Category: Salads

This salad celebrates the beginning of one beet crop, the harvest of another and beautiful local peaches from the farmers market.

In the last several years we have discovered the advantages of succession planting. Succession planting means that with some shorter season crops, like salad greens, beets and carrots, we plant fewer rows at one time but we do multiple plantings throughout the growing season for a continuous harvest. Our most recent planting of beets is the fifth of the season, this works well for us since we are only feeding ourselves, friends and family with the vegetables we grow.

Beet “seeds” are actually a dried fruit or a seed cluster that is made up of 2-6 seeds. So if you only planted one beet seed, you would still get several plants. The first thinning can occur when the seedlings are about 2 inches in height leaving the healthiest plants to mature. Snip the greens with scissors at soil level so as not to disturb the remaining plants. This will allow the remaining plants to gain more water, sunlight and nutrients from the soil. If you don’t thin, you will get all tops (unless that’s what you wanted) and there will not be enough space for the roots to develop into healthy round beets. We do a second thinning when the greens are a little bit larger. Some of those greens can still be used in salads, the larger greens are best sautéed with a little garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Beets are in the same family as spinach and chard and the greens share a similar mild flavor.

So what is the difference between red and yellow beets? Beats me! Now could I resist that one? Other than the fact that they don’t “bleed” like red beets, the only other difference is their flavor is a bit milder than the red varieties.

Roasting beets in foil brings out their sweet, earthy flavor and is the easiest and neatest way to cook them. If you are roasting both red and golden beets wrap them separately so the colors won’t bleed together. Scrub your beets well, no need to peel at this point, cut or snap off the top and trim the root end.  Place them on a sheet of heavy foil, top with a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper and maybe a sprig of thyme. My beets are rarely uniform in size, so I start checking them in 45 minutes. Beets that are easily pierced with a tip of a knife are ready. Once the beets are sufficiently cooled, the skins slip off easily.

Both yellow and white fleshed peaches are in season now at our local farmers market.  The standard yellow peach we are all familiar with has deep yellow skin with a vibrant red or pink blush and yellow flesh. White fleshed peaches have grown in popularity since the 1980’s when heartier varieties were developed that could be shipped to markets. The skin of the white peach is pale and pink with pale flesh and in the case of these peaches, tinged with vibrant red. White peaches are sweeter than their tarter yellow counterparts and are best enjoyed fresh, not cooked.

In this salad I combined the last of current beet harvest with the delicate baby greens of our most current planting along with sweet white peaches, creamy goat cheese and some toasted walnuts. The peach flavor was even more enhanced with a vinaigrette made with a peach balsamic vinegar from The Tubby Olive. A white wine vinegar combined with a touch of sweetness from honey or agave sweetener could substitute.

Roasted Beet, Beet Green and Peach Salad

Ingredients

• 3 small beets, roasted and cut into wedges
• Olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 peaches, pitted and sliced
• 6 ounces mixed greens- I used beet thinnings, any combination of baby greens will do
• 1/4c peach or white wine vinegar
• 3/4c extra virgin olive oil
• 1 t  Dijon mustard
• 1 t honey or agave sweetener, if using white wine vinegar
• 1/3 to ½ cup blue or goat cheese, crumbled
• ¼ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425° degrees F.
2. Wash and scrub the beets well.
3. Place beets on a large piece of aluminum foil, season with a splash of olive oil and a little salt and pepper then fold the foil into a packet. Place the foil on a cookie sheet to catch any drippings and roast 45 minutes or until tender when poked with the tip of a knife. Allow beets to cool 15 minutes. Once cool, peel the skins off using your fingers or a paring knife (they should come off easily).
4. Slice the beets into wedges and set aside.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, mustard, and honey until completely combined.
6. In a large salad bowl, add the mixed greens and toss with desired amount of dressing.
7. Add the peach slices, roasted beets and toss again.
8. Serve salad with roasted walnuts and crumbled cheese on top.

My subscription to Food and Wine expired, not intentionally, I guess I just didn’t heed their latest “this may be your last issue” notice. Magazines start sending out those warnings six months before the actual expiration date and sometimes you can get a little numb to their pleas. I like that within the last year, most magazine subscriptions include a subscription for your IPad as well. Certainly cuts down on clutter when you travel and many magazines include special features like videos for the IPad. I like Food and Wine, especially the chef recipes that are a part of every issue. I realized my grievous mistake at the chiropractor’s office. When I walked into the exam room I saw a cover that I was not familiar with, a colorful vegetable ceviche with the caption “Vegetables now”. How appropriate for the August issue when vegetables are at their peak. I had my adjustment, asked if I could take the magazine (yes!!) and was on my way.

Vegetables are a big part of our summer menus. The garden supplies us with an ever increasing bounty as the season progresses and we love to find new ways to present them. Food and Wine editor Dana Cowin in this issue proclaimed vegetables to be “the new pork, the new cupcake and the new craft beer all in one….they’re more interesting to cook than meat.” As a long time veggie lover I could have told her that long ago. Though it is great to enjoy just-picked vegetables prepared as simply as possible, finding new ways to feature them in recipes is one of the joys of summer cooking.

Tom Colicchio, cookbook author, restaurant owner and sage overlord of the Top Chef series is featured in an article “At the Judge’s Table”. The recipes he offers in the article revolve around local ingredients sourced near his home on Long Island’s North Fork. I am happy to say that Mr. Colicchio hasn’t just recently jumped on the vegetable bandwagon. His 1990 cookbook, Think Like a Chef has several chapters divided by season devoted to vegetables.  As an east coast gardener who cooks and gardens with the seasons I appreciate that. Even before it was the popular thing to do he was advising his readers to seek out locally grown produce. His recipe for roasted tomatoes is one I have used for years and freezing roasted tomatoes is my way to preserve them for the winter months. That recipe has saved me the many hours I used to spend over a hot stove canning tomatoes.

In this simple recipe, thinly sliced cucumbers and fennel are napped in a yogurt dressing enhanced with fresh seasonal herbs. It’s a slightly expanded version of tzatziki, the Greek salad of cucumbers and yogurt. Chef Colicchio uses a goat yogurt described as “tangy and funky” from a Long Island dairy farm. I used a non-fat Greek yogurt with good results though this weekend I will look to see if goat’s milk yogurt is available at my local farmers market. To extract excess water from the cucumbers, place the slices in a colander set over a bowl and sprinkle a little salt on them. Let the cucumbers drain for about a half hour and blot dry with paper towels. I replaced the celery and scallions in the original recipe with spicy radishes and red onion. Either combination would produce good results, it’s all a function of what’s in your kitchen that day. This crisp salad would be a cooling contrast to spicy dishes.  Paired with meat or fish or scooped into a pita for a quick lunch, this is a recipe that is quick to assemble and one I am sure to come back to again this summer.

Cucumber-Fennel Salad with Herb Yogurt Dressing

Adapted from Food and Wine Magazine August 2013

Serves Six to Eight

Ingredients

• 1c plain non or low fat Greek yogurt
• 3T white wine vinegar
• 1/2c chopped flat leaf parsley
• 3T snipped garlic chives
• Kosher Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4-5 Kirby-style cucumbers, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 fennel bulbs, halved lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced
• 4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1/3c thinly sliced red onion

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk the yogurt with the white wine vinegar, parsley and chives. Season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the sliced cucumbers, fennel, radishes and onion, season the salad with salt and pepper and serve.

Potato salad is hard. It’s much easier to plunk down your 4.99 at the Giant than making this classic from scratch.  Potato salad was a popular side dish when I was catering, and I knew that I could never charge for the time it took to make a great potato salad. My copy of Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook”, naturally opens to the pages on cooking potatoes and potato salad because I have used her recipes countless times.
 
First, you need to choose your potatoes, carefully examining each one. I’ve given up on bagged potatoes because more than once that “one bad apple” or in this case potato, has started to spoil the whole bunch. Then the potatoes need to be peeled and uniformly sliced to insure the proper cooking time. Next you have to find the right moment when the cooked potatoes are not too hard, crunchy potato salad will never catch on, but not too soft so that the potatoes crumble and turn to mush. The potatoes are then drained and the slices are allowed to firm up for 3 to 4 minutes. Now you should be ready to do the initial seasoning with the still warm potatoes, salt, pepper, onions, celery, vinegar or maybe some potato water. Additional ingredients can be added when the potatoes have cooled off. I like finely diced cornichon pickles, some crispy bacon, chopped hard boiled egg and parsley with enough mayonnaise to coat it lightly. Homemade mayonnaise is wonderful but good old Hellmann’s does the trick for me most of the time.

Potato salad brings back good family memories for me. When I was growing up the summer family cookouts were at our house. Most of the relatives on my father’s side lived in the city and we were the only ones with a large enough backyard to host such an event. My dad was the grillmeister, cooking burgers and hot dogs in a cloud of barbecue smoke. Adults and the older children would play spirited games of badminton and the younger cousins enjoyed the swing set. I’m sure there were salads, jello and otherwise but the dish I remember most was my grandmom’s German potato salad. My dad’s mom, Grandmom to us, would come with her potatoes, onion, bacon and vinegar ready to cook. That was quite a challenge because my parent’s home had the typical fifties kitchen, small with very little counter space. Everyone would get out of her way and she went to work, peeling potatoes, chopping onions and cooking bacon. She poured her vinegary dressing over the potatoes and served it still warm. Delicious, you didn’t want to be one of the last ones to be served or you might not get any. Grandmom died suddenly, just one day after our Labor Day picnic of 1969. I never thought to get her recipe, I had just turned 15 at the time and the only cooking I had done to that point was for a Girl Scout badge. Many have attempted but no one has ever quite duplicated her recipe. The lesson to be learned here?  If you or someone in your family makes something that you love from memory, take the time to observe, write it down and capture the recipe for future generations. Don’t let it be just a memory but a part of your family’s legacy.

Master Recipe for Cooking Sliced Potatoes for Salad

• 3lbs Yukon Gold or red potatoes
• Kosher Salt-1t per quart of water

Directions

1. Fill a saucepan to the halfway point with cold water. Wash the potatoes. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/4″ thick slices. Drop the peeled potatoes into the pan of cold water to prevent discoloration while you peel the rest.
2. Once all the potatoes are peeled, drain out the water and add fresh cold water to cover and add the salt. Bring the potatoes to the simmer and simmer for 3-4 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender. Test them by eating a slice to be certain you have achieved the right texture.
3. Drain out the water, reserving a cup or so if you want to use it as part of your dressing. Cover the pan and set aside for 3 minutes and no longer than 5 to give the slices the time to “firm up”. Uncover the potatoes and do the initial seasoning while they are still warm.

American Potato Salad

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 3lb Yukon Gold or red potatoes-cooked according to the master recipe
• 2/3c liquid, 3T cider vinegar plus chicken broth or potato water to make up the difference
• 1/2c finely diced red onion, soaked in ice water for 10 minutes to eliminate the “bite”, well drained
• 2/3c finely diced tender celery
• 1/4c finely diced cornichons or dill pickle
• 3-4 strips of crisply cooked bacon, crumbled
• 3 hard boiled eggs, diced
• 3T minced Italian parsley
• 3/4-1c homemade or Hellman’s mayonnaise

Directions

1. Turn the still warm potato slices in a large bowl and toss gently with the vinegar/liquid mixture, onions, celery, pickle and seasonings to taste. Let it steep for about 10 minutes, carefully tossing several times.
2. When the salad is cool, toss with the bacon, eggs, parsley and just enough mayonnaise to coat lightly. The potato salad can be made 24 hours in advance.
3. Before serving, check for seasonings and add more mayonnaise if needed. Sprinkle with additional parsley.

Our spring salads are a combined effort. The greens are from our garden, arugula, mache, spinach and lettuces with names like Freckles and Burgundy colored Red Velvet. Last year I discovered Hakurei turnips at the farmers market and they are a welcome addition to this years garden. We are harvesting them now and they are pure white and sweet as can be. The farmers market offered French breakfast radishes, purple and green kohlrabi and the first asparagus of the season. Our first batch of radishes has already been picked but with succession planting the next are soon to come.

Trimmed kohlrabi reminds me of little space aliens and are a crunchy addition to the salad. Since this is young kohlrabi, I julienne them raw since the purple color is only skin deep. Many years ago we had an asparagus patch, but the time and effort didn’t seem worth it. Now we enjoy the harvest from our local farms.

The supermarket provided organic golden baby beets, our own beets are less than a week away. The first beet micro green thinnings are part of our salads, then used as cooked greens as they get bigger. We are growing three varieties this year, Golden, candy-striped Chiogga and the ruby red Detroit Red.

Soft cheeses like feta and chopped nuts would be a welcome addition to this salad. In weeks to come our salads will include snow peas, more radishes, carrots and eventually tomatoes, cucumbers and all the produce that summer brings.

A Spring Salad for two

Ingredients

• 1/4 c Sicilian lemon vinegar
• 1t Dijon mustard
• 1t minced shallot
• 3/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• splash of lemon olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 6c loosely packed salad greens, spinach, mache, arugula, baby lettuces
• 1 small kohlrabi, purple or green, cut into matchstick julienne (if possible, don’t peel to maintain the color)
• 2 small Hakurei turnips peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline
• 1 Golden beet, peeled and very thinly sliced on a mandoline
• 8 asparagus spears, trimmed, sliced on the diagonal and steamed until crisp-tender
• 4 French breakfast radishes, sliced

Directions

1. Combine the first five ingredients in a small bowl, whisk to combine, add salt and pepper to taste
2. Place lettuce on serving platter, top with turnip slices, beet slices, asparagus and radishes. Toss with enough dressing to lightly coat, there will be some left. Top with fresh ground pepper to taste

Meat loaf was on the menu for dinner one evening this past week so I decided to go a little retro with the salad as well and made a Caesar salad. By now many have heard the story of Caesar Cardini, Italian by birth, he immigrated to the San Diego area after the first World War. Caesar ran a restaurant just over the border in Tijuana Mexico avoiding the restrictions that Prohibition brought.
 
Caesar salad originated on a busy fourth of July weekend in 1924 when hungry diners depleted his kitchen’s resources. Mr Cardini was said to have concocted the first Caesar salad with ingredients he had on hand. A dramatic tableside preparation is what set this simple recipe apart. Of course there are other claimants to the recipe, including family members and staff who disputed his version of the story for years.  Caesar salad soon became popular with the Hollywood set and British royalty. Even Julia Child had the salad as a teen and she recounts watching it made by Caesar himself in her book In Julia Child’s Kitchen.

The original recipe is very basic, Romaine lettuce, a simple vinaigrette, Parmesan cheese and croutons. So anchovy haters take heart, you can claim that you are a Caesar purist. In my preparation I gave a nod to the Mexican origins of this dish by adding avocado in both the dressing and the finished salad. Avocados are native to central Mexico and were introduced to the United States in the late nineteenth century. Avocados are a powerhouse of nutrition providing amino acids, fiber, potassium, vitamin E, and B vitamins. Yes they are high in fat, but it is a healthy fat, oleic acid that boosts HDL levels. Haas or Hass? That was the burning question in my mind. For years I have seen the most readily available variety of avocado spelled both ways. Hass is correct, named for the postman who first planted the variety, Rudolph Hass.

In a traditional Caesar a raw egg is an important ingredient because of the creamy texture it gives the salad. Wanting to avoid the raw egg altogether, I remembered a Martha Stewart recipe I used in my catering days. A tablespoon of good quality mayonnaise was substituted for the raw egg yolk.  To enhance the lemon flavor I used a Sicilian lemon balsamic vinegar from The Tubby Olive.  A combination of lemon juice and a regular balsamic could fill in here. Infusing olive oil with garlic is fairly easy. Bring about a quarter cup of olive oil and several cloves of garlic to a simmer over low heat.  Turn off the heat, cover and allow the oil to pick up the garlic flavor, fifteen minutes or more. Strain and cool before using.  Croutons are a major player in the recipe and I didn’t want wimpy ones from sliced bread so I tore pieces from part of an unsliced loaf I had in the freezer. Make your croutons as close to serving time as possible. The crispy croutons are a nice contrast to the creaminess of the avocado and the dressing.  The original Caesar was to be eaten with the hands, the Romaine leaves were left whole and presented on the dish, stem end out. I prefer to eat my salad with a fork so I tore the greens into bite-sized pieces. Make this into a light entree by adding grilled chicken or shrimp.
  

Avocado Caesar Salad

Serves four

Ingredients

• 1 head of Romaine lettuce, rinsed, spun dry and cut into bite-sized pieces
• Avocado Caesar dressing (recipe follows)
• Garlic croutons (recipe follows)
• 4-6 slices of pancetta, cooked until crispy, crumbled
• Parmesan cheese
• 1 avocado, sliced

Ingredients for the dressing

• 1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
• 2 minced cloves of garlic
• 1/4c mayonnaise
• 1T fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1T Worcestershire sauce
• 3T Sicilian lemon balsamic vinegar
• 3T extra virgin olive oil
• Water to thin out mixture

Directions for Dressing

1. Combine the dressing ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or a blender and blend/pulse until creamy. You will need to scrape down the sides with a spatula several times during this process.
2. Add water as needed to thin it out. Taste for seasoning and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. Remember the pancetta and Parmesan will add saltiness to the final salad.
3. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Ingredients for the croutons

• 1 day-old baguette or other unsliced bread
• Garlic olive oil or olive oil and garlic powder or olive oil that has been infused with garlic
• Kosher salt

Directions for the croutons

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Remove crusts from bread and tear into irregular pieces, about 2 inches in size.
3. Place bread cubes in a large bowl and toss to coat with oil.  Sprinkle lightly with salt; arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.
4. Bake until golden and crisp, tossing with spatula half way through the baking process to insure even browning, about 10 minutes.

Final assembly of the Salad

1. Place Romaine in a large salad bowl. Add a small portion of the dressing and toss well to coat. You can serve additional dressing on the side for those who want more.
2. Toss with croutons and crumbled pancetta.
3. Top each serving with a slice or two of avocado, Parmesan shavings and fresh ground pepper.