Gourmet Hot Dog Salad

"Chorizo" style salad

This is a halal version. Use all beef hearty meaty hotdogs, as many as desired. 3-4 is ideal.

Chop in thick rings and fry in evoo until very browned. Reserve oil.

1 head lettuce (boston or romain)
1 cup each Small tomatoes or cherry tomatoes (red and yellow)
1/2 large Red onion, sliced into rings

Layer the salad and use the remaining oil from frying the hotdogs to create the dressing by whisking in:

Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
Drizzle of honey/maple syrup or anything sweet that you desire.
Extra EVOO
Sprinkle of salt (watch out the hotdogs might already by salty)
1 small clove of garlic, crushed

Whisk until frothy or emulsified and drizzle over salad!
Enjoy as a light lunch of as a side to other dishes.

Serves about 4 people.

Spicy Mango Salad

Delicious refreshing mango salad!

This recipe is courtesy of A.Vogel cookbook that I received earlier this month in a gift basket, thank you A.VOGEL and Herbamare!

I really just winged the recipe but I'll give you the exact amounts.



Spicy Mango Salad

Book title: Naturally fresh & delicious, healthy cooking with A.Vogel

Translated by Irene E. Robbie

Ingredients: 

serves 4

1 ripe mango

1 organic cucumber, approx 250 g

25 g cashew nuts

1 tsp green Thai curry paste

2 tbsp peanut oil

1 small lime

1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1/2 tbsp raw cane sugar

100 g cherry tomatoes

1 large handful of chives

1. Peel the mango and remove the flesh from the stone. Cut the flesh into strips, laying aside 50 g for the sauce. Peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthwise and deseed. Cut into chunks and mix with the mango strips. 

2. Roughly chop the cashew nuts. Toast in a frying pan without oil until golden brown and set aside.

3. Cook the curry paste in the oil. Remove the pan from the heat. Grate the lime peel and add to the pan with the juice of the lime. Add the fish sauce, sugar and mango pieces that were set aside. Puree everything finely. Mix with the mango and cucumber. 

4. Slice the tomatoes and add the mango and cucumber and mix together. Chop the chives and sprinkle over with the cashew nuts. 

Here are a couple of shots of my fun adventure to Cobourg, Ontario yesterday where I met so many interesting people and discovered new shops and fun ingredients! Picked up the thai green chili at a quaint gourmet shop called "A matter of taste". The owner Elaine is the sweetest, she knows her food stuff and is a pleasure to chat with. If you're ever out east do stop in and say hi to her, then pickup some of the cool ingredients she has in shop!

Black Eye Pea Salad سلطة اللوبية

Black eye peas are some of my favourite legumes! They have such a unique and delicious taste and are perfect for both winter and summer preperations.  I love a good black eye pea stew in the fall or winter but today I've got a delicious and easy summer salad that is perfect for a picnic, a nice change for the regular bean salads.

3 cups dry black eye peas (rinse and soak in plenty of water overnight) 

3 ripe summer tomatoes

3 persian cucumbers

1/2 red onion

Juice of 1 lemon

Black pepper (no salt here as the beans will be salty enough after cooking) 

 A big drizzle of good olive oil (I used a Spanish olive oil from Olive That!) 

- After soaking your black eye peas the night before drain the water and add them to a large pot, cover with plenty more fresh water and bring to a low boil.  Simmer on medium low until beans are almost tender.  Add more water if necessary to top off the pot and add salt in the last 30-40 minutes of cooking.

Once tender (they shouldn't be mushy or falling apart)  drain and set aside (they should taste great and not overly salty, if they are just rinse a bit)

Bring a kettle of water to a boil.

With a sharp paring knife make an X in the bottom of each tomato and set them in a strainer in the sink.
When the kettle water is boiled slowly pour the water over all the tomatoes. 

Wait a couple of seconds and at this point the tomato peels would be easy to peel.  Peel and core the tomatoes and remove the inside (seedy parts and discard) 

Chop the tomato in small cubes and set in the salad bowl.

Chop the cucumbers into similar dice as the tomatoes and add into the bowl.
Chop the red onion finely and add.

Add the beans to the bowl and season with black pepper.
Squeeze the lemon juice over and drizzle with olive oil.

Serve and enjoy!

Sicilian shaved fennel salad

 Sicilian shaved fennel salad from Jamie's 15 minute meals:

(recipe customized for 2 servings)

1/4  of a large fennel bulb (if using a small bulb then use half of it) 
1 inches of a celery heart 
1 spring of fresh mint 
1/4 lemon (slice both halves off the end and use the middle peel and all, just shave it in the mandolin until it's super thin - almost see through) 

(1/4 shaved red onion - optional! I love red onion and this is my addition to the salad) 

Use a mandoline on fine to shave all of these down, including the lemon!! If making a larger batch use a food processor with a shaving blade. 
With the mint simply pile the leaves on top of each other, roll them up and slice thinly into strips. 

Add all to the bowl, including the juice from the lemon that will collect below the mandoline. 

Drizzle with olive oil, a pinch of salt and a splash of vinegar (whatever you like to use!)

Enjoy!

Fatoush Salad

My twist on fatoush with healthy mixed greens and whole grain pita drizzled with olive oil and baked until crispy then rubbed with raw garlic. Toss with pomegranate molasses based dressing and serve!

Moroccan beet salad

Moroccan Beet Salad

Why haven't I made this before?!!
It's such a delicious and EASY salad...  I read up on a few different recipes, most mention boiling the beets but I like to roast mine so here's my take on it.

Two beets went into this salad but I would do three (or more!) next time because it's yummy and usually the beets are sold in a threes here. 

To roast beets simply cut off stalks and stems, wash and wrap in a foil then place in a baking dish and bake for about 90 minutes on 400 F. 

The skins will be very easy to remove using the back of a knife, scraping in a downwards motion and the skin will come off almost like a jacket but make sure they cool so you don't burn your hands. 

Now to prep the dressing, in a bowl add the following ingredients to taste: 

- A squeeze of lemon

- A dash of white vinegar

- Olive oil 

- Salt

- Black pepper

- Ground cumin (just a small pinch)

- A dash of cinnamon (optional) 

Also chop some onion, red or white, I like red and sliced them thinly. 

Finely chop some italian parsley as well. 

When the beets are easy to handle slice them like an orange in segments or in rings, or even cubes, whatever you prefer. 

Toss the beets and onion into the prepared dressing and sprinkle with parsley. 

Enjoy! :)