A very summery salad: baby potato, tomato, asparagus

Roasted Baby Potato, Cherry Tomato and Asparagus Salad

Oh, summer! It’s the season where creative salads can take the place of hot vegetables as side dishes, and make a table look wonderfully colorful and bright.

At the start of the summer, I glanced at a recipe for a potato salad with a difference in a newspaper or magazine, and then I promptly forgot where I read it. So I decided to put together my own version and include some of my favorite summer additions. My salad is a roasted baby potato and cherry tomato salad with blanched asparagus in a red onion vinaigrette. It’s a wonderful salad that raises the level of the old fashioned potato salad and adds lots of color and flavor. My recipe is for the full version, where you oven roast the potatoes and the cherry tomatoes. But you can also boil the potatoes instead (although I highly recommend the roasted version as the potatoes emerge form the oven with a sweetness you can never achieve in a pot of boiling water), and you can use sun dried tomatoes in olive oil (again, I recommend the home made version which is a little more work but the flavor is just wonderful).

The oven roasted/dried tomatoes are a really wonderful ingredient, and so versatile. You can use them standalone as a great addition to a brunch table, with cheeses and breads – they’re delicious on fresh bread with any kind of cream cheese. You can also add some cubed feta or Bulgarian cheese and thinly sliced red onion and serve them as a salad. This is also a great way to generate amazing flavor out of cherry or small vine tomatoes that have no taste (it happens sometimes.) When I buy tomatoes that are tasteless I always oven dried them. This draws out their flavor and it’s really amazing to taste the difference.

ROASTED BABY POTATO, CHERRY TOMATO AND ASPARAGUS SALAD IN RED ONION VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

Salad

Olive oil

About 1 kg (2 lb) baby/new potatoes unpeeled and washed

About 500g (1 lb) cherry or small vine tomatoes sliced in half

Salt and pepper

1 bunch fresh asparagus (about 20 spears) with the ends snapped off*

A handful of chopped fresh parsley

Dressing

1 whole head of garlic (roasted)

1 small red onion or half a red onion

½ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons grainy Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

How to do it

Potatoes all roasted and sweet with garlic for company

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)

2. Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray and sprinkle it with olive oil. Place the potatoes on the tray along with the head of garlic. Roast in the oven for about an hour, stirring after about half an hour. When the potatoes have browned a little and a fork slides very easily through one, they are ready. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut into bite sized chunks – not too small.

3. Turn the heat up to 220°C (430°F).

4. Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray and sprinkle it with olive oil. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on the paper. Sprinkle them with some salt and pepper and roast them for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Oven roasted/dried tomatoes

5. Lower the temperature of the oven to 150°C (300°F) and continue to roast them for another 30-45 minutes or until they have shriveled to about half their size (don’t et them burn – when they start turning a brown color, it’s time to take them out). Allow to cool.

6. Bring water to a boil in a large pot (make sure the pot is wide enough for the asparagus to lie in fully submerged. Add some salt when the water starts boiling. Add the asparagus to the boiling water. Boil for no more than 2 minutes from the time the asparagus hit the water. Remove the asparagus and plunge them into a bowl of ice water (this keeps the green color from fading and stops the cooking process immediately so the asparagus remain crunchy). Drain. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Asparagus snapped to get rid of the hard bits

Now you have all the components of the salad cooked, it’s time to make the dressing.

7. Place the red onion, cut into smaller chunks, in a food processor, and process it using the large chopping blade. Then add the rest of the dressing ingredients and the roasted garlic cloves and blend till combined. Mix together will all the salad ingredients and serve.

Waiting for the dressing

Note: You can easily adjust the quantities in this recipe for a larger salad. Double the dressing quantities and keep the leftovers for another day.

*The way to remove the hard ends of fresh asparagus is simply to take the spear of asparagus in both hands and bend until it snaps. Where it breaks is the point where the spear becomes hard. Discard the hard ends. (You can snap a few at a time).

Back to normal eating with a delicious couscous salad

It’s time to get back into a routine after the excitement of Yom Ha’atzmaut. Like most Israelis, we ate a lot of meat last week. So for my first recipe of this week, I thought I’d go meatless with a vegetarian couscous salad. As summer approaches, this is a great recipe for the seasonal repertoire. It works well as a side-dish that you can make a day before and serve on Shabbat re-heating. It’s also a really simple standby recipe that’s great to make when you have vegetarians over as it’s really filling.

Couscous vegetable salad

For this one, I use the instant couscous because it’s hardier than the home-made version, and it’s also a lot quicker to prepare. Make sure you buy the heavy couscous, which will stand up to being kept in the refrigerator and won’t get mushy.You can also improvise with the vegetables – these are my favorites for this recipe, but you can have lots of fun adding your favorite vegetables as well.

COUSCOUS VEGETABLE SALAD

Ingredients

1 350g (12 oz) bag heavy couscous

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium carrots finely diced (a fine dice means that the slice should be about 2 mm wide at most – the width about 5 mm)

2 sticks celery diced

1 large onion chopped

2 red peppers chopped

1 cup frozen or canned corn

4-5 cloves of garlic crushed

2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

A dash of cumin (optional)

How to do it

1. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet.

Sauteed vegetables for the salad

2. Add the onions, carrots, celery and red peppers and saute until they are just softening (about 4-5 minutes). Add the garlic and stir.

3. Add the corn, parsley and other spices and saute until the corn is thawed.

4. Prepare the couscous according to the instructions on the bag. Make sure to toss the couscous through with a fork once it’s done.

5. Mix the couscous and the vegetables together.

Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled. Serves about 8.

Eggplant Made Simple

The way I see it, eggplant is to Israeli cuisine what herring is to Eastern European Jewish cooking. What am I on about? When I was growing up, my mother was the queen of herring, and prepared this salty fish in so many different ways: Pickled herring, Danish Herring (in a mustardy sauce), Russian Herring (in tomato sauce), pineapple herring (yes indeed, in a cream sauce!), chopped herring (that Jewish party favorite, served with kichel), and, horror of horrors, baked herring, or as it was known in our house “gebakte herring” – an awful herring-based meat loaf that couldn’t easy double as an instrument of torture. Baked herring was without doubt one of the main culprits in Eastern European Jewish cooking never quite making it as one the the world’s great cuisines. I can still smell the stench of the baking herring permeating through the house…

While my folk spent many an hour dreaming up new and exciting ways with herring, here in Israel, the eggplant seems to have taken on a similar role, only, in my humble opinion, the results are much tastier. Any trip to an Israeli supermarket or local eatery will present you with an array of different eggplant salads – eggplant in tehina, eggplant in mayonaise, roasted eggplant salad, spicy eggplant, and then there’s fried eggplant slices, and more. One of my favorite ways to serve eggplant is the locally popular half eggplant with tehina. This is one of the most elegant ways to serve Israeli “herring”, and is extremely easy to prepare. It’s a great side dish for a BBQ or any other meal. It’s parev and of course, vegetarian, so it ticks many boxes.

I recommend looking for smaller eggplants so that you can give a half an eggplant per serving instead of having to cut them in half at the table.

For this year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut, why don’t you give this simple dish a try, and watch your guests be very impressed.

ROASTED EGGPLANT SERVED WITH TEHINA

Ingredients 

Roasted Eggplant Served with Tehina

6 small eggplants

Olive oil

2/3 cup of raw tehina

About 2/3 cup of cold water

2 small cloves of garlic crushed

The juice of half a lemon (or more, to taste)

½ cup chopped fresh parsley (about half is for garnish)

Salt to taste

How to do it

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)

2. Wash the eggplants, snip off the spikey part of the stem leaves and slice them length-ways down the middle. Brush the cut side of each half with some olive oil (the oil will be absorbed into the eggplant and it will not seem oily, but don’t add more.)

3. Place the eggplant halves cut side down directly onto a clean oven rack. (Tip: Place an oven tray below the rack covered with a piece of baking paper or foil to collect the drippings and keep your oven clean.) Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cut sides are brown and the flesh is soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

4. Prepare the tehina: In a bowl, mix the raw tehina, lemon juice and crushed garlic. Slowly add the water, mixing until you get a thick, but slightly runny consistency (runnier than hummus). Add the chopped parsley and salt to taste.

5. Serve each eggplant half with some tehina sauce drizzled over the top. Sprinkle with some more chopped parsley to garnish.

Makes 12 servings

Brynn’s East Meets East Noodle Salad

This past Shabbat, I ate the most delicious Asian-style noodle salad I’ve eaten in a long time. My sister-in-law Brynn had added her own twist to an Asian recipe by adding, of all things, tehina, to the sauce. It’s a combination that really works and gives the salad a wonderful depth. I suppose if you don’t want to use the tehina or can’t be bothered to make it, then you can use about 4 tablespoons of peanut butter instead. But I highly recommend this version, which I have dubbed East Meets East Noodle Salad, as it brings together ingredients from the Far and Middle East into one dish.

I am so glad that Brynn agreed to share this recipe with all of us! It will certainly become a regular on my table and I’m sure it will on yours too. It works beautifully as a first course as well as a side dish. And the tehina raises the nutrition bar on this dish. It’s also easy to remember as you’ll see by the quantities.

Thanks Brynn!

EAST MEETS EAST NOODLE SALAD 

Ingredients 

East Meets East Noodle Salad

500 g (1 lb) spaghetti (I recommend #3 but use what you prefer)

Dressing

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 tablespoons soy sauce

6 tablespoons white, apple, or rice vinegar

6 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

A splash of chili oil

Tehina

1 cup of raw tehina (sesame paste)

About ¾ cup water

2 large crushed garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

About 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Spring onion or toasted sesame seeds to garnish.

How to do it

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions, till al dente

2. Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a jar

3. Prepare the tehina (do not add parsley)

4. Mix the dressing, tehina and spaghetti together.

5. Garnish with chopped spring onions, or roasted sesame seeds or both!

Serve cold or room temperature.

Simple Salads

I’m always reticent to post extremely simple recipes, not wanting to state what could be perceived as the obvious. But on the other hand, some of my simplest recipes invite the question: “How do you make this?” The fact is that when you’re making a full three course meal, it’s always nice to have some simple recipes to throw in that don’t require a long list of ingredients and also look and taste good.

One of my favorites is beet salad. I love beets and always have. I was raised in a home where borscht in the winter and cold beet soup served with cream and boiled potatoes in the summer were staples (and we called them beetroot). My husband and sons unfortunately hate beets, so it took me a long time to introduce this vegetable to our table, and I only make this when we’re having guests. But I make this whenever I can as it’s great as a leftover, which you can’t say for too may salads.

Beet and Mint Salad

The most difficult part of making this simple salad is dicing the beets, but as long as you are using a good, sharp knife, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The rest is a breeze.

BEET AND MINT SALAD

Ingredients

3 large beets

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

4 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt and pepper

How to do it

1. Peel and dice the beets using a very sharp, large knife. The smaller the dice the shorter the cooking time will be – I cut them into approximate 1×2 cm pieces, but you don’t have to be scientific about it. Note: If you get beets with the stalks, which we hardly ever get in Israel, do chop the thick parts up and add them to the mix – they are delicious when cooked.

2. Place in a medium sized saucepan and cover the beets with water – about 5 cm (2 inches) above the beets. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat, simmering for about 30-45 minutes or until the beets are soft when tested with a fork.

3. Drain the water and leave to cool completely.

4. In an airtight container or dressing jar, mix the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper well. Pour over the cooled beets. Add the mint leaves and mix. Taste and add extra seasoning if required.

Serves about 8.

A Salad that’s a Keeper

I’m always on the lookout for new salads that are more exciting that the usual lettuce cucumber combo, but without too much work involved. I mean, let’s face it, by the time you’ve finished cooking your entire meal, you don’t have too much energy left for making salad. So I was delighted when an Asian slaw I recently tried out from Bill Granger’s beautiful “Bill’s Everyday Asian” recipe book (which has great recipes in it) ticked all the salad boxes for me. It didn’t take very long to make and it was so delicious that when I wanted a second helping, I was too late!

I didn’t have any fresh mint or red cabbage in the house when I made this, so I left them out out and increased the white cabbage quantity  Next time I will definitely add the mint, but I can honestly say that without it and the red cabbage, it was still wonderful. In fact, it was really the dressing that was the star here, with all the best in Asian ingredients turning this one into a keeper in my house.

ASIAN SLAW

Ingredients 

Asian Slaw

1 small red onion halved and very thinly sliced

500 g (1 lb) white cabbage thinly sliced

200 g (7 oz) red cabbage thinly sliced

2 peppers (yellow or red) thinly sliced

A handful of shredded fresh mint leaves

Dressing Ingredients

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

100 ml (3.4 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

2 crushed garlic cloves

4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

How to do it

1. Place all the sliced vegetables in a large salad bowl.

2. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together well. Note: This makes a lot of dressing and I didn’t put it all on the salad, but I am very glad I have some left over to use again!

3. Toss the salad and allow to sit for about half an hour before serving.

Starting the week off slowly with a very easy salad

Oy, it’s Sunday already. Time to start the week and think about menus for the next few days.

For Friday night, I made a roasted red onion salad, and it’s really very simple. So I thought I’d share this one with you so we can ease into the week slowly. I saw this salad being made years ago on “The Barefoot Contessa”. I didn’t even write down a recipe because it’s just that simple. I probably don’t make it exactly the same way Ina Garten does, but the result are delicious, so it really doesn’t matter.

Once you’ve roasted the onions, you add them to a lettuce medley, add a balsamic vinaigrette and you’re done.

ROASTED RED ONION AND LETTUCE SALAD 

Roasted Onion and Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

3 large red onions halved and sliced (don’t slice too thinly – about ¼ inch. If you slice them too thinly, they’ll dry out in the oven)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

About 300 g (10 oz) iceberg or Arab lettuce washed and cut into bite sized pieces

About 300 g (10 oz) assorted baby leaves

For dressing:

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

About 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon grainy Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon granulated garlic powder

Salt and ground black pepper

How to do it

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)

2. Place a sheet of baking paper on an oven tray and drizzle the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it. Place the onions in an even layer on the sheet.

Even spread onions on a baking tray

3. Bake the onions for 15 minutes. Then mix them around and bake them for another 10 minutes (until soft).

4. Remove from the oven and drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over the hot onions. Allow the onions to cool completely.

5. Wash, dry and place all the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Mix the onions in.

6. Put all salad dressing ingredients into a salad dressing shaker or any airtight jar and shake until well mixed.

7. Dress the salad just before serving.