Salads of the season

t's hard to believe it's already more than a couple of weeks since girlfriend Kate came to town and we staycationed for a couple of days. It was lovely, and our time together so looked forward to, and then in a blip (but a very relaxing blip) it was over...

One of our meal outings was to a dinner event that Kate had participated in last year, called Outstanding in the Field. The setting was lovely, the food fresh and local and tasty, and the group of friends that Kate invited for the meal (this was a wee bit belated birthday celebration) entirely lovely.

One of the dishes from the evening that got the most ooohs and ahhs was an apricot fattoush, and I instantly knew that given the state of our apricot tree, I would be making this at home, many times.

For some strange reason, I knew that the herb was mint, but as I went to make it for myself at home, later, all I heard in my head was "dill." And in true Sher fashion, I of course didn't look back at the picture from the dinner, so my ratio of greens to bread is very different as well. But, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my take on the salad immensely.

Apricot, arugula and chevre salad
Serves one as a meal or two as an accompaniment
3 cups arugula mixture with some additional greens (in my case, a few basil leaves as well)
1 cup homemade baguette croutons
1 lemon cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced
6 apricots, pitted and quartered
2 Tbsp dill, very roughly chopped off the stem
1/3 cup thinly sliced Walla Walla Sweet Onions
2 Tbsp light dressing of olive oil, garlic and citrus balsamic
1/2 cup chevre, crumbled (the original salad had feta listed, but it is such a fresh, soft feta, I thought I could get away with chevre, and it was very yummy of course)
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the greens with the dressing in a medium bowl and makes sure the leaves are well coated. Add the apricots, croutons, cucumber and dill and mix again; add the chevre and toss gently. Turn out onto a serving plate or platter (this would double nicely for a dinner party), and add a bit more chevre to the top, as seems appropriate (when is additional chevre NOT appropriate?).

Enjoy!

Of course, as soon as I was done photographing the salad for the sake of the experiment, out came the figs and I halved up a number of those for on top as well! They went extremely well with all the other ingredients, and added to my overall enjoyment of the salad, definitely.

The following day I felt the need to mix it up a bit further. Same greens, same croutons, but I dressed it in the arugula pesto I've been enjoying, and added blue cheese instead of chevre. Also, I replaced the apricots with nectarines, and kept the figs (of course!).

Quite a heavenly lunch.

Tis the season for salad appreciation, and I am embracing it fully! Hope you enjoy the flavors of the season, too!

A few more photos from the evening, before it fades from memory...

To the left side is the airstream that the crew travels in (and Megan wanted to take home) and to the 

right is the outdoor kitchen.

Isn't that purple fabulous?

I made a friend at the farm.

Kate and her lovelies.

Figs and orzo with goat cheese and basil

igs are a well-documented favorite with me (here, here, here and here, just to get the party started). My goodness, I love that fruit! And it's been with quite a bit of glee that I've watched local merchants bring them to town the past few years... the fruit's popularity has grown, for sure, and with that, thankfully their per-pound price has gone from the "OK, Seth's obviously going to community college to support Mom's habit" to a more reasonable place.

So when I have figs around as well as all my other favorite summer ingredients, I can't help but want to put a few of them together. The past few days I have been caught in a serious basil-tomato-parmesan-pasta loop. Tonight I thought... what if I swap out the tomatoes for figs? And then, because figs and chevre go together so beautifully, a bit of goat cheese found it's way into the bowl too. Heaven.

If figs are your thing, you gotta give this a try. And if they're not, you should still have just a bite... it might convert you.

Figs and orzo
Serves 2 as a side dish
1 cup cooked orzo or other tiny pasta shape
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced finely (optional)
3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves
10 fresh figs, quartered
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1/3 cup crumbled chevre
Salt and pepper to taste

Place orzo, garlic and olive oil in medium bowl and stir to toss well. If pasta is freshly cooked (ie, warm), this should suffice to wilt the garlic, if you choose to go that route. (I found the garlic helped cut the sweetness of the figs just right. I also felt like a walking garlic clove for a bit, so it's your call.) If you are using leftover pasta (as I was tonight) warm for a minute or two in the microwave. (Room temperature would be great with this dish, but cold-cold is not my preferred state for most dishes.)

Add the figs, pine nuts, basil and parmesan and toss again. Add the chevre last and toss gently with salt and pepper to coat the rest of the ingredients. Serve immediately!

Oh yum. I will be making that dish again. Soon.

Beet and chevre salad

ur garden is rolling out the produce quite nicely, and I'm a wee bit blissed out with the harvesting of romaine, kale, potatoes and beets. Green beans need to be gathered soon, as do onions (Walla Walla Sweets!), and the zucchini and summer squash are starting to proliferate... amazing what a little sunshine will do.

So those beets... how about those beets? I have had "issues" with beets over the years... not many issues--the main one is that I think they taste like dirt if they aren't of the pickled variety, and I really can't stand the pickled ones! Generally, I've just avoided them. For some reason, though, over the past few years, I've felt like it's something I need to "work on." Because there aren't enough vegetables in my cupboard? Not sure. A nutritional psychologist could probably posit a theory or two...

Sweet Aunty M tried to convert me a few years back with some beets roasted in vanilla, and they were... okay... nothing I felt the need to do again. And borscht is borscht--as a soup it seems quite separate from beets themselves; I know, the contradiction makes no sense. I understand your confusion. I'm a little confused myself.

And yet, here we are: there are beets in the garden. Someone bought seeds (me) (notice that they are yellow and striped beets, how fun!) and planted them (me again) and even thinned them out (yep), and picked them, brought them inside, washed, peeled and roasted them (yes, still me). Sounds like someone who actually likes beets, doesn't it?

Well, true confession time, I've been moving sideways toward liking beets for a bit now. A couple of local restaurants have featured beets as salads and appetizers and the way that beets have found their way into my heart will come as no surprise: chevre. Yep, it's another vehicle for cheese! I knew you'd understand.

So, when I thought of how I'd want to eat my beets, I looked around for a beet and chevre salad, and found a few options. I settled on this one to model after, and the results were truly yummy.

Beet and chevre salad
2 cups washed mixed greens (I had romaine from the yard, but think in the future arugula would be my green of choice for this salad)
1 cup roasted beets, sliced or cubed
1/3 cup chevre, crumbled
1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts, chopped roughly

Orange vinaigrette
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Combine orange juice and oil in a jar with lid, add salt and pepper and shake until emulsified.

Put greens in a medium bowl and drizzle with enough orange dressing to coat and toss well. Layer the greens, then beets, then chevre, then hazelnuts on a dinner-size plate and drizzle a bit more dressing if you'd like.

Beet heaven! Two words I never thought I'd put in the same sentence.

How's this for a clever idea for roasting the beets and not having any colors run into each other? Those dark beets can really stain up whatever they touch! It worked so cleverly I had to post this picture to Pinterest (of course!).

Mushroom asparagus salad; or, would you like a little salad with your cheese?

his concoction was born of that inevitable "What's in the fridge?" moment meeting the "I'm craving X" moment. This lucky day, those two statements lined up nicely. "X" = asparagus and goat cheese, and I had some arugula and languishing mushrooms... voila! Salad happiness. (As I looked at the picture above, however, it did occur to me that this salad--like so many I come up with, is really a vehicle for the cheese. I won't deny it.)

Sauteed mushroom and asparagus salad with chevre
Serves one
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1.5 cups asparagus, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Saute the mushrooms and asparagus over medium-to-high heat until cooked through and even slightly seared.

Toss with:
2 cups washed and stemmed arugula
3 baguette slices, toasted and quartered (remember, my quick diy crouton method? It works!)

Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette. Crumble a quarter-cup (or more, I won't judge) of chevre over the top of the salad, season with salt and pepper to taste, and...
Enjoy!

And, because this recipe is so short, some added entertaiment seems warranted. You MUST wait for the last word of the song. Please. Do it for me.

Keepin' my word: Salad day

ust to prove that meant what I said about some leafy greens today, here's my salad post! But I didn't stop with just greens, oh no. This is one of my favorite winter salads. And I swear, there really are greens under all that other stuff, really!

 

One of Sher's favorite winter salads
A couple generous handfuls of greens--I used romaine and arugula
1 red pear, sliced
2 Tbsp. chevre, crumbled
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
Croutons to taste (you can see from the picture I was in the mood for croutons! Freshly made just yesterday!)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Champagne vinaigrette

Assemble and devour. I did!

We love croutons around here. Our small person can sidle up to a bag of croutons and do serious damage. And I like to make them myself whenever possible, but have neglected that task recently. In my kitchen binge yesterday, I decided to remedy that.

Homemade croutons
2 loaves homestyle bread--one wheat, one sprouted wheat, cut into 3/4 inch dice
Olive oil, rosemary oil, vegetable oil--whatever you have on hand and is your flavor choice
Salt and pepper
Garlic salt

Chop the bread up and toss with the oils in a big bowl. I usually drizzle a little oil, stop and stir, drizzle some more. I used some of the rosemary oil I still have on hand and it made this batch especially lovely. Add salt, pepper and garlic salt (or minced garlic cloves too!) to taste and spread over a couple of baking sheets. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, then flip the croutons with a spatula and bake for another 10, or until roasty toasty and golden. Cool on the counter before storing in an airtight container. These will get eaten long before they could possibly go stale!

 

And I claim not to like bread. Obviously that's nonsense.