Green Bean and Asparagus Salad with Lemony Feta Dressing

Green Bean and Asparagus Salad with Lemony Feta Dressing.

This salad is a fresh and crisp side perfect for a summer BBQ. The creamy lemony feta dressing makes it a perfect parring to almost everything. It’s great with fish, chicken and even for ribs or roasts.

I was in search of a salad without leafy greens, a more crunchy salads. Previously I have been using green beans and snap peas for this, so I added some extra crunch with asparagus and radishes. The cheesy lemony dressing was a mix of my love of feta mixed with the taste of the lemon pepper pasta.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 200g green beans, trimmed

• 1 bunch (10-15) asparagus, trimmed

• 125g snap peas

• 10 radishes, sliced

Dressing:

• 1 lemon, the juice from

• 2 tablespoons lemon olive oil

• 75g feta cheese

• freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Wash and trim snap peas, asparagus, and green beans. For the asparagus I hold each stalk about half way down its length, and at the thick end. Then bend the stalk until it snaps, discard the thick end. This way you only get the good crispy part of the asparagus.

Blanch the vegetables for 1 minute, by adding the vegetables to a large pot of boiling water. With a slotted spoon remove the vegetables from the boiling water and plunge them in a large bowl with ice water. Cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces. Spread the vegetables in a shallow bowl, and sprinkle the sliced radishes on top.

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing, using a fork to incorporate the feta to the dressing. Pour the dressing over the salad, and mix it well.

Serve the salad as a side to your favorite protein, or to your summer BBQ.

Cauliflower Salad with Apples & Almonds

Cauliflower Salad with Apples & Almonds.

I found this recipe one one of my favorite Danish food blogs, Valdemarso. It’s a great everyday salat with lots of taste and texture. I lowered the amount of garlic in my version, so it won’t be overpowering, masking the other milder flavors. The salad will keep 2 days in the refrigerator.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 cauliflower

• 1 red apple

• ½ handful Italian parsley

Dressing:

• 2 handful Italian parsley,

• ½ -1 garlic clove, chopped

• 15 g pine nuts

• 25 g Parmesan cheese, chopped roughly

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 tablespoons creme fraiche (or sour cream)

• 1 teaspoon honey

• salt & pepper to taste

Salted almonds:

• 30 g raw almonds

• 50 ml water

• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Salted almonds:

In a small skillet dissolve the salt in the water and bring the water to a boil. Stir in the almonds, and cook on medium high until the water is evaporated, shake the pan to get an even salt coating on the almonds. Let the almonds cool completely, before giving them a rough chop.

Dressing:

Combine all the ingredients except the creme fraiche in a food processor or mini chopper and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add creme fraiche and process until fully incorporated and you have smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper.

Salad:

Grate or finely chop the cauliflower and chop the parsley. Wash an and core the apple, and dice it. Mix all the ingredients with the salted almonds and dressing, season with salt and pepper. Now the salad is ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Spicy Thai Inspired Barley Salad

Spicy Thai Inspired Barley Salad

What's for dinner tonight? The daily pressure to come up with a tasty, healthy option. Even though I have a Food Blog, I DO get surprised, that we need to have dinner every night. And I do tend to grab to the 5-8 easiest and well-known dishes or even take-out. I know choking, right?

One of my Facebook friends posted a Thai Pork salad from NY Times, and this inspired me to create this dish. And WOW - we loved it. The different texture and flavors worked perfectly. This one is a keeper in my house.
If you're not big on spicy food, just add a small amount of chili, so you only tickle your tastebuds.

Ingredients:

• 1 pork tenderloin

Marinade/dressing:

• 2 serrano chilies

• handfull cilantro + stems

• 5 scallions

• 3 limes, zest & juice

• 6 garlic cloves

• 2-inch fresh ginger

• 4-5 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce

• 5 tablespoons soy sauce

• 5 tablespoons grape seed oil

• ½ teaspoon salt

Salad:

• ½ green cabbage, thinly sliced

• 5 scallions, chopped

• 1 serrano chili, julienned

• 3 carrots, in thin peels

• 1-2 cups pearl barley grain, cooked and cooled

• 1 handful cilantro, chopped

• 10 mint leaves, chopped

• a small handful roasted peanuts

Directions

Trim off the silver skin from the tenderloin and pat the trimmed tenderloin dry with paper towel. In a blender combine soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice and zest, shallots, cilantro, half the sugar, garlic, ginger, chiles and salt. Purée until smooth. Save half of the mixture for the dressing, add the rest of the sugar to the dressing, and set aside. Marinate the pork in the rest of the mixture in an airtight container over night.  

Preheat the oven to 320 ℉ (160℃).

Sear the pork in a ovenproof skillet, and roast it in the oven until meat reaches an internal temperature of 150℉ (65℃), about 20-25 minutes. Let meat rest while you prepare the salad. 

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients, reserving the herbs and nuts.

Whisk the dressing and use just enough to dress the salad.  Let the salad sit for a few minutes for the flavors to blend, then right before serving, add herbs, nuts and maybe some more dressing.

Serve the salad with the sliced pork on top, sprinkle with some more nuts.

Enjoy!

Warm Asian-Style Slaw

I love a crunchy slaw. Normally I use napa cabbage and a spicy asian-style dressing, like I used in the angry tacos. But adding the peanut butter to this warm slaw, gives the slaw a nice creaminess. 

This slaw will be perfect for a weekend BBQ, or served with tacos with an asian twist.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons grated Serrano pepper
• 4 tablespoons creamy peanutbutter

Slaw:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 carrots, julienned
• ½ small red cabbage
• ¼ green cabbage
• ½ english cucumber, julienned
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• some fresh coriander, chopped
• season with salt

Directions:

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing, set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok. Sauté carrots while stirring for about a minute,  add the cabbage and keep stirring, while cooking for about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients and dressing, tossing well to coat.

Serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

Warm Cabbage Salad

Warm Cabbage Salad

I love cabbage. It's cheap, healthy and easy to make. You can use it raw or cook it. When you sauté it like in this recipe, you still get the crunchy texture and a mild flavor. You can pull the flavor profile in different directions, by adding chili, curry or keep it mild with lemon and parsley.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 1 medium head of green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 lemon, the zest of
• 1 handful Italian parsley, chopped
• salt to taste
• lemon juice or white balsamic vinegar to taste

Directions:

Melt the butter in a sauté pan, don't let it brown. Sauté the cabbage until it starts to get tender. You still want it to be crispy, but not raw. Turn off the heat, and mix in parsley and lemon zest. Season the salad with salt and lemon juice or vinegar.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!