This recipe came from Cooking Light magazine. It’s a perfect addition to a fall meal. It brightens up the plate and has a great flavor.
All of the herbs came from my garden. However, the cilantro was special. A few months ago in the heat of summer, I was frustrated that my cilantro kept bolting. I decided to let it flower and turn to seed so I could make my very own coriander seed. Once the plants got to the right point (for us, the right point was when we were sick of the constant swarm of bees who adored our cilantro flowers), I cut and then dried the plants in a paper bag. Then, I hung the bag inside for a few weeks. After a few weeks, I gave the bag a few shakes. Amazingly, there were some coriander seeds at the bottom of my bag. However, the yield was less than I hoped for: just a few tablespoons. I think I should have waited a bit longer to chop down the flowering cilantro before letting it dry.
Rather than save the coriander, I continued on with my experiment. I planted the coriander a few inches deep in the empty pot that used to house the cilantro. A few week later….little baby cilantro plants started popping up. I watered them gently at first. A few weeks later than that…carrot salad with a hit of heat features my very own “circle of life” cilantro. I know this is basic stuff to some people, but I was amazed that this process actually works.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
- 4 cups coarsely grated carrot (about 1 pound)
- 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives (optional)
Directions:
- Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add carrot and salt; toss to coat. Let stand 30 minutes. Just before serving, add cilantro, mint, and chives, if desired; toss to combine.
This is a basic tabbouleh recipe that does not require a lot of ingredients. If you are looking for more of a meal, check out my tabbouleh with chicken and tahini recipe here. This week, we got a lot of parsley from the CSA, and tabbouleh is my favorite way to use it all up. Thanks to Simply Recipes for the original recipe. I revised the amounts when I made it myself. Feel free to increase the herbs and decrease the bulgur or the other way around, depending on the ratio you prefer. (I like more herbs when eating it with pita, more bulgur when eating it as a stand-alone salad). Do you have another favorite recipe that highlights parsley? Send it along!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup bulgur wheat
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Juice from 2 lemons
- 5-6 Roma or plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I used about a cup of mixed tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes–but I left the seeds in the little guys)
- 2 scallions, chopped, including the greens
- 1 1/2-2 cups parsley, chopped
- 3/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
Directions:
- Place the bulgur in a medium sized bowl. Bring water and the teaspoon of salt to a boil, pour it over the bulgur. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add the olive oil, lemon juice, bulgur and mix well. Add in all the other ingredients and mix to combine.
- Taste the tabbouleh, and add more salt, olive oil or more lemon juice to taste. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Will keep chilled for several days.
These are like little salads you can eat with your hands. You can really improvise and use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Also, you can add shrimp, chicken, or tofu to these for some more protein. However, I liked them nice and light for these hot summer days. You may have to go to a larger store or an Asian market to get the rice paper wrap. The 3rd store was a charm for me–I picked some at at Pacific Green on Court Street in Cobble Hill. As a bonus, I also picked up some of their wonderfully fresh-cut watermelon for dessert.
These fresh summer rolls (as opposed to deep-fried spring rolls) are great to bring to a picnic or anywhere else. Just put a layer of damp paper towels on the bottom, seal them tightly with saran wrap, and they should be good to go a day in advance. If you want to store them in layers, put a layer of paper towels between the layers of rolls to keep them from sticking to each other.
The quantity of the ingredients list is flexible. It depends on your preference: you can make each roll with as much of each ingredient as you choose. One cucumber and one carrot will be good for about 8 rolls, which are each cut in half.
Ingredients:
For the rolls:
- 1 package very thin rice noodles, cooked according to package directions
- 1 cucumber, cut in half cross wise and then into thin strips
- 1 carrot, shaved with a vegetable peeler
- 4 radishes, cut into matchsticks (First cut the radish into thin slices. Then, cut each round slice into strips.)
- 20 or so whole basil leaves (fewer if your leaves are bigger)
- 20 or so whole cilantro leaves
- 20 or so whole mint leaves (fewer if your leaves are bigger)
- 1 package rice paper wrappers: they look like this
For the dipping sauce:
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- water as needed to thin out the sauce
- optional: one clove or garlic, minced
Directions:
- If you did not cook the noodles ahead of time already, get those going according to package directions.
- Prepare the dipping sauce: mix all ingredients together. Thin out with a few tablespoons or water at at time until you get your desired consistency. I added a bit more vinegar as well,so just taste and keep adjusting the amounts until you like the flavor.
- Fill a large sauté pan with warm water. Hopefully it is large enough for you to quickly dip the wrappers in without crushing them. The wrappers I got this time were HUGE (larger diameter than any of my pans) so I just dipped one half at a time. Here’s how it works: The wrapper needs to sit in warm water for a just a few seconds to become pliable so you can actually wrap with it. Then, you need to work fairly quickly but carefully so that you don’t tear the wrapper. Just do one at a time.
- After softening the wrapper, place it carefully on a work surface. Fill the middle with the goods: a small handful of noodles, a few cucumber sticks, a few radishes, a few carrots, a few of each: cilantro, basil, mint, whatever else you feel like.
- Then, get rolling. Fold the top and bottom up to close off the edges of your roll. Then, start wrapping from one side until you get the shape you want. You’ll need to be a little forceful with your vegetables to get them into roll-shape. Its ok, they can handle it.
- Cut each roll in half, and serve with dipping sauce on the side.
Here’s another version of the classic Caprese salad. This one takes a little bit more prep work than the original post, and it’s a welcome variation because you can eat this one without a knife. Sometimes, the fewer utensils the better, especially when having to carry everything up and down a spiral staircase. This is a delicious side dish for a summer BBQ. To make it a hearty main dish, you can add couscous or quinoa and some toasted pine nuts.
The cherry tomatoes and basil came from my garden in the sky. I was pretty excited that I grew enough tomatoes to make a salad that fed 5 people!
Thanks to The Curvy Carrot for this fantastic recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 medium shallot, minced (about three tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 and 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves, torn
- 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped into bite-size pieces
- Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Toss the tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and the sugar in a medium bowl. Set it aside and let stand on its own for 30 minutes.
2. Transfer the tomatoes to a salad spinner and spin them for a few seconds to remove the seeds and extra juice. Make sure you conserve the juice.
3. Put the spun tomato juice/seeds through a fine strainer to reserve the juice and discard the seeds.
4. Heat a medium saucepan over medium-low heat on the stove.
5. Add 1/2 cup of the tomato liquid, the shallot, and vinegar to a simmer. Let simmer until the mixture is reduced to about 3 tablespoons. (I didn;t have that much tomato liquid so I just let it simmer for a while and then decided it was done when I felt like it)
6. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and cool to room temperature.
7. Whisk in the oil and salt and pepper to taste.
8. Add the basil and the mozzarella to the tomatoes. Toss gently to combine.
- 6 ears of sweet corn, boiled for 5 minutes in salted water, cooled
- ½ Vidalia Onion chopped
- ½ Red or Orange sweet pepper chopped
- 24 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined cooked for 2 minutes in boiling
- water (preparing shrimp in advance: boil, cool put in sealed plastic bag with a little
- lemon juice and olive oil)
- 1/3 cup Tarragon Vinegar
- ¼ cup Olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 large bunch of tarragon. Remove leaves from tough stems, chop finely,
- should be around ¼ cup
- Combine salt vinegar and mustard, add tarragon, whisk in olive oil.
- Add onion and pepper, toss. Cut corn off the cob and add to salad.
- Toss, add shrimp. Store in fridge, and serve cool or room temperature.
When making this salad, I thought it was going to be really weird. Then, I couldn’t stop eating it. The combination of spicy and sweet is definitely addicting, so watch out. Sweet Corn Charlie had arava, which looks like a cantaloupe from the outside and a honeydew from the inside. It is as sweet as candy, with none of the HFCS. I also used cantaloupe. However, you can use any melon you want. The original recipe called for blackberries, but those were not an option at the farmstand , so I used raspberries. The original recipe is from Food and Wine magazine.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 green melon (about 1 1/4 pounds)—halved, cut into wedges, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 orange or yellow melon (about 1 1/4 pounds)—halved, cut into wedges, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup raspberries
- 2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 tablespoons snipped chives
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, shallot, and crushed red pepper and season with salt and pepper.
- Arrange the melon and raspberries on a platter. Drizzle the dressing over the fruit. Garnish the salad with the feta and snipped chives and serve.
That is not a typo. This is Mexican Street Corn made with Indiana Sweet Corn. I had my first Mexican grilled street corn in Red Hook by the ball fields several years ago, and now I’m hooked. Clearly not the healthiest of side dishes, it went really well with a lighter grilled tequila lime Amish chicken breasts. (Let me know if you want that Barefoot Contessa recipe)
To make it into a much-less-messy-salad-version, just follow all the directions below and then cut the corn off the cob once it is cool enough to handle. Otherwise be sure to have lots of napkins nearby.
This recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated’s Summer Grilling 2011 issue.
Ingredients
- vegetable oil for cooking grate
- 1/4 cup regular or light mayonaise
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- 4 teaspoons juice from 1 lime
- 1 ounce queso fresco or Cotija cheese , crumbled
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 6 large ears corn, husks and silk removed
Directions
- Turn all gas grill burners to high and heat grill with lid down until very hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape and oil grate (Dip wad of paper towels in vegetable oil; holding wad with tongs, wipe cooking grate.)
- While grill is heating, combine mayonaise, sour cream, cilantro, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder, black pepper, cayenne, lime juice, and cheese in large bowl; set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine oil, salt, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon chili powder. Brush the oil mixture onto the corn.
- Grill corn over high heat, turning occasionally, until lightly charred on all sides, 7 to 12 minutes total. Remove from grill and place in bowl with mayonaise mixture; toss to coat evenly. Serve immediately.
This salad was a huge hit last night. Perhaps it was the backdrop of a beautiful sunset that swayed people’s opinions, but I’m going to give all the credit to the dressing. I’m not typically a ranch dressing kind of gal, but this one was tangy (I was a bit liberal with the vinegar) and not too heavy. This recipe made a good amount of dressing for 4 cups of thinly sliced green cabbage, 2 chopped tomatoes, and 1 jicama peeled and cut into 1/ 2 inch cubes. However, it would be great over any vegetable with a good crunch factor that you have lying around…do I hear the kohlrabi from last week’s CSA calling to you?
I found this gem of a recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and it originated from Gourmet magazine.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons minced shallot
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients through the sugar.
2. Once the sugar is dissolved, stir in the chives.
3. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
This is basically an easy fresh salsa over a bed of greens. We arrived in Indiana after a long day of traveling, and I wanted a salad with a bunch of Sweet Corn Charlie’s vegetables. Okay, so the avocado is not from Indiana, but the others are!
Ingredients:
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
Kernels from 1 ear of raw sweet corn–must be very fresh!
1 head red leaf lettuce
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Salt
Pepper
Directions
Mix together chopped avocado, tomato, and corn. Add olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper until thoroughly coated.
Pour mixture over greens. Enjoy!
Thanks to Local Roots NYC CSA for posting this recipe from Kitchn. Here is my adapted version of it. Clearly, I’m on a lemon yogurt kick. I made the farro a day in advance to cut the prep time tonight. With that prep out of the way, the salad took me about 15 minutes to make.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup farro
- 2 cups water
- salt
- 1/2 pound peas, shelled
- 2 baby leeks, white and light green parts only, thoroughly washed (I like to soak it them in a bowl of water a few times)
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield Organic Low Fat)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- black pepper
fresh from brooklyn 