Last Second Fruit Salad

I make lunch every day for many people. I love that I get to help them through their busy days and I LOVE when they take time to give me blush-worthy praise. I also make lunch each and every day for my two small humans. H and E... well, let's just say, they don't tend to throw as much praise my way as the people who pay for their soups, sandwiches and salads.

A recent quote from my son: Well, Mom... I've HEARD your soups were delicious, but I'm still just going to not eat it. Don't feel bad. Other people will.

So... I'm not normally thrilled making lunches for the kids - that is unless I'm making lunches WITH the kids. They like to eat things they make with me, which is why I asked my daughter to help me make fruit salad Sunday morning. In the past, when I have made fruit salad, they looked at it as though I were torturing them by merely suggesting they try it. BUT... if they were the actual creators, I figured I'd have a better shot at them actually eating the salad. We had a lot of leftover fruit from school lunches and R and I were getting ready to make one of our "famous to our friends" epic Sunday brunches. A fruit salad would be a fantastic accompaniment.

I had some watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and fresh berries in the fridge. I got H a cutting board, a bowl and a kid-friendly knife and told her to start chopping. (She's not exactly into long term commitments to helping me so I also got out a knife and cutting board and was in charge of the melons.)

 Within minutes, we had a fresh fruit salad that was perfect JUST like that! In the past, I've added fruit juice (I like to go with Cranberry juice but you could use whatever you felt like), and a variety of other fruits. I'm not a huge fan of putting apples and oranges in my fruit salad - but my mom does all the time so you can definitely use what you have on hand and end up with something delicious. I think some recipes call for some sort of sugar to be added. I tend to think fruit is sweet enough without it - but perhaps if it were under-ripe, you might want to add some honey or maple syrup.

That's it! Fruit Salad - in minutes - mostly made by a seven year old. Yum.

Black Bean Soup

The weather is still not cooperating with me for the Gazpacho I wanted to blog about this week - but chilly weather means I can still justify writing about cold weather soups. (I'm looking for the silver lining here peeps - don't mistake my positive spin as actual happiness about the weather.)

Black Bean Soup is one of those things that is now a staple in my go-to soup repertoire because it is delicious, easy and adaptable.

I used to avoid making soup with dried beans because I wasn't organized enough to pre-soak the beans for 24 hours before I needed them. Even the "quick soak" methods weren't really my thing - BUT one day I decided to try to make the soup without pre-soaking just to see if it would work... And... success! This might not work for some applications but it works fine for a soup that you're expecting to be thick. (If you're a stickler for the rules, by all means soak the beans first. I'm not here to judge your excellent organizational skills.) If you were in a serious hurry, you could also just used canned black beans. You'll definitely need to rinse them until the water runs clear - but I use them for lots of recipes and they're great in a pinch for soup too.

Today's soup is vegetarian and seasoned with cumin, chilies and lime - but I've made it with Chorizo, chicken stock, with tomatoes and without. There are tons of options.

Black Bean Soup

Here's what I did today:

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
16 oz bag dried black beans, rinsed
about 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable stock and/or water (I used about 16 cups)
about 1 tablespoon cumin
about 2 teaspoons chili powder
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in soup pot and add onions, carrots and celery. Saute about 5 minutes. Add the cumin and chili powder and rinsed black beans. After about one minute, add about 8 cups water. Keep checking water levels. You want the beans to cook and they'll absorb a LOT of water. You can gauge the amount of water you want to add based on the thickness you like your soup.

Let simmer on medium-high for about 3 hours, adding water as necessary. Add lime juice (and, if you're feeling citrus-y you could zest the lime as well) and season to taste.

There was some soup leftover at the end of the day and I decided to switch it up and turn it into a Southwestern Tomato, Corn and Black Bean Soup. I added frozen corn, canned diced tomatoes, some more vegetable stock and garnished with cilantro and shredded cheddar cheese. Had I left out the vegetable stock, it could have easily been Black Bean Chili.

Southwest Black Bean, Tomato and Corn Soup

Turn Your Fridge Into A Salad Bar - Part 1

I just finished writing a Salad Bar article for The Seeker and it gave me pause to scroll through the numerous food pics I have stored on my phone. (Yes, I'm one of those people.)

We eat a lot of salad at home - but always more when the vegetables are in season. For a long time I worked in restaurants where a salad came with your meal. When I say salad, I mean a pile of iceberg lettuce with a cucumber slice, a tomato wedge and some shredded carrot with your choice of bottled dressing. We don't eat those kinds of salad at our house and I certainly don't do them at Dish Cafe and Food Shop. (I DO make a "Mixed Greens" salad that includes mesclun mix, cucumbers, carrots and grape tomatoes - because it is sort of a timeless classic that people can build on.)

When I want to make this salad a bit more fantastic, I switch out the Balsamic Vinaigrette  for one that's more Greek Dressing-esque (recipe follows) and add a scoop of Lentil Couscous Salad (which is already tossed with said Greek dressing).

Now, because we're salad people, we have this stuff in the fridge already (and/or I steal it from the shop. Shhhh - don't tell). BUT, this is a really simple salad to make and it can be varied in a zillion different ways.

Lentil Couscous Salad
 1 cup couscous
1 cup boiling water
1/2 can lentils, rinsed
1/2 cucumber, quartered and sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
about 1/4 feta, crumbled
handful parsley, chopped
Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
salt and pepper to taste

I'm going to just post the basic vinaigrette recipe I use here. (Fun fact: I wrote a whole article a couple of weeks ago about making vinaigrette that I somehow didn't send in. I found it in my drafts folder today. On the plus side, there'll be a new blog post soon!) It is likely the same as one you'll find in about a thousand cookbooks and blogs. The difference you may notice is I use olive oil instead of "salad oil" or "vegetable oil" which don't really have any delicious flavour and aren't as healthy.

Basic Vinaigrette

1/3 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon

1 teaspoon honey

1 clove garlic, minced

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Add vinegar, mustard, honey and garlic in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste. 

Now... this is a GUIDELINE. Taste as you go! Vary this in a zillion ways. (Part 2 will have suggestions.) For the Greek-style dressing I use in the Lentil Couscous salad, I use half red wine vinegar and half lemon juice. I add a bit more garlic and dried oregano.

This is the most basic of starting points for your own personal salad bar. You can switch it up with a Mixed Bean Salad, grilled chicken, etc. Stay tuned to Part 2 for more vinaigrette recipes and other great additions.

 

Honey-Lime Salmon

My husband and I like to grill. A lot. As in, we could discard our stove during warmer weather. Having said that, we also grill throughout the winter. (When I say we, I mean I send my husband outside and I watch from the warm side of the door.) The point is, things we like to prepare indoors, we love even more outside on the grill.

This is one of those suppers that can come together with almost no work - but that tastes so delicious that you could easily use it for anything from a weeknight meal to a fancy-pants dinner party - and when you use the grill outside, there are almost no dishes!

It is also one of those recipes that isn't so much a recipe as something you throw together.

When I go shopping for salmon, I tend to buy a whole side (or two), package some in freezer bags with marinade and use the rest - but that is totally optional.

For the marinade, I zested 2 limes, added about 1/4 honey and grated a thumb-sized chunk of ginger.

Add the salmon and the marinade to a freezer bag. (I know it isn't the most environmental way to marinade the fish - but it is the best way to make sure all the fish touches all the marinade.) If you're making the salmon fresh, don't let it marinade in the citrus for longer than a half hour. Fish is delicate and tends to start "cooking" from the lime juice.

As you might imagine from my grill tribute above, we grilled our salmon - but a) if you're not in a grilling kind of mood b) it is winter c) you don't have a grill, you could absolutely bake it in the oven (or use an indoor grill). 

 

We had mushrooms, red onions and peppers that day so that is what we put on a grill rack while the salmon was cooking. The total cooking time is less than 15 minutes so there's really no excuse not to make it even on busy weeknights. (Garnish is optional.) ;)

Caribbean Carrot Soup

We make two soups every day at Dish... Real Food. It is how I start my day at the shop. I've been making soup forever - but it wasn't until it became one of the main focuses of my "to do" list that I realized how much I like making it. We may come to a point where I don't have the luxury of using what inspires me on a daily basis but for now, I simply look around the kitchen and use what's on hand to start.

We try to make at least one of our daily soups Gluten-Free and/or Paleo and this soup definitely fits both of those categories. Because carrots have a bit of starchiness to them, they have soup thickening qualities you would normally use flour (an obvious gluten-free and Paleo no-no) or potatoes (a Paleo rule-breaker) for thickening. We have made this soup with carrots and also with sweet potatoes. Both are delish - but the sweet potato tends to be a bit more popular at the shop.

This recipe falls in the "few simple ingredients" category. The carrots are obviously the star of the show - but you can absolutely use another vegetable (possibly with a few additional spices).

2 cups onions, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 inch piece ginger
2 whole cloves garlic
1 teaspoon curry
3-4 cups stock, vegetable or chicken
4 cups carrots (or sweet potatoes)
1 cup orange juice
1 can coconut milk

In a heavy stock pot, saute the onions, garlic and ginger about 10 minutes. 


Add the curry, stock and vegetables and bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

Add the orange juice and coconut milk. Puree with a hand blender and season to taste.

Ack - No Pics (Salsa Bean Dip)

This is a cheater post. I did a Mexican Fiesta for friends on the weekend.

We had a Salsa Bean Dip, Fajitas, Guacamole. There was sangria and margaritas. I took exactly zero photos. In terms of eating, it was pretty good. In terms of blogging, an epic fail.

I'm determined to be a better food blogger. On that vein, I'm gonna have my phone at my side for the next few weeks so there won't be an excuse NOT to take pics.

We shall see (ha - literally) where that takes us in the kitchen.

In the meanwhile, you could see my guacamole blog post here.

And... see a pic of the tasty margaritas we drank here:

I'm going to give you the recipe for the Salsa, Bean Dip here - but there are no pics so please forgive their absence. It is EXTREMELY flexible so feel free to play around with it.

Salsa Bean Dip

1/2 jar salsa (I jar my own but you can use your favourite store-bought one)

about 1/2 cup "red" salad dressing (Catalina, California, etc.)

1/2 can lentils

1/2 can black beans (you could use kidney or white)

1/4 minced onion (I usually use red but Spanish is good too)

1 bell pepper, chopped (yesterday I had yellow but any colour is fine)

3/4 cup corn kernels (optional - I didn't use them yesterday)

Handful herbs, chopped (I detest cilantro but if you dig it, it would rock in this recipe)

Combine and let sit for about an hour so the flavours can combine.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I know I live in Canada and we're supposed to suck it up and be fine with winter but WOW it was cold today. It was our first day at the shop this new year and I was hoping to get outside to look at the amazing new sign - but I'll have to gaze at Noella's handiwork another day. Minus 26 with the windchill is just not cool. 

I get that this is not an awesome angle but seriously people, it was too cold to take a pic.

Your errant blogger was busy starting Dish...Real Food last month but I'm fairly optimistic you'll see more of me in the coming weeks. We're testing out a slew of different recipes and will be able to offer some choices for a wider variety of our customers, including those of you who want/need "gluten-free", some of the "cavemen" out there and, perhaps no surprise here, people looking to make more health-conscious choices as part of a new year regime. 

I've never really been a New Year's Resolution kind of girl - mostly because I tend to have questionable will power at the best of times. It could be said when I "have" to do something, it makes it that much more tempting not to!

I'm VERY excited that cooking classes start this month. Thursdays have beat out the other nights of the week and the first class is scheduled to start January 19th. I'll blog more details as soon as they become available.