Summer Chicken Salad with Raspberries, Avocado and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Last week, I was craving salad. While I enjoy a good salad, this doesn't happen very often. One reason I needed a salad fix is that we had just eaten this lovely cavatelli pasta with ricotta the night before, and I perceived the dish as being rich--although it's actually not bad as long as you don't eat a ton of it.

The other reason is that I recently got a new cookbook that is all about salads in all their possible guises--Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein. Focusing on fresh, light Mediterranean flavors with emphasis on fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit, this is a book for cooks with a surplus of produce on their hands who are looking for ideas and harmonious flavor combinations. It is also for cooks who love dressing, especially when it's homemade. The many and varied salads in the first section of the book--whether cooked or raw, with lettuce or not--have suggested dressing matches that you'll find in the second part of the book. If this mix and match approach appeals to you, and you eat a lot of salad, you'll love the creative, well-conceived recipes.

While I was inspired by a lot of ideas and flavors as I flipped through the book, I could not commit myself to any one recipe and its dressing, despite ample variations and flexibility. But it did get me in a more innovative mood, which resulted in this salad. I think the best salads are the results of serendipity--using the ingredients you have on hand and the produce you need to use up before it fades, rather than going out and buying a long list of ingredients for a salad recipe.

This salad started with sweet, juicy raspberries that sounded like they were meant to be paired with spinach, feta and almonds. Would avocado work in there too? Why not--it goes great with chicken. I did my dead simple balsamic, shake-in-a-jar dressing, and the salad was incredibly good.

This is more of a suggestion than a recipe, so use it as a jumping off point for your own salad creation.

Summer Chicken Salad with Raspberries, Avocado and Balsamic Vinaigrette
I think a really good salad needs to balance a lot of strong flavors and varying textures. Make sure you have sweetness (fruit), salt (feta and actual salt), sour (vinegar), richness (olive oil and avocado), freshness (greens), crunch (nuts). These elements come in countless forms, but the point is to create variety in every bite. You can make this for as many people as you want.

In a large bowl, toss:

- spinach leaves
- mixed baby greens (bag of spring mix)
- chopped cooked chicken
- thinly sliced red onions (soaked in ice water if you want to tone down the bite)

In a small jar, combine 1 part extra virgin olive oil and 1 part good-tasting balsamic vinegar (doesn't have to be expensive, just taste good), salt and pepper. The classic ratio is 1 part vinegar and 3 parts oil. I like my ratio better, but it's up to you. Screw on the lid tightly and shake to emulsify. Drizzle enough dressing over the spinach mixture to coat it when tossed well.

Divide the salad among large serving bowls and top each one with:

- fresh raspberries
- diced feta
- diced avocado
- toasted slivered almonds

Pass extra dressing at the table if you like.

A review copy of Mediterranean Fresh was generously provided by the publisher.

Fava Bean Salad - No recipe required!

If fava beans are still around in your area like they are here, then this is the perfect "non-recipe" for a long holiday weekend. Serve it as a side dish with anything or leave it in the refrigerator so the flavors can marry as you snack on it throughout the day.

I have written about vanquishing my strange dread of shelling fava beans. Remember? All you have to do is take them out of their pods, boil for a minute or two, dunk them in ice, and slip off the skins. It will keep your fingers busy for a few minutes, hopefully while you are enjoying some lovely weather on your porch, patio or front stoop.

You could always put your freshly shelled favas in a dish like my Fava Bean Risotto with Pancetta and Mushrooms, but why would you spend the last weekend of the summer standing by the stove. Save that recipe for later, and toss together this simple salad instead.


Fava Bean Salad
These quantities are just suggestions if you have a pound to a pound and a half of fava beans (weighed when still in the pod). Do this recipe according to your taste.

In a bowl, combine shelled fava beans and half of a red onion, sliced as thinly as possible. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and juice of half a lemon, more or less. Be conservative with the lemon juice--you can always add more after you taste. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and coarse salt (if you have "good" salt, like fleur de sel or any nice sea salt, now would be the time to use it). Toss the salad. Add a small handful of chopped fresh parsley and toss again. A bit of fresh mint would be great if you have it. A little basil wouldn't hurt either. Enjoy the weekend!


Technorati Tags: recipes, sides, healthy, salad, fava bean

Carrot and Chickpea Salad with Olives and Cumin Vinaigrette

It is easy to forget that the carrot can be a stand-alone vegetable. So often it is just part of the "holy trinity," along with onions and celery, in a soup base; a colorful salad add-in; or a member of the crudite platter, whose presence there, or on any veggie tray, is taken for granted.

I reminded myself how well carrots perform as the main attraction when I made this salad. Easter put carrots in my head. I wasn't up for a rich, indulgent carrot cake, but I needed a hearty side dish, so I thought of this recipe. It is from Once Upon a Tart, a book I have mentioned a lot on this blog (like here & here), always glowingly. The recipe is one of many that I flagged with post-its.

I think chickpeas have to be my favorite bean, and I love olives. I like carrots, but like most people, I wouldn't say I "love" this particular vegetable. I may have to change that assessment now, because I love this salad. It's addictive and, as I discovered a few days after making it, highly adaptable. Toss in chicken, shrimp, avocado--whatever sounds good. Just don't take the spotlight away from the carrots, and you'll be floating.

I wasn't sure what I would turn up when I searched food blogs for "carrots," but I was not disappointed!

Ginger and cumin are perfect flavors for roasted carrots on La Tartine Gourmande.

Moroccan-Style Carrots with pine nuts on Morsels & Musings lends the vegetable to one of my favorite cuisines.

Play with texture in this Shaved Carrot and Fennel Salad from Erin's Kitchen.

Chez Megane does a classic pairing of Roast Carrots and Parsnips with Thyme (if you haven't roasted parsnips, try it; they are even sweeter than carrots!)

And just for fun, take a look at this post from Meathenge and discover the World Carrot Museum!

Carrot and Chickpea Salad with Black Olives and Cumin-Paprika Vinaigrette
Adapted from Once Upon a Tart by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau
I did not change any of the ingredients in this salad, just played with the proportions a bit. I wanted it to be a carrot salad with chickpeas, instead of vice versa, and I cut the amount of cumin in the dressing from a whopping two tablespoons down to one. This salad was gone in a flash, so double the recipe if you want some leftovers. I liked it so much that I made it again a few days later, using poached chicken instead of chickpeas and scattering avocado over the top—very delicious.

Makes 2 generous servings

1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2/3 c. kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and shredded in a food processor or coarsely grated
½ c. chopped fresh cilantro
4-5 scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped

Vinaigrette:
1 medium garlic clove, minced
zest of ½ lemon and juice of the whole lemon
1 tbs. ground cumin
2 tsp. Hungarian paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
black pepper, to taste
3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, olives, carrots, cilantro and scallions. To make the vinaigrette, combine all the ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until emulsified. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. You may not need all the dressing, depending on your taste. Check the seasoning and serve or refrigerate for a few hours and let salad come back to room temperature before serving.

Technorati Tags: recipes, sides, vegetarian, salads, carrots Course

Mole Sauce for Steak or Chicken and Lime-Honey Vinaigrette

I know I have written about how much I think Gourmet magazine stands out among the mountain of food magazines that overtake my mailbox every month. Lately, however, more of the recipes I actually cook have come out of Food & Wine magazine. The finger-lickin’ tasty Fried Chicken and Biscuits came from the February issue, and I hit the jackpot again in the March issue with an Mole Sauce that used a simple poblano salsa as its base.

Like many complex and iconic dishes, mole sauce inspires feeling of fascination and reverence in me. Maybe even more so, since it is the kind of dish I may never duplicate authentically unless I move to Puebla and become friendly with the cooks there who carry the secrets of mole-making around in their DNA. Having said that, I think the mole I made with the Food & Wine recipe as a guide definitely does justice to the genuine article.

This sauce is smoky from poblanos, spicy from dried chipotle peppers, nutty from toasted sesame seeds, and rich from chocolate, raisins and cinnamon. Complex doesn’t even begin to describe it; all the sweet flavors are perfectly balanced by the chiles and vegetables. Pureeing makes the consistency creamy and opaque, but it is not at all thick or heavy. All of this means that you could feast on this mole sauce for hours because your taste buds will never get tired of sampling the subtle shades of flavor.

The same article also inspired one of the best salad dressings I’ve made in a while: a simple lime-honey vinaigrette that is refreshingly sweet and zingy. I poured it over a salad of sweet baby lettuces (not the spicy greens we usually prefer, like arugula) from a Dole salad mix, tossed it with chopped tomatoes, a few slivers of red onion and fresh orange sections along with the juices that accumulated when I cut up the orange.

By the way, we served the mole sauce over dry-aged sirloin steaks, seared in a skillet over high heat then transferred to the oven to finish cooking. Any good steak would be wonderful; just let the mole be the star of the show. Two nights later, we roasted whole chicken breasts and topped them with the leftover mole. This was also fantastic. This may be the closest I ever get to authentic mole sauce, and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Mole Sauce for Steak or Chicken
Adapted from Food & Wine magazine

The original salsa recipe calls for ancho chiles which are dried poblanos. I could not find them, so I used fresh poblanos with amazing results. The recipe for the Poblano Salsa base yields 5 cups of salsa, but you only need one cup to make the mole. I prepared the whole salsa recipe and used some of the leftovers to make an enchilada sauce by mixing about 1 cup of salsa with a can of plain tomato sauce. I froze the rest in 1 cup portions for future use. You could also use the salsa as a dip or a topping for grilled fish or chicken. Two dried chipotle chiles with most seeds should yield a very hot salsa Adjust the amount of chiles and seeds to suit you, but don’t eliminate them completely; they add a unique sweet-smoky flavor.


Poblano Salsa:
8 poblano chiles, stemmed seeded and roughly chopped
1 to 2 dried chipotle chile peppers, stemmed and some seeds discarded, depending on your desired heat level (see recipe headnote)
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 white onion, chopped
1 tbs. light brown sugar
1 tbs. canola oil
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. (approx.) freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs. cider vineger

In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients except the vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover and let stand form 10 minutes. Working in batches, roughly puree the salsa in a blender. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the vinegar and set aside.

Mole Sauce (Makes about 1 ½ cups; 6 servings):
1 tbs. sesame seeds
1 c. poblano salsa
½ c. low-sodium chicken broth
2 oz. chopped sweet chocolate (I used half milk and half semisweet)
2 tbs. dark raisins
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan over low heat, toast the sesame seeds until golden. Add the poblano salsa, chicken broth, chocolate, raisins, cinnamon and nutmegs. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the chocolate is melted, about 4 minutes. Transfer the sauce to a blender and puree until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, if desired. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Reheat in the microwave and serve over grilled or roasted steak or chicken. Keeps in the refrigerator for 4 days.

Lime-Honey Vinaigrette
Serves 4

2 tbs. honey
3 tbs. fresh lime juice
2 tbs. canola oil
2 to 3 drops red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake well until emulsified.



Technorati Tags: recipes, beef, salad, chicken, Main Course