Tag: salad

Citrus Infused Pan-Seared Eggplant with Black Olives

Posted in Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , , , , 2 Comments

 

Citrus Infused Pan-Seared Eggplant with Black Olives, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Simple may not always be better, but it is absolutely true that when it comes to vegetable side dishes keeping things simple and letting the vegetables speak for themselves goes a very long way. For example, grilling is one of the best ways to add a lot of flavor without any extra ingredients of complicated prep procedures. And eggplant is probably one of the most grill-friendly vegetables out there!

But, before the eggplant hits the grill (or a pan) it is important to soften it and let some of the bitterness drain out. Very often that means salting the sliced eggplant and letting it sit in between paper towels to absorb the moister that the salted eggplant will release. Doing this removes some of the bitterness that eggplant can sometimes have as well as make the eggplant less like a sponge.

This recipe does have one important trick that really elevates the flavors – rubbing the grilled eggplant slices with a clove or garlic to add that great garlic flavor! This is a trick that you often see used for making garlic bread to infuse garlic aroma into toasted bread – it avoids having to deal with raw garlic pieces, and it is very effective.

Finally, what makes this simple side dish come together is the lemon juice and lemon zest. This small amount of acidity and the freshness that lemon zest contributes really bring the simplicity to a new level. You can serve this elegant vegetable dish warm, as a side, or cold as a salad. Either way, give this a try and see whether you are with me when I say that simple is the way to go!!!

db2b75ef-8095-4ae2-9901-ea9db20ba34e

Citrus Infused Pan-Seared Eggplant with Black Olives

What you’ll need:

2 large Italian eggplants, sliced into rounds

1 clove of garlic, peeled

1 lemon, juice and zest

1 cup black olives, sliced

2-3 teaspoons coarse salt

Cooking spray (or olive oil)

What you’ll do:

  1. Wash the eggplant, and slice into round slices (about 1/4 in (5 mm) in thickness). Place on the two layers of paper or kitchen towel, sprinkle with salt, then cover with another layer of towels, and let stand for 20-30 minutes. The salt will draw out some of the extra moisture out of the eggplant, and with it some of natural bitterness that eggplant sometimes has. Remove the paper towels, and pat dry the eggplant slices.
  2. Put a large grill pan over the high heat to make the pan really hot. Reduce the heat to medium, then spray with some cooking spray or brush with some olive oil. Place eggplant slices on and grill on both sides in batches until all the eggplant is grilled. You can also use an outdoor grill or a regular pan. The point is to blacken and cook the eggplant through, which will take 3-5 minutes per side.
  3. Use the garlic clove and rub the eggplant slices, so that they are infused with garlic aroma. Place the garlic rubbed eggplant into a large mixing bowl, add lemon juice, lemon zest, and sliced black olives. Mix well and you are done! If you like to add a bit more flavors to this simple side dish, you can drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle fresh parsley, or add a dash of crushed red pepper flakes if you are open to turning on the heat!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2019

Warm Kale and Chickpea Salad

Posted in Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , Leave a comment
img_4717
Warm Kale and Chickpea Salad, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Everybody is raving about kale. It’s a must-have super food and I’ve seen so many requests from people asking for suggestions and ideas on what to do with it. An obvious choice for kale is a soup, where the earthiness of kale and it’s sturdy structure add an interesting bite to it. Many also recommend using kale in smoothies, which I am not really all that interested in doing.

Another obvious choice is to use kale in salads. Unfortunately, kale is really sturdy and the only option you have for using it in salads is to go with baby kale. I used baby kale in the past, like in this salad full of great flavors of roasted beets, leeks, baby kale, and lemon vinaigrette.

But, recently I started playing around with ways to make kale work in a salad form, and discovered that the best way to do it is to sauté the kale to soften it. Also important is to remove all the big stems first – they are tough and chewy, so best removed before cooking. This makes the prepping process a bit tedious – you need to take a bunch of kale, wash it, remove the stems, and chop it – and very often I don’t really feel like doing it. You can buy chopped kale these days; however, most brands don’t do a great job at removing the pesky stems, so you will still need to inspect the kale carefully and ensure that all stem bits are out.

So, is this salad worth the fuss? Perhaps the best way to determine is to try it once and see what you think. I recommend serving it warm, just a bit above the body temperature, but cold works too!

img_4719

Warm Kale and Chickpea Salad

What you’ll need:

1 lbs (454 g – call it 500 g) stemmed and chopped kale

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup cooked chickpeas (from the can or homemade)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

What you’ll do:

  1. De-stem kale with care, and chop roughly.
  2. Place a large frying or sauté pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil.
  3. Next, add the sliced garlic and let it sauté for just a minute.
  4. Add the kale and mix well to incorporate all the garlic. Let the kale sauté for 8-10 minutes. The kale should be fully cooked!
  5. Add balsamic vinegar, mix well and keep the heat on for 1-2 more minutes.
  6. Turn the heat off, add the chickpeas, and salt and pepper (if using) and mix well.
  7. Transfer the salad into a serving dish, and let it stand until just warm. The leftovers will store well in the fridge for 2-3 days, and you can enjoy this salad without reheating. Makes a great stuffing for a pita bread sandwich!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2018

 

Asian Meatballs with Spiralized Zucchini and Carrot Salad

Posted in Burgers, Hot Dogs, and More, Main Course, Meat Replacement, Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Vegan, fully plant-based meatballs are one of the easiest thing in the world to make. I like putting meat-free “meatballs” together because they are fun – fun always comes first of course – and they are versatile, you can stick them into a sandwich, over pasta, serve with mashed potatoes, with rice and beans, and the list goes on and on…

Plus: unlike dealing with meat, especially poultry, all the ingredients in these meatballs are safe to eat as is, which means that even young kids can get involved and roll some meatballs. I told you – these can be fun for everyone!

What makes these meatballs Asian is the combination of scallions (green onions), Sriracha (hot red chili sauce), fresh ginger, panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), and peanut butter that get mixed with chopped, not ground, soya chunks. The idea is to retain some of the soya chunks structure rather than grind them to the consistency of ground beef. Think chicken salad, rather than taco meat.

To complete the meal you will need to do some spiralizing, which is one of my favorite things to do with zucchini, summer squash, and even potatoes. Here, I combined carrots and zucchini which gives the salad a nice contrast of crunch versus softness, plus a colorful appearance. The spiralized vegetables are mixed with some slivered almonds, lime juice and zest, and tossed to combine. Top them with a meatball or three, and you got yourself a dinner!

Asian Meatballs with Spiralized Zucchini and Carrot Salad

What you’ll need:

FOR THE SALAD

3 zucchinis, spiralized

3 fat carrots, spiralized

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 lime, juice and zest

FOR THE MEATBALLS

200 g soya chunks

1 1/2 cup panko, Japanese breadcrumbs, regular or gluten-free

3 scallions, white and green parts, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ginger, freshly grated

1 tablespoon peanut butter, natural and unsalted

3 tablespoons soy sauce, reduced sodium

1/2 teaspoon hot chili sauce (sriracha)

Cooking spray

 

What you’ll do:

  1. Prepare soya chunks according to the instructions on the box. They usually need about 3-5 minutes in a pot of boiling water.
  2. Drain and rinse your soya chunks under some cold water, then chop or grind them into small chunks, similar to chicken chunks commonly used in Asian Dumplings recipes. Place them in a large bowl, and add all the rest of the ingredients. Mix everything well and let stand for 5-10 minutes before making the meatballs.
  3. Heat a large skillet or a cast iron pan over the medium high heat. Spray with some cooking spray and brown the meatballs on all sides until golden brown. Brown the meatballs in batches and make sure you don’t overcrowd the pan.
  4. While the meatballs are browning, prepare the salad. You can either buy a box of spiralized carrots and spiralized zucchini and toss them with some lime juice, lime zest, and toasted slivered almonds, or you can spiralize your own if you have the spiralizer. Let the salad rest while the meatballs finish browning.
  5. To plate, place a good amount of salad in the middle of the plate, and top with 2-3 meatballs. Enjoy!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2018

Simple Summer Pasta Salad

Posted in Pizza and Pasta, Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
img_2143
Simple Summer Pasta Salad, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

For me, pasta salad is a conceptually hard thing to swallow since I equate salads with (mostly) green leafy vegetables. Growing up, there was a clear separation between salads and pastas in my mother’s cooking and our family meals. But, after living in US for almost two decades, I’ve come around and appreciate that pasta salads have a place on my plate, especially if I am holding that plate during a large summer cookout or a potluck.

Having said that, I still think that many pasta salads leave a lot to be desired as they tend to be overloaded with mayonnaise, meat or even cheese. So, I decided to develop a pasta salad recipe that is simple and light, yet full of flavors and surprising textures.

The recipe below really blew me away! It’s super simple, uses only six ingredients, it takes less than twenty minutes to make, and it is a perfect pasta salad for big get togethers because it is super inexpensive.

The recipe is very simple and self-explanatory. Few tips here are: don’t cook your pasta for too long, drain it well but don’t rinse; mix the pasta with the rest of ingredients while it’s still hot, and then let it cool while the flavors are developing and merging; and if using kalamata olives in oil, scale back on the amount of olive oil you actually add – otherwise you’ll end up with something that’s too oily, which will be too bad!

And speaking of olives – kalamata olives that I get come with a nice level of acidity so I don’t feel like I need to use extra vinegar when I’m using them. This means that my recipe below does not include vinegar. Now, if you like a bit more tang, feel free to add some lemon juice or a dash of red wine vinegar to adjust the acidity level in this salad to your personal taste.

Finally, if you don’t have a box of penne rigate on hand, don’t worry. You can use any spoon friendly pasta for this – meaning not long pasta. Why do I recommend NOT using long pasta? Well, if you are thinking of this salad as picnic, pot luck, sharing-with-friends-and-family friendly, then help your friends and family help themselves by not having to wrestle with long pasta. I also think that tubular pastas work better for this recipe than flat ones – think penne, ditalini, macaroni as better, and farfalle as perhaps less suitable for this recipe – as tubular pastas have a bit more surface area to absorb the subtle flavors. And among the tubular pastas, those with ridges will work just slightly better because of the same surface area availability principle I mentioned. Having said all this, and having dragged you through likely totally unnecessary details on how to choose just the right pasta for this recipe, I’d like to stress again – just grab a box of pasta you have on hand and it will be just fine!

STOP: I just remembered – I would not recommend black bean pasta for this. I did not like the flavor of that one when I paired it with my Clams-free “Clam” Sauce and can’t recommend it for this application either. 😦

Simple Summer Pasta Salad

What you’ll need:

12 oz (340 g) penne rigate pasta

1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1 cup slivered almonds

1/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons fresh basil

What you’ll do:

  1. Cook the pasta following the instructions on the box. Don’t overcook it – the pasta will be ready when it is slightly chewy to the bite.
  2. While pasta is cooking, chop the olives and the fresh basil leaves. Put to the side.
  3. Drain the pasta well and place in a large mixing bowl. Add oil, chopped kalamata olives, garlic powder, and mix well.
  4. Toast the almonds in a toaster oven or on the stove top in a heavy skillet. Watch the almonds constantly as they do burn quickly.
  5. Add the toasted almonds to the rest of the pasta salad, mix well and leave for an hour or so.
  6. Add fresh basil just before serving, toss everything together and enjoy. The result is fragrant, complex in flavors and textures, yet simple and cheap to make, perfect summer pasta salad.

 

Copyright ©Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017

Baby Kale with Roasted Beets and Leeks tossed with a Lemon Vinaigrette

Posted in Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , , , 5 Comments

Baby Kale with Roasted Beets and Leeks, Tossed with a Lemon Vinaigrette, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow
Salads can be simple, but as I was putting together my first ever plant-based – vegan – Easter dinner this year I decided that going for impressive, fabulous and a bit over the top, even when it comes to a salad, wouldn’t hurt. Maybe you’ve already seen, or even tasted, my Meatless Shepherd’s Pie – if you haven’t now would be a good time to do it – and this salad is what I paired it with.

The base of the salad is baby kale which you can probably get these days in any well-stocked supermarket. If you can’t find baby kale go with mixed field greens or baby lettuce, or just chop up some romain or butter lettuce. Stay away from baby spinach and iceberg lettuce as I am not convinced those two will play nice with roasted beets and roasted leeks.

What makes preparing this salad a bit more elaborate than your tossed salad is the fact that both leeks and beets need to be cleaned, chopped, roasted and cooled before hitting the salad bowl. I’ve already shared how to clean leeks, so I used the same cleaning method on this occasion as well. For this recipe I recommend cleaning and chopping the beets before roasting to maximize the amount of beer surface that is nicely caramelized. You may want to wear gloves when you handle beets as they will stain your hands. I personally don’t mind it at all but if you do please plan to protect your hands an wear the gloves.

Baby Kale with Roasted Beets and Leeks tossed with a Lemon Vinaigrette

What you’ll need:

3 beets

3 leeks

11 oz (312 g) baby kale

1 lemon, juice and zest

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Cooking spray

What you’ll do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C).
  2. Clean the leeks to remove all the sand and dirt that leeks usually come with. Dry well and place on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Spray with a generous amount of cooking spray.
  3. Peel the beets and cut them to 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes. Place on the parchment paper lined baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.
  4. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes.
  5. Take out of the oven and let cool for several hours. You want the roasted vegetables to be at room temperature for this one!
  6. To make the lemon vinaigrette, mix together juice and zest of one lemon, with the olive oil and Dijon mustard.
  7. Place baby kale in a large salad bowl. Top with roasted beets and leeks, and drizzle the vinaigrette all over the salad. Toss everything together and serve!!!

    8. Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017