EatLocal365 » Salads

How to Make Warm Fava Bean Salad with Shallots and Parmesan

Erik — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 20:32:57 +0000

Despite the extra effort they require, fave beans are a welcome addition to our rotation for the brief period that they are in season. This recipe is our favorite way to make them because it’s about as quick as easy as you can get with fava beans, and it’s relatively light and summery in addition to being rich and delicious. (Yes it can be all those things at the same time!)

When purchasing the fava beans, if you don’t remember the 2 pound target, just be sure to buy a lot. Buy at least 2-3 times the amount that you THINK you’ll need, because by the time they are fully shelled the volume decreases markedly.

This also goes well with crostinis made from baking thinly sliced french bread brushed with olive oil (cheese topping optional).

Warm Fava Bean Salad with Shallots and Parmesan

Makes 2 servings as a main or more as as side

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
2 pounds	Fava Beans	In the pod	Kimbell’s Farm (USQ Market)
2	Shallolts	(or 1 small red onion), thinly sliced	Red Fire Farm CSA
0.5 tsp	Sherry Vinegar
2 TBsp	Fresh mint or basil	Chopped	Drumlin Farm, USQ Market
0.25 cup	Parmesan	Grated
2 TBsp	Unsalted Butter
2.25 tsp	Kosher Salt

Directions

First, add 2 TBsp of salt to a medium-size pot of water and set it on high and bring it to a rolling boil. While you are waiting, go on to step 2.

Remove the beans from the outer pod by twisting one end and getting the seam to split (if you can). Sometimes the seam will pull off like a little zipper, other times it will just crack open. Run your thumb down the gap to split it and remove the beans. Other pods are less cooperative and require you to break the pod apart piece by piece. Discard the pods.
Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice. Once the beans are out of their pods and the water in the pot is at a rolling boil, boil the beans for 3 minutes. Once the 3 minutes are up, remove the beans from the boiling water all at once with a fry spider or drain through a colander. The points, get all the beans out of the water as quickly as possible so that none over-cook.
Immediately put the beans into the ice water. Then, one by one, squeeze each bean out of its protective outer sheath and place them all in a medium bowl. Notice how much smaller of a bowl you will now need! This is where it can get a bit tedious. The inner bean should be a much more vibrant green.
Melt the butter in a medium skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the shallots or onions and wilt them for about 2 minutes.
Add the fava beans and the rest of the salt (0.25 tsp) and cook while stirring for about 2 minutes. Add the sherry vinegar and give everything a good toss.

Turn off the heat and add most of the mint or basil and 2.5 TBsp of the cheese. Stir to melt and mix.

Plate it and garnish with the remaining mint and cheese. Enjoy!

Old Favorites

Lindsay — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:00:56 +0000

Happy Monday!!

We were fortunate to spend this weekend with a bunch of friends in NY, especially after Friday’s tragedy. It’s nice to have a chance to see people before the craze of Christmas sets in.

On Saturday, we attended a baby naming / christening, which was followed by a fun party for family and friends. The hosts told us they wanted to make punch, which seemed weird to me, since there would be older family there. Shame on me for doubting them! It was a huge success! Everyone loved it and had fun guessing the ingredients and drinking out of the tiny cups. Here’s a link to the post about our old fashioned punch, in case you want to liven up your holiday entertaining.

Last night, we met some of my oldest friends for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants – Northern Spy Food Co. I had a delicious cauliflower soup and, of course, their kale salad. Now that we’re deep into dark leafy green season, I’m going to have to dig back into the blog archives and make our knock-off of the Northern Spy kale salad. If you’re getting a lot of kale and squash from your CSA, it’s a tasty and different way to put them to use.

How to Make a Use-Your-CSA Salad

Erik — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 23:26:19 +0000

This salad normally wouldn’t be worth a post, but I’m posting it for two reasons. The first is that it’s a part of my “Husband Alone with the CSA” series and needs to be included to show how I used everything up (including the lettuces). The second reason is because of a fundamentally more important lesson: always pre-roast your beets!

I can’t emphasize that enough. When you’re making something quick that could benefit from roasted beets (and what doesn’t?), encountering raw beets in your fridge is a major drag. 95% of the time our use of beets calls for them to be foil-roasted anyway, so my M.O. is just to roast them as soon as possible, when you’re not hungry but you’ll be near the oven (at least in the living room) for 90 minutes. They’ll store for a few weeks and you can toss them into whatever you want.

I made this salad for lunch three times over the course of the week to use up the leftover tomatoes, sweet red peppers, and lettuces. It was delicious and quick and easy, but without the beets it would have been boring.

Big CSA Salad

Makes 1 big serving, 2 normal servings, or 4 sides

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
Some	Lettuces	Torn into bite-sized pieces	Whatever you have, as much as you want (you can even through in some raw kale if you’re so inclined)
1	Ripe tomato	Chopped
1	Sweet pepper	Chopped	Red, yellow, orange, whatever… green in a pinch
1	Roasted beet	Sliced into 0.5 inch quarter-rounds	See below
1/3 part	Olive oil
1/3 part	Balsamic vinegar		Spring for the real stuff, not the chemical kind
1/3 part	Apple cider vinegar		We made our own, natch !
1 TBsp	Dijon mustard	I make it a very heaping TBsp
Some	Black pepper	Freshly ground
A pinch	Kosher salt

Directions

Roast your beets. DO THIS IN ADVANCE! Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. On each beet, chop off the base of the greens stalk, and chop off the tendril at the tip (if there is one). Scrub off any dirt. Wrap each beet individually in foil. Cover a sheet pan with foil. Place the foiled beets on the pan and bake.
If there are any small beets (~ golf balls) remove them after 60 minutes. For anything up to the size of a softball, bake for 90 minutes. For anything bigger, you’re on you own. Take it to a state fair.

Let the beets cool until you can handle the foil, then unwrap them. Let them cool completely and, with a paper towel in each hand, palm the opposing sides and twist the skin off. If they are cooked enough, the skin should come off easily (although maybe not all in one perfect shot). Store the peeled beets whole in a tupperware in the fridge until you are ready to use the.

Oh, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before touching anything, and wash your hands between each beet if you want to make your hand-washing a little easier.

Prep (tear / chop) the rest of the vegetables, and slice the beets for the salad.

Mix the dressing, using about the same amount of each of the three liquids until you get to your desired amount of dressing. Add the dijon and mix / whisk / shake. I don’t measure. I use an old spice shaker, which nets me about enough dressing for two salads of the size pictured. Salt and pepper the salad, add the dressing, and toss. The beets juice and the dressing will mix into a nice sweet purple dressing with a kick, but one that stains badly, so eat carefully!

Awesome Spicy-Sweet Cantaloupe Slaw

Lindsay — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:42:59 +0000

Cantaloupe is another CSA adventure for us. Both of us kind of like it, but not nearly as much as the other fruit that tempts us at the farmer’s market – peaches, blueberries, raspberries… Yum! When it showed up in our share last week, I ate two slices then cut up the rest and froze it. Granted, we just got an awesome chest freezer, so I’m a little freezer-happy at the moment, but still. It’s kind of embarassing. I was determined not to do that again, so I hunted and hunted for a recipe to blow me away. There are a million (seriously, a million) recipes for the melon, cured meat, soft cheese, and viniagrette combo, but I’m on a very strict diet to help control my migraines and can’t have cured meat, cheese, or vinegar. Gah! Of course, all those recipes looked delicious and made me hungry. So then I took a lunch break.

After lunch, I gave up on the melon and started looking for fun slaw recipes to tackle the two heads of cabbage we also got from the CSA. Double success! With just a few modifications to a mango slaw recipe from Smitten Kitchen to accomodate my weirdo diet and what we had on hand, lunch was served.

This might be my new favorite salad. It’s crunchy, spicy, and sweet. Like any slaw, it takes quite a bit of chopping, but just take your time to cut things roughly the same size.

Spicy Sweet Cantaloupe Slaw
Serves 6 as a side or 3 as a main

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (USM = Somerville’s Union Square Market)
1/2 cup	Nuts or seeds	Roughly chopped if large; we used cashews.
1/2 small	Cantaloupe		Red Fire Farm CSA
1 small	Nappa cabbage	About 12 ounces	Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Poblano pepper	Use a bell pepper if you’re really sensitive to heat.	USM
2	Red spring onions	Substitute 1 red onion, if neccesary	USM
About 1/4 cup	Cilantro	Chopped	USM
1 TBsp	Mint	Chopped	USM
1/4 cup	Lemon juice
2 TBsp	Vegetable oil	We used part olive and part sunflower oil.	Stolor Organics
1/2 tsp	Salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toast the nuts or seeds on a baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes. Smaller nuts/seeds will need less time, so keep an eye on them. Give the pan a shake once during cooking so that they brown more evenly. While they’re toasting, work on the veggies, but don’t forget about the nuts! Once they’re done, let them cool while you finish up.

Prep the cabbage: Remove the outer leaves. Quarter the cabbage from the North to the South Pole. Holding your knife at an angle, cut out the core and discard. Slice each cabbage quarter into short, thin ribbons. Put the ribbons into a big bowl.

Prep the pepper: Quarter the pepper from the North to the South Pole. Remove the stem, seeds, and membranes using your fingers and discard. Slice each pepper quarter into short, thin ribbons. Add these to the bowl with the cabbage.

Prep the onions: Remove the outer layer of each onion. Slice each onion from the North to the South Pole. Slice each onion into thin, half-moon slices. Add these to the bowl with the cabbage and peppers.

Prep the cantaloupe: Halve the cantaloupe from the North to the South Pole. Set aside one half to use for something else. Use a spoon to scoop the seeds out of the half you’re using. Slice that half into as many equally sized wedges as you’d like. We did eight, but it depends on the size of your melon. Smaller wedges are better. Lay a wedge on it’s side and cut the rind off. Cut the wedge into thin slices like you’re cutting a banana. Repeat with the other wedges and add to the bowl with the rest of the vegetables.

Add the cilantro and mint to the bowl.

Put the lemon juice and salt in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil.

Pour the dressing over the slaw. Add the cashews and mix well.

Is this the best kale salad ever?

Lindsay — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:03:58 +0000

It’s a bold statement. I’m not shy about it. It could be the best salad salad ever. I’ll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide for yourself.

There’s a great restaurant near where we used to live in NYC called Northern Spy. Definitely give it a try if you’re in the area – it was one of our favorites. They make a kale salad for dinner that’s really simple, but almost perfect. For brunch, they add a poached egg and make it perfect. Yum yum yum. Erik and I have been eating a lot of kale salads with poached eggs lately. It sounds kind of strange, but give it a shot. It makes a quick, filling, and nutrious meal any time of day. Two nights ago, I was HANGRY (so hungry I was angry) and Erik soothed me with one. Before I had time to protest, BAM! it was on the table and calming me down.

Perfect Kale Salad

Makes 4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
1 small	Squash		Red Fire Farm CSA (Honey Nut Squash)
1/4 cup	Slivered almonds
1 1/2 TBsp	Lemon juice
1 1/2 TBsp	Olive or sunflower oil
To taste	Salt and black pepper
1 bunch	Kale	Red Russian and Lacinato are great for salads.	Red Fire Farm CSA
4 to 8	Eggs		Red Fire Farm CSA
1/4 cup	Cheddar	Cut into small cubes or crumbled	Narragansett Creamery (Atwell’s Gold)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the squash in half and place, cut side down, in a small baking dish. Bake the squash until soft, about an hour, depending on the size of your squash. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Spread the almonds on a baking sheet (or pizza pan) and bake for about 15 minutes or until browned. Watch them carefully, because they’ll go from nicely browned to burnt very quickly. You can do all these steps a few days ahead, if you want.

Once the squash is cooled, remove the skin and chop into bite-sized, but small pieces. Reserve about 1 cup for the salad. Refrigerate the rest for a quick side dish another time.

Start a pot of water boiling to poach the eggs.

Pour the lemon juice into a large salad bowl. While whisking, add the olive oil in a thin stream to help it emulsify. Whisk in the salt and pepper.

Prep the kale, following these instructions, but slicing the ribbons only about 1/4 inch wide. As you finish the kale, toss it into the bowl with the dressing.

Toss the kale in the dressing, making sure to coat all the leaves. I usually just use my (clean) hands, because I seem to be unable to keep salad in a bowl any other way. It also gives me a chance to give the kale a little tenderizing massage.

Once the water is at a rolling boil and the kale is dressed, poach the eggs. Only make as many as you want to eat that meal. This salad keeps well in the refrigerator, so you can make a quick meal of the leftover tossed salad and a newly poached egg. We use nifty egg poachers, like these, and cook our eggs for two and a half to three minutes for a cooked, but runny, egg. You could also just crack them gently into the boiling water and then fish them out with a slotted spoon. It takes a little practice, but works.

Put a pile of kale on each plate. Top with the squash, cheddar, almonds, and a poached egg (or 2).

Pre-Thanksgiving Light Lunch: Peach and Roasted Beet Salad

Lindsay — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:10:09 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is my favorite holiday all year – not surprising that I look forward to a holiday focused on food, huh? I LOVE the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but before you dive head first into a plate of brown-ish, carb-y, gravy-soaked dinner, consider a colorful “pre-game” salad. This one comes together in a jiffy after the beets are roasted (which you could do a day or so ahead of time) and is jam-packed with peppery, mildly spicy, and sweet ingredients.

This is based on a recipe from Not Eating Out in New York, but modified to use ingredients that we had on hand or found at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market on Saturday.

Peach and Roasted Beet Salad
Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Red Fire Farm CSA, ** Somerville Winter Farmers Market)
2 cups	Beets	Roasted (see below) and cut into quarters or eighths	Northshire Farm
1/2	Dried chile	Crumbled (or substitute 1/4 tsp chile powder)	Home-dried
1/4 tsp	Dried basil
1/8 tsp	Salt
Few grinds	Black pepper
1 TBsp	Olive oil
2 TBsp	Lemon juice
1 1/2 cups	Canned peaches	Sliced or cut into bite-sized pieces	Home-canned
2 large handfuls	Arugula		NorthStar Farm **

Directions

Wash and dry the beets. Wrap each in foil and put in a single layer in a baking dish. Roast at 400 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes, depending on size. The beets are done when they’re easily pierced with a thin knife. Once they’re cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with a paper towel. Your hands will get red, but if you wash them right away, they shouldn’t stain. Slice each beet into 4 or 8 wedges, depending on size. Set aside or refrigerate for a few days, if you do this ahead of time.
Whisk the lemon juice, chile, dried basil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. While whisking, add the olive oil in a slow, thin stream. Doing it this way will help it combine with the lemon juice, rather than forming little pools on top.
Add the arugula to the bowl and toss to coat all the leaves in dressing.
To serve, put a pile of arugula on each plate and arrange the beet and peach slices on top.

Green Bean Salad with Crispy Duck

Lindsay — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:29:32 +0000

Sorry that we’ve been MIA. My cousin got married this weekend (Congrats, Peter and Holly!!) so we’ve been busy with travel and seeing family. We’ll have a few local Minnesota posts this week – we’re going to a local food restaurant in Minneapolis tonight and hopefully picking some chokecherries at the cabin in a couple of days. First, a salad that we made last week that blew us away.

I found this recipe in the New York Times about a year ago, but never got around to making it. Every time I flipped through my recipes,though, it caught my eye, so I finally pulled it out and put it on the list. We made a few of our standard tweaks – doubling the veggies and streamlining some of the prep – and then devoured it. There are enough green beans to make it feel like a salad, but the duck and honeyed almonds make it a treat.

If you’re afraid of the thick layer of fat on the duck, you can trim it off after you cook it, if you absolutely have to. Just don’t cut it off before it’s cooked, because it bastes the meat and is used in the dressing. I think you should live a little and eat the fat. Then go for a run or haul some food home from the farmer’s market.

Green Bean Salad with Crispy Duck
Serves 4

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1 1/2 tsp	Honey		Tremblay Apiaries *
Small pinch	Salt
1/2 cup	Slivered almonds
1 TBsp	Brown sugar
1 1/2 pounds	Mixed green beans	We used about half Romano and half purple pole beans	Berried Treasures and Norwich Meadows Farm *
2	Duck breasts	1 to 1 1/2 pounds, total	Crescent Duck Farm (local, but not from the Greenmarket)
1 tsp	Salt
1 tsp	Chili powder
1/2 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
1/2 tsp	Ground cumin
1/4 tsp	Ground cinnamon
2 TBsp + 1 tsp	Olive oil
1 clove	Garlic		Keith’s Farm *
2 TBsp	Lime juice	Freshly squeezed, if you can
Several handfuls	Watercress		Northshire Farm *

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, you can try heavily greasing the baking sheet, but I’m not taking responsibility for anything sticking to it.
Microwave the honey for 10-20 seconds in a glass or ceramic bowl until it is very runny.
Add the small pinch of salt and almonds and mix until coated. Add the brown sugar and toss to coat the almonds.
Spread the almonds in a single layer on the baking sheet and cook bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until dark golden brown. Stir about halfway through and check on them before you think you need to. They have a tendency to go from perfect to burned in a flash. Let them cool while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix the salt, chili powder, black pepper, cumin, and cinnamon.
Put a 10-inch cast iron skillet (or other oven-safe pan) on the stove and add 1 tsp of olive oil. Don’t turn on the stove. This is just to get you set up so that you don’t have to use your duck-y hands to get out the pan.
Score the duck fat in a crosshatch pattern. Try to just cut the fat, not the meat, but don’t get too fussy. I definitely cut into the meat and it still tasted great.
Rub the salt mixture all over the duck, really working it into the fat.
Turn the stove to medium-low and let the pan heat for a minute or so, until you can feel the heat with your hand a couple of inches off the surface.
Put the duck in the pan, fat side down. Sear for about 10 minutes without moving. In the words of my culinary/science geek hero, Alton Brown, just walk away! If it smells like burning, turn the heat down a little. At the end, say around minute 8, you can take a peek. If it looks nice and dark brown, flip it over. If not, let it cook for a few more minutes. Cook on the other side for just a minute.
While the duck cooks on the first side, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Add a good pinch of salt. Set out a bowl of cold water and float an ice pack in it. If you keep ice in your freezer, you can use 10 or so ice cubes instead of the ice pack, but we rarely have ice hanging around.
While the water is heating up, snap the ends off the green beans. You can cut off the ends, too, if you’d rather. Snap/cut any in half that are longer than you’d like in your salad.
Once the water is boiling, drop about half the beans in and let them cook for 2 minutes (thin beans) to 4 minutes (thick beans). After the allotted time, fish the beans out with a slotted spoon or tongs and drop them into the bowl of ice water. This will stop the cooking, so that you have bright green, crisp tender beans. Repeat with the rest of the beans.
Once the duck has cooked in the second side for one minute, put it in the oven (on the same pan) and cook for about 4 more minutes. The USDA recommends cooking duck to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, so now is a good time to get our your probe thermometerif you have one. Take the duck out of the oven and let it rest.
While the duck is in the oven, smush up the garlic until it forms a paste. You can use a pinch of salt to make this easier. Either a mortar and pestle or the side of a knife work pretty well. You do this to avoid big chunks of garlic in the salad. Put the garlic paste in a large bowl and add the lime juice. Whisk in the remaining 2 TBsp of olive oil.
Add the green beans and watercress to the large bowl and toss to coat with the lime-garlic dressing.
Cut the two duck breasts apart and slice each into about 8 diagonal slices.
Put a pile of green beans and watercress on each plate. Top it with 4 slices of duck and a shower of honeyed almonds (break up any big chunks). Eat!

This salad keeps well for at least a day. I didn’t heat up the duck at all when I ate it for lunch the next day…just let it sit out for a bit so that it wasn’t refrigerator-cold. Erik microwaved the duck for 30 or 40 seconds before putting it all together. We were both pleased with our techniques.

How to Make Creamy Kale Salad with Apple and Beets

Erik — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:24:07 +0000

The “creaminess” in this recipe comes from the avocado, mustard, and walnuts. It offsets the firm bitterness of the raw kale. The apple gives it some sweetness. All in all it’s very well balanced, very nutritious, and a cinch to make.

Creamy Kale Salad with Apple and Beets

Makes 2-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1 bunch	Kale	Stems removed, chopped into large pieces	Norwich Meadows Farm *
1	Small beet	Peeled and sliced into thin half-rounds	Paffenroth Gardens *
1	Sweet, crisp apple	Core removed, sliced into thin wedges	Breezy Hill Orchard *
1	Ripe avocado	Cut in half, seed removed and skinned
0.5 cup	Chopped walnuts	Toasted
2 tsp	Dijon mustard
2 TBsp	White wine vinegar
3 TBsp	Walnut oil	Or extra virgin olive oil
To taste	Kosher salt
To taste	Black pepper	Freshly ground

Directions

Using a food processor, combine the avocado, vinegar, dijon mustard, and oil. Pulse until it is smooth, although it will remain thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Place the kale, beet slices, apple wedges, and walnut pieces in a large bowl and toss to combine. Add the avocado dressing as well as additional salt and pepper, if desired. Toss and let sit for a few minutes to marinate. Plate and serve.

How to Make a Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Pine Nuts

Erik — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:00:09 +0000

This recipe is actually from a few weeks ago, just as spinach was coming back into season full-swing. It fell through the cracks, but it’s still worth posting because everything is still available. It’s a salad, but since it requires sautéing some items, it’s a bit more involved than most salads.

Spinach Salad with Mushrooms, Pine Nuts, and Balsamic Vinegar

Makes 2-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
2 bunches	Spinach	Washed, large stems removed, torn into chunks	Norwich Meadows Farm *
0.25 lbs	Shitake mushrooms	Thinly sliced, stems removed	Bulich Mushroom Farm *
0.25 lbs	Crimini mushrooms	Thinly sliced, stems removed	Bulich Mushroom Farm *
1	Small red onion	Peeled, halved, and thinly sliced	Paffenroth Gardens
2 cloves	Garlic	Minced	Keith’s Farm *
0.25 cup	Pine nuts	Toasted
2 TBps	Kalamta olives	Pitted and choped
2 TBsp	Capers	Drained
2 TBsp	Lemon juice	Fresh, if possible
1 TBsp	Balsamic vinegar		The Brooklyn Kitchen, bulk section
3 TBsp	Extra virgin olive oil		The Brooklyn Kitchen, bulk section
To taste	Kosher salt
To taste	Black pepper	Freshly ground

Directions

Prep all the ingredients except for the spinach.
Heat 2 TBsp of the olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium and add the garclic, olives, capers, lemon juice, and vinegar, and let it cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the mushrooms are cooking, tear the spinach into pieces. In a large bowl, toss it with the red onion and remaining 1 TBsp of olive oil. Add the desired amount of salt and pepper to taste.
Add the mushroom sauté to the spinach and toss it again until well mixed. Plate and top with toasted pine nuets.

Asian Sprout Salad

Erik — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:53:08 +0000

This is a quick, simple, and light “salad” that’s perfect as a side or for lunch.

Yes, sprouts are the stereotypical vegan hippy food, but give this recipe a shot. Don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it. Like us, you’ll wind up learning to use and love sprouts. Tasty (if done right), filling, and easy.

(Disclaimer: we live in a small apartment in New York City. We are not hippies. But did we mention that we also make our own granola?)

Sprout Salad
Makes 2 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
6 cups	Fresh mung bean sprouts		Hudson Valley Organic Gardens *
1 bunch	Scallions / green onions	Chopped	Keith’s Farm *
1 TBsp	Sesame seeds	Toasted in the oven (~5 mins @ 300F)

Asian Sauce
Makes 2 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation
1/3 cup	Extra virgin olive oil	Since it’s not going to cook, splurge on extra virgin; can also substitute peanut oil for extra asian-y flavor
1 tsp	Flax seed oil
2 TBsp	Rice vinegar
1 TBsp	Soy sauce	Preferably naturally fermented, such as Nama Shoya or Tamari
1 tsp	Grated fresh ginger	Keep it in the freezer, then grate with a microplane
1 tsp	Toasted sesame oil	Un-toasted will do in a pinch
1 tsp	Scallions or green onions	Very finely chopped
0.5 clove	Garlic	MInced or mashed (optional, since it’s raw)
0.5 tsp	Honey	Preferably raw, local honey (better for your allergies!)

Directions

You can steam the mung bean sprouts for about 1 minute to make them more tender (allow them to cool back to room temperature). This is optional; we think raw is fine.
Put all the ingredients for the dressing into a jar and shake vigorously. The amounts outlined for the dressing above are about right proportion to use up with this amount of sprouts (maybe a bit too generous on the dressing). Feel free to double the dressing (or make even more) and store it in the fridge for a super-quick follow-up round two salad later in the week.
Combine all of the ingredients with the dressing and toss. Let it site for one minute. Plate and enjoy.