salad

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Summer is a time for simple but bold, fresh flavors. I am back in the kitchen, and things have never been better. There were weeks of many salad meals, take out, and dinners out, and I am truly happy to be excited about developing new recipes again.

This weekend I made a healthy, spicy dish that had Greek, Indian, and Middle Eastern influences.

It all started with some fresh mint from my deck. I love being able to take a few steps and to come back inside with fresh ingredients.

Fresh mint from my garden 

First I made a cool yogurt salad with mint, garlic, thin slices of red onion, English cucumber, and tomato. Roughly, I used a cup of 2% Greek yogurt, a small handful of mint, 5 crushed and minced garlic cloves, 1 cup of sliced cucumber, maybe 1/4 cup sliced red onion, and 1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped. I stirred everything together, then covered it and let it chill for about an hour.

tiingredients for a yogurt marinade, yogurt, mint, red onion, garlic, tomato, and cucumber

red onion, mint, garlic, tomato, cucumber for yogurt marinade, tzatziki

 

preping cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes

Greek yogurt, red onion, tomato, cucumber, garlic, mint

Once the yogurt sauce was chilling, I coated free range organic chicken tenders with sriracha and a bit more Greek yogurt and set those in the refrigerator to chill as well.

The starring ingredient in this dish was a new product that I found at Trader Joe’s, Masala Tandoori Naan. It is a little sweet, spicy, soft, and so good. I am not a bread person, but this bread is positively addictive. I kept stealing bites as I was cooking 😉

Trader Joe's Masala Tandoori Naan Bread

After the chicken had been in the marinade for about an hour, I pan sautéed them in the yogurt and sriracha mix, creating incredibly tender and flavorful meat.

I chopped the chicken and place it on top of the naan then dressed it with the yogurt and veggie sauce/salad.

marinaded chicken with yogurt sauce, naan, and kale salad

Served with kale and red beets massaged with olive oil and lemon juice. Simple, healthy, delicious. 

marinaded chicken with yogurt sauce, naan, and kale salad

Even though it was quick and barely heated up the kitchen on a VERY hot and humid day, it felt like a proper meal because of how well all of the flavors worked and how balanced it was nutritionally.

I love to create recipes based on various ethnic foods. Right now I am all about Indian spices. At other times, I am inspired by Japanese sushi or Thai curries.

If you had to pick a favorite ethnic food, what would it be?

 

I am looking for a few guest bloggers to submit posts for the coming weeks. Food, wine, travel, and fitness posts are all welcome. Please email me at traveleatlove (@) gmail.com.

Tags: Food, healthy recipes, Indian Food, Naan, recipe, salad

But it’s a good source of protein, and you can easily make it taste like anything you want! I will admit that fried tofu is my favorite. I won’t lie. Especially if it is topped with a good peanut sauce.

I have had quite the events schedule lately, and now that it is settled down a little, I am enjoying cooking at home again. I guess the glam life of a blogger has to slow down sometimes 😉

Last night, I pulled together a dinner that my husband called flippin’ delicious. And since it was extremely healthy, that kind of praise makes me doubly happy.

I started out by pressing the bejezus out of the tofu. I placed it in a colander with a piece of foil and several cans of beans on top. Improv, but it worked. This was extra firm tofu, by the way.

Before cutting, I gave it a generous coating of hot sauce. Then I sliced it thinly and added more hot sauce and coarsely ground black pepper.

extra firm tofu with hot sauce

extra firm tofu slices with hot sauce

I pan fried it. I only used a teeny bit of olive oil, and I made the pan really hot so that the tofu had a good sear on it and had a little crunch on the outside. I am all about the texture.

For the salad, I used Olivia’s Organics Herb Salad which is amazing. Olivia’s salads are always really dry and stay fresh for much longer than other packaged salads. They are a bit more expensive, but I never have to throw them away because they rot from all of the water. I love the Herb Salad because it mixes together so many different flavors.  The box also had a little story about a charity in East Boston that Olivia’s supports. It made me a little weepy, it was so nice. 

tofu salad with Olivia's Herb Blend, corn, cheese, Mezzetta pepperoncini, avocado, and homemade salsa

Salad toppings included the tofu, avocado, Mezzetta pepperoncini, corn, shredded cheese from Trader Joe’s, yellow onion, and homemade salsa.

All in all, an amazing meal. I won’t eat tofu everyday, but with this preparation, I definitely need to remember to buy it more often.

What is your favorite tofu preparation?

If you haven’t entered my blog birthday wine and cheese giveaway. . . what are you waiting for?!

Tags: Food, salad, tofu

Thanks for all of the blog birthday wishes! If you haven’t checked out the giveaway from yesterday’s post, definitely do!

This past weekend, I got to hit up Whole Foods Market which is a treat since it isn’t super convenient to get to from my house. After my lunch with the CE-Yo, I was in the mood for lots of organics.   In addition to veggies and fruits, I bought some Honest Tea Kombucha (my first!). I also got some Siggi’s yogurt, Maca powder, and Wellfleet oysters for a nice summer dinner.

We started with a major salad. Yellow beets, beet tops, roasted broccoli, and kale massaged with olive oil and lemon juice. Massaged kale is seriously amazing.       

 

yellow beets, beet greens, lemon

organic broccoli, lemon, yellow beet, grape tomatoes, lettuce, kale

It’s definitely kind of fun to just get your hands in there and really rub the kale with lemon juice and oil.  Then I topped it with crushed red pepper and garlic powder.

massaged kale with olive oil, lemon juice and crushed red pepper

Since we were having a light summer meal, the salad was huge and full of volume.

kale, yellow beets, goat cheese salad

As a special treat, we had some fresh, briny Wellfleet oysters. Served with a simple red wine vinegar and black pepper mignonette, these oysters just said summer.

Wellfleet Oysters and Lemon

Our final course was a dessert soup. Originally planned as a soup course, this dish turned out yummy but definitely sweet enough to serve as a light dessert.

I started by macerating several cups of chopped strawberries in Travessia Vidal Blanc and chopped mint. I actually refrigerated this mixture overnight, and the flavors came together very nicely.

 

strawberries,mint, and Vidal Blanc

I had a fun little photo shoot 🙂

Travessia Vidal Blanc, strawberries, mint

I added the strawberries, mint, and wine to the blender with about another cup of Vidal Blanc and a half cup of Greek yogurt. I pureed it until smooth and topped with more mint.

Strawberry Vidal Blanc soup Strawberry Vidal Blanc Soup

The soup chilled for about an hour before we ate it. It was cool, smooth, and sweet, the perfect ending to a summer meal. Next time I would think of adding ripe honeydew to this as well and maybe leaving some chopped fruit to the side to stir in at the last minute to mix up the texture a little.

I think you will be seeing many cold summer soups this summer! Gazpacho, cold beet soup, and more fruit soups. . . delicious and healthy and perfect for those nights you don’t want to heat up the kitchen!

I still need a Friday Foodie Feature for this Friday, so please let me know if you are interested!

Tags: dinner, kale, oysters, salad, soup, strawberries, summer recipes, vegetables, Whole Foods

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