Corn and Green Bean Salad

This summer we had a farm share and boy did we get a lot of corn! I searched for some different recipes that incorporated corn and I found this great one on one of my favorite blogs, Girls Gone Child. Her blog is awesome and she has the most adorable kids (with the coolest names). She sometimes features recipes from her mom who seems like an amazing cook. That’s where I found this recipe and it’s delicious.

Corn and Green Bean Salad 
from Girls Gone Child

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh green beans
2 ears of corn, shucked
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove chopped garlic
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the ears of corn.
2. Cook corn for 5 minutes, remove from the water and put in a colander. Rinse with cold water to cool the ears down.
3. Using the same water you cooked the corn in, cook the green beans for just about 2 minutes so that they are still crisp.
4. Drain the beans then put them into a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking further.
5. Cut beans into smallish pieces and cut the corn kernels off the cob. In a large bowl, add the beans, corn, tomatoes and onions.
6. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil, and salt and pepper.
7. Pour liquid mixture over the vegetable mixture and toss to coat.
8. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Beet Salad (for those who don’t love beets)

I’m not a huge beet fan but we’ve been getting TONS in our CSA this summer. And it’s been so hot that I dread turning the oven on to cook them. But then I found this amazing recipe from The New York Times and we have been loving beets ever since. Even though this salad includes raw beets, it doesn’t taste beet-y – it’s refreshing and citrusy and I love it.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch beets (maybe a half pound)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot, or chopped zucchini, summer squash or whatever other vegetable you have handy
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley or rosemary

Directions:

• Wash the beets and cut off the ends. Use a food processor to chop the beets up small
• Chop or food process the onion, the carrot or other vegetable of your choice, and the parsley or rosemary. I’ve also used shredded carrots from Whole Foods (like in the photo below)
• Add all the chopped ingredients to a bowl
• In a separate smaller bowl, combine the orange juice, lemon juice and olive oil and stir well
• Poor the citrus liquid mixture over the vegetable mixture and stir well
• Chill for an hour or so (but you could also eat this right away)
• Serve over salad greens

Take on a picnic and enjoy.

“Magical” Kale Salad

Mei Mei is a food truck in Boston and they have a kale salad that is rumored to be awesomely delicious. I’ve never had it, but Andrew can’t stop raving about it. So when we were planning a picnic on a recent lovely day, we decided to try to replicate the “magical” kale salad, with a few tweaks, and take it along for our picnic. This awesome blog wrote a great post on how to recreate the Mei Mei kale salad, so we used that as a guide.

It was delicious and lovely and we can’t stop massaging kale. Check it out:

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh kale, washed of course

1 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

3 tsp olive oil

2 eggs

Canola oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup panko

1/3 cup grated feta cheese

Sea salt

Directions:

Start by washing the kale then ripping it apart. You don’t have to rip it too small because it’ll shrink a ton on its own.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with the lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Slowly add just a bit of that mixture to the kale while massaging the liquid into the kale with your hands. Your hands with get all gross and oily, but it’ll be fun. Add a bit more of the liquid mixture to the kale while massaging until you have enough to cover all the kale but not so much that it’s pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Add a bit of sea salt. Massage the bologna out of that kale because – fun fact – apparently massaging kale takes some of its bitter taste away.

Let your massaged kale hang out for a bit while you make the panko. Pour a bit of canola oil in the bottom of a skillet and add the minced garlic. Slowly add in the cup of panko, making sure that it’s mixing well with the canola and garlic. Add a bit more canola oil if you need to.

Make two eggs however you like – the original recipe says poached but since I don’t like poached eggs we did ours over hard. I think the poached thing would add a whole other element to the salad, with the runny yolk and all, but since I hate runny yolk, I was ok with our version.

Pile the kale into a bowl, add the panko and egg and some feta cheese on top. Take along on a picnic and enjoy!

Chickpea Salad

Whole Foods has a delicious “Mediterranean Crunch Salad” at the cold bar. We wanted to recreate it at home, but a google search for the recipe didn’t exactly match the ingredient list that had been included with the salad at the bar. So we kind of used the recipe online as a guide and added some other ingredients to make it more fabulous.

Ingredients:

2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cucumber, chopped small
1/2 head broccoli, chopped small
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 carrot, chopped small
3 leaves kale, tough stems removed, chopped small
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Directions:

Combine the chickpeas, cucumber, carrot, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, onion, parsley and thyme in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil. Whisk well. Poor the liquid mixture into the vegetable/bean mixture and stir well. Chill at least one hour before serving. Enjoy!

Potato and Lentil Salad

This is another fabulous recipe from College Vegetarian Cooking. It’s easy, it’s quick, and it’s delicious. It’s also better the next day, nice and cold, so make plenty for leftovers!

Ingredients: 

2 lbs red bliss potatoes or multicolored potatoes

1 bunch green onions

1 cup lentils, doesn’t matter what color

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

Cook the lentils according to the package directions and boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes or until they are soft. Drain potatoes and cool them by running under cold water.

When the potatoes are cool, cut them into bite-sized pieces and place in a large bowl. Trim the ends off the green onions and then chop. Add the onions to the potatoes. When the lentils are ready, rinse them with cold water and add them to the potatoes and green onions. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, mustard, and vinegar, and whisk together. Stir the liquid mixture into the potatoes, lentils and onions, making sure to coat evenly.

 

Enjoy!

Tarragon Orzo and Feta Salad

I found this salad originally in the College Vegetarian Cooking, my go-to guide for quick and easy vegetarian recipes. Over time, I’ve tweaked it a bit and tried to make it a little more robust and healthier. It’s delicious and fresh for a summer barbecue, so put it on the menu for your upcoming summer fun.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta

1 cup cut cherry or grape tomatoes

1 carrot

1/2 red pepper

1/2 red onion

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

2 Tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup fresh spinach

Cook the pasta for 8-10 minutes, until it’s cooked to your liking. While it’s cooking, chop the carrot,  red pepper, and red onion into small pieces.

Add the cooked orzo, then the chopped tomatoes and tarragon.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice and then pour into pasta mixture, making sure to stir well and coat all the pasta. Add feta on top and serve over spinach greens.