Wednesday Food Blogging

Orange and Beet Salad

Orange and Beet Salad, bright and orangy. 

The other day I read that beets were the number one superfood for 2009. So when I saw some fresh beets at the supermarket I decided to go for it. Beets are also sold already cooked here, in plastic packages—more convenient, as I discovered when I tried to peel the roasted beets. The Brits really like their beets. I'm not British, so I'm a little more reserved about them...don't love them; don't hate them. But for 2009's top superfood, I'll give it a go. 

This salad is a good way to serve the objectionable beet. The citrusy flavors are ideal for masking beets' strong earthiness. 

Be sure to roast the beets ahead of time, and peel them when they're cool enough to handle. You can also dip them in a bowl of chilled water if they're too hot. You'll end up with beet colored water, which could be fun. 

Peel the oranges, being sure to get as much white pith off as you can. Then slice them thinly with a good sharp knife. 

I served my oranges and beets over mixed baby greens. Try rocket (arugula) and spinach.

I'm still not a lover of beets, but I'd have them again served this way. Maybe by the end of 2010. 

Wasabi Potato Salad

 

For your Independence Day picnic: Wasabi Potato Salad

When I saw that the White House had served Wasabi Potato Salad at its luau the other day, I knew I had to try that. After all, anything Michelle Obama can do, I can do better. Okay, maybe not, but I figured my Wasabi Potato Salad would be better than hers, and vegan to boot.

First I tried Google, and found some unappetizing non-vegan recipes. No help there; I was on my own.

Fortunately I had some salad potatoes. You must have good salad potatoes if you're attempting to make potato salad. If you live in America, you probably can't find any good potatoes, in which case you need to come to Britain. Tickets are cheap now; American Airlines is offering a deal. When you get here, look for Charlotte, Maris Peer, Anya, or the variety I used, red Roseval. All are small and have a waxy flesh, ensuring a clean slice with your knife.

Procuring potatoes is the most difficult part of making this salad. It's ridiculously easy. Normally I don't prefer mayonnaise-based salad, primarily because I don't eat mayo, but you really need mayo to mix with the wasabi paste. It's pretty easy to find vegan mayo, and my version doesn't call for much.

I also added toasted pecans, but no onions. Onions introduce a taste you just don't want. Celery is fine, and altogether, not counting salt, this recipe only has five ingredients! Which means you can easily make it for your Fourth of July picnic.

Provided, of course, you visit the Mother Country first for those potatoes.

Here's how:

Edamame Salad

Edamame Salad springs eternal from the freezer.

The eternal question: What to serve with a stir-fry? Well, it's the eternal question in my house, where stir-fry happens a lot. This time, I was invited to a friend's, and wanted to help out by bringing a side dish. But I also didn't want to brave a trip to the supermarket on the weekend—it's a real nightmare here, where parking is at a premium at the best of times; impossible on the weekend. And my local grocery store is small and doesn't always have what I need.

But I remembered I had two bags of frozen edamame in my fridge. I wasn't sure if one bag would be enough; it's hard to judge how many beans are left after the pods are discarded. But two turned out to give me roughly a pound (or 500g) of bright green beans.

Other than removing the pods, the dish was a snap to prepare—ready in less than an hour.

If you're looking to increase the soy in your diet (edamame is soybeans—you knew that, right?) or if you simply want a dish to go with a friend's stir-fry, try Edamame Salad. It's also, I must say, rather spring-like, with its bright green beans.

Which can lead to all sorts of corny captions.

Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Edamame

Disappearing Quinoa Salad

Yesterday I made a quinoa salad for a meeting, which turned out pretty well. In fact, we ate so much of it that by the time I got it home there was little left to photograph. So what you see are the sad remains, the last bits of a filling salad that is surprisingly healthy.

Quinoa is high in protein, and if you're worried about complete proteins (and there's really no reason to worry about that, says the originator of the concept, Francis Moore Lappé) all eight essential amino acids are present in quinoa. And this salad includes soybeans, called edamame, so is particularly high in complete protein. For extra yumm, I've included cherries and orange juice and toasted pecans.

But feel free to experiment. I've offered suggestions for alternatives below, and since I wrote this down for the other people at the meeting, I've also included directions for cooking quinoa and edamame.

If I make it again, I'll take another photo, this time before it disappears.

Cucumber and Poppy Seed Salad

The other day, I made this delicious curry dish, and wanted a little something cool to serve with it. This recipe for Cucumber and Poppy Seed Salad was just the trick. Though it's not a Thai dish, it reminded me of the Thai cucumber salad I love, but that takes a while to prepare.

Of course I used English cucumbers. That's the only kind that grow here. You might use your plain old American cukes if you have them, or whatever is growing in your garden. (My garden is currently serving geraniums, dahlias, and fuschias. I don't recommend them for dinner.)

This dish takes about 15 minutes to prepare. Here's how:

Potato, Fennel and Asparagus Salad

Tangy lemon dressing + asparagus, potato and fennel = yumm!

British asparagus is in season now, so I take any excuse to put it on my plate. This Potato, Fennel and Asparagus salad is delicious, especially with the lemony dressing. You could vary the vegetables in this salad, using red onion instead of fennel, or baked sweet potato instead of the potato. Experiment, but do try to use the dressing—it really was the star of this salad.

The leftovers the next day went well with the warm spring day.