Tag Archives: salad

Roasted Eggplant Tomato Arugula Salad

Posted by Freedom Fro in Fun with Food and tagged with , , , , , ,

Howdy Ho! So, contrary to the title of this recipe, please use the word ‘salad’ lightly. We scored big at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market today and I was keen to make something…anything…with arugula.  I had never had arugula until I spent 5 weeks in Montreal last summer. My partner’s cousin made a pizza for us, inspired by time she spent in Australia. This pizza had roasted squash, cheese and was topped with arugula. AH-MAZING!

I wanted a hearty meal for us, because we are having some tasty beverages in preparation to go out and see some funky DJ’s in my city, Vancouver tonight (DJ Deekline and Funkonomics).

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small round eggplants, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
3 roma tomatoes, chopped into quarters
3 tbsp red wine vinegar (or balsamic)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp italian seasoning (alternates could be basil or oregano)
1/2 tsp chilli pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 large handful of arugula
liberal amounts of your best crumbled feta cheese (optional)

preheat oven to 450 degrees

ze eggplant raw!

Put all of the ingredients (except for arugula and feta) into a roasting pan and toss. Roast for approx 40 minutes, turning about every 10 minutes, until eggplant is golden and tender to your liking.

Put roasted goodness onto serving plates and top with arugula and crumbled feta.

 

 

 

 

DONE! We tossed this up well so the feta could get a bit melty and the arugula could welt slightly. This was a nice dinner…though I wonder if it was hearty enough? Oh well, if we’re hungry later, we’ll grab a slice of pizza ;-)

Salad for Dinner?

Posted by Freedom Fro in Fun with Food, Musings and tagged with , , , , ,

The lack of recipes being posted is not a reflection of the lack of good stuff we’ve been eating. I just haven’t been very organized for the past week and have been throwing meals together too quickly to photograph or write down. Oops! This blog is a work in progress. My humble apologies!

So, in the absence of a recipe this evening, I thought I’d share a concept that I’ve learned from my boyfriend: salad for dinner. That’s right, a SALAD for DINNER! I have a man that cooks, it’s great! Being vegetarian, he is conscious of his needs to maintain a balanced diet. He likes to have salad for dinner at least once a week. We have a fully stocked pantry to accommodate making super tasty filling healthy salads.

In our pantry:
Seeds: sesame, sun flower, pumpkin, flax
Nuts: almonds, walnuts, pistachios
Dried fruits: cranberries, apricots
Beans: black beans, chick peas, lentils
Oil/Vinegars: olive oil, balsamic, red wine vinegar

We also have plenty of fresh vegetables and goodies in our fridge that will make a tasty salad:

Artichoke hearts
Peppers
Avocado
Tomato
Spinach
Mushrooms
Olives
Feta cheese
Carrots
Green onion
Fresh cilantro or basil
Roasted spicy Italian eggplant (soo good)
Lemon
Lime
Berries

The great thing about salads is that you can take them in so many different directions, like any other meal. You can have inspiration from different cultures or flavours depending on what you have available.

To finish off a great salad, make your own dressing!

Olive Oil+sour+sweet+herbs = dressing
Sour can be lemon or lime or tart orange juice
Sweet can be honey or a dash of sugar
Maybe a bit of mustard
Herbs = oregano or basil or rosemary or Italian seasoning

Try doing salad for dinner one day. Use our pantry as inspiration and grab some produce at your local grocery store or Farmer’s Market. Do it up!!

Kai Lan Gomae (Japanese Sesame Paste on Chinese Broccoli)

Posted by Freedom Fro in Fun with Food and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

I LOVE Gomae. Every time I go out for Japanese food, I am sure to order it. Typically, Gomae (which means “sesame paste”) is served over a bed of cold bunched spinach (or over tuna sashimi). I was wandering through the aisles of a Japanese grocery store near my home searching for this sauce in a bottle, and I came across 4 different types: 3 of them had MSG (I’ve recently started getting hives when I eat some kinds of MSG…very annoying) and the 4th had chicken base (what the heck?!) So I decided to make my own.

Gommae is actually pretty easy to make. I found several recipes online and adapted this one to what I had in my pantry. Here’s what you need:

Spice Grinder (or mortal and pestle)

4 tbsp of roasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional)
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

Grind the sesame seeds well, and then mix in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. I am going to call the sesame oil and sugar ‘optional’ because I added them this time, but next time I’m going to taste before adding. I don’t think the sugar is necessary due to the sweetness of the mirin, but your palate may want that added sweetness. Also, depending on the roasty flavour of your sesame seeds, you may not need the sesame oil.

I had spinach in my fridge, but I also had some Kai Lan (aka Chinese Broccoli) that needed to be used. I thought to myself: hey, it’s a green leafy veggie, with great tasting stems…it would work great in place of spinach.

Trim the stems of the Kai Lan, but don’t chop them up yet. Bring water to a boil in a shallow sauce pan, then only submerge the stems of the Kai Lan for the first few minutes (leaving the leafy ends out of the water). Push the leaves under the water and boil until the stems are just tender…do not over-boil, the greens should still be bright!

Drain the veggies and stop the cooking process by running cold water over it. Line the veggies on a cutting board and bunch them up tight before chopping into 1-2 inch pieces and stacking in serving bowls (give them some stems and some greens).

Drizzle the sesame dressing over the top and it’s ready to go!