“Plum Crazy” Salad

No… literally HOLD ON to that dressing from the “Fun with Plums” Fennel Salad you made for Sunday Supper… I could not get enough of this plum situation and there was so much extra dressing that I had strained off the salad! I couldn’t resist trying another combination. And at the risk of boasting, this turned out spectacular.

The combination of plums and white carrots might seem a bit odd, but white carrots have a great sweetness to them and the contrasting crunch is very pleasing.

Trust me. You’ll want to try this.

“Party On” Grilled Corn, Tomato and Edamame Quinoa Salad

Chips and dip. The staple of pre-dinner entertainment. An easy way to distract your guests while you put the finishing touches on dinner. Generally not the most exciting part of the evening. Let’s change that. And then hack it into your lunch!

I saw this recipe for “Grilled Corn and Ricotta Dip,” again, in the Saveur Recipe of the Day newsletter. What immediately drew my attention was the idea of grilled corn! Could anything scream summer more? But I despaired that I would never be able to execute this in my city galley kitchen. Then I read the recipe… Grilled corn on a grill pan! I have a grill pan! I was saved and I’d be able to create a great summer treat for my friends that would transport us out of the city.

Serve it as a Sunday Supper appetizer with fresh vegetables (radishes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes) instead of chips! 

Grilling the corn takes a minute, but, otherwise, this recipe is really simple and I was able to use the leftovers to create a delicious base for an easy quinoa dish with some fresh Union Square farmer’s market additions for later in the week. 

Which brings me to touting the virtues of quinoa! Another great lunch staple that is easy to prepare and just as easily combined with whatever ingredients you want to make an interesting lunch! We'll be seeing much more of this guy! 

Between the grilled corn and the farm fresh produce, I felt like I was upstate eating lunch instead of at my desk. 

“Fun with Plums” Fennel Salad

Side salads at a dinner party can be so boring and such an afterthought. Such a shame because it really doesn’t have to be. Lately I’ve been really into savory fruit salads. So when I saw Rick Martinez’s recipe for Plum-Fennel Salad with Honey-Ginger Dressing in August bon appetit I knew I had to make it for Sunday Supper immediately.

And in anticipation of the week I made extra and turned it into a nice light, summery main course for lunch! 

Salad is really about good ingredient combinations and the flavors in this one really are unique and stand up against a really flavorful main but don’t overpower at all. Make it for dinner and strain off the extra juice on the bottom to use for salad dressing for the rest of the week (more on that in a future post!).

And don’t be afraid of the fennel! Guaranteed this will surprise and convert any skeptics on that ingredient use!

“Oma’s Fairy Tale” Quick Pickled Radish and Cucumber Salad

In the late summer, my paternal grandma (Oma) used to always make us cold cucumber and yogurt salad. An Eastern European treat she brought over with her when she emigrated from the former Yugoslavia after WWII.

Walking home the other day in the heat, I found myself thinking about Oma and craving that salad and how cool it was but also remembering the Grimm’s Brother fairy tales Oma used to read us when we would sleep over. Which got me thinking about Rapunzel. Which of course made me crave… radishes!

I wanted something that reminded me of that cucumber yogurt salad but that would make sense with the radishes as well for lunch the next day. Simple solution? A quick pickle of the two using some white vinegar served over Greek yogurt.

This one is back to basics (I realize that in my enthusiasm for fresh produce I have become slightly... ambitious... in my recipes lately. But this recipe is really practical and truly easy to prep in under 15 minutes. But still make it the night before because it tastes better if you let the flavors meld in the fridge overnight.

Oma would approve. 

“Better than a Netflix Binge” Oven-Dried Tomato, Lentil and Gorgonzola Salad

Here’s a fun one the next time you’re treating yourself to an evening at home with Netflix. Oven-dried, or roasted, tomatoes! It seemed counterintuitive to me that I would want to turn on my oven in the heat of the summer to capitalize on one of my favorite summer treats to eat raw, but I’m glad I did!

Gluten-Free “Sly Rye" Chickpea Sauté

Gluten-free. I can't think of a bigger bummer than not being able to eat bread. So imagine my surprise when I made Ottolenghi's 100% gluten-free recipe for "Swiss Chard and Chickpea Saute" and it tasted just like... Rye bread! The magic of caraway seeds! 

I regularly pay $9 a pound for a delicious chickpea salad at the Italian grocer around the corner from my office, and I’d always thought that I ought to be able to create something equally as delicious at home.

Turns out I was right and Ottolenghi had a nearly perfect recipe for me. As I mentioned last week, his recipes in Plenty are amazing but cooking from it can be really ambitious, especially on a weeknight. But his recipe for "Swiss Chard and Chickpea Sauté" sounded really appealing and didn't read too complicated. Ottolenghi suggests that if you can’t find swiss chard (which the first time I tried this for some reason I could not) that spinach and arugula make excellent substitutions, with the added benefit that you don’t have to precook them!

I can make this sauté any night of the week in about 15 minutes by eliminating the chard prep and simplifying things by using canned chickpeas. It’s delicious and filling served at room temperature mixed with Greek yogurt to make it a full lunch.  

But the thing I really love about this recipe is the fact it has the deeply satisfying smack of rye bread with none of the gluten and few of the carbs! Thank you caraway seeds! Don't be tempted to skip the caraway seeds (or the mint or cilantro for that matter) they 100% make the dish. Go out of your way to buy them because I guarantee you will be making this again. 

“When Life Gives You Bacon Fat” Mushroom and Mixed Caramelized Onion Salad with Apple Cider Dijon Vinaigrette

The hot topic among chefs right now is calling attention to and reducing kitchen waste. Massimo Bottura is doing it with his amazing project in Milan. Rene Redzepi has been pushing the envelope with “Trash Cooking” at Noma for a while. Dan Barber did a whole pop-up around food waste this spring. Dana Cowin and Food + Wine are even on board with their #loveuglyfood campaign. It's an extremely admirable and important trend and I try to employ it as much as possible in my own cooking, even if that just translates to making sure I don't let something go bad in the fridge rather than trying to cook or use unconventional "waste" ingredients.    

But with all their work in the back of my mind, the other night, when my better half demanded BLT’s for dinner, I got a bit cheeky. And I thought about a few things. 1) What should I do with the rest of this bacon? 2) What do I do with all this bacon grease?

“When Life Gives You Bacon Fat” Mushroom and Mixed Caramelized Onion Salad with Apple Cider Dijon Vinaigrette

Usually, the answer is to freeze it and throw it away. But that night a light bulb went off… Just keep cooking! So I grabbed some mushrooms and some onions and whipped up truly delicious mix-ins for our lunch salads the next day. And generated significantly less kitchen waste in the process.  

“Just Don’t Call Me a Fruit” Salad

It’s August. There’s a heat wave. It feels like I secretly live in Saigon when I walk outside and I complain about it incessantly. I definitely do not want to a) turn on my oven or b) eat anything that isn’t chilled.

Walking home from work, it strikes me: I want melon for lunch tomorrow! I run to the store buy a cantaloupe and think about what else I have in the fridge that could bulk that up for lunch. I can’t just eat a piece of fruit for lunch. Mentally that just doesn’t cut it for me.  

Couscous. Peaches. Cherries. Yogurt. Some leftover mint that still has some life in it. We can work with this!  

I’m rather proud of this recipe because it’s 100% my own. It makes for the perfect, cooling, seasonal summer treat and adding the couscous a) makes it slightly more substantial and b) takes it out of the dessert category and moves it (at least in my mind) into savory. A simple yogurt dressing adds a bit more heft and flavor as well. Is it really much different from when your mom used to make you breakfast for dinner? And all the fruit is good for you anyway!  

"I Ran this Morning" Cherry Farro Salad

The New York Times Food Section. Every Wednesday it quietly sings its siren's song to me from outside the apartment door, luring me out of bed with an extra incentive to face the day.

Will Pete Wells eviscerate Guy Fieri again? Will Melissa Clark revolutionize the way that I think about asparagus again? What heartbreaking restaurant closure will FloFab reveal?

The week of the Lopate challenge, it was Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipe for Health" that sang to me and launched me into being much more serious and aggressively creative with what I was making for lunch. I loved the idea of making a cherry salad, but the bulgur in Martha's inspired recipe for Cherry Tabboulehdefinitely wasn't going to be substantial enough to stand alone for lunch. So I called in an old friend for reinforcement; farro. 

This recipe is incredibly easy to assemble, especially if you've already cooked farro for the week. It's all ingredient prep, which, for your personal edification, I have elaborated on extensively. Using fresh herbs is definitely not as easy as dried but it's essential. It tastes so much better and is at least 1/4 of the price. Chopping the herbs and pitting the cherries takes a bit of work (and patience) but shouldn't take you longer than 10-15 minutes, which, if you haven't cooked it already, is easily achieved while you cook the farro.   

"The Incredible Edible Egg" Salad

I wasn't really thinking about it when I was doing that first week of the challenge, but weirdly I just so happened to do salads that let me focus on a few simple "super ingredients" that are great staples to prep once and keep on hand throughout the week. 

This time around, the star was the humble hard boiled egg. Another great way to easily add a bit of heft and protein to a salad with minimal effort. You can make just one or you can make a few and they'll keep through the work week. Just be sure to keep them in an airtight container or your fridge is going to smell. 

"Clear Out the Crisper" Farro Salad

Farro. One of Italian cuisine's greatest secrets. The other ancient grain. Completely under appreciated. Unworthy of it's bad rap as finicky to cook.    

It's hearty. Distinctively nutty. Delicious. Easy. And it's my ultimate salad mix-in. If I'm looking to bulk up a salad a bit to make sure I get through to dinner, I throw in a handful of farro and I'm good to go.

I personally prefer the Bob's Red Mill Farro, which is the semipearled variety that is pretty much fool-proof to cook and readily available in most grocery stores. Other varieties require overnight pre-soaking, like a bean, but the semipearled variety will have you good to go in 30 minutes. 

If you can cook pasta, you can cook farro. I promise. 

The week of the Lopate challenge, along with my poached chicken, I immediately whipped up a batch of farro to use throughout the rest of the week. Here's another simple salad using my favorite grain and whatever veggies were left in my crisper that night. 

Mostly "Canned" Salad with Shredded Chicken 

The beginning of this grand experiment, as I mentioned, was not terribly inspired. I threw together a few salads without thinking too much (or at all) about it. So these first few recipes are more like ingredient lists. I tend to assemble salads as single servings according to the size of my container so providing much in the way of measurements is a bit futile…