Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese

The Fall and Winter is a great time to receive leafy greens in New England, but it's also a time when you crave warm, comforting food...so sometimes salads aren't the first thing you think about making for dinner.  This salad, however, was a great way to use our leafy greens--in this case spinach--but still satisfy our comfort food craving.

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese.

The only recipe I used for this meal was for the spiced pecans, which I'll post below.  This was a really simple salad to throw together, and delicious!  We thinly sliced a sweet potato and tossed it in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roasted the potatoes in the oven until tender.  We then tossed spinach with thinly sliced apples and the roasted sweet potatoes, and lastly topped it all off with goat cheese and spiced pecans--and dinner was served!

Sweet and Spicy Candied Pecans

From Bon Appétit

Ingredients

3 tbs. light corn syrup (could use Agave nectar as substitute)

1 1/2 tbs. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. (generous) freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 c. pecan pieces

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 deg F.  Lightly cover baking sheet with vegetable oil.  Combine corn syrup and next 4 ingredients in large bowl.  Stir to blend.  Add pecans; stir gently to coat.  Transfer to baking sheet.

Place large piece of foil on work surface.  Bake pecans 5 minutes.  Using fork, stir pecans to coat with melted spice mixture.  Continue baking until pecans are golden and coating bubbles, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to foil.  Working quickly (if you use corn syrup, you really do have to work very quickly!), separate nuts with fork.  Cool.  (Can be made 3 days ahead.  Store airtight at room temperature.)

Simple salad and Easter egg radishes

The other week we made a simple salad with baby arugula from our Farm Share.  This arugula was divine!  Peppery, spicy, and so good--no dressing required!

We also had a bunch of Easter egg radishes that we used for a recipe suggested by our Farm Share newsletter.

The recipe was simple: On toasted baguette slices, place thinly sliced radish pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  It was a nice addition to our salad; something a little different.  This would be a great (really simple and quick) appetizer for a dinner party!

What To Do With All That Cabbage?

The cole slaw was a BBQ-accessory success, but what do you do with all the leftover cabbage you didn't use in the slaw?  To use the cabbage and some more of our Farm Share produce, I made an Asian-inspired salad last night that was amazing!  I take no credit, the dressing--which makes this salad--was from Gwenyth Paltrow's blog GOOP (random, I know, but she has some really great recipes!).

The recipe for the dressing is below.  For the salad, I shredded the green and purple cabbage we had, then thinly sliced 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced 6 shiitake mushrooms (my favorite mushroom!), shredded carrots, and chopped baby bok choy* (raw).  The bok choy and carrots were from our Farm Share, and this was the first time we've eaten baby bok choy raw--it was delicious in this salad!  We served the salad with wings my husband grilled, which were tossed in a modified Buffalo sauce (he added chile paste and soy sauce to compliment the dressing of the salad).  All-in-all, a great meal!

* After separating the all bok choy leaves and rinsing out the dirt that collects between the layers, I cut the stems of the bok choy on a bias until I hit the leafy tops.  I then cut the leafy tops in half length-wise, and cut those on a bias, too.  Leafy tops and stems were included in the salad.

Asian Dressing
(modified from GOOP)

Ingredients
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and finely grated
1 1"-piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. light agave nectar
1/2 tsp. spicy toasted sesame oil (more or less to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper
Coarse salt
* I added 1/2 shallot, minced 
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds


Preparation
Whisk the garlic, shallot (if included), ginger and rice wine vinegar together and let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes.  This is a good time to cut up your vegetables if you haven't already.  Whisk the soy sauce, agave, and sesame oil into the vinegar mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Combine the cabbages, carrot, pepper and mushrooms together in a large bowl and toss with the dressing last minute, sprinkling the sesame seeds on top.

Cobb Salad

A slight variation from the original Cobb Salad, we cooked up eggs and bacon to make ourselves a salad the other week.  Avocado and chicken would be great additions!

With all the greens we receive, it's nice to switch things up for salads.  This salad used green leaf lettuce and grape tomatoes from our Farm Share, then we topped it with hard boiled eggs, bacon, and blue cheese.  

"Green Salads" Label

Greens are so good for you!  And we really enjoy eating what we receive in our Farm Share; but let's be honest, we all need a little variety in our lives--and diet--which can be tricky when every week we get at least one large head of lettuce in addition to a couple other varieties of greens.  Because we eat a lot of salads, I'm now including a "Green Salads" label on applicable blog posts, which encompasses all the cold green salads we eat.  Hopefully the easy access to different salad ideas will spark some variety in your meals if you find yourself needing to eat lots of greens, too!

Another Dinner, Another Yummy Salad

Tonight I ate solo, and threw together a super quick and satisfying salad.

I used the rest of the green leaf lettuce from last week's Farm Share, topped it with: Mediterranean curry-flavored couscous (5 minute cook time), pulled chicken (leftover from the rotisserie chicken we bought at Whole Foods the other night), sliced avocado, and sliced carrots from our Farm Share.  I then took a little plain yogurt and whisked in garlic-infused golden balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Voilá!  A really quick but delicious salad with a totally different flavor (but using some of the same ingredients) as salads I've posted in the past.

To infuse vinegar, simply throw a couple basil leaves and clove(s) of garlic into a bottle of vinegar.  We used golden balsamic vinegar--it took about a day or two for the flavors to settle in, and it's been good ever since!

Mustard BBQ Chicken Salad

As I have mentioned before, we receive a lot of greens in our Farm Share and are sometimes challenged with how to be creative with the salads we know we need to be eating.  Tonight was a good variation: roasted chicken* tossed in a mustard BBQ sauce (South Carolina style), served on a bed of green leaf lettuce with red pepper, cucumber, and blue cheese.

*To save time we picked up the rotisserie roasted chicken from Whole Foods, hot and ready to serve.


Mustard BBQ Sauce
(This isn't the recipe we used--I have no idea where that one is; we've had the sauce in our refrigerator for a while--but it sounds delicious and is from a SC website that seemed to know what it was talking about when it comes to SC BBQ.)

Ingredients
4 c. yellow mustard
8 oz. beer (less for thicker sauce, more for thinner sauce)
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
8 tbs. brown sugar
1/2 c. tomato puree
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs. cayenne
1 tbs. fresh cracked black pepper
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Preparation
Heat all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat and mix well.  Cook until sauce just begins to thicken.  Serve cool or warm.  The sauce will last in the refrigerator for a long time.)

Farm Share Lunch!

I realized at work the other day that the salad I was eating consisted completely of Farm Share items.  So of course I snuck a picture on my phone; I wanted to share how great of a salad it provided!

Leftover steamed green beans from the night before, grape tomatoes, cucumber, and spinach--a little feta and olive oil added--a great lunch.

Black Bean Salad

Tonight we finished up our big head of green leaf lettuce from last week's Farm Share arrival.  We threw together some different ingredients and in under 20 minutes had yet another great salad.  The next couple "recipes" aren't technically recipes, I suppose--I don't use measuring spoons when I throw these dishes together--but regardless they turn out great every time!  I don't have a picture of the meal we enjoyed, but we threw black beans, a little bit of salsa, and guacamole on top of a large bed of lettuce.  We served with lightly grilled tortillas...delicious!


Black Beans

Ingredients
1 can black beans
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
~1/2 to 1 tbs. cumin
~1 tsp. cayenne pepper
~1 tsp. hot red pepper, chopped
1/2 lime, squeezed for juice

Preparation
Stir all ingredients together over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.


Guacamole

Ingredients
2 avocados, peeled and chopped
1 tomato, diced
1/2 lemon, squeezed for juice
~ 1 to 1 1/2 tbs. cumin
~ 1 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 red onion, diced (optional)  I tend not to use red onion because raw onions make my stomach hurt, and I personally think the taste of the avocado comes out better with no onion.

Preparation
Put all ingredients in bowl, and using kitchen tool (I use a whisk) mash the avocado so there are chunks still in tact but the ingredients are all mixed.  Serve immediately.

Steak Salad with Roasted Red Pepper and Mustard Vinaigrette

Sometimes eating the amount of greens we receive weekly can be a challenge, albeit a welcome one.  It's easy to fall into a rut with salads: buy the same fixings, drizzle with olive oil, throw on feta.  Dinner Saturday night was a welcome change to that normal routine.  

With the huge head of green leaf lettuce we had yet to consume, we decided to do a salad for dinner.  A few changes to our normal routine resulted such a wonderful meal!  My husband grilled a top sirloin steak.  I roasted a red pepper and made a mustard vinaigrette.  A bed of lettuce dressed with steak and red pepper slices, blue cheese, mustard vinaigrette, and tomato wedges made for a very satisfying and absolutely delicious meal.  

Roasted Red Pepper
(Roasting a red pepper can be done in a few different ways, but I usually use the oven.)

Directions
Set your oven to the broil setting (high heat setting, if you have the option).  Leave the red pepper in tact (do not remove the stem or seeds) and place the whole red pepper (or several) in the oven directly on the rack.   Turn the peppers periodically until the skin starts blistering and turning black on all sides.  Remove the pepper from the oven, and cool so you can handle the pepper.  Peel off the skin of the pepper, and slice the flesh as desired (discarding the seeds and stem).



Mustard Vinaigrette

Ingredients
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
2 tbs. dijon mustard
1 tbs. honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 c. olive oil (I used 1/4 c.)
2 tbs. fresh basil leaves, chopped

Preparation
Whisk all ingredients together, slowly adding the olive oil.

Arugula Salad

Arugula is such a nice green because it packs so much flavor!

For lunch today I threw some sliced boar sausage, feta, cucumbers and olives on arugula, tossed with a little bit of olive oil.

The cucumber and arugula were from our Farm Share.  Delicious and easy!

California Burger, Hold the Bun

My husband and I have not been eating meat lately, so we have enjoyed the excuse to eat delicious leftover beef after cooking out last weekend (the meat purchased at Savenor's, which is now one of my favorite spots in Cambridge).  

For lunch the other day I went to make a burger, but we had run out of buns.  I was really craving the dressings of a California burger (or at least what I envision a "California" burger: avocado, salsa, tomato)--so I just threw the meat onto a bed of Farm Share lettuce and enjoyed.  

Tuna Nicoise

How could I have forgotten another wonderful way to use potatoes and other Farm Share produce?  My husband suggested this salad for lunch today, and tuna nicoise is one of my favorites!  Recipes vary from person to person, but below is my favorite combination of the classic and healthy salad.  This salad used potatoes and green leaf lettuce from our Farm Share.

Tuna Nicoise
(portions below for 2 people)

Ingredients
Tuna salad
1 can albacore tuna
2-3 tbs. olive oil
~ 2 tbs. capers
Pepper, to taste

Base salad
Leafy greens
Steamed green beans
Feta cheese
Boiled red potatoes (but any potato will do)
Tomatoes
Cucumber

Preparation
Mix the drained tuna with olive oil, capers, and pepper.  Boil potatoes until tender.  I often cut in quarters and toss with a little red wine vinegar, olive oil, and pepper to give them a little extra flavor.  I also usually drizzle the steamed green beans with olive oil and toss them with the feta.  Arrange all ingredients on a bed of green lettuce.

Grapefruit Salad in February

Today we received our Farm Share box with things back to "normal" (e.g. no "emergency" box and some produce from Florida).  Here are a couple pictures of the goods:

Yellow turnips, beets, arugula, baby spinach, apples,  grapefruit, avocado, sweet potatoes, red onion, russet potatoes...great box!!

Tonight we made a salad using a recipe suggested by our weekly Farm Share Newsletter (see recipe below).  Grapefruit and other non-winter produce are a part of our winter share through co-ops Enterprise Farm has with growers in the Southern United States.  Through Enterprise Farm's communication (like the newsletter) we are more aware of what produce is in season when.  This has helped us to be a bit more mindful when shopping for off-season produce in general, and I actually now realize how much produce at the grocery store is imported from outside the U.S.  There's nothing wrong with that except a lot of energy (and pollution) is used to get that produce here!  The co-ops enable us to receive produce we wouldn't from MA in the winter, yet go so far as South America to find it.

Anyway, the grapefruit was both gorgeous and delicious.  The spinach was from this week's share, too.  It was a perfect combination of sweet yet tart fruit with mild avocado.








Salad with Baby Spinach, Grapefruit and Avocado

Vinaigrette:
1 1/2 c. pomegranate juice, cooked over medium heat until it reduces by 1/3, then cooled
Whisk together with 3 tbs. red wine vinegar, 3 tbs. sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper.
Continue to whisk the vinaigrette ingredients, while slowly adding 1/4 c. olive oil.

Salad:
Toss together the following with half of the vinaigrette:
~ 8 c. baby spinach
1 avocado, cut into large cubes
1 grapefruit, peeled and pith removed, cut into sections

Pass the remainder of the dressing at the table.