Recipes
Susie's Stragapalooza Cinco Salad Surprise
5 Salad Dinner plus salad for desert (with a French baguette and barbecued chicken thighs to keep the carnivores happy and happy they were. I think they were so pleased to not have to eat tofu that they thought the entire meal was a huge success.)
Chef Susie
Sous Chefs Penny, Greg, Hope & Mom
Chick-pea Salad
Serves 8
1 bag (1 pound) dry chick-peas (garbanzos)
1 pound potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 large carrots, pared, cut diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices
4 large onions, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill OR 2 Tbsp dried dillweed.
Destructions
Pick over, sort, wash chick-peas. Cover with water in bowl. Refrigerate overnight.
Drain chick-peas. Cook in boiling water 35 minutes. Add potatoes & carrots; boil 10 minutes or until Chick-peas are tender. Drain into a large bowl. (We bought canned chick-peas and cooked the potatoes & carrots alone.)
Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until tender; add to chick-peas, potatoes and carrots.
Stir in vinegar, salt pepper & dill. Serve warm or at room temperature over greens (which we didn’t do but you could do if this was the only salad of the meal).
Lentil Salad
Serves 8 to 10
1 pound lentils, well washed
1 carrot
1 leek
1 onion with skin on
1 stalk of celery
3 cloves garlic with skin on
1 bay leaf
Water or vegetable stock
Destructions
Place the above in a pot with enough water or vegetable stock to cover plus 2-3 inches and simmer until tender – 35 to 50 minutes. Drain and discard vegetables.
While warm, toss with your favorite oil and vinegar or oil and lemon juice dressing. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature.
Dressing I used:
6 Tbsp Lemon Juice
12 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 (good sized) garlic cloves
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 green onions chopped
2 Tbsp parsley chopped fine
Beet salad
Serves 6 to 8
3 large raw beets, peeled, coarsely grated
Penny’s Famous Orange Vinaigrette
75 g caster sugar (Penny says this is just under 1/2 cup)
2 tbsp water
150 mL white wine vinegar
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 tsp Dijon mustard
150 mL sunflower oil
Destructions
Dissolve the sugar in the water in a small pan over a gentle heat, then simmer the syrup until it has turned to a deep-golden caramel color (about 5 minutes).
Avert your face and pour in the vinegar (it will splutter).
Add the orange zest, return the pan to the heat and without stirring, boil the mixture for another couple of minutes until you have about 175 mL liquid.
Pour the mustard into a large screwtop jar, add the orange syrup and mix until smooth.
Add the oil and shake hard to emulsify the mixture. Alternatively, mix together the mustard, syrup and oil in a blender.
Season with a pinch of salt.
Cabbage salad
Serves 6 to 8
6 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
1/4 cup distilled vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
5 Tbsp safflower oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
Destructions
Thinly slice cabbage.
Mix together vinegar, soy sauce, sugar & safflower oil. Dress the cabbage, stir in mint. Serve.
Black Bean, Red Pepper, Corn & Quinoa Salad
Serves 4
5 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup Quinoa, rinsed in cold water and drained
1 cup Vegetable Broth
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Lime Juice
1/8 tsp Black Pepper
1 cup cooked or canned Black Beans, drained (rinse canned beans)
1 cup whole-kernel Corn
1 large ripe Tomato, diced
1 small sweet Red Pepper seeded and diced
2 Green Onions, finely chopped
3 Tbsp Cilantro, chopped (we did not use)
2 Tbsp fresh Parsley, chopped
2 cups mixed Salad Greens (we did not use but you could if this was your only salad of the meal)
Destructions
In a 1 quart saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp Olive Oil over medium heat.
Add Quinoa and stir until toasted and aromatic about 5 minutes.
Stir in broth, cumin & salt; heat to boiling over high heat.
Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes; with a fork, fluff Quinoa and set aside to cool to room temperature.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together remaining 4 Tbsp Olive Oil, the Lime Juice & Black Pepper. Stir in Black Beans, Corn, Tomato, Red Pepper, Green Onion, Cilantro, chopped Parsley, and cooked Quinoa.
To serve, divide greens among 4 salad plates, spoon Quinoa mixture onto greens. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate.
* We doubled this recipe and used a package of Quinoa & Bulgar – which made 3 cups total. We followed the directions on the package and did not add any cumin because there was some in this package. We also did not serve it on a bed of greens.
Desert - Fruit salad
Destructions
Rinse, slice and dice your favorite fruits in season. We had red grapes, left-over pineapple and oranges from the British holiday group, strawberries and blue berries. Susie tried to make this a very healthy meal but some insisted on a scoop of vanilla ice cream.