alice Waters. I have recently been seduced by persimmons and have been searching for ways to use them. Just peeling and slicing the Fuji variety is perfect but this beautiful cookbook has a whole chapter on persimmons. Heaven! This salad combines the 3 main ingredients with a sherry wine vinaigrette and is served over frisee (curly endive) Besides being colorful it is very fresh and crunchy. Try it! If anyone cares these are my three favorite colors all on one plate (well really, hot pink, but close)