Thursday, April 10, 2014

Kale salad, again

After making the kale and quinoa salad the other day, it occurred to me that kale and any old grain is a good combo, because the toothiness of the grain offsets the crunchy of the kale nicely.  Recently, in Whole Foods, I had seen some kamut in the bulk aisle, and I was intrigued, so I got some.  No idea what it would taste like, so I figured I'd give it a try tonight.  It was tasty! and exactly what I wanted in my kale salad.  To add some other flavors and colors, I went with a grated carrot, a few sliced kumquats, and some dried cherries (since I still had them on hand.  Another reason I love Russos - they had dried cherries for "only" $11.99/lb, as opposed to Whole Foods' $18.99/lb. I don't even pay that for STEAK!).

For some protein, we fried up some tofu.  This is remarkably easy - add a quarter inch of vegetable oil to a small nonstick pan, and put in the tofu pieces, let them sit there for a few minutes, then flip them over. I found chopsticks were an excellent tool for this.

The dressing was a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of oil, and a pinch of kosher salt.  Pretty tasty, and got a good Ed-rating, too!


Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Strawberry balsamic goat cheese salad

While we were in California, they had a lot of strawberries, and a lot of avocados, on sale for really cheap at the gas-station-esque fruit stands in the central valley.  Most of the produce sort of looked too ripe for shipping, so I'm hoping it was just stuff that wasn't going to make it to grocery stores.  We may have gone through about 20 pounds of strawberries with not many people in not many days... yum.  Did you know strawberries are my favorite food? Anyway, we made a very tasty salad upon returning to San Francisco, with strawberries, toasted walnuts, avocados, goat cheese, and Russian purple kale. The dressing was a spicy balsamic, made with a habanero-infused olive oil and some awesome balsamic vinegar.  I could have eaten that all night long, but we ran out too soon... 


I suppose we can make this at home, no trip to California required, now that I think about it... 
(that's a pile of guacamole on the side. Another necessary part of being in CA was eating a ton of avocados. I did my part).