I made quinoa, tuna and white bean salad

The other day, I came home from a long day of work and class starving. I wanted to make something delicious and comforting and protein packed. I thought to myself, do people ever make quinoa salads with tuna? Is that crazy? I googled "quinoa tuna salad" and found that no, it's not crazy. Lots of recipes exist. But I ended up making one up myself. It's basically your standard tuna white bean salad, but with quinoa.

Salad:
A few handfuls chopped arugula
1 can white/cannolini beans
2 cans good quality tuna packed in olive oil
2 or 3 tablespoons capers
handful chopped fresh parsley
1/2 large red onion, or 1 small, chopped finely
whole wheat bread crumbs
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

Dressing:
few tablespoons olive oil
few tablespoons red wine vinegar
juice of two lemons
2 garlic cloves, minced

Cook the quinoa. (Combine with water, bring to boil, cover and simmer for 15.) Meanwhile, make the dressing. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir it up.

When the quinoa's cooked and cooled a little, just combine it with all the other ingredients in a big bowl. Except the bread crumbs. Then add the dressing. Stir it up. THEN sprinkle the bread crumbs on top for garnish!

In the future, I might try this with chickpeas or some other kind of firmer bean instead. White beans are soft, and it and it needed something to counter the mushiness of the quinoa. But besides that, it was really delicious! I couldn't stop eating the leftovers cold from the fridge.

I learned: it is NOT crazy to put tuna in your quinoa salad!

I made Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad (with Meyer Lemon dressing)

I recently made this salad and brought it to Laura's house to enjoy while celebrating her birthday! I had noticed it on the NY Times writer Kim Severson's website while perusing blogs a few days earlier and it sounded easy to make, healthy, and tasty.

And it was!


Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

(Kim Severson said: I think I first saw a version of this in Gourmet magazine)

1 bunch of Tuscan (lacinato) kale
1 big shallot, chopped fine (I actually used 1 large clove of garlic, which was good too.)
Juice of a good-sized lemon (preferably Meyer), about 2 tablespoons
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup of olive oil, or more
1 cup ricotta salata, coarsely shredded (might be good with feta cheese too)
(Also: If your dressing tastes too lemony/acidic, like mine did at first, a drop or two of honey will balance it out really well.)

Directions:

1. Trim the leaves of the kale above where the stems become thick. Stack the leaves in a pile, roll them like a cigar, and slice it thin crosswise.






2. Whisk together the shallot, lemon juice, salt, and oil. Go light on salt until you taste the salad. The ricotta can be salty. Taste and add more oil if you like.



3. Toss the dressing with the kale and ricotta salata, taste and adjust seasoning, and serve.

Kim's Note: This is one of the few green salads I know that holds up well in the fridge. It’s great the next day, too.

Serves 4.

We had a picnic!

This was that weekend that spring came to NYC all at once in a crazy explosion of 95 degree weather in the middle of April. We celebrated by throwing together a picnic in Fort Greene Park.

In my humble opinion, picnic food should be easy. Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to carry, easy to keep in the sun without spoling. BUT IT ALSO MUST BE DELICIOUS! Is it possible? you may be wondering.

Well the answer is yes. Just take a look at this spread.


Clock wise from top:

I made black bean salad (recipe follows).
Hill made AWESOME brownies.
Alena brought some fruit.
Billy brought a refreshing celery blue cheese salad.
Joey brought "Summer Pasta", which is basically tortelini with basil, cherry tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. He taught me how to make this when we were in grad school together and having almost nightly dinner-making/study dates. This is sooo easy to throw together--just throw all the ingredients besides the pasta in a bowl, let sit so the flavors infuse the olive oil, and then toss with the pasta. You don't have to use tortelini--bowties work well if you want something less heavy.

Here is the recipe for my black bean salad. It is inspired by something I found on Epicurious, but I can't find the original recipe, and I've tweaked it so much anyway that we can just say I invented it.

Ingredients
Salad:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can heart of palm, drained and sliced into medallions
1 diced tomato
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 avocado, sliced

Dressing:
1 clove garlic
Juice of 2 limes
Tb olive oil
tsp white vinegar
splash hot sauce if you want

E-Z:
Toss all the salad ingredients in a bowl. Then toss all the dressing ingredients into a smaller bowl and whisk together. Combine bowls. Toss that salad. Through some pretty avocado slices on top.

Done. Simple, refreshing, good. Look at how happy it made us:

We Made Red Pepper Soup and Chickpea Butternut Squash Salad

This was Monday night dinner, and by now you know what that means: Gossip Girl/another collaborative culinary feat by Alena and Sarah. This time the decision was made pretty quickly. Alena called me from her shift at the Park Slope Food Co-op asking what groceries she should pick up. I said, "Wanna make this chickpea butternut squash salad?" She said, "YES." We decided the meal would need one more element to be complete, so I looked up soup recipes. I found this recipe for Red Pepper Soup, also on Smitten, originally from the New York Times. It looked quick and easy, plus I already had all the ingredients at home--except for the peppers. I called Alena back to see if she could pick up some peppers. But when I looked to see how many we needed, I saw that it called for 12!!! That's like a whole pepper... tree? vine? What exactly do peppers grow on, anyway? So we halved the recipe, since we were only cooking for the two of us anyway. Here it is, comments in bold:

Red Pepper Soup

Originally published in The New York Times, September 21, 2005

Total time: 45 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil
3¼ cup sliced onions
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup dry white wine
12 large red bell peppers, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 cups no-salt-added chicken stock or broth (we used vegetable broth instead.)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
¼ to ½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
Salt and white pepper
Crème fraîche for garnish
Thyme sprigs for garnish.

1. Put oil in large pot. Add onion when oil is hot. Cook onions until they begin to soften and take on color. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add wine and cook down quickly, until about 1 tablespoon is left.

2. Add peppers, stock, thyme and red pepper flakes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until peppers are tender, about 30 minutes.

3. In food processor or blender, purée mixture in batches until smooth. Adjust seasonings. (As usual, I used a hand blender instead. It was a little tricky because of the splattering of the hot soup. Alena was very nervous for me. But I've figured out that if you keep the blender submerged it splatters less.)

4. Cover and chill overnight or for as long as 2 days or freeze (whisk well before serving if thawed). Can also be served warm.

5. Serve in demitasse cups or soup bowls, topped with a dab of crème fraîche and a tiny sprig of thyme.

Yield: Makes six large servings, 12 demitasse size.

We didn't have any creme fraiche, or even sour cream, so we sprinkled some feta on top, as you can see in the photo. Delicious! Later, when I had leftovers, I put some Greek yogurt on top. Also delicious!

Now comes the salad:

Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
Adapted from Orangette, who adapted it from Casa Moro

Yield: 4 servings

For salad:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoons ground allspice (I skip this)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups)
1/4 of a medium red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

For tahini dressing:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt. Toss the squash pieces until evenly coated. Roast them on a baking sheet for 25 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Meanwhile, make the tahini dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and whisk to blend. Add the water and olive oil, whisk well, and taste for seasoning. The sauce should have plenty of nutty tahini flavor, but also a little kick of lemon. You will probably need to add more water to thin it out.

To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and cilantro or parsley in a mixing bowl. Either add the tahini dressing to taste, and toss carefully, or you could serve the salad with the dressing on the side. Serve immediately.

We followed the recipe pretty much exactly. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to use a little less dressing, or to leave it on the side. But it was still a great success. So many delicious flavors you would never think of combining! And the colors are so pretty. You can't really tell in the above photo. We really should have taken one before adding the dressing. Here is one from Smitten, which is pretty much what ours looked like:

This was the first time we actually finished cooking before the show! Both of these recipes are deceptively quick and easy. Perfect for a Monday night.