Tag: salads

Brussels Sprout Salad

Posted on by Editor

I was trying to be productive all day yesterday. I tried to unpack the bag that has been on my guest bedroom floor for the last month. It has been packed and unpacked, only to be packed and unpacked again. This is not an unusual occurrence in Nashville. This town is full musicians and artists who zip in and out all the time. It can make it damn near impossible to have a get together with all my friends. I am not someone who tours often, but the last few months I have been traveling quite a bit.

So, after (not) unpacking my bag, I decided to try folding the laundry that I had left sitting on a chair last weekend before heading out of town. I only made it a few tank tops in before realizing I simply needed to listen to my body and rest. I plopped myself down on my bed, under my down comforter, and took a nap in the warmth of the afternoon sunshine. I’m not the kind of person who is good at letting things go unfinished, but I’m getting better at connecting with my body when it is telling me to slow down.

My sweet husband is a good reinforcement of rest, too. After I woke up from my nap, he had me sit on the couch and watch a favorite show while he made dinner. And, y’all, he made the best dinner. Seared chicken, brussels sprout salad with toasted walnuts, and skillet potatoes with loads of herbs. All drizzled with a buttermilk dressing.  I liked it so much, I’m making a version for you. This one has sweet potatoes, dried cherries, and cinnamon because I am a basic white girl with a major affinity for fall.

This is a batch that could feed 4-6 people as a main dish, so you could easily half the recipe, if you don’t need that much. I do call for quite a few spices on the sweet potatoes. So, if you have to go out and buy them, I am sorry. But, trust me on this: These are the kind of spices that are good to have around anyway!

I recommend pairing this cozy dish with one of my all time favorite records, especially for fall.

Ingredients

For the salad:
2 pounds brussels sprouts
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
2-3 tablespoon olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup dried cherries

For the sweet potatoes:
Two medium sweet potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

For the dressing:
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon (Duke’s) mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh chopped tarragon
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley
Sprinkle of sugar or honey
Black pepper
Salt to taste

Directions

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into fourths. Boil until they can be pierced with a fork. Let cool, dry with paper towel, and chop into cubes. Heat a medium-sized skillet on high heat. Drizzle a tablespoon olive oil in skillet and place potatoes in skillet. Sprinkle salt and all the spices over potatoes. Avoid the temptation to toss continually. Leave them to cook until they are crisp! About three minutes. Toss and lower heat to low-medium, until they are desired tenderness. Could be between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on your skillet. Mine took 30 minutes.

Clean brussels sprouts and toss in food processor. If you don’t have one, you can grate the brussels on a cheese grater or chop with a sharp knife. Afterward, place in a large bowl with pecans, dried cherries, and 1-2 tablespoons olive oil.

Whisk the buttermilk, yogurt, and herbs together. If dressing is too thick, you could add a little more buttermilk. To serve, layer brussels sprout mixture and sweet potatoes, and drizzle with dressing. Enjoy!

Basmati Rice & Spice Salad

Posted on by Editor

Back with another blogisode of Make ‘Em Like It, where I, your humble cooker (yeah, I totes just made that a noun) hope to inspire you to take risks on preparing foods that you or your loved ones haven’t generally taken a liking to in the past. In this blogisode, it’s all about rice and salad.

If I use the word “salad” around my bonus kids, their faces scrunch and their lips purse ‘n’ bow. They’re super cute, though, y’all, and if we were all on the couch playing a game of, “Silly Faces of 2017,” they’d win all the candy. When it comes to cooking and feeding them and trying to inspire them to begin to grasp a concept towards lifelong nutrition, though, it can be a struggle.

Then there’s that man of mine. His food foibles include a disdain of plain rice. I don’t believe that he’s rare in his disposition or anything like that. But look at me, y’all: I’m straight up 100 percent Ghanaian. THE food staple of all staples in Africa is rice, rice baby. It doesn’t matter what else is going on at mealtime; there is always a pot of rice on the back burner of the stove. It’s like a Southern American’s doughy rolls or an Italian’s crusty baguette. To eat a meal without your staple feels all kinds of wrong. As an adult whose journey through American cuisine has been challenging and frustrating, I have been able to let go of always having to have rice with everything I eat. However, I have not released an ounce of my sincere and desperate love of the stuff. When my man told me he didn’t care for rice, I had a full on Fred Sanford moment (hand on heart, heavy breathing, jaw stuck on stunned) and it took me a while to recover from it.

So I should stop making both salad and rice altogether and give in to a lifetime of Food Sacrifice, right?

Who you talkin’ to, fool? Nah.

Lemme do you one better than that. Here’s a version of rice and salad that nobody will see coming … and it’s full of flavor and good energy. A note of caution, though — I can’t help you if you have picky eaters who don’t do multi-colored food. My six-year-old bonus child is one of those no-goers. For instance, she loves chicken and she loves broccoli — buuuut if the chicken and broccoli are combined on her plate, her gag reflex is on automatic. Luckily, she and I are peas in a pod when it comes to that plain-rice-love — so, winning.

So, as James Brown would say (or sing, rather), “Try Me” …

Ingredients (serves 8)
4 cups of water
1 Tbsp kosher salt (the water for boiling the rice should taste like salted sea water to make sure that the flavor permeates through the grains)
10 cardamom pods, tied in cheese cloth
2 cups uncooked basmati rice, rinsed until water runs clear
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup celery, thinly sliced
1 cup peas
1/2 cup mint, chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp grated organic lemon zest (if you don’t use organic fruit for zest, you’re just grating pesticides right into your meal)
Crispy fried onions to garnish

Salad Dressing
1 Tbsp safflower, grapeseed, or similar oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp coriander
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup tomato sauce (regular sodium)
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated ginger (or 1 Tbsp ginger paste)
Additional option — 1 Tbsp sriracha

Directions
Bring water, salt, and cardamom to a boil in a large pot. Add rice, stir, and return to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or until fluffy. Don’t worry if some rice gets stuck to the pan. It happens to the best of us. Once rice is cooked, spoon out onto a baking sheet brushed with oil. Lay rice out evenly and drizzle a little olive oil on top and toss the rice until evenly coated. Let cool until slightly warm or room temperature.

Once rice is no longer hot to touch, transfer to large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients except for salad dressing and fried onions — but don’t toss them in yet.

Add safflower oil or similar to small shallow pan on medium heat and add the next six ingredients under Salad Dressing. Warm just until tiny bubbles start to form. When the aroma of the spices is rich in the room, add the garlic for final 60 seconds, then turn off the heat and transfer spices and garlic into a small mixing bowl.

Add salad dressing ingredients to the small mixing bowl and whisk until well incorporated. Pour dressing over the rice and toss to coat evenly.

Garnish with crispy fried onions.

Red Cabbage Salad With Marcona Almonds & Blue Cheese

Posted on by Editor

Tasting new foods with people I love accounts for many of my favorite memories. I think of baking a pie with my dear friend Shannon, after we were inspired by the “Pie-Maker” from a show called Pushing Daisies. It was filled with a white chocolate ganache, orange zest, macadamia nuts, and a drizzle of dark chocolate on top. It was delicious and whimsical.

Before my husband and I were anything, we were friends who constantly talked about food and music. (Okay, so maybe we liked each other, but neither of us said anything for a while.) Once, he came over to help record some demos of my songs. Afterward, we decided to make eggs benedict for dinner. In case you were wondering, it is challenging to poach eggs while trying to appear cool and casual in front of for the person you are falling for.

Still today, we spend a lot of time in the kitchen together. We eat at home more often than not, but every now and then, we love to save up and go somewhere really wonderful. Last month, it was new restaurant called Barcalona. We were hesitant to go, partially because it is somewhat of a chain and partially because we have been dissapointed by many hip-looking restaurants that have sprung up in Nashville. I am happy to report that the food is original, delicious, and resonablly priced. The wine choices are available in half glasses, which is wonderful news for the kind of person who wants to try everything.

One particular dish we had stole the show: a salad with cabbage, hazelnuts, pears, and a Spanish blue cheese called Valdeón. It was a perfect combination of flavor and texture. We decided we wanted to try try and replicate it. The tricky thing about recipes like this is that they seem simple, but can be difficult to execute. Still, I think my recipe turned out pretty damn good!

I used Marcona almonds instead of hazelnuts, simply because they are the food of the gods. I also added quinoa and roasted broccoli for some added texture and heartiness. 

I recommend pairing this salad with My Piece of Land by Amanda Shires.

Ingredients

For the salad:
1/4 head of cabbage
2 cups cooked quinoa 
4 cups water or vegetable broth 
4 oz blue cheese crumbled
16 oz cups broccoli florets 
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning 
1/2 cup marcona almonds 
1 pear thinly sliced pear, or 1/4 cup golden raisins if you can’t find a good pear
2 TB olive oil

For the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Begin by turning the oven to 350. Place broccoli on roasting pan. Drizzle with about two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix with your hands and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and a few cracks of pepper. Place in oven for about 30 minutes. Chop cabbage into longs strips, and then cut those in half, so they are shorter in length. Slice pear thinly.

Next, rince the quinoa until the water becomes clear. Combine quinoa with broth or water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. While that cooks, blend the vinaigrette ingredients together.

Once the quinoa and broccoli are cooled, layer a serving plate with cabbage, quinoa, blue cheese, almonds, and broccoli. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad and serve at room tempurature or after being chilled for 30 minutes.