Tag: Lemon

chopped greek salad with garlicky croutons

tomatoes olives salads lemon croutons bread vinaigrette arugula cucumbers salad greens

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This recipe reminds me of a salade nicoise (the recipe for my salade nicoise is in the farmers market cookbook, and on the web), but it’s inspired by Greek flavors, and it’s a lot easier to do, since you don’t have to cook the green beans and roast the potatoes. It’s inspired by a recent recipe in Fine Cooking.

It goes without saying that I like to make my croutons out of Rise & Shine Bakery whole-grain sourdough bread! They make such flavorful little morsels—crunchy and delicious. You can leave the anchovies and/or feta cheese out for a vegetarian or dairy-free meal!

garlicky whole-grain croutons

5 slices hearty whole-grain bread
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed in a garlic press
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the garlic with the salt in the bottom of a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the olive oil. Cut the slices of bread into ½” cubes and toss them in the garlicky oil until the oil is thoroughly absorbed and distributed.
2. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the croutons are crispy and golden-brown.

dressing

¼ cup minced shallots
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice, or white wine vinegar
½ tin of oil packed anchovies, chopped and mashed (about 4 fillets)—optional
----------------------------------
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. In a bowl, whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients except the oil. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the oil.
2. Correct seasoning to taste—if it’s too sharp and lemony, add a bit more salt and/or oil.

salad

6-8 cups of young arugula, washed and dried (or substitute any salad greens)
2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced into ½-inch pieces
1 English cucumber, seeded and diced into ½-inch pieces
½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and quartered
½ cup feta cheese, diced into ½-inch pieces—optional

1. Compose this salad on a large serving platter. Toss the arugula or salad greens with a couple of spoonfuls of the dressing, and make a bed of lettuce on the platter. Then toss the cucumber with a little more of the dressing. Attractively group each component on top of the greens. Drizzle a little more vinaigrette over all the vegetables, if you like. Sprinkle cracked pepper over the top, and enjoy!!
2. When you’re ready to sit down and eat, drizzle some of the dressing over the leaves and toss, adding more dressing as needed until all the leaves are lightly coated. Sprinkle with the optional Parmesan cheese, toss again to mix, and then toss in the croutons. Sprinkle with pepper and serve right away, before the lettuce wilts.

lemony chickpeas in Sicilian mint sauce

salad mint lemon beans bean chickpea garbanzo

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This recipe is very loosely based on a grilled chicken recipe in Lynne Rosetto Kaspar’s The Italian Country Table. My friend Andi (a local-food lover and wonderful cook living in Vermont) sent me her version of the recipe and suggested I use fresh Alaskan fish with the mint sauce—but since I happened to have the cookbook, too, I read the recipe and thought it would be fun to try it with chickpeas!

My recent discovery (in the Tuscan white bean soup with greens recipe) about soaking dried beans in salt water instead of plain water works really well for chickpeas, too! The chickpeas’ skins soften deliciously, and they cook in much less time than usual. (I learned this trick in a recent Cook’s Illustrated magazine.)

I wouldn’t ever cook such a small batch of chickpeas—I soak and cook large pots of them at a time, and then freeze them (after step 2) for different applications. Two cups of chickpeas will make something like 4 to 5 cups of cooked chickpeas. So if you make a big batch (8 or 10 cups’ worth), just scoop out what you need for this salad, then freeze the rest in labeled containers, all ready to make hummus, or the chickpea salad with kalamata olives (also on this website).

the chickpeas

sea salt or kosher salt
2 cups dried chickpeas
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
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1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
shredded zest of 1 medium lemon
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
½ teaspoon salt

the mint sauce

1 medium red onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup packed mint leaves, finely chopped

1. Rinse the chickpeas in a colander. Dissolve 3 tablespoons salt in 4 quarts cold water in large bowl or container. Add chickpeas and soak, at room temperature, for at least 8 and up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse well.
2. Put the chickpeas in a pot and cover with cold water by a couple of inches. Add the quartered onion, garlic, and bay leaves, making sure the water covers the onions. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender. This could take 30 minutes to 1½ hours, depending on the size of the beans and how old they are. I’ve found, though, that the brining step really shortens the cooking time—so if you’ve cooked chickpeas before and they’ve taken over an hour, start checking at 30 or 40 minutes. I was surprised when I did this the first time! When the beans are tender enough to easily squish between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, turn the heat off. If you have time, let the beans sit in their liquid with the aromatics until cool. Remove the quartered onions and whole garlic cloves and discard. Drain the chickpeas, RESERVING THE LIQUID. You won’t need the liquid for this recipe, but it makes a fantastic vegetable stock for soups, stews, and whatever you would normally use vegetable or chicken stock. Freeze it in labeled containers indefinitely.
3. Toss the chickpeas with the oil, lemon zest, oregano, pepper, and salt. Marinate at room temperature for an hour or so, or if you’ll not be making it right away, let it marinate in the refrigerator up to overnight. When you’re ready to serve them, warm them to room temperature or a little warmer.
4. About 30 minutes before eating, stir together the minced onion, garlic, sugar, vinegar, and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Let stand 20 minutes, then whisk in the oil. Toss the mint into the mixture, stir well, and then spoon over the chickpeas. Mix well, and taste for seasoning: add more vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

lemony sautéed zucchini with capers

capers lemon zucchini bread crumbs pine nuts

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This recipe is a really quick way to use up a lot of zucchini! It’s a combination of 1) the flavors from the zucchini skillet cakes in my 2008 Farmers’ Market Cookbook, and 2) a method of quick-cooking zucchini that I found in a long-ago issue of Cooks’ Illustrated. Zucchini is so full of water that it’s hard to deal with all the liquid that comes out of it—the zucchini usually gets soggy and it’s hard to make sure all the pieces are cooked evenly. So using this method, you grate the zucchini and then roll it in a dishtowel and wring out the extra water! It’s a fast and easy recipe--easier than the skillet cakes.

You can choose your topping on this recipe—use either the toasted pine nuts, or the slightly more involved garlicky bread crumbs. Whatever suits your time frame and fancy!

4 medium-large zucchinis (about 3 pounds), grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
½ bunch parsley, finely chopped
3 teaspoons chopped thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 tablespoons scallion greens
grated zest of a lemon
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ cup capers, rinsed and drained

choice of toppings

¼ cup pine nuts
OR
bread crumbs:
2 slices whole wheat bread (you can use stale bread, but not dried hard)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

1. Placing a quarter or a third of the grated zucchini in a dish towel, roll the towel up around the zucchini, and, using two hands, twist the towel as tightly as you can (over the sink) and watch the water pour out! Shake the zucchini out into a large bowl, and repeat with the rest of the zucchini.
2. If you’ve chosen bread crumbs for the topping, tear the bread slices into smallish pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse and grind them until they are finely ground into bread crumbs. Use 1 cup of them or more for this recipe.  Brown the bread crumbs in olive oil (with optional garlic) in a small skillet over medium heat. Remove from the heat when browned, toss in a little salt to taste, and set aside.
3. If you’ve chosen pine nuts for the topping, toast them gently in a dry skillet until golden.
4. Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large skillet and sauté the garlic slices until fragrant—a minute or so. Add the grated, dried zucchini and sauté until tender, about 8 or 10 minutes. You can cover the pan in between stirring to hurry this process.
5. Add the parsley, thyme, chives or scallions, lemon zest, ½ teaspoon salt, and capers. Cook for a minute or so longer until the flavors are melded and the parsley is slightly wilted. Taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly.
6. Serve in a large dish or on individual plates, adding the topping of your choice. Serve immediately.

Sicilian cauliflower salad

cauliflower garlic parsley olives capers lemon kalamata olives

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This is yet another variation on the “cauliflower with capers & lemon” theme… I love those flavors--I bet you will, too. It’s based on a recipe in James Peterson’s Vegetables. If you can get green cauliflower, it makes the salad even prettier than usual! I can sit down and just eat a big bowl of this for lunch.

If you don’t prefer the anchovies, just leave them out—the kalamata olives and capers are nice and briny even without them.

½ cup kalamata olives
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 anchovy filets (optional), rinsed and coarsely chopped
1 small bunch flat-leaved parsley, leaves chopped
1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into small florets

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. While the water heats, make the sauce. Chop the olives and combine them in a big bowl with the capers, garlic, anchovies and parsley. Add the olive oil and lemon juice.
3. When the water boils, add a couple of tablespoons of salt to the pot. Cook the cauliflower florets in the pot for about 4 or 5 minutes, just until tender (taste often!). Drain (don’t rinse), and toss the cauliflower into the bowl with the sauce.
4. Taste the salad and add salt, lemon, oil, and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.