Category Archives: Salads

Happy Memorial Day!

Summer BBQ season is here. I usually leave the meat grilling to my husband, and focus on side dishes. This baby bok choy salad would be a great side with almost any main course.

Baby Bok Choy Salad

Baby Bok Choy Salad
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6 servings
 
Ingredients
  • 4 small heads of baby bok choy, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 cup cut green beans
  • 4 green onions, sliced into 3 inch pieces and then thinly lengthwise
  • ¼ cup almond slices, toasted
  • ½ cup chow mein noodles
  • Asian salad dressing
Instructions
  1. Combine bok choy, carrots, beans, and onions in a large bowl.
  2. Toss with dressing.
  3. Top with almonds and chow mein noodles. Serve immediately.

On this Memorial Day, remember those who died in service to the USA.

More Recipe Sharing

It is Balloon Fiesta week in Albuquerque. This is my favorite time of year here-I love watching the balloons. (Though, I hate the traffic.) We had our niece and her husband over for the weekend, which always means lots of good eating. We had a barbeque on Saturday night. None of the recipes are original, but they were really good. So, I’m going to post a couple of links to great recipes.

Polynesian Coleslaw

This Polynesian Coleslaw recipe from allrecipes.com was absolutely fantastic! I wish I had a better picture to really do it justice. The only adjustment I made was to use carrots instead of bell pepper. I served it will shish kebobs made with marinated beef (great recipe from allrecipes), tomatoes from my garden, bell peppers from the garden and our box, and squash from our box.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! Hope you are having a relaxing day off from your usual labors.

I made Macaroni salad with a New Mexico twist  yesterday. I wanted to use as much produce from my garden as possible. I found a recipe for Jalapeno Ranch Dressing from Closet Cooking, which was the perfect dressing for this salad.

Macaroni Salad a la New Mexico

I only used one jalapeno pepper in the dressing, which was great for us. Obviously, an extra pepper (or leaving in some seeds) would give you more heat. The jalapeno peppers and tomatoes came from our garden, the carrots, lime and onion from our harvest box.

Macaroni Salad a la New Mexico
Recipe type: Salad
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ pound macaroni, cooked
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 3 carrots, shredded
  • ½ small onion, minced
  • ¼ cup buttermilk
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, stem and seeds removed
  • juice of ½ of a lime
  • handful of cilantro
Instructions
  1. Combine cooked macaroni, tomatoes, carrots, and onion in a large bowl.
  2. In the blender, combine buttermilk, mayonnaise, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro. Process until smooth. Pour over salad, toss to combine.
  3. Chill salad for at least 1 hour.

 

The Ultimate “Do Ahead” Dinner

I love sweet potatoes, but they do take a fairly long time to cook. Too long to make them on a work night. I was searching for something to do with the sweet potatoes in our box, when I came across several different recipes for a southwest salad. I decided to do some prep ahead work over the weekend, so that I could get dinner ready quickly during the week. Since the salad required cooked and chilled foods, this became the ultimate opportunity to cook ingredients ahead and have a great dinner during the week.

Southwest Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad

The recipe I used for the dressing is adapted from this recipe from Hispanic Kitchen. It was less spicy than I anticipated, which was actually a good thing!

Southwest Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad
Recipe type: Main, Salad
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound sweet potatoes
  • 1 cup olive oil, divided
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 ears corn, husks removed
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin, divided
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 6 cups lettuce
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • ½ cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained.
  • 2 limes
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • handful of fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
  1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut lengthwise into ½ inch thick slices. Brush the sweet potatoes with ¼ cup of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.
  2. Heat grill to medium heat. Grill sweet potatoes until cooked through, turning once. At the same time, grill the corn, turning frequently. This will take about 15 minutes.
  3. Combine chili powder and 1 teaspoon of cumin. Rub over chicken breasts. Grill chicken breasts until cooked through, turning once. (About 10 minutes.)
  4. Let sweet potatoes, corn, and chicken cool. Cut corn kernels from cobs. Thinly slice chicken.
  5. While everything is cooling, make the dressing. Zest one of the limes, and juice both limes. In a blender, combine lime zest and juice, jalapeno pepper, garlic, cilantro, and remaining teaspoon of cumin. Blend until smooth. With blender running, drizzle in the remaining ¾ cup of olive oil.
  6. The above steps can all be done ahead, with everything refrigerated until serving time.
  7. Divide lettuce among plates. Top with tomato, cooked sweet potatoes, cooked corn, black beans, and sliced chicken. Drizzle dressing over.

 

Kale Salad

My original plan for the kale in our box this week was to use it for a casserole for dinner. When I was searching for a recipe, I came across a recipe for Kale Slaw on Bon Appetit. We were invited to a barbeque over the weekend, so I figured, “why not!”
(I can’t believe I experimented on my friends!)

Apple Kale Slaw

I loved the balsamic vinaigrette recipe I found at Chinese Grandma. I had some left, and can’t wait to take it to work for my salad tomorrow!

Apple Kale Slaw
Recipe type: Salad
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • ½-1 cup balsamic vinaigrette (see post for a link to a great recipe)
  • 1 bunch kale
  • 1 apple, julienned
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • ⅓ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
  1. Combine kale, apple, carrot, and cranberries. Dress with desired amount of balsamic vinaigrette. Chill at least 1 hour before serving.