Salad 25: My favorite Napa Cabbage

This is one of my top five favorite salads. The heartiness of the Napa cabbage, the crunch of the ramen noodles, and the sweetness of the homemade salad are a great combo. It uses one package of ramen noodles, and I then save back the broth packet in the ramen noodles to use in my egg drop soup recipe.

Ingredients:

1 head napa cabbage, chopped

1 bunch minced green onions

⅓ cup butter

1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles, broken

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1 cup slivered almonds

¼ cup cider vinegar

¾ cup vegetable oil

½ cup white sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Put the Napa cabbage and green onions in a large bowl. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350. Melt the butter in a pot. Mix the ramen noodles, sunflower seeds and almonds into the pot with the melted butter. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake the crunchies in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven, turning often to make sure they do not burn. When they are browned remove them from the oven.

In another small saucepan, heat vinegar, oil, sugar, and soy sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from heat and let cool. This dressing can be made ahead and stored in the fridge, or poured over the salad slightly warm.

To serve, top the greens with the dressing and sprinkle the ramen noodle combo on top.

Salad 25: My favorite Napa Cabbage

Day 13: Blackened Chicken Salad

 A girls gotta take advantage of warm days in December. So, grilled chicken it is! 

I wanted lots of variety in today's salad, so I picked lettuce from three different spots in our hoop building. 

For some extra crunch, I added some purple kale. Green onions are a must. Then, because this salad has a Mexican taste, I grabbed some fresh cilantro. Carrots were already picked and ready to use, and cherry tomatoes came out of the freezer, roasted for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. But you could use fresh cherry tomatoes, too.

I had to buy the avocado. You can't win them all.

Blackened Chicken Salad

4 chicken breasts

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cumin 

2 T olive oil

1/4 lb assorted lettuce (about 4 cups), washed and chopped

1/2 c cherry tomatoes

2 green onions

4-5 stems cilantro

4 yellow carrots, chopped

2 avocados, chopped

tortilla strips, optional

shredded cheddar cheese, optional (but always at our house)

1. Preheat grill.

2. Mix together in a large bowl the paprika, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and olive oil.

3. Add the chicken to the spice mixture and cover chicken thoroughly.

4. Place chicken on preheated grill. Grill chicken for 7-9 minutes per side, cooking to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

5. Meanwhile, combine the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, carrots, and avocado. 

6. Remove chicken from grill. Allow to rest 2-3 minutes, then slice into strips. 

7. Serve on top of lettuce, with your favorite salad dressing. (Catalina is my go-to for this salad.) Add tortilla strips and shredded cheese, if so desired.

Day 13: Blackened Chicken Salad

Day 6: Carrot Salad

I'm going back to the potluck tradition for today's entry: carrot raisin salad. 

There are nearly as many versions of this recipe as there are rows of carrots at our farm. Unless I'm baking, I never follow a recipe exact. Tonight's salad as a combination of this recipe and this recipe. 

Funny thing, though. Even if you’ve been married to the same guy for 21 years and counting, you can learn something new. Like Jay doesn’t like raisins but does like cranberries. Hence another adaptation.

My version for five of us looked like this:

3 orange carrots, peeled and shredded

3 purple carrots, peeled and shredded

3 yellow carrots, peeled and... you guessed it ... shredded

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup mayonaisse

2 T sugar

2 T milk

1/4 cup sour cream

Blend together in a bowl the mayo, sugar, milk, and sour cream. Add a little lemon if you want some more tang. Stir in the cranberries and carrots, until the dressing is evenly dispersed. Chill until ready to serve. 

It added some nice color to our tumeric-rosemary rice, oven roasted radishes, and pan fried duck.

Day 6: Carrot Salad

Day 7: Pink Goo Salad

We eat weird things around here. I get it. And we rarely know the name of what we are eating. Like yesterday, when I roasted this veggie, not knowing if it was a type of radish or turnip or parsnip or what.

It was a daikon radish. And in my defense, a new variety. But I digress.

When you eat weird nameless things, you start naming dishes weird names. Like the Pink Goo Salad featured today.

Secret time, I don’t like raw radishes. At least not when they are spicy. But this recipe with its raw radishes was delicious to me. And Jay. And the kids.  So the pink goo salad is here to stay. 

If you’d like to make your own pink goo salad, the actual recipe is, well, we can't find it. But I can tell you how Jay made it.

In the salad pictured above, Jay used purple meat daikon, Red King daikon, white daikon, Watermelon radishes and carrots. Peel and shred all of those into a bowl. Add in a cup of Craisins (or raisins, whatever is your preference). Mix together a cup of mayo, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 2-4 tablespoons honey (or half that amount of sugar), and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Stir dressing into slaw and refrigerate a bit before eating.

Now you too can enjoy your pink goo.

Day 7: Pink Goo Salad

Day 5: Fajita Salad

After Jay and our high schoolers were out picking carrots after school, it was just too cold for a basic salad tonight. And so, we made up this gem: beef fajita salad.

We started out with an assortment of lettuce. I am a bit spoiled, so I walked out to hoop B and picked three kinds of lettuce: Miur, Cherokee, and hornet. Don’t let me fool you; I don’t know which is which, and I had to ask Jay. I just say “I want some of the light green, some of that darker green, and some dark purple lettuce.”

Then I negotiated with my helpers, and they picked me a rainbow of carrots, a fresh green onion, and a yellow onion.

And because I’m really spoiled, I walked to the basement and got a package of beef fajita meat from last year’s 4-H steer.  I sautéed the beef with the chopped onion, and added a little Italian dressing and lime juice. 

I’m a big believer that every dish needs a contrast of tastes (sweet and salty) and textures. So, I tossed these tortilla strips together, but added about a teaspoon of cumin and half teaspoon of paprika in the oil before tossing with the tortillas and baking.

I chopped all the veggies and tossed together without a care. 

Then, it was time to build. Lettuce and veggies, fajita beef and onions, cheddar cheese, Catalina dressing, and tortilla strips. 

YUM.

Day 5: Fajita Salad

30 Days of Salad, Day 1: Roll-ups

Most of us have eaten our fill of delicious pies, desserts, and cream-filled appetizers... or is that just our house? The calorie overload was delicious and worth it. But, with that in mind, now is a great time to start a salad spree. So, the Sleichter squad goal is a salad every day for 30 days.

But, since we rarely do things "normal", we are starting the salad spree with lettuce roll-ups. Except without lettuce. Like I said, not normal. 

Recipes are just a suggestion for most of our meals, but it is nice to have a starting point. Lettuce roll-ups are made for improvising, as you can use about any green and fill it with about any filling. Usually, we do assorted chop veggies, cut up fried chicken, and your favorite salad dressing.

For today's recipe, we started with PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. But, we had frozen chicken strips instead of ground chicken. I made the sauce in a saucepan, and substituted soy faux peanut butter for the hoison sauce. And we used collard greens instead of lettuce. It was yummy and kid-approved. We added potstickers and egg rolls, to make it feel more like a Chinese restaurant meal. 

To prepare the collard greens for roll-up, bring a pot of water to boil. Cut off the stem on the collard green leaves, and shave off about half of the thick middle rib of the collard green, so it isn't as thick and easier to roll. Rinse off the leaves. Dip them into the boiling water for about 5 seconds, just until they start to soften. Remove and let cool slightly, while you blanch the remaining leaves. They are now ready to fill.

Collard greens aren't a nutritional powerhouse; their only benefit is added calcium and potassium. But, they are a great filler, a low cal, fat free option to fill you up and keep you from eating other foods... like those cream-filled appetizers and pies.

LS 

30 Days of Salad, Day 1: Roll-ups

Day 3: The Traditional

This sala is our basic, go-to, three-times-a-week salad. You can top it with your favorite dressings and toppings to fit your household. For us, that means homemade ranch dressing, boiled eggs, bacon bits, and shredded cheese.

Ingredients:

Red head lettuce

Green head lettuce

Turnips

Radishes

Carrots

Green onions

And, as soon as available, tomatoes as cucumbers

Wash it all. Chop it all. Mix it all.

As a side note, if you spin out your greens after you wash them, you will get many days additional freshness out of them. The salad I made tonight, we will still be eating on this weekend.

Day 3: The Traditional

Salad Season

It's salad time!

I love salad. I'm kind of a nerd that way. I guess it's a good thing I married a vegetable farmer.

This time of year, our salads are made up primarily of five types of greens. You can mix them up anyway you wish, or eat just one kind. Either way, they are delicious, better than you are probably used to. It's like the difference between the cheapest store brand toilet paper and super soft Charmin. Seriously.

Anyway, back to salads. The five types of greens we have right now are tatsoi, tokyo bekana, arugala, romaine, and summer crisp lettuce. (and yes, I had to ask Jay to know those last two.) So, what's the difference? And what do you do with them?

Tatsoi is also called spoon mustard, spinach mustard or rosette bok choy. It's similar to spinach in texture, with a little less overwhelming flavor. It will add crunch to your salad mix, some good bite to it. And it's good for you, providing a healthy amount of Vitamins A, C, beta-carotene, calcium, folate, and of course fiber.

Tokyo bekana, also known as mini Chinese cabbage, doesn't have anything near the texture of cabbage. In fact, in my opinion, it's the softest of the greens we have right now. But the flavor is great, and its light green adds a nice color to the salad. Plus, it absorbs the flavor of your salad dressing so well. But more on that later.

Arugula is not new to most people. It has a strong peppery flavor, very distinct in any dish. Personally, I don't enjoy a salad of just arugula, but rather prefer to mix it in with any of the other greens.

Romaine lettuce is making its debut for 2014 on our market tables this Saturday. Romaine is an excellent source of Vitamin A, but also provides a healthy amount of potassium, fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Iron. Of all our offerings this week, Romaine offers the best crunch to your salad.

Summer crisp lettuce, in both red and green, will be also for sale for the first time this season. This salad component offers some color to the bowl, as well as a medium texture.

Really, you can't go wrong with any of them, alone or mixed together. Our salad mixes are picked fresh just prior to the market, so you can rest assured they won't get all slimy by the time you get home.

But what to do with it. It just depends on your taste. My favorite is a mix of all the greens with fresh green onions, chopped fresh asparagus, maybe a boiled egg, and homemade ranch dressing. From the packet. I'm not that pioneer here.

The Tat Soi is also great with fresh strawberries, sliced almonds, and Kraft's raspberry vinaigrette.

If you want a darker, stronger flavor to your salad dressing, you could whip up some balsamic vinaigrette. Just mix together 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Whisk it right before pouring it over your salad, because it will re-separate if you make it in advance. Or, just go to the store and buy a $2 bottle of salad dressing. That works too.

Or if you need a sweeter dressing (you know, something the kids will love), whip up some honey mustard dressing. Whisk together 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice. Trust me -- it's yummy.

Either way, we hope to see you this week at our market. Weather permitting, we will be able to offer these salad options for weeks to come. We will also have radishes and haikuri turnips at the market this weekend.

Salad Season