This is a continuation of the Sunday cooking extravaganza I did for Zack. The salad portion of the meal was this amazingly flavorful and pretty simple to throw together. Which I needed after preparing the main course, but I'll get to that in another post.
Now, quinoa has been a part of American cuisine for a while, but we had yet to work it into our rotation. Well, as it turns out, it's so simple to prepare, is extremely good for you, and tastes good. Why weren't we using this before?!?
Here's what you need:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups low sodium chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you're vegetarian)
1/2 package of mixed greens
1 red pepper
1 scallion
1 handful of Italian parsley
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
Here's what you do:
Combine the quinoa and chicken (vegetable) stock in a medium sauce pot and bring to a boil.
Once that comes to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. (Sounds kind of like making rice, doesn't it).
Let cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the grain absorbs the liquid. You can lift the lid and check it if you don't have a glass lid like this.
While the quinoa is cooking, get started on the other pieces of your salad.
Chop your red pepper.
Then slice your scallion.
And, finally coarsely chop the parsley. You can skip this step if you want. I was just in a chopping mood.
Combine all of that into your bowl, cover and put in the fridge until you're ready to eat.
Transfer the quinoa into a bowl and let cool in the fridge until you're ready to build your salad and take it to the table.
Right before you're ready to serve, add the feta cheese and a couple of scoops of the quinoa to the salad and toss.
Top with our seriously tasty homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Enjoy!
Continuing on with the documentation of my day of cooking while Zack was at work, I bring you the salad dressing next. We use a lot balsamic in our house. It's probably one of Zack's favorite things, so it was only natural that I would make a homemade balsamic vinaigrette for the salad.
It's very easy. If you stock the essentials, you will never have to buy sodium packed salad dressing again.
Here's what you need:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
Here's what you do:
Combine brown sugar, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Add balsamic vinegar to the mix and whisk to combine.
Drizzle in the olive oil, whisking to emulsify.
Transfer to a carafe or squeeze bottle and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Stick around for the amazingly tasty and simple Quinoa Mixed Greens salad I topped with this!
Enjoy!
We had some left-over pineapple from our Pineapple Rice, so we threw together some salad dressing with the remains. It's pretty tasty and summery.
Here's what you need:
1/4 cup crushed pineapple in juice (or just 1/4 cup pineapple juice)
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil (or more or less to your taste)
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Here's what you do:
Combine the pineapple, vinegar and some salt and pepper in a medium bowl. If you want to use actual pineapple pieces, but don't want chunks of pineapple, put it in a blender and drizzle the olive oil in.
Whisk in the olive oil. You don't actually have to measure it out, just drizzle from the bottle. We measured just to get the proportion you need. If you like your dressings with a little more vinegar taste, add less olive oil. If you don't, add more.
Whisk vigorously to emulsify.
Add any more salt and pepper to your liking. Pour into a jar, or toss in a salad.
Enjoy!
We have a simple one for you today. We wanted a nice side to pair with our barbecued chicken. We also didn't want to spend much time on it. We have this salad a lot. It's simple and tasty.
Here's what you need:
3-4 tomatoes (we used heirloom, but whatever you prefer will work)
2-3 cucumbers
1/2 cup Italian dressing
Here's what you do:
Peel and slice your cucumbers.
Chop your tomatoes.
Put everything in a large bowl and coat with the Italian dressing.
Stir. Store in the fridge until you're ready to eat.
We told you it was easy!
Enjoy!
We made this simple salad for one of the many holiday parties that we attended this year. When we say simple, it really is.
Typically, this is called a 7 layer salad, but we just added ingredients until we felt like the tastes would play off each other nicely. It requires a bit of chopping, but you can really add whatever toppings you like.
Here's what we used:
Red leaf lettuce
1 can of sliced olives
about 3/4 of a head of cauliflower
1 small package of grape tomatoes
5-6 scallions
1 red bell pepper
about a cup of mild cheddar cheese
Ranch dressing
Here's what you do:
Start by chopping your lettuce into bite-sized pieces. We switched to a larger bowl after this picture. We didn't want it all the way to the top because we had to travel with it.
Next, just layer on your ingredients one at a time.
Finally, top with the dressing and garnish with some more tomatoes. You could use a healthier dressing than ranch, but we figured most people like ranch dressing, so we went with it.
Enjoy!
If you're like us, you may have over-indulged in a few meals and sweet treats over the holidays. Well, we're getting back to our usual routine now and trying to eat healthier.
Salads are a wonderful option to get great nutrients into your diet. You will never see us make a salad with iceberg lettuce. Basically, iceberg lettuce is water, so we tend to use a red leaf lettuce for the base of our salads.
Keep in mind that you can also alter the flavor of your salad with the type of greens that you use. Arugula will give your salad a peppery flavor. Dandelion greens will add a slight bitter flavor. Each green you use has a slightly different flavor.
From there, be adventurous about your salad toppings. Add carrot, tomato, peppers, radishes - whatever is fresh and available.
Don't be afraid to add fruit to your salad. The picture above is red leaf lettuce with diced apples, dried cranberries, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese. We topped it with a raspberry vinaigrette.
One of our favorite salads includes sliced banana, peanuts and wasabi vinaigrette over romaine lettuce.
Also, try new dressings! Don't drown your salad in fattening ranch dressing all the time. We'll admit we enjoy ranch dressing on a salad every now and again, but we like to experiment with new flavors. We'll have some dressing recipes coming up in the future.
Basically, we want you to be healthy and get the nutrients you need. We also want you to have fun with food and try new combinations.
Enjoy!
