salad days

salad is one of my favorite dinners during warm summer months. salad, a glass of wine maybe, ahh, perfection. it's an awesome way to showcase locally grown produce if you like farmers markets or garden. if you prepare the lettuce ahead of time, you can have dinner ready in minutes on days when it's just too hot to cook.

my salad was simple. the photo above shows lettuce (which i washed and spun earlier today), mushrooms, tomatoes, green pepper, black olives, and cucumber. i also like to add tofu for protein; marinate if you like (i used broth, greek seasoning, and garlic) before frying or baking.

dressing can be a simple vinaigrette or even just a drizzle of some good olive oil, but i prefer creamier stuff. i used this recipe as a guideline, but eyeballed all of the measurements and probably added almost twice as much because i thought it was too bland. i think it also tastes better if you let it sit for a few hours or even overnight, so plan accordingly.


(i know all of my photos look the same lately, but it's hard to maneuver around a dim kitchen when the weather is yucky.)

it is hard to photograph tofu strips and salad dressing and make it look ok, just sayin'.

after i snapped this picture, i dumped on a bunch more dressing. because i love dressing, possibly more than the vegetables or tofu.

fresh veggie overload!

these past few days i've been subsisting off of quesadillas. all of the dairy's been making me feel kind of gross so i thought today i should have something more healthy.

i've had my eye on the pioneer woman's favorite salad for a while so i was pretty psyched to make it today. lots of chopping. i realized when i was making the dressing that i didn't have sesame oil. disappointment! so i harassed my brother over text messages to try to get him to bring me the sesame oil in his apartment. after bribing him with freshly baked cookies (i started to make chocolate chip cookies when i was waiting), he called me and told me he was on his way.

now my brother is a meat-and-potatoes type of person. he rarely eats vegatables but admits to popping a frozen pizza in the oven a few days a week. when he came over with the coveted sesame oil i offered him some salad and he really liked it. sweet success! little brother does like some vegetables!

Asian Noodle Salad
adapted from Jamie Oliver by the Pioneer Woman

SALAD INGREDIENTS:

1 package linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled

1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage
1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin
1 small bag bean sprouts
3 sliced scallions
3 peeled, sliced cucumbers
LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch

DRESSING:

Juice of 1 lime
8 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped
More chopped cilantro—LOTS

Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.
*Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.


this made a LOT of salad. pretty yummy though! i'll be eating off of this for the rest of the week. i think it would be tasty with some fried tofu (my brother suggested chicken, haha).

also ugh, i hate the way the lighting in my kitchen is yellow and how i fail at fixing pictures on the computer. oh well. hopefully i'll get better at that.