Friday, August 28, 2009

Another Colorful Summer Salad


Here's one more salad, just before the summer turns to fall (the farmer I buy produce from just sent an email saying that last weeks cherry tomatoes were the last of the season, boo hoo):

Colorful Summer Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
fresh green beans
cherry tomatoes
arame seaweed
roasted hazelnuts
cooked haricot beans
chopped parsely
a few small radishes, sliced paper thin with a mandoline
ume plum vinegar
dressing: juice and rind of 1 lemon, olive oil, apple juice concentrate, 1 pinch sea salt

Soak the arame in water for 10 minutes. Drain.
Blanch the radishes in boiling water for a few seconds. Drain and pour a few drops ume plum vinegar to keep the color.
Top and tail the green beans. Boil for just 3 minutes. Drain and pour cold water over them to stop cooking. Drain again.
Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and sprinkle some drops of ume plum vinegar on them.
Mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl.
Prepare the dressing by mixing all of the ingredients, to taste, in a separate small bowl. Serve on the side.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Couscous and Chickpea Summer Salad

Made a delicious salad today. So delicious, in fact, I wolfed it down before I even remembered to take a picture to post here. So you'll just have to take my word for it: this salad is a happy, nourishing treat on a hot summer day. I ate a huge bowl and savored every bite.
This salad is a spin off of a recent post from Heidi Swanson's blog 101 Cookbooks, Cherry Tomato Couscous. I wanted to go for a bit less grain and more veggies. I also added some ingredients (seaweed, pine nuts, radish, green onion, alfalfa sprouts) to make it a nourishing meal in itself. As my teacher Montse Bradford insists, I macerated the tomatoes and cucumbers to make them a bit less yin and more yang. You don't need to do this, but the added saltiness (even though the vegetables get rinsed) tastes great, especially on a sweaty day like this one in Barcelona.

Couscous and Chickpea Summer Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked couscous (whole wheat, preferably)
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 small cucumber, sliced paper-thin with a mandoline
1 small green onion, sliced paper-thin with a mandoline
a couple of radishes, thinly sliced
a handful cherry tomatoes
a handful alfalfa sprouts

dressing:
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
a pinch fleur de sel
garnish:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
toasted nori seawead, cut into bits
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts

First prepare the couscous. (Have the chickpeas already cooked from the day before.) Let couscous cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Slice cucumber and place in a colander with a teaspoon of salt. Let drain for 20 minutes or so. Rinse and pat dry. Slice tomatoes and sprinkle a few drops of ume plum vinegar. Let set for 20 minutes or so. Rinse. Slice radish and onion. Put couscous into a large bowl. Add sliced vegetables and chickpeas. Dress with lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and vinegar. Mix carefully. Add pine nuts, chopped parsley and seaweed. Serves 2 as main course or 4 as side.