Julie's Fantabulous Pomegranate Salad

This salad is one of my all-time favourite salads! It packs a wallop of flavour, the crispness is out of control and it has cheese in it!...what more could a girl ask for?  It's great as a side salad with dinner, it works well as a main for lunch, but my favourite way to eat it is as my afternoon snack at work...keeps my mouth watering all day long!   Jules, I owe you big time for introducing me to this recipe.

Ingredients

• The seeds from 1 pomegranate (word to the wise, wear a red shirt when de-seeding)
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 1 head of romaine or green leaf lettuce
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and tear the lettuce up into bite-sized pieces.  Sprinkle the pine nuts, feta and pomegranate seeds on the salad.  Mix the remaining ingredients to form the dressing.  Drizzle over and either toss or eat as is.  Either way your taste buds will thank you!  Serves 4 solid salad servings.

Why hello Mr. Salad...my taste buds are looking forward to meeting you!

House Salad - Whitewater Cooks

When I was over at the Fit Family's house recently, I noticed that Fit Momma had the Whitewater Cooks at Home cookbook.  I always have a hard time narrowing down which recipe to try since they all sound so good, so I asked Fit Momma if there were any she would recommend and she said the House Salad.  When I read it over, it sounded good but not like anything special so I figured I'd make it to go with my lunches for the week.  My assessment of not anything special wrong sure was wrong!  Seriously a spectacular salad!  I had some with my lunch on the weekend to make sure I liked it and I had to have a talking to myself about leaving some for my lunches that week.  Yet another Whitewater Cooks recipe that you could whip up for lunches or for when you have guests over.  I love how easy and versatile they are!  Okay, on to my version of the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 head of lettuce (I used green leaf since that's what was at the farmer's market)
• 1 large beet or 2 medium size beets, grated (yet another reason I love my food processor...no more red hands!)
• 2 Roma-size tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds, toasted
• 1/2 cup of fresh dill, chopped
• 1/2 cup of feta, crumbled
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 dashes salt
• 4-5 grinds of pepper
• 1 tbsp. of chopped dill

Clean and tear/chop up the lettuce into your serving bowl.  Sprinkle the grated beets, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, dill and feta over top.  In a small container (I used a small canning jar) combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and tablespoon of dill.  Shake to combine well.  Pour over the salad, or serve on the side.  Serves 4 generous servings.

The House Salad!

Lunch!  Olive Rosemary bread care of Pure Bread...amazing!

 

http://www.whitewatercooks.com/books.html

 

http://www.purebread.ca/

Twitter: @Purebreadwhis

Culver City Salads

I recently made my first trip to Culver City Salads with one of my favourite ex-colleagues of all-time.  Normally I'm so busy busting a gut (literally...I swear I get a better ab workout with her than at the gym!) with this ex-colleague that the food takes second place...but my salad from Culver City Salads was so good this time that it actually demanded attention between tears of laughter.

Culver City Salads is one of the new food trucks this year and I'm sure happy it's out and about on the streets now!  The salad was amazing, the ladies in the truck were super friendly and happy, service was quick since the salads are made fresh every morning (no 15 minute line-up here!), the prices were reasonable, and I was really impressed with their eco-friendly attitude.  Every part of their container was recyclable or compostable and they even had a jug of water for you to fill up for free, as long as you had your own container.  After this trip, Culver City Salads has quickly jumped onto my favourite food trucks list.  Definitely a must visit!

Things to note: (1) Cash only. (2) They are located in the new food truck pod at the Queen E theater (corner of Georgia and Hamilton), and (3) How it works: (a) pick your salad, (b) pick your dressing.  The Creamy Green dressing is their staple dressing.

My Soba Salad: spinach, arugula, mixed greens, soba noodles, chopped cabbage, blanched cauliflower, lentils, shredded carrot, zucchini, beets, sesame seeds, avocado and edible flowers with the Creamy Green dressing (miso, tahini, parsley, apple cider vinegar and garlic).  So fresh and absolutely scrumptious!  I was also very impressed with the size and contents.  It's not very often that I find a salad that will fill me up for lunch, but this one got me 99% of the way there.  If I had asked for extra avocado and extra soba noodles, it would have been perfect!  ($9)

The truck!  So cute. 

The menu.  I love the fact that it's set up like post-its on the side of the truck!

http://www.culvercitysalads.com/

Twitter: @Culvercitysalad 

My very own creation...

So, I am 100% a meal planner for the week.  Mainly because I have an out of control appetite and making sure I always have food on hand helps keep it in check, but I also find it just makes making meals easier.  However, this week I got mixed up at the grocery store and I didn't buy enough veggies for dinners...gasp!!!  I started scrounging through the fridge and discovered I had about 3/4 of a bunch of parsley left.  At first I thought, "Well that won't be of any help."  Then I remembered my favourite part about shawarma...okay, I won't lie, I love absolutely everything about shawarma...but I do get a little bit extra excited about the parsley salad that often comes with it!

I got out my handy dandy computer and googled "parsley salad" and got the response of Tabbouleh.  I then did some crazy detective work, also known as going to www.allrecipes.com , and looked up some Tabbouleh recipes.  Most of the recipes I found included some sort of grain (bulgar, quinoa, etc.) and the recipe I wanted to try and recreate didn't have any grains in it, so I decided to wing it.  Good news is that it turned out pretty darn good and I think I'll incorporate it pretty regularly into my meal making this summer.  If you're interested in giving it a try yourself, here goes:

Ingredients

• About 1 tsp of olive oil
• Juice from 1/4 of a lemon
• Dash of salt
• Couple grinds of pepper
• 1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped fine
• 1/2 roma tomato, chopped fine
• 1 very thin slice of yellow onion, chopped fine

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper until it's a dressing consistency and you like the taste.  Add the remaining ingredients, combine and eat!  Makes approximately 1 side serving for  1 person.