Yes, chips would have been the quick answer, but I was hoping for something healthier.  I also knew that our fruit bin was filled with apples.  I haven’t consumed many servings of Waldorf Salad; the combination of mayonnaise and apples never seemed that appealing to me.  However, it is a classic recipe that is familiar to me and provided me with the basic idea for this salad.  I switched the mayonnaise for yogurt and added a few splashes of flavor, and we had a salad that pleased all of us.

Waldorf Salad Revisited

3 apples, cored & chopped
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 celery stalks, chopped
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 Tb. maple syrup
1 tsp. cinnamon

Toss apple with lemon juice in a large bowl.  Add celery and walnut, and toss to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, maple syrup, and cinnamon.  Pour dressing on apple mixture and stir.  Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate.

As I was checking out their olives, I noticed that they also had roasted tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil.  While I normally would have taken the idea and made my own roasted tomatoes, I took the easier route and bought them.  I don’t like oily salads, so I knew the tomatoes would need to be more of a garnish and less of the main ingredient.  Thankfully, my inspiration had returned, and I quickly developed a simple recipe that would compliment our Italian tapas menu.

I made the salad as soon as I returned home, which allowed the flavors to meld for a few hours before dinner.  I found the flavors in the salad to be quite delightful.  I can envision using this salad as a side dish with sandwiches or grilled steak.  I am sure I will be making it again soon, as we have local tomatoes available, and it will be great to make this recipe from scratch.

Artichoke Salad

1 14-oz. can artichoke hearts in water

2 roasted tomatoes

6 basil leaves

1 clove garlic, minced

salt & pepper

Drain artichoke hearts, and chop into bite-sized pieces.  Dice tomatoes.  Cut basil into a chiffonade.  Combine artichokes, tomatoes, and basil in a medium-sized bowl.  Add garlic and toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.

With a love for these vegetables, I try to share it with my children.  I understand that kids aren’t supposed to adore vegetables, but I also know that exposure can help them to develop an appreciation for these veggies.  Last week I decided to provide them with another opportunity to enjoy beet greens.

As they were early season beet greens, they were smaller and quite tender.  With a cold and rainy day on hand, serving them warm seemed like the better option.  Who could resist a serving (even if it’s “no thank you” size) of warm greens that have been seasoned and have some flavorful ingredients joining them in the dish?

The honest answer is that this dish may not have been a favorite for our thirteen year old.  However, she did eat her serving without complaints, which could be considered a minor victory.  Our fifteen year old enjoyed it as much as my husband and I did.  Perhaps three out of four isn’t bad.

Warm Beet Green Salad

1/2 Tb. olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, sliced

6-8 crimini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 lb. beet greens

balsamic vinegar

salt & pepper

Heat a large, nonstick frying pan over medium heat.  Coat bottom of the pan with oil, and add onions.  Sauté for 5 minutes, or until tender.  Add mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes.  Add greens and sauté, tossing frequently for even cooking.  Once greens are tender, about 2 minutes, remove pan from heat and sprinkle with vinegar.  If desired, season with salt and pepper.

I have to confess that the idea of locally sourcing produce, meats, and dairy was both exciting and overwhelming.  What was overwhelming was knowing that grocery shopping no longer was as simple as stopping at the local supermarket for dinner ingredients.  Say goodbye to tomatoes in January and lunchmeat from the deli.  However, do tomatoes really take good out of season?  Not really.  Aren’t lunchmeats filled with all sorts of interesting ingredient.  Yep.

So, two weeks into this way of life, things are going well.  Living in New England, the produce selections are pretty limited, but a little creativity can make things go a long way.  Plus, I am a competitive person.  So with the gauntlet thrown down, I will not let the cold winter of the northeast win.  I will find creative ways to make meals without buying food from thousands of miles away.

Last weekend, my daughter and I stopped by a local fish market and found haddock from the Gulf of Maine.  I knew we had a head of cabbage (locally sourced) at home, so I figured I would make cole slaw for a side dish.  The kids like cole slaw, making it an easy way to deliver veggies that coordinate with fish.  But with cold weather, a chilly salad was less appealing to me.  I decided to try a little experiment, using half of the cabbage for the kids’ salad and the other half to make a warm cole slaw.  Much to my delight the warm slaw was delicious.  Quick to make, flavorful, and warm, it is now my favorite veggie side dish for fish in winter.

Warm Cole Slaw

1/2 Tb. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced

1/3 cup cider vinegar

2 Tb. honey

Old Bay seasoning, optional

Heat oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, and sauté for 5 minutes.  Add cabbage, and sauté for approximately 5 minutes.  Meanwhile combine vinegar and honey in a small bowl.  Pour vinegar mixture onto cabbage mixture, and cook for another 5 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld.  (I removed the pan from the heat when the cabbage was al dente.  You can cook the cabbage more or less depending on your texture preference.)  Season with Old Bay, if desired.

I already had decided to make fish tacos, as they require little preparation and can be made to order by each diner.  An entreé such as this would allow me to create a side dish that utilized some sort of bean.  The typical side dish of refried beans seemed too heavy (and kind of boring).  However, black beans are one of my favorite beans and make a great ingredient in salads, at least as far as I’m concerned.

There isn’t any actual cooking involved in making a black bean salad.  A little chopping, draining, and mixing, and you have a colorful and tasty salad.  The one recommendation I would make is to prepare the salad early (3 or 4 hours), so that the ingredients have time to mingle.  The salad’s taste really intensifies with time.

Mexican Black Bean Salad

1 15-oz. can black beans, drained

1-1/2 cups corn*

1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced

4 scallions, diced

juice of 2 limes

1 tsp. honey

salt & pepper

Combine beans, corn, pepper, and scallions in a large bowl.  Combine lime juice and honey in a small bowl, and stir well.  Pour juice mixture over bean mixture, and toss to coat well.  Season with salt and pepper.  Refrigerate for at least 3 or 4 hours.

*Use either frozen corn that has been defrosted or fresh corn that has been cut off the cob.

While shopping at this farm this weekend, we were seeking some vegetable to use as the base in a salad.  With our main dish planned as a homemade Philly cheesesteak served atop a soft pretzel, we were looking for something lighter and healthier as a side.  The farm still had their own brussel sprouts available, which sparked my creative thoughts.  As I was pondering which nut to add and whether to shave or grate some parmesan cheese into the salad, my husband proposed a different idea:  why not make the salad resemble the toppings of a steak sub?

Although I was intrigued by my own salad ingredients, his idea did seem to complement the entrée better.  (Yes, I am admitting he had the better idea. . .)  With a steak sub topping salad planned we had to choose which ones we’d want in our salad.  We decided to go with the simple, yet flavorful, combination of peppers and onions.

This salad was delicious and would be a great weeknight dinner option, as we served the salad warm and thought it was fantastic served in that manner!  Plus, with very little oil needed to make this dish and no other fat-laden ingredients, this was a healthy salad.  It wasn’t just a feel-good sort of salad, it truly is a good for you salad.

Brussel Sprout Salad

1/2 Tb. olive oil

1/2 lb. brussel sprouts, sliced thin

1/2 roasted red pepper, chopped

1/2 yellow onion, sliced & caramelized

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. honey

Heat oil in a large, nonstick frying pan over medium heat.  Add brussel sprouts, and sauté until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.  Transfer brussel sprouts to serving dish.  Add pepper and onions to brussel sprouts and toss.

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar and honey together.  Pour on top of brussel sprout mixture, and toss well.  Can be served immediately, or allowed to cool to room temperature.

As the other two dishes were ribs and french fries, I wanted to have a healthy veggie dish to round out the meal.  Broccoli is always popular in our house, but serving it plain seemed way too dull.  Plus, it’s summer, so it felt like the perfect time to give a broccoli salad a try.  As it turns out, that was a great choice.

So many broccoli salad recipes tend toward the unhealthy side, as they are laden with bacon and mayonnaise.  While that may be tasty for some, it seemed like a poor pairing for the rest of our meal.  Once I started thinking about how to make my broccoli salad, I realized that I could make a broccoli salad that was tasty without being unhealthy.

The most important part of this recipe was finding ingredients that provided an enjoyable array of flavors and textures.  Thus, the sunflower seeds added crunch and saltiness, the onions added a savory taste, and the dried apricots added some sweetness.  Using Greek yogurt in the dressing helped to keep the sauce lighter in calories and fat.

Reflecting on this salad today, I am certain that the ingredients could be adjusted to meet the flavor preferences in your house and keep the salad healthy.  Instead of apricots, craisins or golden raisins could be used.  Instead of sunflower seeds, slivered almonds or peanuts could be used.

I plan on trying this salad again in the near future.  Maybe it even could be a family project where each person chooses one of the add-ins.  It could be a fun way to make this dish.

So good it's all gone!

Broccoli Salad

1-1/4 lb. broccoli florets

3 Tb. plain Greek yogurt

2 Tb. mayonnaise

3 Tb. cider vinegar

salt & pepper

1/4 cup sunflower seeds, shelled

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1/4 cup dried apricots, diced

Trim broccoli.  Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, and add broccoli.  Cook for 2 minutes, and drain well.

In a small bowl combine yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Place broccoli in a large bowl, and add dressing, seeds, onion, and apricots.  Stir to combine.  Chill for at least 2 hours to allow flavors to meld.

This past Saturday we decided to try our hands at more interesting grilled food.  Instead of hamburgers, we made buffalo chicken burgers with blue cheese sauce.  In place of coleslaw or pasta salad, we opted to give a grilled salad a try.  Like most salads, it is best made early and allowed to sit in the refrigerator to chill and allow flavors to meld.

This salad was made with minimal heat to keep all diners happy.  With two of our kids and our best friends joining us for dinner, I wasn’t sure exactly how much spice everyone would enjoy, so I kept the hot sauce to a minimum.  However, depending on your taste preferences you easily could add more or eliminate it completely.

Grilled Pineapple Salad

1 pineapple, cored & skin removed
1/2 red onion, cut into thick slices & peel removed
1 orange pepper
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 – 1 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt & pepper

Preheat grill to a medium-high heat.  Cut pineapple, lengthwise, into 8 slices.  Place pineapple slices, onion slices, and whole pepper on grill.  Cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until onions and pineapple have brown grill marks and pepper has charred skin.  (Pineapple may cook more quickly.)  Remove from grill.  Place pepper in a small brown paper bag, and close.  Allow all items to cool for 15 minutes.  Remove pepper from bag, and rub off skin.  Remove stem and seeds, and dice pepper into bite-sized chunks.  Cut pineapple and onion into similarly sized pieces.  Place all in a large bowl.

In a small bowl combine juice, hot sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Whisk to combine, and pour over pineapple mixture.  Toss well.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Last week, I had created a main dish of lamb and wanted a cool side dish to accompany it.  Of course, the obvious answer was salad.  However, I had eaten a green salad for lunch, and the thought of another green salad with dinner wasn’t that exciting.   So, it was time to have some fun and think about what ingredients would make a fun, colorful, and tasty salad.

Having not used beets for a while in my cooking, they seemed like a great basis for the salad.  Once you have roasted them, they develop this fabulous crisp, tender consistency and have a touch of sweetness to them.  To give the salad a balance of flavors, I decided to add orange segments for more sweetness and diced red onions for bite.  A little bit of homemade vinaigrette would complete the family of flavors.

This salad isn’t labor intensive, but it does require a small amount of time between roasting the beets and allowing the salad to chill.  However, the flavors are well worth the time.

Beet & Orange Salad

3  roasted beets

1 orange, peeled

2 Tb. red onion, diced

2 Tb. cider vinegar

1 tsp. honey

Preheat oven to 375.  Wash beets, and wrap in heavy duty foil (or two layers of regular aluminum foil).  Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until beets can be pierced with a fork.  Allow beets to cool a little.  Using a paper towel, rub the skin off of the beets.  WARNING: Your hands will become quite purple.  Wearing an apron is advised.

Once beets are cool, cut into bite-sized pieces, and place in a medium-sized bowl.  Divide orange into segments, and cut segments in half, if desired.  Add segments and onion to bowl.  Combine vinegar and honey in a small bowl.  Pour vinegar mixture on beet combination, and toss.  Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Because of this obsession with healthy foods, I prefer not to put salad dressing on my salad.  Yep, I am that annoying restaurant customer who orders her salad, “With dressing on the side, please.”  I prefer to dip the tines of my fork in the dressing and then stab a bite of salad.  It gives the salad some nice flavor without a lot of extra calories.

When I am at home and making salads, quite often I like to make my own dressings.  If I make my own dressings I can control the amount of oil added.  I understand that some dressings taste better with oil, but sometimes the ingredients simply shine on their own.  When I made this pear vinaigrette, I had thought it might need a bit of oil, but the flavors that it delivered persuaded me to believe otherwise.  Serving on salad for my husband and me, he had to agree.  It was a great topping, even without oil.

Pear Vinaigrette

2 forelle pears

1/3 cup champagne vinegar

1 Tb. sugar

2 Tb. red onion, diced

Peel, core, and finely chop pears.  Combine pears, vinegar, sugar, and onion in a small pot, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Allow mixture to cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes), then puree in blender.  Serve immediately, or refrigerate.