Summer Strawberry Jicama Slaw

Summer Strawberry Jicama Slaw

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped small (not fine)
• 1 cup jicama, julienned
• 1-2 limes
• 1/4 c finely minced mint leaves
• salt, tiny pinch
• champagne vinegar, 1 tsp
• (optional) 1 small jalapeno pepper, finely minced
• (optional) 3 Tb toasted pumpkin seeds

DIRECTIONS:
Toss ingredients and serve at room temperature - the crispy sweet jicama makes a delicious counterpoint to the sweeter and more tender berries, with a little acid from lime/vinegar to punch it up, and complemented by the mint & spicy jalapeno pepper.

BONUS: Turn this slaw into a salsa by chopping up the strawberries & jicama into smaller bits and adding half a chopped red onion and two pressed garlic cloves.

SUBSTITUTIONS: if you can't find jicama, substitute cabbage for a slaw, or cucumber (no seeds, please!) for the salsa or a chunky salad.

Roasted Parsnip & Escarole Salad

After 4 weeks of 100% raw, I have started reintroducing cooked foods - and decided I want to stay more "high raw" for the next 3 months.   I picked up a Mystery Box from Mariquita last week - had some incredible Castelfranco & Treviso radicchio, and two large heads of escarole.  I made a great big romaine & radicchio salad last night - but it only reminded me how much I dearly love seared or grilled radicchio (and other bitter greens).

So, for tonight's dinner - I roasted the ginormous parsnip that came in the box and put together a delicious salad, inspired by a recipe provided by Julia in the newsletter, but modified (as always).  Feel free to take inspiration and make your own version!

Roasted Parsnip & Escarole Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 large parsnip, scrubbed, chopped into 1" pieces (remove fibrous center near large end if necessary)
• 1/4 c lemon juice
• 1 small handful of parsley (enough for 1/4-1/3 chopped)
• 2 tsp mustard
• 2 Tb white wine vinegar
• 1.5 c sourdough croutons (stale sourdough bread cut into 1.5" chunks works, too!)
• 1 cup small cremini or shitaki mushrooms, halved
• 1/4 c small capers
• 3-4 stems of green garlic
• 1 bunch of chinese garlic
• 1 large head of escarole, coarsely chopped, washed & spun dry, 4-6 leaves escarole (also coarse chopped)
• 1/3 c kalamata olives - or - grapes - halved
• 1/3 c pine nuts
  
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

1.  Toss the parsnip pieces with olive oil to coat, sprinkle with salt & pepper, toss, arrange in single layer on cookie sheet or large cast iron skillet and roast at 400 till tender & chewy.  Remove from heat when done.
2. In cuisinart or blender, combine parsley, lemon, mustard, vinegar and 2-3 Tb of olive oil (take it easy here because there's plenty of olive oil coming up!)  - reserve in a dish or measuring cup once fully blended & thickened.
3. In a large cast iron skillet, toss the croutons to coat with olive oil and toast well.  Put aside.
4. Add mushrooms to hot skillet and sear - don't let them get too soft!  Add capers, green garlic & chinese garlic.  Once the garlic & parsnips have gotten bright grene, add parsnips and toss to warm - transfer to another dish and reserve.
5. Put your chopped escarole in the skillet, drizzle with olive oil, a pinch of salt & pepper.  Cook on high heat -- keep it moving by tossing gently with wooden spoons - just to wilting.
6. Toss escarole, reserved veggies, dressing, pine nuts, croutons and olives/grapes (depending on whether you are in a salty/sweet mood).

Yum!

Crunchy-Crispy Kale & Fennel Salad

It's a fact that kale is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat - it provides both a high level of nutrition AND a high level of satiation/satisfaction for very few calories. Raw kale provides a powerhouse punch of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, as well as carotenoids and chlorophylls.  Want to make your body happy? Make this delicious salad - you can make up a big batch of it and it will keep in the refrigerator for several days!

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch lacinato or dino kale (remove stem & chiffonade to 1/8", give a few coarse cross-chops)
• 1/2 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced & cut into 1" pieces
• 1/2 large red onion, finely sliced and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 large fennel bulb (or 1 small - to your taste!), thinly sliced & coarsely chopped
• 1/4-1/2 c Meyer lemon juice
• fresh rosemary & oregano to taste, finely minced
• 2-5 cloves garlic, pressed or very finely minced
• 1/4 c capers, rinsed & coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c pitted kalamata or nicoise olives, coarsely chopped (optional)
• extra virgin olive oil to taste
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:
Really, all the work here is in chopping up the vegetables.  Once you have the vegetables in the bowl, add a small handful of coarsely chopped capers (rinsed!) and olives.  Drizzle with the lemon and olive oil, toss to coat, add chopped herbs and pepper to taste.  If you are storing it in the fridge, remember to toss it every so often to move veggies down to the small puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl.  This salad keeps very well for several days and is very satisfying!

A quick visit to a nutritional calculator provided a rough estimate that this entire salad is about 600 calories - less if you use less than 4 Tb olive oil!

This post is currently featured guest post on Dog Island Farm!

Vegan Persimmon Salad Dressing

On a whim - I grabbed a container of persimmon pulp and put it in the blender as I was whipping up a salad dressing.  It was REALLY good - so, I did it again with similarly awesome results.  While this isn't exactly a recipe - here is a list of the ingredients I put in, correcting to my taste.

• 2 c persimmon pulp
• vinegars of your choice (I like orange champagne, rice wine and apple cider vinegar in salad dressings)
• nutritional yeast
• 1/4 olive oil (use even less olive oil than you normally would, if at all)
• 2-3 purple shallots (not the long skinny green onion kind)
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 2-4 Tb coarse prepared mustard
• fresh or dry herbs
• pepper
• salt or a dash of soy

Puree the heck out of it - add vinegar or other liquid to make it thinner, nutritional yeast to make it thicker.  Got a tomato? Throw it in!  :)

I threw in 1-2 (hard to tell) smoked red jalapenos packed in olive oil (about 2 cups survived my attempt at smoking on the fire pit).  Came out super smoky and yummy!

Cucumber Salad with Pickled Carrot & Red Onion

SUMMER POTLUCKS are one of my favorite events - a great chance to improvise and use whatever fresh produce I can get at the farmer's market. Today, I got some amazing cucumbers, carrots, radishes and red onions. So, I thought it might be nice to pickle the carrots and onions, and then add that all to the cucumbers - that way the cucumbers are still nice and crispy and will pickle slightly in the vinegar brine, making the leftovers more of a pickle than a salad.

1# carrots, peeled & cut up
1 med red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic
spices - anise seed, dill seed, mustard seed, black pepper, salt, clove
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. apple cider vinegar
2-4 T. sea salt
fresh ginger - big chunk, peeled and sliced thin
1-2 serrano chiles

6 cucumbers
1 bunch radishes, sliced thin
1/2 bunch parsley
1 bunch peppermint

1. Peel & cut up the carrots - I have a coarse grater that makes 1/2" wide shreds - or julienne the carrots into small sticks about 1 1/2" to 2" long.

2. Drop the carrots into 3 c. boiling lightly salted water and simmer for about 1 minute. Drain into a colander, rinse with cold water and then thoroughly drain (a casserole dish lined with a clean tea towel folded to fit or paper towels works great). Leave the carrots and occasionally turn them to drain better.

3. Add spices to water and return to boil, boil it down about 1/3 or so. Add the apple cider vinegar, return to boil and then add the onion slices, serrano & ginger. Simmer about 3 minutes.

4. Remove the towel from the dish where the carrots are resting - pour on the onions & brine & spices. Stir together and let rest.

5. Using a zester, remove some of the cucumber peel - it makes a nice edge and will help the cucumbers keep some shape. Halve the cucumber and cut into 1/4" thick slices. Add to carrots & onions, toss gently to mix and cover.

6. Scrub & thinly slice radishes (reserving the greens for eating later - yum!) and add to the salad.

7. Chiffonade parsley & peppermint - toss into salad. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to serving bowl. Store remainder of salad in large mason jar, make sure it is covered with brine - should keep a week in the fridge (unless you eat it all).

Vietnamese Spring Rolls & Scrabble

I am beginning to think that there is just no way to screw up Vietnamese spring rolls. The rice flour/tapioca wrappers are cheap and you can just do so much with these! A group dinner & Scrabble night at a friend's seemed like the right occasion for DIY spring rolls. I had to do all the chopping at their house - so we had all these yummy ingredients to put inside:

- Vietnamese rice stick noodles
- red bell pepper slices
- fresh peppermint
- fresh chopped cilantro
- chopped peanuts
- smoked tofu
- sliced mango
- chopped green onions
- sliced avocado

We put together some dipping sauces - and guests also helped themselves from other fixings put out for salads to put together their spring rolls. Some of the wrappers really fell apart - and some folks preferred to just do taco style - but most of us got the burrito style rolling technique down. Nobody went hungry, that's for sure!