All Entries Tagged With: "Salad"
Autumn Salad
It’s been a while since the South Arm Community Kitchen meet. The reason is because the coordinator of the Richmond Community Kitchen, Minoo was away on vacation for three weeks. Minoo had a great time in Germany with families and friends. She is fully charged for the coming winter.
Minoo started off the South Arm Community Kitchen with four recipes. The first item is an Autumn Salad featuring pear, cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Here are some tips on buying pears. Buy pears that are unripe to ensure they arrive home without any bruises as ripen pears are soft and easily bruised. An unripe pear can take anywhere from 3 to 7 days to ripen on the counter. To speed up the process, place pears in a paper bag along with an apple. Close tightly and check for ripeness in 1 to 3 days. Store ripened pears in the fridge.
This Autumn Salad is adapted from Alive Magazine and it makes 4 servings. You can easily doubled the recipes to serve 8. The goat cheese lends some saltiness to this lightly tangy salad. It’s a great way to start a meal. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Brown Basmati Apple Walnut Salad
If I remembered correctly, June shared this recipe of Brown Basmati Apple Walnut Salad. Brown Basmati Rice is gaining popularity for it’s higher nutritional values. It also tastes nuttier than regular white rice. A friend told me that after a few months of changing from white rice to brown rice, she is actually losing weight. I may try to include some brown rice in my regular rice and my family will slowly accept it. I’m sure Ben is going to make a fuss of it as he hates grainy stuff like whole wheat or whole grain bread.
This Brown Basmati Apple Walnut Salad can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days, which makes it the perfect make-ahead dish for company. You may add the apples and toasted walnuts just before serving. In fact, this salad tastes better the next day.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup toasted walnuts
- 4 cups cooked brown basmati rice
- 1/2 cup dried cherries, raisins or cranberries
- 1 apple, sliced
- 2 stalks celery, sliced
- 5 to 6 celery leaves, chopped
- 4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
You may toast the walnuts in the microwave. Microwave them on high at 45-seconds intervals, smelling for doneness. It takes between 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
June and Frances make this healthy and nutty salad.
Corn and Crab Salad
It is great to make use of fresh corns from the farm market in summer for this Corn and Crab Salad. Fresh corn is much sweeter than the frozen ones. We used artificial crab meat instead of real crab meat for this recipe. You can always substitute with real crab meat when crab is in season and much more affordable.
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh corn kernels, about 2 corn
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 avocados, pitted and diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- half white onion, diced
- 1 1/2 cups jicama, diced
- 2 cups crabmeat
- 1/3 cup minced jalapeno peppers
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
- lettuce and corn chips for presentation
This recipe makes 6 to 8 servings.
Gazpacho
Ben enjoyed the Gazpacho while we were vacationing in Spain this summer. Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup from Spain. It is best described as liquid salad or ’salad in the form of soup’. Gazpacho is a wonderful way to serve summer fresh vegetables.
June and Keiko made this Gazpacho recipe adopted from Elizabeth Shepard.
Ingredients
- 2 cups finely diced plum tomatoes
- 1/2 cup finely diced bell pepper
- 1 cup finely diced cucumber, seeds removed
- 1/3 cup minced red onion
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup finely minced parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 hard boiled egg
- 2 small cloves garlic, finely chopped
- pinch of salt
- 1 46-oz can tomato juice
- 1/2 cup fresh, plain bread crumbs
- Tabasco, to taste
P/S: the Italian bread crumb and the nutmeg are not supposed to be in this photo.
This recipe serves 8.
Salade Nicoise
The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors resumed for the fall season. We are glad to see Paul and Frank back in the kitchen after they recovered from some health issues. We also like to welcome Keiko and Chris who are new to the kitchen.
As usual, Charlene and Stella prepared a few delicious and healthy recipes for the seniors to participate in making and enjoying them for lunch. The first recipe is called Salade Nicoise from Charlene. This recipe serves 2 but we trippled it in the seniors’ kitchen.
The Salade Nicoise is a wonderfully balanced meal, offering vegetables, starches, and proteins all on one plate. This salad gets its name from a French seaside city of Nice where tuna is traditionally features in this salad.
Sydney and Frank made this Salade Nicoise.
Ingredients
- 2 red potatoes
- 6 oz. green beans (about two small fistfuls)
- 2 eggs
- 12 cherry tomatoes, slice into half
- 6 black or green olives, slice into half
- 7-oz. can top quality tuna
Dressing:
- 4 anchovies (optional)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
P/S: missing ingredients in the photo include eggs, and dressing ingredients.
Marinated Lentil Salad
This is first salad for the salad theme in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors. Sydney and Lorna made this salad besides the Island Pork Tenderloin. Lentil is a high in fiber and a great meat substitute for a vegetarian dish.
Cooking the lentils for only 15 minutes preserves their shape and texture. Tossed with a little vinaigrette, they make a tasty and satisfying salad. This recipe is adapted from Cooking Light and it serves 8.
Ingredients
Vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
- 1/2 cup chopped parsnip or turnip
- 1/2 cup chopped carrot
- 6 cups boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups dried lentils
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
- 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Bok Choy Salad
Among all the salad dishes made in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors, I like the Bok Choy Salad the most. Perhaps, it has the Asian flavour in it. Even Ben likes this salad. He had this for his lunch several times already after I got this recipe.
Christina and Helmut made this salad together. Helmut is also another new member of the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.
Eaten raw, bok choy is surprisingly tender. This crunchy, sweet salad is high in calcium from the leafy greens, sesame seeds and almonds. This is my first time eating bok choy raw. I usually stir fry them with garlic and oyster sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 (3-ounce) package instant ramen noodles
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds
- 1 1/2 lbs bok choy
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons rice, cider or wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
