Showing posts with label Salads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salads. Show all posts
Watermelon & Feta Salad. Just the name sounds delicious to me. If you enjoy watermelon as much as I do, prepare yourself to fall in love because this is one very tasty salad!
I really love watermelon. I probably buy myself some a couple of times a week. I find it to be very refreshing and I really enjoy it.
My sister and I were talking the other day about the Salads at the Superstore. I had bought a fruit and spinach one which I really enjoyed and she had bought a watermelon and feta one which she really enjoyed.
The more she told me about it, the more I wanted to try it. I didn't want to drive all the way to Kingston just for a salad however so I determined to pick up some watermelon here in town and make one for myself.
I pretty much had everything in my fridge to make it. I only had to pick up some watermelon and some mint. And Yay! Today they had fresh mint!
The one she had included red onions. I didn't add any onion to mine. I have a bit of a problem with gastric disease and so I decided to leave the onions out because they have been bothering me lately.
If you don't have a problem with onions, by all means add them. I have sized this salad just to feed one, so judge accordingly. I think one tablespoon of chopped red onion would work fine.
I used 1 cup of cubed watermelon which was just enough for me, and I added some cubed cucumber. I think they are both from the same family or if they are not, they should be.
I had crumbled feta cheese in the refrigerator. I have always thought that feta cheese went really well with Kalamata olives.
But would Kalamata olives go with watermelon. I adore olives of any kind. I tried an olive with a cube of watermelon, bearing in mind that there would be far more watermelon in the salad than olives.
It was fabulous! Very Mediterranean! I decided to add a few halved Kalamata olives, which gave it both color as well as additional texture and a slight meatiness.
Not to mention the olives were slightly salty which works really well with the sweetness of the watermelon.
The cheese is salty too so bonus! I julienned two mint leaves to put into the salad.
Or should I say I cut them chiffonade. Just a fancy name for rolling them into cigars and thinly slicing them. I was thinking baby arugula (rocket) would also go very well in this but I didn't have any.
A squeeze of lime would be fabulous on this, but I didn't have any lime. Instead I created a simple vinaigrette.
Bear in mind both the cucumber and the melon will give off plenty of liquid, so what you are looking for here is basically something which will add a bit of a sharp flavor into the mix.
You don't really need a lot. 1 teaspoon of each did the job perfectly and I seasoned it lightly with salt because both the olies and the cheese are salty. I used sea salt.
I did use plenty of cracked black pepper. I love pepper and it goes really well with fruit. Have you ever tried strawberries with black pepper?
The two are fabulous together. Simply wonderful. And balsamic goes well with strawberries also.
Altogether this was a wonderful salad which I really enjoyed. Do be warned however, it will give off a lot of liquid.
I've had somewhat of an upsetting day today. I had been expecting an order from Amazon yesterday. I had gotten the notice that it was out for delivery.
Around 6 PM I noticed a car parked out front and there was a guy going through the boot of his car and then he started rooting through the back of his car. (Phone in hand.) I thought to myself, there's my package.
He spent quite a lot of time rooting around in his car so I got a really good look at him. I should have taken his photograph, but I just thought my package was arriving.
Then next thing you know he was back into his car, pulled into my drive, backed out and left. I wondered what that was all about, but didn't think much more abou tit.
Then today when I got back from the grocery store there was a sort of squashed package sitting on my doorstep. It felt too light to be the book I had ordered. I brought it inside.
Lo and behold inside was a half eaten pizza, some pizza crusts and loads of used napkins. It was disgusting. I thought to myself what kind of person leaves a half eaten pizza on someone's door step. Especially with Covid, etc. and I know KNOW it wasn't there when I left to go out.
I got buy with other stuff and then it was only later on when I checked my e-mail I noticed that I had one saying my Amazon package had been delivered and there was a photo of it on my doorstep (the photo is supposed to be proof of delivery.)
That cheeky so and so had obviously lost my package and tried to fob off his half eaten lunch as it. I was so upset, so, so, SO upset! I hate dishonesty. I did report it, both to Amazon and to the delivery firm.
But now I am afraid. What if he comes back in the middle of the night and tries to slash the tires on my car? I mean anyone would be that dishonest in the first place is not a nice person.
So anyways, my car will be locked up in my garage from now on just in case. I can't do anything about anything else, but hopefully nothing untoward will happen. Fingers crossed.
So that's my tale for the day. Has anything like this ever happened to you? I hope not!
Anyways, I did enjoy my salad, and I think you will too! 'Til next time!
PS - Did you notice my little watermelon hearts? Cute, but hard to spot!
Watermelon & Feta Salad
Yield: 1
Prep time: 10 MinTotal time: 10 Min
This may seem a bit unusual, but it is extremely delicious. It does need to be eaten right away, but that is so not a problem.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of cubed watermelon
- 2 inch piece of English cucumber, washed and diced
- 2 TBS crumbled Feta Cheese
- 6 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- fine seas salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 mint leaves, slivered
- Fresh mint to garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- Put the watermelon and cucumber into a bowl. Add the olives, cheese and mint and toss together gently to combine.
- Whisk the vinegar and oil together, seasoning it lightly with the salt and pepper. Drizzle this over the salad, and toss together.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Serve immediately and enjoy.
This Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing is a real favorite in my house and something which I have been enjoying for years. Its sweet and slightly tangy and goes very well on all sorts of salads, but I really love it on a Spinach Salad.
Especially if there is some fruit involved, and or chicken. It goes very well with both.
Our local superstore sells salad kits. They are not cheap really, but when you are a single person, the cost of buying all of the ingredients separately can be a bit exorbitant. It makes sense to buy a kit.
They have had a few new ones available recently and I decided to pick one up the other day. At $6.99 it wasn't really cheap, but when I weighed out the cost of buying everything to make one from scratch, it suddenly got cheaper.
It was a medium sized salad and ideally would serve me for several meals. With a medium salad, I think you are allowed to pick up two dressings to serve with it, or maybe one. I can't remember.
In any case I forgot totally to pick up the dressing altogether. Blah. That's me.
I decided to make my own dressing. When we were growing up my mom always made our salad dressing from scratch. There was never any bottled salad dressings in our refrigerator.
She had learned how to make a very simple vinaigrette dressing when we lived in Germany. My father was just talking about that the other day and how good it was. Maybe I will make some on my sister's birthday, but I digress.
There were no bottled dressings in our house, and no variety. We got the vinaigrette she made, each and every time. We didn't mind. It was delicious.
This of course changed as she got older. Often she would buy prepared dressings, and of course we would buy some every time we came home to visit. Usually because the bottled dressing in her refrigerator were quite suspect, meaning we never know how long they had been in the fridge.
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Most of them would still be there from our previous visit. She wouldn't throw it out because it was "ours" and we had bought it.
If you were to take a bird's eye peek at some of those visits, you would see us three kids gathered around the fridge opening jars and smelling them. We never knew how long anything had been in her refrigerator.
My sister still has tins of salmon in her basement from mom's collection that expired in 1995. I kid you not. They aren't bulging or anything, but she's afraid to open them. I don't blame her.
I don't like waste myself, but I am not adverse to throwing things out that are out of date or just plain old. With careful planning, that doesn't happen very often.
Anyways, back to the salad I bought at the store and the dressing I forgot to pick up. They have been putting out a few different salads lately.
On the day I was there I had a difficult time making up my mind. There were quite a few to choose from. Some were of the Caesar salad variety, and whilst they are good, I wasn't in the mood.
I hummed and hawed in my mind about this one. Spinach, with red onion and a variety of fruits.
There was a nice large amount of baby spinach leaves. I love baby spinach and am always trying to increase my iron intake. Spinach is loaded with iron.
There was walnuts and chopped red onion, along with a nice variety of fruit.
Mostly berries. Blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. There were also mandarin oranges. I wasn't so sure about them.
I finally decided to just go for it, and popped it into my cart. I felt I could toast the walnuts at home. Nuts should always be toasted. Especially for in a salad.
Toasting improves their flavor and crunch considerably. I did forget the dressing however and so made my own.
I did cut my usual amounts in half because there is only one of me and I knew I would not use it all if I made the full amount. It makes about 1 1/2 cups.
If you think you can use it and wanted to make the full recipe, here are the amounts: 3/4 cup of mayonnaise, 1/4 cup each of sugar, milk and white wine vinegar, 2 TBS poppy seeds, 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder, salt and black pepper to taste.
That's it. Just whisk it all together and keep it in the refrigerator.
I keep it in a jar and then give it a shake before I use it. Its really delicious with its creamy milk and mayonnaise base.
Sugar and white wine vinegar give it is sweet tang. You can adjust the levels of these according to your taste. I like a pretty even balance, but you may enjoy it more sweet, or maybe more tangy.
Its a matter of personal preference I guess. Its really nice drizzled over chicken or grilled fish as well, especially salmon.
Its a very pretty dressing and quite popular with the girls. Its a bit dangerous to serve at a luncheon however. I remember the Missus when I worked at the Manor, was always careful that we didn't serve anything at a luncheon for the ladies that might stick in their teeth.
Nobody likes to get caught with egg on their face as it were, and little bits of black caught between your teeth are not that nice. Its not like you are going to clean your teeth at the table with a toothpick.
Haha can you imagine a bunch of really wealthy people sitting around a dining table picking their teeth with toothpicks, etc.?
A luncheon with the Queen and various heads of state all picking their teeth. Wouldn't happen. I bet that she is really careful not to serve anything that could be embarrassing either.
In any case this was a really delicious salad, and made all the more so for the dressing. Any salad is only as good as its dressing and this one spells winner winner!
Whether you make the full amount of the smaller amount, one thing is certain. You are going to enjoy it. Bon appetit!
Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
Yield: makes about 2/3 cup
Prep time: 5 MinTotal time: 5 Min
This creamy dressing is excellent on salads in the summer time. Sweet and tangy at the same time, it goes very well with poultry and fruit!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (66g)of good quality mayonnaise
- 3 TBS sugar
- 3 TBS white wine vinegar
- 3 TBS whole milk
- 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1 TBS poppy seeds
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl, then chill in the refrigerator until you need to use it, giving it a quick whisk just before you serve.
- Excellent on grilled poultry and fruit salads, with spinach, nuts, etc. Also excellent with grilled fish.
Classic Potato Salad. Potato salad is something which I have always loved. That is not really much of a stretch to believe when you know that my favorite vegetable is the potato!
I love potatoes in any way, shape or form. Boiled, fried, baked, mashed, hot, cold and everything in between. And in the summer months, I love, Love, LOVE potato salad!
Sometimes when a person lives on their own, or is the part of a smaller family, they might not think it is worth making a batch of potato salad just for themselves. But I can tell you, it is totally worth it, and it really doesn't take a whole lot of effort!
Potato salad is something which goes together very quickly and easily and need not be complicated in the least. And you don't have to make barrel's full either. It is quite possible for a singleton or smaller family to make a batch of potato salad that won't be lingering in their refrigerator for days and days and days.
It is really not that hard to make your own and homemade is infinitely better tasting than anything you can buy that is already prepared.
The few times I have been tempted to buy ready made potato salad, I have always, always been disappointed. I kid you not.
Swimming in mayonnaise. Lacking in flavor. Containing potatoes that are either mushy or too hard in spots. There is not much that is redeemable about these over-priced, preservative filled options.
You cannot beat a good, homemade, Classic Potato Salad for comfort. Especially in the summer months when we all are craving cool foods, having BBQ's, wanting cold plates, etc.
I always loved watching my mother make potato salad. She was always very methodical about it. I can still see her standing at the counter peeling potatoes. Chopping onion and celery.
Peeling and cubing cucumber, mixing it all together, tasting, perhaps adding a touch of this or a touch of that, and mixing it again. It was such a treat. Both the watching and the inevitable eating.
Potato salad is something which I am always asked to bring to pot lucks and get-togethers. People just love my potato salad. I think that is because I keep it simple.
Sometimes people try to add too much to a potato salad and in doing so they actually take away from the overall deliciousness of it. Potato salad need not be complicated and shouldn't be complicate.
The flavors and textures should be simple, and wholesome. You don't need a bazillion add-ins. Just a few simple ingredients.
Potatoes, a bit of onion, eggs, celery, sometimes cucumber, and a decent dressing that is also unhampered with a bazillion add-ins.
I always start by boiling my potatoes (in the skin) in a pot of water just until they are fork tender. You don't want them to be falling apart. You just want a knife to be able to pierce them without a lot of resistance.
You should always use a newer potato, a waxy potato, not the same kind of potato that you would use to make mashed potatoes.
You want your potatoes to hold their shape when you mix everything together, not fall apart. I can only think that mashed potato salad was created by someone who used the wrong potatoes and just went with it, when they all fell apart.
Although that is very good . . . . mashed potato salad . . . . . it is not as good as the Classic Potato Salad in my opinion. You cannot beat the classics.
While my potatoes are boiling I like to make a preliminary dressing. It is a simple vinaigrette dressing using fresh lemon juice and a bit of oil, some salt and I like to grate some fresh onion into it.
This gives it a bit of onion flavor, without it going over the top. Its quite nice actually.
Once the potatoes are done, I drain them and let them cool somewhat. Just until I can comfortably handle them. I then spear them with a fork and use a sharp knife to slip the skins off.
They should come off fairly easily. Mine always do anyways, and if the skin sticks to some of it, then just slip your knife beneath the skin and peel it off that way.
Once I have peeled them, I cube them and drop them into that preliminary vinaigrette dressing. This dressing serves to give them even more flavor than the mayonnaise alone, and it also helps to prevent them from absorbing too much mayonnaise as the salad stands and chills.
I always add boiled egg to my potato salad. I know some people don't like chopped egg in their potato salad and if you are one of those, then just leave it out!
I like to add it and the yolk of the egg kind of melds into the dressing, giving it a lovely rich creaminess. The whites of course stay in their little pieces. I also like to add some chopped celery for crunch, and yes a tiny bit of color.
You can destring the celery before you chop it if you like. I always do. Sometimes the strings can be a bit tough.
I know I add a bit of grated onion in the vinaigrette, but I also like to add some chopped green/spring onion to the salad as well. Not a lot, but it does add color, and a bit of flavor.
Spring onions are not as sharp as regular onions and they do have quite a pleasant taste, which goes very well in this salad.
The creamy dressing itself is quite simple. Just mayonnaise and some cider vinegar, salt and pepper. That's all really. You don't need anything else.
Its not too thin or gloopy. I do not like gloopy potato salad. I like a potato salad that holds up well.
I also like to garnish the top so that it looks pretty. On a larger potato salad, I might add a layer of thinly sliced boiled egg, but for this smaller version, I simply added a sprinkle of paprika and some finely chopped chives. Beautiful.
You can add a touch of mustard to it if you want some extra zing. You can of course add a few other bits to your salad if you wish . . . sweet pickle relish, parsley, cucumber. Just remember to not over do it.
A little bit goes a long way in a potato salad. I guarantee if you keep it simple, people will love it! Its a great side dish to all of your BBQ's, cold plates, etc. I can't think of anything it wouldn't go with!
Today I enjoyed it with some deli roast beef, a simple salad and a deviled egg. It went down a real treat!
Classic Potato Salad (small batch)
Yield: Serves 2-3
You just cannot improve upon perfection. A classic, deliciously sized down to serve only 2 to 3 people.
Ingredients
- 4 medium sized new potatoes
- the juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 TBS vegetable oil
- 1/2 TBS grated onion
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1 stalk celery, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 hard boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
- 3/4 cup (165g) full fat mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 TBS cider vinegar
Instructions
- Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook just until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain, and as soon as you can handle them comfortably, peel and dice.
- Whisk the lemon juice, oil, salt to taste and grated onion together in a bowl. Add the paprika and then toss in the warm potatoes. Coat with this vinaigrette dressing. Leave to cool completely..
- Add the celery, chopped egg, pepper to taste.
- Blend 1/2 cup (110g) of the mayonnaise with the cider vinegar and then pour over the potato salad. Fold together gently. Only add the remaining mayonnaise if it seems dry.
- Pile into a bowl, chill and serve.
- I like to garnish it with minced chives and a dusting of paprika.
Notes:
Feel free to add any of the following: 4 TBS peeled, seeded and diced English Cucumber, 1 spring onion minced, 1 1/2 TBS sweet pickle relish, 1 TBS minced parsley
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