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| With smoky tri tip, grilled asparagus, caramelized onions, fresh cilantro, cheese and loads of crisp greens, salad for dinner is all you'll need. The pinkish dabs are chipotle sauce. Recipes below.
At least once or twice a week, sometimes more often, we have salad for dinner, especially in the spring/early summer when greens are plentiful, tender and sweet. Salad as dinner sounds virtuous, but it isn't. Our salads are decadent, filling, nutritious, and delish! I could barely finish the one pictured. I think it was all the grilled/caramelized onions that did it. As a carb watcher, I realize that onions are fairly carbaceous (new word?), but onions at the tail end of their storage life beg to be eaten. Ever heard an onion beg? It's pitiful. Bread can whine and be ignored, but not homegrown onions about to sprout and melt down.
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| This year's onion crop was planted from starts on April 23. On the right, sweet varieties that we'll begin thinning/eating soon. On the left, "keeper" onions. Down the middle, a shallow trench of compost. Onions like to eat. |
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| At the start of the grilling process. The asparagus is pulled first, then the peppers, and when they're browned, the onions. Cool before using on salad. |
General salad-for-dinner guidelines follow. The only thing to really embed into your brain is don't stress about how much fat is in the dressing, the avocados, the cheese, or the meat. Really. Just forget about the fat and enjoy how great it tastes. Skip the garlic bread, of course. You will be thinner in the morning.
Salad for dinner in a nutshell
You'll need greens, veggies, protein, and some kind of dressing.
Greens - fresh from the garden if possible. If not, there's a lot to be said for boxed or bagged ready- to-eat greens. Figure on two or three generous handfuls per person. Greens include all lettuces (except why bother with iceburg?), spinach, cilantro, mustard greens, bok choy, etc.
Other veggies - I generally chop cabbage, kale, chard, broccoli and/or cauliflower as about a quarter of the salad. Avocados are used throughout the winter and early spring. Veggies change as the summer garden offers up tomatoes, cukes, zukes, beets, and so on. Any veggies on hard may be used: carrots, asparagus, celery, whatever. Greens and veggies are least 90-95 percent of what's on your plate. Oh, the joy of life without bread!
Protein
Our second salad-for-dinner this week didn't involve the grill, but a Costco rotisserie chicken, fresh asparagus, and one small avocado for each salad. Other protein choices include smoked fish, tuna salad, any thinly sliced cooked/smoked meats or poultry (but not processed meats), hard-boiled eggs. Cheese is mostly a condiment. I like either feta or Parmesan. Vegetarians could use grilled or baked and seasoned tofu, more cheese, more eggs, or whatever protein they prefer.
Laurie's Sesame Dressing and Marinade
My friend Laurie served this to me at least 20 years ago, and I had to have the recipe.
I've made variations of this for at least two decades. It is definitely my salad dressing of choice and it is always on hand.
6-8 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, lemon juice, or other acidic liquid
2 Tbsp. dijon or other mustard
sweetener to taste— I use a dash of Stevia
a dash of white pepper for a little kick
Directions:
Use a food processor. Peel the garlic and process til finely minced. Add all other ingredients, then process until the oils are emulsified. The oil will separate after the dressing sits for awhile, but it is easily mixed with a twirl of the spoon. Works great for dressing a salad or marinating veggies for the grill or even steak or chicken.
Chipotle Sauce
2-3 cubes frozen chipotle cubes - or 2-3 canned chipotles in adobo sauce, minced2/3 c mayo (more or less)
2/3 c sour cream (more or less)
2/3 c plain yogurt
2-4 tsp. lemon or lime juice.
2-3 tsp serrano sauce or garlic/chili sauce
1-2 tsp. cumin Mix and serve over, or on the side, with grilled meats, fish, veggies, eggs, or atop soups or stews.
Pretty much the same as my go to salad dressing but I like the idea of including some sesame oil and Worcestershire sauce. Also have a bottle of walnut oil that needs using. I read a blog recently that said adding a tiny bit of guar gum will keep the ingredients in suspension for a long time. I'm going to try adding some konjac to mine to see if I get the same result. I make these salads all the time, too, loaded with protein and fats. I've recently discovered a new luxury item to add--sardines! I'm not an aficionado but discovered that the king of sardines is the one called Sprat or Bristling/Brisling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisling are hailed as the finest. I miss the crunch 'o the croutons, so I often add a sprinkling of chopped nuts--usually pecans or pistachios...but that's really gilding the lily. I have not tried chopping kale, chard, cabbage or cauliflower so that will be a new twist for me. We LOVE mustard greens and mine are just getting big enough to start thinning for salads. I know beans are carbaceous (if anyone asks, I'll give you credit for that excellent word...much more elegant than 'carby') but once in a Blue Moon I will make my favorite mustard green side dish: Use a few tablespoons of your favorite vinegar (Balsamic for me), some sesame oil, some tamari or soy sauce, some garlic, some olive oil or ghee or bacon fat, a dash of something sweet if you like--stevia or maple syrup or a skosh of plum sauce--simmer this mixture down in a large saute pan until it's nothing but a thick glaze. Adjust flavor..more salt? some hot sauce? Now add a cup of garbanzos and swirl them in the glaze, fill the pan with chopped mustard greens, pop a lid on and steam them until they're bright green and still tender. Toss. Eat.
ReplyDeleteWow! That mustard greens/bean thing sounds fabulous!
DeleteOur mustard greens (all volunteers this year) are favored by finches, so we don't get much.
Also, in this climate, the greens are pretty bitter after they get to be more than teenage-sized.
The leeks I planted from seed last spring were finally mature enough to harvest early this spring. It's not warm enough to grow onions here other than scallions. My Spanish-type never get larger than a golf ball on steroids. I found a porcelain hard neck type garlic that has been grown locally on a small commercial scale so seems well acclimated to this rain forest climate. I plant in October in my 20' high raised beds. It's thick as my wrist and taller than me at the moment and hasn't even thrown up the scapes yet. I let one flower every year and plant the bulbils which take 2 years to mature and keep the strain healthy. Plus it will mean I don't have to pay $10 a pound for bulbs! I look at pictures of your garden with longing. We are having such a crap spring again. Cold and rain every day. I'm becoming pretty disgruntled. Have cut back on my tomato hopes from my usual 75-90 plants to a measly 5. I've also given up hope on peppers and eggplant. I have a hulking big artichoke in one of my hothouse beds--its second year. I'm such an idiot. You won't remember this but one year I thought I'd try growing peanuts in Newport. Yep. The slugs got 'um.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of that garlic, but it sounds as if it LOVES the cool maritime climate. Our garlic, the soft necked kind, gets huge—baseball sized—but never so thick where the stem meets the soil. The leek bulbs I planted last fall produced great big plants that are about to bloom. I never much saw the point of leeks, but I love the flowers.
ReplyDeleteOur Mediterranean climate is enviable—perfect for many things. But don't try to grow a nasturtium here!
Now that you mention it, i think i recall your peanut-growing experiment.