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| Various
Salads |
Quinoa,
radish, yellow pepper, and baby spinach salad with Canadian
Feta (serves 4)
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Quinoa
is known as a superfood/ supergrain. As it is one of the foods
with the highest content of protein. Thus, this is a good
grain to use when serving a meal to a vegetarian.
NOTE:
Quinoa must be soaked for a few minutes in cold water. Then
drain and rinse well under cold running water. This ensures
that the quinoa loses its bitter/ soapy flavour which occurs
when it is not well rinsed before cooking. |
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2/3
cup quinoa (couscous, bulghur, can be substituted if necessary)
5-6 Bryson farm radishes, washed and thinly sliced
1 yellow or red pepper, roasted, peeled and finely cut into
cubes
2 shallots or green onions, finely diced
1/3 english cucumber, washed, seeded and cut into ½
cubes
½ bunch fresh italian parsley, washed and finely
chopped
small handful of fresh mint leaves, finely cut
1 bunch of fresh baby spinach, washed, and dried
Canadian feta, broken up into 1 inch chunks
grainy mustard vinaigrette
grainy
mustard vinaigrette vinaigrette
2 tbsp
dijon mustard
2 tbsp grainy mustard
6 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/3-1/2 cup canola oil
salt and pepper
Mix
together the mustards, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper to
make a tasty vinaigrette. Adjust flavours according to taste.
Note:
The grainy mustard vinaigrette goes very well lightly dressed
on Bryson Greens. A nice decorative and tasty treat is to
thinly slice the heirloom radishes to add a little bite
to the salad.
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Place
the quinoa and 1 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan and bring
to a boil. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the
quinoa is tender. Drain and let cool on a plate or cookie
sheet.
To roast
the peppers in the oven
Set oven temperature to 400F. In a bowl, lightly toss the
pepper with olive oil (ie. 1 tbsp). Place the pepper on a
tray and put into oven. After 15-20 minutes the pepper’s
skin should have begun to blister and look wrinkled and loose.
When the skin is wrinkled and lightly black, remove from the
oven and place the peppers in a covered bowl and let stand
for at least 10 minutes. Carefully scrape away the blistered
skin. Cut open and scrape out the seeds. Keep the peeled peppers
and their juice together and lightly toss with olive oil.
Store in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week.
To roast
over a gas burner. Set the pepper directly over the flame.
Turn them every few minutes so that the entire surface is
exposed to the flame and the skin is eventually charred. Follow
above directions of steaming and peeling of the peppers.
Place
cooled quinoa, peppers, cucumbers, shallots/ green onions,
parsley and mint in a bowl. Toss with vinaigrette and season
with salt and pepper to taste. Place a generous spoonful(s)
in the centre of the plate. In a separate bowl, season the
spinach with salt and pepper and toss with some of the vinaigrette.
Place a small amount of spinach on top of the quinoa salad.
Place some of the feta chunks around and on top of the spinach.
Lastly, sprinkle some of the sliced radishes on top of the
salad for garnish. |
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A
myriad of beet salads |
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Baking
beets tenderizes them without getting them waterlogged as
boiling tends to do. If possible it is beet to make the
salad and let it sit at room temperature for about a 30
minutes or longer to further mingle the flavours.
As oppose
to simply boiling the beets until tender, here is in my
opinion a method to cook beets which produces a greater
intensity of flavour. If you like to steam beets, they will
need to be cooked a tad longer to become tender in comparison
to the other two cooking methods.
Preheat
oven to 400F. Wash beets well of dirt and cut off stems
(use in beet green pasta!). Put the beets in a baking dish
with a ½ cup of water or so and cover them with foil
and bake in the oven for 30 minutes to 1 hour (the younger
they are the quicker they tend to cook). The beets are done
with a knife can easily pierce the beets. Allow to cool
and peel the beets. Cut off the tops and bottoms, if necessary.
Note: Any red beets will start to colour the other beets
unless they are dressed separately, so if you would like
the beets to remain they nice colour/ pattern keep them
separate after peeling and cutting. Cut the baby beets into
halves or quarters. From this point on any of the following
combinations can be made into salads. The ingredients are
listed but in general, quantities are not as the vinaigrettes
should be made to taste at a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1 oil to
vinegar. However, sometimes due to their sweetness beets
can handle much more acidity, so, if more vinegar is felt
to be needed, simply do so until a desired happy taste is
reached.
Beets,
canola oil, sherry vinegar, minced ginger (ie. 1 tbsp per
pound of beets, or to taste), salt and pepper, chopped chive.
Chioga
beets, white wine vinegar, finely chopped shallots, thinly
sliced fennel, watercress or garden cress.
beets,
balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, finely chopped
shallots, toasted walnuts or hazelnuts, fresh goat’s
cheese
beets,
sherry or cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, finely
grated orange zest, finely chopped tarragon and/or mint,
with a touch of finely minced garlic if desired.
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Carrot
and Beet salad recipes
They
are simple to prepare but are truly fantastic when using fresh,
young vegetables. They are inspired from the cuisine of Morocco.
These salads are great for barbecues, picnics or simply lunches
with chicken sandwiches or grilled chicken breasts or legs. |
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Carrot
Salad
1 pound carrots
1 clove garlic
1/8 tsp. grnd cinnamon
½ tsp. grnd cumin
½ tsp paprika
pinch of cayenne (optional)
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of sugar
salt, pepper
olive oil to taste
parsley, and/or coriander
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Wash
and peel carrots and boil in water with the garlic clove until
just tender. The young vegetables will not take long to cook.
Once tender drain, discard garlic, and place the carrots in
an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Remove when cool or
even just slightly warm. Cut the carrots into bite sized piece,
cutting on an angle or if using baby carrots just in half
lengthwise. Combine spices, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and
pepper. Dress the carrots and chill or let marinate at room
temp. for about a half hour to let the flavours merge. Sprinkle
with chopped parsley and/or coriander before serving.
This
salad is also very nice when served with a small amount of
plumped raisins or currants and a few walnuts.
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Beet
Salad
1 pound beets
1 tbsp sugar
juice of l lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
large pinch of cinnamon
1 tbsp. chopped parsley or tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
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Boil
or roast beets until tender. Peel and cut the beets into bite
size pieces or small wedges. Mix the remaining ingredients
to taste and then mix with the beets. Let marinate 1 hour
before serving to allow the flavours to mingle.
This
salad is fantastic when served with nice lettuce, orange segments
and walnuts, and/ or fresh goat cheese. If you do take this
suggestion, make a light vinaigrette for the greens using
lemon or orange juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Toss the lettuce leaves lightly with the vinaigrette then
arrange the beets, orange segments, walnuts and goat cheese
nicely over top. Serve and enjoy. |
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