Root Lovers' Winter Salad

Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Dinner
Root Lovers' Winter Salad (with Creamy Apple Cider Viniagrette dressing)
Recipe from Run Fast. Eat Slow. by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky



The recipe said the salad could be made with any combination of root vegetables, mixed with chickpeas and roasted. I followed the authors' recommendation and used carrots, gold beets, parsnips, and rutabaga. I've never made parsnips or rutabaga before. I will definitely make parsnips again. The rutabaga was good, but maybe not worth the trouble of scraping off the wax casing. All the vegetables tasted great, and they went well with the arugula and the creamy apple cider vinaigrette dressing. The dressing was quick and easy to make, and the leftovers were great on spinach salads.

I saved the leftover vegetables (separate from the greens) to reheat for lunches through the week. They would be fine on their own, but I mixed them with arugula to make more of the salad. I can't wait to try this recipe again and experiment with other combinations of vegetables!

"Honey" Mustard Salad Dressing

Saturday, January 21, 2017 - Lunch
"Honey" Mustard Salad Dressing  (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This salad dressing was quick, easy, and delicious. It took about two minutes to get all the ingredients and mix them together, then I poured it on my salad. It tastes good, and I know what's in it. The recipe uses agave instead of honey, since it's a vegan recipe, and it tastes the same, maybe a just little richer. One recipe made enough dressing to last me a couple weeks. I will make this again in the future. I included the optional olive oil this time, and it was good, so next time I'll try it without the oil to see which way I prefer.  

Warm Spinach Salad

Monday, August 22, 2016 - Dinner
Warm Spinach Salad (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This salad was delicious!  It was quick and easy to make.  The recipe name is a bit of a misnomer: the spinach is cold, with warm balsamic dressing poured on top.  The dressing only took a few minutes to cook on the stove, while the pecans toasted in the toaster oven.  I don't normally like raw red onions, but when they absorbed the warm dressing, their texture and flavor turned out great.  I have a lot of leftover dressing (the recipe made 6 servings), so I'm planning to try it cold as well as reheated.  It might also be good as a marinade.

Chickpea Salad

Saturday, June 25, 2016 - Lunch
Better-Than-Tuna Salad (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This salad was fantastic.  It didn't taste anything like tuna (which is perfectly fine with me), although the texture of the mashed chickpeas was similar to shredded tuna.  The recipe said that the salad could be made with whole chickpeas instead, but it recommended mashing them for texture and to help it hold together better for sandwiches.  The next time I make this, I might skip the effort of mashing the chickpeas and use them whole, because I ate much of the salad by itself (instead of on sandwiches), and I could easily make pita-pocket sandwich to hold the salad.

The salad had a few ingredients that I'm not used to seeing in a tuna salad - like carrots, red bell peppers, and walnuts - in addition to the more traditional celery.  I plan to make this salad again - it would be great for summer cookouts!

Tofu Egg Salad

Sunday, May 22, 2016 - Lunch
Tofu Egg Salad (Recipe from Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin)

I've never really loved egg salad, so I was not sure what I would think about this recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It tasted very similar to egg salad, in my opinion, and although I don't think I'll eat much of the leftovers, I enjoyed my sandwich.  My husband was skeptical of the substitution of tofu for eggs, but he liked it, and said it reminded him of the sandwiches his family would eat as a picnic lunch on vacations when he was a kid.  Today was a great day for a summer meal, and I think this recipe would be fitting for a summer picnic or barbecue.  

Quinoa and Corn Medley

Sunday, Februray 7, 2016 - Lunch
Quinoa and Corn Medley (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This recipe was quick and easy -- it took less than 45 minutes, including prep time to chop all the vegetables and herbs.  The finished product was filling and tasted great, and since the recipe made 6 large servings, there are plenty of leftovers for lunch this week.  I really liked the mixture of Latin and Mediterranean flavors: the quinoa, corn, lemon, and parsley complemented one another well.  This is one of my new favorite quinoa recipes!

Dark Leafy Greens with Sesame Miso Dressing

Thursday, October 1, 2015 - Dinner
Dark Leafy Greens with Sesame Miso Dressing (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This was a quick (less than 15 minutes) and easy dish to make.  The greens tasted good with the sesame miso dressing, but I think I would have preferred more greens for the amount of dressing.  I started with a full bunch of turnip greens, which cooked down more than expected during the steaming process (something like kale would have been sturdier), so we ended up with two small-ish servings.

Substitions: 

The dressing recipe called for mirin, a sweet Japanese rice wine, but I didn't have any (and didn't want to get full bottle for the small amount needed), so I substituted 1 Tbsp rice vinegar plus 1/2 tsp sugar.  

The other substitution I made was to use toasted sesame seeds, instead of starting with raw seeds and toasting them myself. This was quicker, and I don't think it detracted from the flavor.

Overall, i enjoyed this recipe. It would be a good side dish for Japanese or Thai dishes, or it could stand on its own. If I make it again, I will use more greens to get a higher ratio of greens to dressing. I might also like to try this as part of a rice & veggie bowl. 

Kale and Cauliflower Salad

Monday, May 11, 2015 - Dinner
Kale and Cauliflower Salad  (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This was an easy recipe, and it was a refreshing springtime dinner salad. It was pretty quick to make, including the lemon-vinegar dressing.
I wasn't sure if I would like this recipe, because I don't particularly like cauliflower or vinegar, but it was pretty good. The vinegar taste wasn't overpowering, and the cauliflower blended in with the rest of the salad. I don't know if I would make this again, but I enjoyed it.

Indian Chickpea Basmati Bowl

Saturday, May 9, 2015 - Lunch
Indian Chickpea Basmati Bowl  (Recipe from Runner’s World magazine, May 2015)

This dish was an easy post-workout meal: cook rice, then top with tomatoes, spinach, chickpeas, and scallions. The sauce is a yogurt-based curry. I only had vanilla flavored coconut milk yogurt, so the sauce was a little sweeter than the recipe probably intended, but it was a good flavor and a light yet satisfying meal.

The recipe for this dish is available on the Runner’s World website: http://runnersworld.com/recipes/whole-grain-rice-recipes-for-runners-0

There are a couple other rice bowl recipes in the same article that also look good.

After mixing the ingredients together

Balsamic Strawberries

Sunday, May 3, 2015 - Lunch
Balsamic Strawberries (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This dish sounded strange, but tasted delicious. It tasted just like berries on a salad with balsamic dressing, but without the salad. It was a great springtime side dish!  

Warm Lentil Salad

Sunday, March 29, 2015 - Lunch:
Warm Lentil Salad (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This was a great dish - suitable as a main dish or a side dish, and served hot or cold.  The lentils smelled amazing while they were cooking (in vegetable broth seasoned with thyme and bay leaves).  The cooked lentils alone would make a great base for a stew or soup.  The final product - with carrots, onions, and a dressing made from mustard and vinegar - tasted much different, but still very good.  I would definitely make this recipe again, and possibly experiment with different dressings and additional veggies.
Served with fresh baked italian bread.