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Salads – Page 2 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

Category: Salads

Salad [sal-uh d], noun: any of various dishes consisting of foods, such as vegetables, pasta, or fruit, prepared singly or combined, usually cut up, mixed with a dressing, and served cold. These recipes will not contain dairy, eggs, gluten, wheat or hazelnuts. If we use a top 8 allergen, we will use a tag warning of its use.

  • Brown Rice “Couscous” Veggie Bowl

    IMG_0652Generally those of us with multiple food allergies can rely on very little in the way of packaged or convenience foods. Given that both Denise and I also work full-time, sometimes feeding oneself on a serious time budget becomes, well, problematic.  When I still ate wheat, couscous was something I always had on hand because it cooked quickly and was a good neutral base for an easy saute of whatever was in the fridge at the time. I operated on the easy model of “beans, greens, and grain.”

    This is a version of that — using a Lundberg brown rice couscous with roasted garlic flavor as the “grain” base for a nice stir fry of Swiss chard from my friend Mary’s garden. Add in a leftover sweet potato and a caramelized Vidalia onion and I had a good dinner with three lunch portions leftover. Add a can of white beans or some leftover meat for a protein boost, serve this as a side dish, or think up your own variation — this is more of a formula than a recipe, really, and one I honestly repeat over and over throughout the year for easy weeknight meals.

    IMG_0654

    Gluten-free Veggie Couscous Bowl

    Makes 4 servings

    • 1 large Vidalia onion, halved and sliced thin
    • 1 Tablespoon some form of fat
    • I box Lundberg brown rice couscous
    • 1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed, rolled, sliced, and then chopped
    • 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
    • 1-3 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 1 sweet potato, cooked
    • salt and pepper to taste

    Melt shortening/butter/margarine/bacon fat/olive oil in large skillet over medium low heat. When sizzling hot, add onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with oils, and cook low and slow until well-browned, about 45 minutes or so. Stir occasionally.

    If you need to cook the sweet potato, throw it in the oven at 375F after washing it and poking vent holesIMG_0655 in the skin. I’d personally suggest making more than one and use the leftovers in another dish later in the week.

    In a separate stockpot, bring water to a boil as directed on the box of the couscous. When the water is boiling, add the seasonings (if you can have them) and the couscous. Cover, reduce heat, and set the timer — again, basically follow the directions on the box, omitting the seasoning if you cannot have them.

    While these things cook, wash and drain the chard leaves. Chop off the stems. Slice these thinly like celery and set aside. Stack the leaves, and then roll them up tightly to slice thinly to create small ribbons of chard. Cut lengthwise along the leaves next, to make the ribbons shorter.

    When the onions are finished cooking, remove them from the skillet. Add a tiny amount of olive oil to the fat left in the pan, if needed, and then add the garlic and chard in quick succession. Stir thoroughly, and cook until the chard is fully wilted (4-8 minutes).

    In a large serving bowl, mix all ingredients — couscous, chard, sweet potato, and onion. Taste, and then season appropriately with salt and pepper.

  • Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad

    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad, photo by J. Andrews
    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad, photo by J. Andrews

    So far this summer in New Hampshire, we’ve had sweltering heat interspersed with rainy cool weather. Given the quick changes, it’s been hard to grocery shop effectively — who knows when it’s going to be way too hot to cook? Part of my solution has been to buy things that I can cook ahead, sometime when the heat isn’t too bad, and then use in multiple dishes. Like grilling a bunch of chicken on the indoor grill (which is relatively cool). Or roasting a bunch of veggies to eat all week. Or, sometimes, just buying something someone at the co-op made (they are good about listing ingredients).

    This salad started as a “this is what’s left in the fridge” kind of meal, but I loved it and spent some time refining the elements for what I think is a pretty perfect flavor profile. The particular combination of fresh baby spinach, ripe sweet summer strawberries, crisp and fresh cucumbers, and a honey mustard dressing just works for me.

    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad

    Make ahead, if you want to:

    Grilled spicy chicken

    • 1 lb. chicken tenders (or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips)
    • 1 teaspoon chili powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
    • pinch or more of cayenne pepper — adjust to suit your tastes, but probably no more than 1/4 t, even if you’re Denise

    Mix up the spices, and then sprinkle evenly over the chicken strips, both sides. You may have leftovers, which you can bag and save for another meal. Grill chicken until done. Cut the strips into cubes. You can use this hot, if you’ve just grilled it, or grill ahead and chill it for an even quicker weeknight meal.

    Honey Dijon Dressing

    • 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used this), (Denise has made this)
    • 1 Tablespoon honey
    • 1 teaspoon dried dill
    • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
    • 2 Tablespoons high-quality olive oil

    Whisk first four ingredients together until the mustard and honey are smoothly blended. Then whisk in the vinegar, followed by the olive oil.

    Salad Base

    • Two large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped
    • 1 medium cucumber, chopped
    • 1/2 lb. strawberries, stemmed and chopped

    Compose your salad by creating a bed of spinach topped by the chopped cucumber, strawberries, and chicken, drizzled with the dressing.

    This amount of ingredients makes two generous salads or three slightly smaller salads, with a good bit of leftover chicken that you can use for another meal.

  • Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad

    Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Vegan
    Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Vegan

    I am not a religious person, but if there is one thing that makes me believe there might be some grand design to the world, it’s potatoes.  They are a wonderful, versatile, almost perfect food (only “almost” because they don’t greatly lend themselves to dessert, Grand Forks’ chocolate-covered potato chips notwithstanding).  I feel as though I could do a pretty good Irish potato-lover’s version of the Forest Gump shrimp monologue, and I’ve prepared potatoes about a hundred million different ways.

    But for picnics, for the upcoming Labor Day festivities, for an end-of-summer celebration? Potato salad is where it’s at.  Potato salad is the one socially-acceptable way to eat cold potatoes; it’s perfect for a hot day, travels well, and in a mayo-free version, is both allergen-free and pretty temperature stable.  As an added bonus, this one fries up into amazing home fries if any makes it to the next morning.

    I developed this recipe in my friend Cathy’s kitchen, adapting the random ideas in my head to what happened to be in her pantry at the time, and it turned out better than all my previous attempts.  This is definitely a tweakable recipe (ask my mother, who asked for the recipe and then proceeded to make it with nearly none of the same ingredients.  She’s like that sometimes).

    Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Two Ways!

    A note on notations — I use the “~” to indicate approximate measurements, indicating that exact measuring for these ingredients is not necessary.  Actually, exact measuring is not necessary for this recipe, but this is how I’ve made it.

    Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Bacon Lover’s Edition
    • ~ 2 lbs.  potatoes, your choice, washed
    • Water to cover
    • ~1 Tablespoon of salt
    • 4-6 strips of bacon (whatever fits in your skillet, adjusted to how much bacon you like)
    • 1 Tablespoon of bacon fat, reserved
    • 2-4 Tablespoons onion, chopped
    • One bunch of scallions/green onions, chopped and separated (greens from whites)
    • 2 teaspoons dried mustard or 1 Tablespoon prepared mustard
    • 3 teaspoons dried dill or up to 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
    • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
    • Olive oil as needed
    • Salt and pepper as needed

    Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Vegan Version

    • ~2 lbs.  potatoes, your choice, washed
    • Water to cover
    • ~1 Tablespoon of salt
    • 1 Tablespoon of vegan margarine (I’ve used Earth Balance soy-free)
    • 2-4 Tablespoons onion, chopped
    • scant 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
    • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
    • One bunch of scallions/green onions, chopped and separated (greens from whites)
    • 2 teaspoons dried mustard or 1 Tablespoon prepared mustard
    • 3 teaspoons dried dill or up to 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
    • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
    • Olive oil as needed
    • Salt and pepper as needed

    Step 1: Cook potatoes. This step is the same no matter which version you’re going to make.  Now there are many types of potatoes out there, and any one of them will work for this recipe.  Some will just work better than others.  I personally prefer a more waxy potato for salads, as I think they hold together better.  The local fingerlings that are coming in now are just about perfect.  Red potatoes are probably the best out of the “typical” finds in a grocery store.

    Fingerling Potatoes
    Fingerling Potatoes

    Don’t peel your potatoes unless you really really hate potato skin or maybe are using the thick-skinned Idaho russet potatoes (baking potatoes).  There are lots of vitamins and fiber in the skin, plus it adds texture.  Just wash and scrub the potatoes and boil them in salted water.  I’ve never measured the water or salt I use for this step — cover the potatoes with water, plus about another inch.  For this batch of two pounds, I probably used a tablespoon of salt.

    Cover and bring this to a boil on high heat, turn down to medium or low, depending on your stove, but make sure the water keeps boiling.  How long the potatoes will take to cook depends on the size of your potatoes.  Cooking them whole retains more nutrients, but it’s harder to give you a time.  Smaller potatoes take about 15 -20 minutes, larger baking potatoes could take 40 — you might want to cut those in half.

    Drain and cool the potatoes, then chop them into bite-sized chunks.

    Step 2: Here’s where things diverge into two tracks — the bacon lover’s edition, and the vegan version.  The final effect is mostly the same, but how you get there differs.

    Bacon Lover’s Edition, step 2:
    Cook bacon. Chop or crumble.  You could chop the bacon ahead of time, but I think it turns out crispier if I cook it in strips and then crumble it.
    Dump out most of bacon grease, leaving about 1 T.

    Vegan Version, step 2:
    Melt about 1.5 T of Earth Balance (I use their soy-free version, but whatever works for you) in a skillet.  Wait until it gets a little sizzle to it.

    Back together again, steps 3-6:

    Step 3: Saute onion in your chosen fat.  If making the vegan version, add the salt and liquid smoke once the onion has started cooking.

    Add white part of scallions when onion is translucent, cook another few minutes.

    Potato Salad Vinaigrette Ingredients
    Step 4: Sauce it up.
    Turn off the heat but leave the skillet on the burner.
    Add mustard and dill.  If using prepared mustard, add the vinegar before mixing (trust me).  If using just dry spice, mix before adding vinegar and let the mustard and dill soak up the oil.
    Stir in the green parts of the scallions (1/2 cup or so, depending on your bunch).

    Vinaigrette

    Add a dash or two of olive oil if needed.  You want the end result to be a bit saucy, as the potatoes will soak up the vinaigrette.  I’ve added about 1 Tablespoon in the photo.

    Add potatoes, stir, taste — add salt and pepper to taste.

    Serve warm.  Or chill and serve, up to you.  Somewhat Germanic Potato Salad, Vegan
    Eat.  Re-fry leftovers and call them “George.”  No, really, call them home fries.  They are awesome.

  • Hominy Salad

    Hominy Salad

    You know how grocery stores do all sorts of tastings and giveaways for a grand opening?  Well, just to get things jump started here, we’re going to post TWO RECIPES for your allergy-free pleasure.  Both focus on fresh vegetables, given that it’s summer and even in New England things are fresh.

    Hominy? What on earth is hominy?  That was my first reaction on reading a recipe in one of my mother’s stash of food magazines.  This was well before my gluten-free days, but it turns out that hominy is great for the gluten-free.  This is your new pasta salad for the summer days.

    Hominy is corn.  More specifically, dried corn kernels exploded by being soaked in some sort of weak lye solution, common in Native American and Central American cooking.  It’s the corn kernel, but without the exterior “skin,” with a texture that reminds me a little of grits.

    Hominy can be bought in cans, I’ve mostly found in the “ethnic foods” aisle of the grocery store (Goya brand is what I’ve found here).  It must be drained and rinsed, much like beans, and has a different, but really cool texture and flavor.  It absorbs the flavor of the dressing you make for it.

    This salad should take advantage of the best of summer fruit and veg.  It’s best to adjust it according to what you can get good and fresh wherever you are just now.

    Hominy Salad

    Make dressing.
    In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk:

    • 2 teaspoons chopped basil (if you can’t get fresh, the frozen cubes work better in this than dried.  If you have to use dried herbs, some fresh parsley or even chives would go a  long way to preserving the “green” flavor of the salad)
    • 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (best quality you have)
    • 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
    • freshly ground pepper to taste

    Set aside

    In a medium bowl, mix:

    • one 16 oz can of white hominy, drained and rinsed (yellow will likely work, too, but I’ve never seen it and never tried it)
    • 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
    • 3 stalks of celery, chopped small
    • about ⅓ of an English cucumber, cubed
    • 2-4 scallions, sliced

    Add dressing, toss salad, and chill for at least an hour, to let the flavors meld.  Other vegetables could be added to this salad, depending on what’s fresh and best where you are, though this combination is pretty solid.

    What summer foods do you miss from your pre-apocalypse days?  Maybe we can help.  If you try this recipe, let us know how it works.