Tag Archives: lettuce

The Ultimate “Do Ahead” Dinner

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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!

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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.
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Cooking with Lettuce

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Dilly Lettuce SoupI’ve always wondered about cooking lettuce. I’ve seen romaine lettuce grilled, but other than that have never really researched cooking lettuce. So, when there was a recipe included with our harvest box this week for Creamy Lettuce Soup, I decided to go for it! The original recipe sounded good, but they sent us 3 heads of garlic this week, so I decided to add some to the soup. I also added some dill. These flavors blended really well with the subtle taste of the lettuce. Farmer Monte strongly recommends not using brown or slimy lettuce for this recipe, but a little wilt is OK. My daughter (a big salad eater) is coming home tonight. I hope there is some left for her to try!

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Dilly Lettuce Soup
Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill
  • salt to taste
  • 6 cups chopped lettuce
  • 2 egg yolks
  • ½ cup evaporated milk
Instructions
  1. Melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is softened, 5-7 minutes.
  2. Sprinkle flour over onions, stir to combine. Then add potatoes and stir to coat them with the butter. Add broth, dill, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes.
  3. Add lettuce. Continue cooking until lettuce is completely wilted. Puree with immersion blender.
  4. Whisk together the egg yolks and evaporated milk. Add about 3 ladlefuls of the soup into the milk mixture. Stir this back into the soup pot. Reheat over low heat if necessary.
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I might try a variation of this some time. It was really good!

Happy eating!

Ruth

Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Grilled Chicken SaladToday is my Mom’s birthday. She taught me a lot about cooking when I was younger, and still makes the world’s best chocolate chip cookies! Since she lives in Wisconsin and we live in Albuquerque, I don’t get to spend as much time with her as I wish I could.

No recipe today, just a picture of a yummy chicken salad I made recently. We got spring mix lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes in our box this week. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com to marinate the chicken, in only 15 minutes.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Ruth

 

My Lunch Salad

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lunch saladAs promised, I wanted to share my usual lunch salad. There is a certain amount of variation, based on what we have in the refrigerator.

The base of my salad is always lettuce. My favorite is spring mix, but my husband prefers Romaine; so that is usually what we have. If we have baby spinach around, that works well, too.

We got some beautiful tomatoes in our box this week, including one orange one that was just the right size for my lunch. If we don’t get tomatoes in our box, I usually get grape tomatoes. (It’s the lazy in me; no cutting!)

I almost always put some kind of protein in my lunch salad. If we have leftover grilled chicken, that is my favorite. However, I usually use canned black beans (rinsed well). They have lots of fiber to keep me full until dinner.

Other things I like to throw in my salad include dried cranberries, feta cheese, or other leftover vegetables. I top it off with low calorie dressing; my favorites are raspberry vinaigrette or Southwestern ranch.

What do you eat for lunch?

Happy eating!

Ruth