Category Archives: Salads

Spicy Lentil and Tuna Salad

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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Spicy Lentil and Tuna Salad

 I love this salad, it has become one of those easy quick fix meals when there’s not much in the fridge. It’s super healthy, full of protein and tastes great. Don’t hesitate to add left-overs.

What you need:

1 can of tuna
1 can lentils
2 tomatoes
1/2 shallot or 3 spring onions
2 hard boiled eggs
Chilli flakes
1 -2 tbsp vinegar
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and the shallots or spring onions into small slices. Rinse the lentils and put them in a bowl along with the tuna, chopped tomatoes and sliced shallots/ spring onions and cut eggs. Add some chilli flakes, as much or as little depending on taste. Add 1 tbsp of vinegar and 2 tbsp of olive oil and add salt and pepper. Mix everything together and add some vinegar and olive oil depending on taste.

There you have it, nice and easy!Enjoy
Mel

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Rice and Fennel Salad

13 Sunday Nov 2011

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To make rice and fennel salad you will need:

2 Fennel Bulbs (Chopped)
2 Tablespoons of Grated Parmesan
2 Tablespoons of Parsley (Chopped)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1 Small Cucumber (peeled, seeded and diced)
12oz. Container of Grape Tomatoes (halved)
1 Cup of Rice

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons of Rice Vinegar
1/2 Lemon (juiced)
1/2 Cup of Olive Oil
1/2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
1/3 Clove of Garlic (minced)

Get your rice started first.

Combine the Fennel, Parmesan, Parsley and Salt and Pepper in a medium sized bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and sesame oil.
Whisk vigorously as you slowly add you olive oil.

Pour the vinaigrette into the hot rice.  Then, mix into the bowl of Fennel.

Eat immediately or chill.

Joy

My Favorite Fennel Slaw

15 Saturday Oct 2011

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I’ve been eating a LOT of fresh fennel these days because it helps support healthy breast milk production. It is also a good vegetable to have in your milk output for any upset stomach that your baby may have.
This recipe is delicious and SO easy to make. Enjoy!

Slaw:
1 Bulb of Fennel (shredded)
1 Carrot (Shredded)
1 Sweet Apple or Cucumber (Shredded)
1 Stick of Chopped Celery (optional)

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons of Fresh Lime or Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar
1 Teaspoon of Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil
1/2-1 1/2 Tablespoons of Honey (you decide)
1 Cube of Minced Fresh Ginger (Optional)

Combine all shredded ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the juice, vinegar, soy sauce and ginger. Slowly add the sesame oil and honey.
Add dressing to slaw and serve immediately or for an even better flavor, chill for 1-3 hours.

Joy

Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette

17 Sunday Jul 2011

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My husband brought home some cherries yesterday and they were SO sweet! I decided to add them to my favorite salad dressing and the result was delicious.

Here’s what I used:

30 pitted cherries (If you don’t have cherries, use strawberries instead)
2 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Honey
Salt & Pepper
1/4-1/2 Cup of Olive Oil (The amount varies depending on how aged your vinegar is)

In a blender, mix the cherries, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Mix until the cherries are invisible.
Then slowly add your oil. I would start out with a 1/4 cup and then taste it. This is when you decide if you need more oil or honey.
If you have added a 1/2 cup of oil and the vinegar taste is too strong, add more honey.
At that point, if you continue to add more oil, you risk losing the cherry flavor.

I put this over mixed greens, goat cheese and toasted walnuts. YUM!

Enjoy!
Joy

Morel Omelette

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

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Morel mushrooms

Three days in the French countryside and I come back with at least 4 blog’s worth of material!

So I think I’ll start from the very beginning and that would be my father’s excitement at finding about 10 morels (crazy looking mushrooms) under one of his trees. It is the season for this kind of mushroom in France at the moment. Ok, they aren’t truffles but they are still quite a sort after kind. ‘Mushroom pickers’ go off to their secret spots in search of them and in no circumstance do they share their locations. Well that’s how it is in my village.

Mushrooms are a fantastic ingredient to adding flavour to the simplest of things, from sauces to omelettes. My parent’s neighbours have chickens and so we went and bought 12 eggs to make an omelette, to which we added the mushrooms. Now these eggs are nothing like supermarket eggs! The yolk is bright orange and so full of flavour; you really see the difference between a chicken running about the countryside and one that’s cooped up in a cage.

How to make an omelette

When making an omelette I’d say you need about 2/3 eggs per person, butter and anything you fancy adding to it. You also need a very good, non-stick pan. If it’s not non-stick your omelette will end up looking like scrambled eggs.

 So, in a bowl crack your eggs and whisk (do not add any milk). Butter your pan, put on heat and add your ingredients (in this case mushrooms),once they are cooked add your eggs.

 Now, there are two cooking techniques that I know of for the perfect omelette; the French way and the Spanish way. Your omelettes will look quite different depending on which technique you use but they will both give you a perfect omelette.

The French way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan starts to cook fold the omelette in half (so it becomes a half circle) and let it continue to cook for a while. The heat of the folded omelette will cook the inside.

The Spanish way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan is cooked take a plate, put it onto the pan and tip the pan so that the omelette is on the plate. Then slide the omelette from the plate back onto the pan so that the uncooked side is face down.

Serve with a side salad, and there you have it, a healthy and cheap meal.

Caution
Please do not go picking any mushrooms unless you are absolutely sure that they are edible.

Mel

A French Picnic…

01 Friday Apr 2011

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Melanie is off to France for a long weekend…aahhhh!
Cherries

Home picked cherries

I miss France so much right now that if I were allowed to fly, I would tag along!
 

A sunny day in France

Mel’s trip makes me think of a picnic we had in France when we were there, in the countryside, last May.
We had a delicious spread of wine, salad, pates, cheese and cherries – that were picked from her grandmother’s tree. It seems when most people think of food in France desserts, baguettes and champagne come to mind. But I think of the lettuce. The leaves are large but they have a soft texture and taste sweet. Boston/Bibb lettuce is the only kind of lettuce I can find in Chicago that reminds me of the lettuce in France.

Whenever Mel and I make a meal together, I know that we will have a salad with her famous mustard vinaigrette. The French always eat a salad with their meal because it helps digestion. Before meeting Mel, I had never heard of this but eat the same way now. When I make salad dressing I like to measure it all out, but not Melanie. The salad below is what I make to take me back to that lovely picnic. It has a tangy cheese, a tart fruit, buttery walnuts and the famous pungent mustard vinaigrette!

What you need:
Butter/Bibb lettuce

1 green apple (cored and cut)
1/2 cup of toasted walnuts
3 ounces of Roquefort cheese

Vinaigrette
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of olive oil
Sea Salt & Black Pepper

Fennel salad

31 Thursday Mar 2011

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Fennel and garlic salad

Fennel and garlic salad

I keep seeing recipes in the papers about cooked fennel. Ok it’s good but I have to say it’s so much better raw and strangely enough people just don’t seem to eat it that way. It’s so fresh and crunchy with aniseedy flavours. I feel that cooking it takes quite a lot away from it.

You’ll need:

1 fennel
1 – ½ clove of garlic
½ a lemon
2 – 3 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

So it’s quite simple, cut the fennel in half and then slice thinly. Put it in a bowl and add the crushed garlic and half a lemon’s juice. The acid from the lemon juice will start to ‘cook’ the garlic. Mix it all together and then add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir it all once more. Then cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will ensure that all the flavours are properly infused.

Serve as a side salad with anything really 🙂 I think that this is one of my favourite things. Though I have to warn you that I love garlic, so if you are a little afraid of it don’t put too much.

Little tip: eating garlic keeps mosquitoes away (ok I hear you say the boys as well, haha).

Mel