Tag: Onion

wilted spinach salad with olives & garlic-balsamic vinaigrette

onion olives salads mint spinach feta pine nuts salad greens

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This is a great recipe any time of year. It makes a meal with just the addition of a couple of slices of bread—and I have to say that I’m quite fond of our kalamata olive bread with this salad, echoing the olives in the salad. If you want to heat the whole loaf up (rather than just toasting individual pieces), put the unwrapped loaf in the oven at about 350 degrees for 15 minutes or so, and you’ll have a crusty crust and a hot, moist interior, even if the bread’s been thawed from the freezer.

So, about the salad--you can heat up the vinaigrette and toss the spinach in it right before serving, so the spinach is wilted just enough to soften the leaves a bit. This is great for spinach that is fairly robust. But if you have very tender little spinach leaves, you don’t need to heat the dressing--just use it cold, and it’ll wilt the leaves anyway. There are several ingredients that I feel are optional in this salad—it’s great even if you’re missing lots of them. Although this salad is fantastic if you have mint, it’s still great without it. I also generally omit the feta. I think that the salad is rich and crunchy enough without the pine nuts (because of the red peppers), although it’s very yummy with the nuts, as well. I’ve also made the salad without the red peppers—just with the red onions and olives, and it’s still tasty! The photo at right is of the salad with the mint, olives, and onions, and I used toasted almonds instead of pine nuts! So just go with whatever you have, and be fearless about buying large quantities of spinach!

I make a pretty large batch of this vinaigrette because I like to use it for a couple of meals, but if you think it’ll be too much, you can halve the recipe. The recipe is based on one from rebar modern food.

vinaigrette

6 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon cracked pepper
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

In a blender jar, combine all the ingredients except the oil. Puree until completely smooth. Slowly add the oil while the blender is running. Taste, and add salt, honey, and/or mustard to taste.

salad

1 pound spinach leaves, washed and stemmed
¼ cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and julienned
½ red onion, halved and cut into very thin half-moon slices
¼ cup chopped mint (optional, but very nice if you have it)
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted in a skillet (optional)
½ cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)

1. Put the sliced onions in a small bowl, and pour a cup or so of boiling water over them. Let them sit for about 30 seconds, then drain the water off. (This takes some of the spicy acid edge off the onions, but will still leave them crunchy and flavorful.)
2. Combine the spinach, olives, peppers, and onions in a large salad bowl.
3. Just before serving, if your spinach leaves are fairly thick and a little bit tough, heat ½ to ¾ cup of the dressing—as much as you think you’ll need—over medium heat in a small skillet. When it begins to simmer, remove from the heat and drizzle over the salad, then toss well to combine and wilt the spinach slightly. Heat and add more if you like it saucier. If your spinach is very tender, just use the dressing cold or at room temperature.
4. Gently mix in the fresh mint, and if you’re using the nuts and feta cheese, sprinkle them over the top. Serve immediately with slices of bread or toast, if you like.


spinach salad with hazelnuts and rosemary-balsamic vinaigrette

onion salads spinach rosemary hazelnuts salad greens bleu cheese

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Here’s an easy salad with really bright, pungent flavors that will inspire you to eat lots of greens! It’s based on a recipe from rebar modern food, one of my favorite cookbooks for salads. You don’t have to use spinach for this salad—lettuce or baby greens work great, too!

This salad tastes fantastic with toast made from our walnut bread or our toasted seed bread. Or you can follow the rosemary theme and use our rosemary bread! Or you can just use regular 100% whole wheat sourdough levain. Whichever bread you decide on, you can use it to sop up extra dressing. I think the salad is plenty delicious without the blue cheese, but it is a very nice addition. I love this salad with the lentil soup, or the tomato soup, or almost any soup, really.

vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon cracked pepper
2-4 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, picked off their stems
------------------------------------
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients except the oil in the jar of a blender. Whirl everything until it is completely smooth—this might take a little while because of the rosemary. Slowly pour in the oil as the motor is running to make a smooth sauce. Adjust salt and honey to taste.

salad

10 ounces spinach leaves, or a large head of lettuce, or a bowlful of mixed baby greens
½ small red onion, cut in half and sliced very thinly
¼-½ cup hazelnuts
½ cup blue cheese (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roast the hazelnuts until golden-brown and fragrant, about 15 minutes. After the nuts are toasted, you can rub off some of the loose skins in a kitchen towel if you want, but they won’t come completely clean—that’s OK. Chop the hazelnuts coarsely.
2. Put the sliced onions in a bowl and cover them with boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain them and set aside.
3. Just before serving, place the greens and onion in a large salad bowl. If your spinach is mature and rather toothsome, serve this salad as a wilted spinach salad: gently heat the vinaigrette in a small skillet until it starts to simmer, and drizzle as much as you’d like over the salad. Toss well. If you’re using tender young spinach, or other salad greens, just drizzle the dressing on cold and toss well.
4. Sprinkle with nuts and cheese (if using), and serve with toast.


potato and onion salad with smoked salmon

potatoes onion salad lettuce salmon fish

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This salad is wonderful with new little peanut potatoes! But any kind of waxy potato will work wonderfully (even the purple ones!). You can use any kind of flaky smoked fish for this recipe, but I’m more likely to have salmon than anything else! If you don’t eat fish, you can substitute 2 tablespoons rinsed, drained capers for a briny flavor (along with the olives).

The recipe is based on one in Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors. It looks like a lot of lettuce, but the hot potatoes wilt it down to almost nothing—it’s just a wonderful green color without much bulk, once you mix everything together.

1 ½ pounds peanut potatoes (or other waxy variety)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large onion, or 2 small onions, sliced thinly into rounds (red onions are lovely!)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
16 green olives, pitted and halved (you can use black kalamata olives if that’s all you have, but the green are very pretty)
6 ounces smoked salmon, flaked
8 cups lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces

1. Cover the potatoes with cold salted water and bring to a boil. While they are cooking, toss the onion with the vinegar, sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt and let sit for a few minutes. Then add the oil, olives, and fish (or capers).
2. When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them, then cut in half lengthwise if they are small. Cut into bite-sized pieces if they are bigger. While still hot, add them to the bowl along with the lettuce. Turn gently with a rubber scraper. Taste for salt and season with pepper.


stuffed zucchini

cauliflower broccoli onion zucchini

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Recently Sherrill was at her grandmother’s for dinner and asked her to make stuffed zucchini.  She never made stuffed zucchini before, but went with the flow, using past market remnants from the refrigerator and any spice or herb that called her name.  They were delicious!  Here is the recipe she concocted, feel free to add other ingredients and change it up to meet the needs of your taste buds.

1 large zucchini, sliced in half length wise and cored (save cored section, dice and add to meat mixture)
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ pound ground buffalo meat
½ cup broccoli, finely chopped
½ cup cauliflower, finely chopped
½ cup bread crumbs (I use leftover bits of savory breads from Rise and Shine)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon sage
¼ - ½ cup water
½ cup cheddar, grated

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Lightly oil a rectangular pyrex dish large enough to fit your zucchini boats.
2.  Preheat a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and onion, sauté for 3 minutes.
3.  Add garlic and buffalo meat, cook until the meat is brown.  Add broccoli, cauliflower, diced zucchini core, salt, cumin, sage and sauté for 4-5 minutes.
4.  Place zucchini in the pyrex dish, fill the cored section with vegetable meat mixture.
5.  Pour the water in the bottom of the dish, cover with foil and cook for 25 minutes.
6.  Remove foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake uncovered for 8-10 minutes.

*Note: I don’t normally cook with meat.  For those of you looking for a meat alternative you can use tempeh or more vegetables like diced kale, small potato cubes or mushrooms to round out the stuffing mixture.


tuscan carrot top and rice soup

onion carrots soup celery carrot tops carrot soup

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contributed by Nancy

I have to admit I have never used carrot tops before. I always thought they were pretty, but that was about it.  In searching for carrot top recipes something kept coming up in my recipe search.  An Italian soup that sounded perfect for a rainy day.  I have since adopted the Tuscan saying: Non si tira via niente—nothing gets thrown away – and that is particularly appropriate for this soup. Carrot tops are almost always discarded.  They have the same sweet-earthy taste but with a hint of green that makes them perfect for soups or vegetable saute’s.  This is my take on a recipe by Anne Bianchi from Solo Verdura.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 small carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
6 cups vegetable broth
1/2 c short grain rice
1 1/2 cups chopped carrot tops
4 tablespoons fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano

1.  Heat the oil in a large, heavy-gauge soup pot. Saute the onion, carrots, celery and garlic for 5 minutes over low heat until translucent. Add the salt and pepper, pour in the broth, and bring to a boil.
2.  Add the rice to the broth and cook for 15 minutes or until the rice is almost tender. Add the carrot tops and cook for 5 more minutes, mixing well.
3.  When the rice is done, pour the soup into four bowls, sprinkle with cheese, and serve.

Cook’s notes: I have also used other rice, which will vary the cooking time, but it’s just important that the rice is tender.  If you don’t add the cheese, you might need to add some extra salt.


tibetan potato curry

potatoes garlic tomatoes onion

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Whenever I’m feeling in a bit of cooking rut, I look to a culture I know very little about. The cuisine of Tibet is somewhat mysterious to Westerners. One of my favorite cookbooks, The Whole Chile Pepper Book by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach is a great source when I feel like having something spicy too.  You can control the heat factor to suit your taste.

1 tablespoon chopped small green chile such as jalapeno chiles
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds or curry powder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 medium tomato, diced
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 pound potatoes, peeled, diced, and cooked

1.  Heat the fenugreek seeds in the oil until they brown.  If using curry powder, heat it in the oil just until fragrant. Stir in the chile, onion, garlic, and ginger and simmer until the onions are soft.
2.  Add the tomatoes and turmeric, and heat.  Place the mixture in a blender and puree until smooth.
3.  Gently mix the sauce with the potatoes and serve.

Fenugreek seeds can also be sprouted just like alfalfa seeds.  The sprouts will have a curry like flavor with a slight bitter edge. You can find them at Summit Spice & Tea Co. on the corner of Huffman and Old Seward.


Spiced Tuscan Chard

garlic onion onions chard kale swiss chard tuscan kale rainbow chard

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(contributed by Nancy)
This is based on a recipe from www.ruthreichl.com where she used kale instead of chard.  Either would work perfectly.  I would cook the kale longer though.

1.  Strip chard (or Lacinato kale) from the ribs and coarsely tear them into pieces. Drop them into a few quarts of boiling salted water for about 30 seconds, drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.
2.  Pour a glug or two of olive oil into a frying pan, and add 4 anchovies. Stir about until the little fish disintegrate.
3.  Then add 1 coarsely chopped onion. Shake in some chile flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Add 4 smashed cloves of garlic and cook until it is all insanely fragrant.
4.  Add the greens and cook just until it comes together. Toss with grated Parmesan and crisp bread crumbs.

This is wonderful as a side dish or over your favorite pasta.