Salads
Sweet Roasted Roots Top a Hearty Salad
‘Tis the season to roast things. Turn that oven on to warm up and get cozy, and as long as it’s on, roast up a mess of vegetables. For a fun take on salad, try this Roasted Roots and Quinoa Salad, on a bed of spinach, and topped with a tangy Pomegranate vinaigrette. The sweet, earthy roots are beautiful to behold, and meltingly tender to bite.
Roasted Squash and Pear Salad, For the Holidays
I know, everybody looks forward to their holiday faves, whatever they may be. Sometimes, the table gets crowded with heavy comfort food, with a token vegetable just to keep it legal. Don’t forget the salad! A Roasted Squash and Pear Salad with Tart Cherry Vinaigrette is the perfect holiday salad. Your diners will get palate fatigue from all those salty, rich foods, and need a bite of something light and crunchy. Even if they are saving room for pie, they will be drawn to this colorful salad, full of snap and drizzled with a tangy dressing.
Tangy, Crunchy Asian Pear Salad
I love The flavors of Thai food. I often make Thai favorites like Marinated Grilled Tofu or the spectacular Blue Rice with Satay Sauce. Often when I’ve got my Pad Thai or tofu, I want a salad to go with it. That’s when this crisp, colorful Tangy Asian Pear Salad hits the spot. It’s simple and easy to assemble, and makes great use of the Asian Pear, which may not be a regular on your menus.
Sweet Potato and Artichoke Salad
Do you want a salad that really says “Fall?” A little more substantial, delicious warm, with some cooked vegetables as well as raw? This Mediterranean-inspired sweet potato salad delivers a riot of colors, flavors, and textures to wake your palate from its slumber. With tender sweet potato cubes, crunchy celery and peppers, tangy olives and capers, and a garlicky lemon dressing, this is sure to be your new Fall favorite.
Moroccan Carrot and Tart Cherry Salad- Meal Prep Salad
Do you eat a salad with dinner? It’s a good habit to have, as long as it doesn’t get repetitive. If you’re getting bored with your usual green salad, try this easy carrot salad, with tangy tart cherries and a little Moroccan-inspired spice. It’s a make-ahead salad, that actually improves with a few hours in the refrigerator, making it a savvy meal-preppers dream. This is my go-to as a side for a Tagine, or to jazz up any meal.
Thai Tofu and Tomato Salad
When I go to my favorite Thai restaurant, there are some classic salads, like Green Papaya Salad, or variations on Larb. But when I’m making a Thai-style meal at home, sometimes I want a salad with the sour-salty-sweet-hot flavors of Thai food but made from the seasonal produce from my garden and the Farmer’s Market. That’s when I make a salad like this, one, with roasted tofu strips, and easy lime and chili dressing, and the colorful veggies I have on hand.
Refreshing Watermelon and Tomato Salad with Mint
The convergence of ripe watermelon, tomatoes and mint makes this salad inevitable, as if it existed in nature long before anyone put it together. Watermelon Salad with Spearmint is sure to be on repeat at your dinner table until Fall!
Mexican Kale and Black Bean Salad with Avocado
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and this salad came about because I needed a side for Mexican meals. When I’m making menus for clients, It gets repetitive to give them the same guac and green salad on the side of their tacos. So, I took the massaged kale salad and gave it a Mexican flavor makeover. Thanks to the black beans and avocado, this is also hefty enough to have as a main course.
Make Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad
We are all waiting with bated breath for the sunshine, so I thought I’d make a salad that’s like a big burst of sunshine in a bowl. This Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad is a juicy and tangy way to enjoy the citrus of winter as we wait for the first berries and sprouts to come to fruition.
Roasted Beet and Hazelnut Salad, a Classic for the Holidays
Whether it’s for the big holiday meal, or any time of year, a roasted beet salad is a colorful way to eat your vegetables. Roasting beets turns them sweet and soft, and they play well with crisp greens and a tangy dressing. Your typical beet salad relies on chevre or bleu cheese for a counterpoint, but in this one, crunchy hazelnuts do the job.
Grilled Plum Salad-A Kiss Of Fire Makes Fruit Sing!
After we’ve eaten our fill of the juicy fruits au naturel, I like to move to the Plums were made for the grill. Just a few minutes on the hot grates softens and sweetens the fruit. Then they are ready for this salad. I always place them cut side down at first, to get a little marking on the surface and start the cooking, then flip them. Then, the skin of the fruit holds the juices in, keeping the fruit from exploding and losing all it’s sweet liquids to the fire. This time, I sprinkled with a little cinnamon.
Meal Prep for Carrot Bars and Moroccan Salad
Meal Prep is The Key!
In today’s blog and video, I’m featuring one easy meal prep item: shredded carrots. I love using my food processor to make my life easier, and this is a prime example. Just shred carrots and you’ll have them ready to go, to toss in salads, or to make these two easy recipes.
Save Time, Shred Your Salad
When it’s cold outside, a bowl of leafy greens may not be what you are craving. May I suggest something heartier? My food processor makes it easy to turn some wintry cabbage and root veggies into a crunchy, riotously colorful salad that keeps for a week in the refrigerator. You can get all the benefits of eating raw veggies with your meals, and take a break from the same old mixed greens.
Kimchi Noodles with Tofu- a Riot of Flavor
This dish is made from plants, from the grains in the noodles, to the beans that were transformed into soy sauce. That’s a given. But whenever I cook, I try to add a few more vegetables. Get that noodle to veggie ratio just right, so it feels like a bowl of slippery noodles, but it’s also a bowl of fresh, crunchy veggies. I love my carbs, and I look at them as the comforting, lovable friends they are. But the veg to noodle ratio should be balanced a little toward the veg side. This dish achieves the right mix, with just enough noodles, and just the right amount of snappy snap peas and crisp carrots.
Winter Salad with Oranges and Cava, Holiday Fare!
Citrus Season is Here, Perfect for Winter Salads When I was a girl, my Grandmother would send us oranges at Christmas. Dorothy was big on fruit. Then she'd tell us of the days when oranges were rare treat in the Northern states, and how excited all the children would...
Pear Party- Make Two Perfect Pear Dishes for Fall
You can spend a lifetime seeking that perfect pear, and find as many frustrating pear experiences as ecstatic ones. That’s why I made this video, to show you the simplest, most valuable fact I’ve learned about pears.
Have You Tried Fresh Edamamae?
Fresh Edamame pods are a seasonal treat, and when they come to market, snap up a few bunches to boil, then either eat them as a snack, or slip the beans from the hulls and use them in salads, soups, dips, and anywhere you might use a bean or pea.
What Are Garlic Scapes, and What Do I Do with Them?
Garlic Scapes appear briefly at the Farmer’s Market and in CSA boxes in early summer, and are worth snapping up for a seasonal feast.
Beets and Cukes in Miso Dressing with Pickled Ginger
I love beets. Their sweet, earthy essence seems to scare some people away, but not me. I do find it frustrating that the only way that beets are served in restaurants these days is in a salad with feta, chevre, or bleu. The sweetness of the beets is a perfect foil for...
Sesame Turmeric Dressing Prep Makes the Week Easy
It's all about that Prep If you want to eat well, you have to meal prep. One of the most basic meal components to prep is your salad dressing. It's sooo quick to make, and sooo much better than the store-bought stuff. If you've been known to buy salad greens, only to...
Get to the Farmers Market and Make a Potato and Green Bean Salad
It's potato salad season, in all its glory. Tender young, locally grown potatoes are at my Farmer's Market, along with a bounty of fresh, seasonal veggies that can make a potato salad a little more exciting than the standard one. Take my Potato and Green Bean Salad...
Make Blue Potato Salad with Chive Blossoms for a Quick and Colorful Meal
Does it seem that I'm obsessed with blue food? Purple sweet potatoes, purple corn and purple barley have made frequent cameos here on the blog, in all their chromatic glory. Blue Potato Salad is just the latest. I suppose my eye is drawn to the exotic, as I traipse...
Cross-Pollinating Ideas at the Grain Gathering
Some people take time off at the end of July to visit a white sand beach. But there's no barley at the beach. Instead, at 3;45 am, I found myself driving in darkness, about an hour North of Seattle, navigating country roads to get to an experimental grain field before...
Try a Sweet, Tender Hakurei Turnip in Salad, Fall in Love
Turnips never make the list of sexy vegetables. I haven't yet heard that turnips will be the "new kale," but who knows, maybe the fruity crunch of Hakurei Turnips will change all that. Unlike the usual purple tinged, pink, or just kind of rough looking over-wintered...
Get to Know a Rambutan from a Mangosteen, with Asian Fruit Salad
Are you bored with berries? Maybe apples make you yawn, and a slice of watermelon fills you with overwhelming ennui? You need to step out on your usual fruit loves and try something new. Might I suggest a trip to your local Asian market to seek out some exotic Asian...
Tasting Minnesota with Betsy Nelson, A Curated Collection in a Cookbook
When you try to answer a question like "What is Minnesota food?" you can make yourself crazy, just trying to sort out where Minnesota cuisine begins and ends. Is it the food of the first wave of immigrants, or the tenth, or do you include the latest? Well, leave it...
Celebrate Stress Awareness Month with Pesto Kale Salad
Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? (Stressed Inner voice: HOW DID IT SLIP BY ME!?!?! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!) Yes, it's a whole month in which we should take a deep breath, stop beating ourselves up for not knowing that it's stress awareness month, and...
Spring Radishes Star in Mexican Jicama and Orange Salad
Craving something light and Springy? These days I'm all about crunch, and tangy citrus flavors that seem to taste of the sunshine. The winter doldrums are lifting, and all the energy is flowing again. It's amazing how you learn to live in darkness and cold, only to...
Astonishing Apples and Applepanzanella
So many fruits are divas, temperamental and finicky. Is that peach ripe, or will I cut into it and find it spongy? Is that mango ever going to ripen, or just turn from rock-hard to mushy overnight? Not the apple. Buy a whole bag, put them in the drawer in the fridge,...
My New Book, The Whole Grain Promise is Here!
I'm so proud to announce that my seventh book, The Whole Grain Promise, More Than 100 Delicious Recipes To Jumpstart a Healthier Diet (Running Press, $19.95), hits bookstore shelves on October 6. If you haven't noticed, whole grains are at the core of my cooking. I...