September Cooking Club Part 2: Mediterranean Halloumi Salad September 7, 2010
Posted by Angela @ Making Food for Friends in cooking club, salad, vegetarian.Tags: beets, halloumi, salad, sumac
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For my other contribution to last week’s cooking club (the first was the Pomegranate Mint Gin Fizz), I made a Mediterranean salad using grilled halloumi, homemade sumac pita chips, roasted beets, pistachios, finished with a homemade lemon mint vinaigrette. I was really happy with everything–the pita chips were crunchy and tangy from the sumac (sumac is a spice typically used Middle Eastern cuisine. It has a tart flavor and a deep red color, and is the key ingredient in fattoush salad dressing. The chips are a great snack by themselves, and a really good way to use up some pita that is slightly past it’s prime), and the vinaigrette will definitely be a regular around our house. And grilled halloumi is always good. (Check out this halloumi salad recipe for another Allen household staple.)
There are a lot of steps below but they are all easy, and involve plenty of hands-off time. I made a bunch of each ingredient, kept them in separate containers, and had enough for several lunches as well as our cooking club dinner. And everything can be made ahead of time and stored for a couple of days. Even the halloumi, though it’s best straight from the grill!
Mediterranean Halloumi Salad
Ingredients:
5 oz herb spring mix (or other mixed greens)
3 medium beets, roasted
8 oz halloumi cheese, grilled
1/4 cup pistachios
Baked pita chips with sumac (ingredients: pita bread, olive oil, sumac, salt, and pepper)
Lemon mint vinaigrette (recipe below)
Method:
The order I would recommend making the ingredients is: roast the beets, make the salad dressing and prep the pita while the beets are roasting, bake the pita chips while the beets are cooling, and grill the halloumi right before serving.
To roast the beets: Pre-heat your oven to 450. Wash the beets, and wrap each one up individually in an aluminum foil packet with a teaspoon of olive oil drizzled on top. Roast the beets in their little packets in the oven for about 50 minutes. You should be able to stick a fork in them when they are done. They will be HOT when you take them out. Let them cool a little (I rinsed mine under cool water to speed this up), cut each in half, and then slip the skins off. They should come off fairly easily in your hands. Cut into small matchsticks or dice and set aside.
To make the pita chips: Rip your pita bread into pieces (bite-sized or slightly bigger) and place in a large bowl. Pour some olive oil on top, sprinkle with liberal amounts of spices (I used sumac, salt, and pepper), and stir the bread to make sure the oil and spice are distributed evenly. I find this works best if you just use your (clean :)) hands to mix it up. A spoon just didn’t cut it for me. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes–the time window between perfectly crispy and burnt is small, so you kind of have to keep an eye on them. I usually shake or stir mine halfway through cooking. Cool, and eat!
Grill your halloumi on a grill pan, in a skillet, or on the outdoor grill on some foil. Assemble the salad using your ingredients, and enjoy!
Lemon Mint Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Combine all ingredients, shake to mix thoroughly, and store in an air-tight container until ready to use.
Grilled Vegetable Halloumi Salad July 27, 2010
Posted by Angela @ Making Food for Friends in salad.Tags: halloumi, salad
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Ryan requested this salad for dinner on Monday night after a weekend of grilling (I believe I saw him eating a campfire “double down” beef and cheese burger….and I ate my weight in chips and dip and veggie dogs) and beers. It was inspired by a grilled salad I bought once at Holiday Market and then never saw there again. It’s made just as easily on a grill as in an oven, and we eat it year-round. The ingredients are simple, but you could easily add any other veggies you might like to grill to change it up a little.
Halloumi cheese, if you haven’t had the pleasure of trying it yet, is a Greek sheep and goats milk that is typically grilled or fried before serving. I use our grill pan to cook it—I just slice up the block into 1/2 thick slices and place them on the pan (no need to spray or oil it before hand—the cheese has enough fat in it to cook nicely without any added oil), making sure to flip over each piece as it browns. I’ve grilled it outdoors, too, on a piece of aluminum foil, but I have always gotten WAY better results cooking it on the grill pan.
Grilled Vegetable Halloumi Salad
Ingredients:
1 block halloumi cheese
Enough spinach for two salads
1 large chopped tomato (or a handful of grape tomatoes, halved)
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed (ideally, get the skinner spears, not the fat asparagus spears)
Two portabello mushroom caps, sliced
A few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Dressing (my favorite on this salad is Brianna’s French Vinaigrette–but you could always make your own, too!)
Method:
You should have your veggies grilling & halloumi frying at the same time. If you are grilling outdoors, you might need a hand making sure nothing burns. But you can easily just roast the vegetables in the oven & cook the halloumi on a grill pan, making it easier for one person to handle.
Prepare the veggies to grill by tossing the asparagus spears in olive oil and salt & pepper, and the mushroom slices in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt & pepper. Either put them in the oven to roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or grill them outdoors for 10 minutes or so.
Cut the halloumi into slices about 1/2 inch thick and grill indoors on a grill pan, making sure to flip the pieces so all sides evenly brown.
When the veggies are roasted and the cheese is browned, chop them into bite-sized pieces and served over a bed of fresh spinach and chopped tomatoes.
Veggie Cobb Salad, and My Favorite Way to Cook Tofu June 30, 2010
Posted by Angela @ Making Food for Friends in dinner, lunch, salad, vegan, vegetarian.Tags: morningstar, nutritional yeast, salad, tofu
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I made veggie cobb salad for dinner last night. This was monumental because it marks the first time in my LIFE I have ever hard-boiled an egg. Remember when I told you I couldn’t really cook an egg? That didn’t only apply to fried eggs…it applies to every kind of egg a person might want to eat. But I did it. And it turned out magnificently, or so I’m told. I didn’t eat it. But Ryan did, and I saw it, and it looked like a hard-boiled egg should look. My salad is the one pictured below, sans egg. This post isn’t really about boiling an egg, though. It’s about my hands-down favorite way to cook tofu, and a salad you can make using the tofu.
The Best Way to Cook Tofu. (modified from the Grit Cookbook)
Ingredients:
15 oz block of water-packed extra firm tofu
1 tbl olive oil
Soy sauce (a few shakes of the bottle)
Nutritional yeast (about 1-2 tbl)
Method:
Drain the tofu and press excess water out using a tea towel or paper towels. Cut tofu into a small dice. Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet, and add tofu. Cook it, flipping pieces infrequently so the tofu gets nice and brown and crispy on the outside. When tofu has browned (it takes me about 20 minutes to get it how I like it), turn the heat down to about medium-low and add a few shakes of soy sauce to the pan. Stir the tofu around, making sure it all gets evenly seasoned. Add one to two tablespoons of nutritional yeast to the tofu, again stirring it around so it is evenly coated. It should look like the tofu above when you are done!
Veggie Cobb Salad
Ingredients:
1 block’s worth of grit-style crispy tofu
4-6 veggie bacon strips (I buy Morningstar brand)
2 chopped tomatoes
1 diced avocado
A few cups of chopped romaine, leaf lettuce, or other greens
Cheese—blue cheese is good, or shredded cheddar
A hard-boiled egg, if you wish!
Method:
Once your tofu is prepared as described above and your veggie bacon has crisped up in the skillet, all you really need to do is chop the veggies up & arrange in a cobb-esque fashion. 🙂
Thai Fresh “Drunken Noodle” Salad June 28, 2010
Posted by Angela @ Making Food for Friends in dinner, salad, vegan.Tags: golden mountain sauce, salad, thai
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I went into Kim Nhung Superfood (on the southwest corner of Dequindre and 13 Mile) on Saturday, looking to buy some fresh lemongrass. I picked up a few more things while I was there (mini cans of a few different curry pastes, a giant bottle of rice vinegar since we seem to go through it quickly, and some tofu) and came across a bottle of Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce. I recalled reading a recipe recently that used Golden Mountain as an ingredient, and decided to bring that home with me as well. A quick search through my email (I email recipes I want to try to myself and then tag them with a “recipes” tag in Gmail–making it easy to do a quick search by ingredient in my Gmail account when I’m trying to find something to make) and brought up this recipe for Drunken Noodle Salad, originally posted on The Kitchn. The Golden Mountain sauce is often called the “secret” to Thai cooking—a salty and tangy but slightly sweet fermented sauce made from soybeans but unlike any typical soy sauce found in grocery stores. I liked what it added to this recipe, and I can see myself using it a lot in curries and noodle dishes. The bottle claims it has no MSG but like any soy-based sauce, it is pretty high in sodium, so not entirely healthy. Here’s what it looks like, should you care to try it:
Thai Fresh “Drunken Noodle” Salad
(Modified only slightly from The Kitchn)
Ingredients:
For the Salad:
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 medium cucumber, julienned
2-3 medium carrots, julienned
2 hearts romaine lettuce, shredded
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup of fresh chopped basil (Thai basil is preferred, but sweet basil works fine too)
2 bundles vermicelli rice noodles, about 8-10 oz.
2 T cooking oil
1 package firm baked tofu, diced
lime wedges, for garnish
For the Sauce:
3 T vegetarian oyster sauce
3 T soy sauce
3 T golden mountain sauce
3 T rice vinegar (white vinegar will work too)
2 tsp sriracha (adjust to taste, depending on how much heat you like)
3 T fresh lime juice
1 T sugar
Method:
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut up and prep all the veggies (a mandoline will make julienning go much quicker, but if you don’t have one and want to save time on cutting, any bite size pieces or slices will do!).
Combine all of the dressing ingredients and mix until the sugar dissolves, then set aside.
When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cold water until completely cool, then drain again and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and saute for about 5 minutes.
Add all of the sauce and the chopped basil and cook until the sauce is warm and the basil has wilted, about a minute, then turn off the heat.
To serve, place chopped romaine lettuce at the bottom of a bowl, followed by a handful of rice noodles. Add tofu and sauce. Top with the tomatoes and julienned vegetables, and garnish with a lime wedge.
Meat eaters could replace the tofu with chicken or shrimp.
This was delicious cold for lunch the following day!
Tuesdays with Angela: Making Food for Friends 