The Shabbat Table: Salads that satisfy

Barley Confetti Salad with fresh dill from Suzanne Landry's The Passionate Vegetable

 

Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom! The trees and flowers are in bloom and Farmer’s markets overflowing with beautiful vegetables and fruits are on the horizon. If you’re searching for some mouthwatering recipes for Shabbat, Victoria Day, or Memorial Day celebrations, try these three scrumptious salads created by cookbook author, Suzanne Landry, fresh food chef and wellness educator. These satisfying salads are also perfect fare for the cottage.

Suzanne Landry lives in Ventura, CA and is the author of The Passionate Vegetable (Health Inspired Publishing) which features “health inspired recipes to revitalize your life for vegetarians or meat lovers!” Through her cooking school, Nature’s Table, she has lectured and taught more than 8,000 students. For information about her cookbook, visit www.SuzanneLandry.com where you’ll also find sample recipes for Roasted Chicken with Thyme and Lemon, Farro Salad with Market Vegetables, Golden Beet Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes, and Chocolate Lace Cookies.

The Passionate Vegetable is much more than a cookbook. Suzanne Landry reveals the pure simplicity and bountiful flavour of farm-fresh vegetables with her delicious, nutritious recipes. She addresses organic ingredients and food allergies, includes a simple guide to food nutrition, and explains how to read food labels. Suzanne offers excellent suggestions for healthy vegetarian meals, pantry makeovers, information about ingredients, along with 145 terrific tips and time-savers to help make cooking fun again.

Suzanne Landry explains how to switch over to whole foods, whole grains, and natural sweeteners, and how to deal with food cravings; she also provides sensible guidelines for eating well. You’ll find simple, wholesome recipes for healthy start breakfasts, nourishing soups, one-pot meals, satisfying salads, innovative grains, main dishes (e.g., meat or not to meat), bean cuisine, plus good-for-you desserts. Although this is not a kosher cookbook, there are lots of choices for the kosher cook.

The Passionate Vegetable is sure to inspire you to include more vegetables on your menu every day. Enjoy in good health!


 CALIFORNIA FIESTA QUINOA SALAD

California Fiesta Quinoa Salad from Suzanne Landry’s The Passionate Vegetable

(Serves 6)

Suzanne Landry shared: “Absolutely one of the most loved salads by my clients, students, family, and friends!”

1 cup quinoa, uncooked

2 cups water

1/4 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup tomato, chopped (1 medium)

1/4 cup celery, chopped (1 stalk)

1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped (1 medium)

1/2 cup scallions, chopped (4 scallions)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, cleaned and chopped

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn, blanched

1/2 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup black olives, pitted and diced (Kalamata are the best!)

Dressing:

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp hot red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar or 1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

  1. Boil 2 cups water and add salt. Thoroughly rinse quinoa in strainer. Place in boiling water, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 20 minutes or until grain is fluffed and water is absorbed. Remove from pot into a large bowl and let cool before adding vegetables.
  2. Slice tomatoes into 1/2-inch slabs and remove most of the seeds. Then cut tomatoes into sticks and crosswise into 1/2-inch cubes. This will give you evenly sized tomato pieces that won’t get mushy if the salad isn’t eaten right away.
  3. Cut celery by slicing down the rib in the center of the stalk. If the stalk is large, you might want to cut it in thirds. Then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces.
  4. Slice cucumber lengthwise into 4 strips and then remove center seeds. Chop these strips into 1/2-inch pieces. Remove root ends of scallions and cross chop into 1/4-inch pieces. Toss cooled quinoa with all remaining vegetables, beans, and olives.
  5. Mix vinegar, oil, hot pepper flakes, and salt together. Toss lightly with salad. Refrigerate for an hour before serving. This will last 5 days in the refrigerator.

Serving Suggestions: Suzanne’s favorite way of enjoying this as a leftover is in scrambled eggs! Just before the eggs set hard, she adds 1/4 cup or so of this salad and gives it a stir. Very yummy breakfast!


BARLEY CONFETTI SALAD WITH FRESH DILL

(Serves 4)

With its lighter dill flavor, this is a delicious and refreshing summertime salad for picnics and family gatherings.

3 cups precooked hulled barley or 1 cup uncooked

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn, blanched

1 cup precooked kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup celery, chopped (2 stalks)

3/4 cup red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup scallions, sliced (4 scallions)

1/2 cup fresh dill, minced or 2 Tbsp dried dill

Dressing

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp sea salt

  1. To cook barley, add 1 cup uncooked barley to a large pot with 3 cups of water, cover, and bring to boil. Decrease heat to medium and cook for 1 hour without stirring. It is best to precook barley ahead and keep refrigerated up to 3-5 days. You can substitute precooked rice for barley in this recipe.
  2. In a medium pot, bring water to boil and blanch corn for 2 minutes. Remove, drain, and rinse with cold water.
  3. Prepare vegetables and add them to the barley with the beans. Mix corn, scallions, and dill.
  4. Combine dressing ingredients and toss with salad. Let salad stand for 30 minutes before serving.

Bites of Insight: Hulled barley is the natural unpolished whole grain. It’s a little chewier and more flavorful than pearled barley. It contains protein, vitamins, and minerals. Pearled barley is polished and has had the bran/fiber and the germ removed which results in an 80% nutrition loss. Pearled barley is like white rice and hulled barley is like brown rice…big difference!


CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD  

(Serves 4)

A quick and easy weeknight diner if you have cooked chicken on hand.

1/2 cup carrot, sliced into match sticks (1 medium)

2 stalks of bok choy, chopped with leaves

1/4 cup each of red and green cabbage, chopped

1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped (1/2 medium)

1 cup mung bean sprouts

1/2 cup snow or snap peas

1/4 cup slivered almonds

Marinade for Chicken:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbsp water plus 1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp light sesame oil

1 tsp ginger juice (see Grating Fresh Ginger, below)

1 tsp prepared mustard

Dressing:

2 Tbsp orange juice

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp light sesame oil

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp ginger juice

  1. To juice ginger, use a handheld parmesan grater and grate ginger with skin until you get a small ball size. Squeeze this ball in the palm of your hand into a small bowl. Measure out from there. If the ginger is old or dehydrated this will not work well. If you don’t have a grater, then peel, slice thin and mince ginger and add to dressing and marinade.
  2. Marinate chicken for at least 1/2 hour or longer if possible. You can marinate overnight. Remove, drain marinade, and discard. Grill or panfry chicken until no longer pink, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Once chicken has cooled, cut into bite-size pieces.
  3. Clean, slice or chop, and toss vegetables together and add to chicken.
  4. Combine dressing ingredients and toss with chicken and vegetables and top with almonds.

Bites of Insight: To avoid contamination, don’t use the marinade for a dressing if it had raw chicken soaking in it.

Grating Fresh Ginger: No need to peel! The easiest way to get ginger juice from fresh ginger is simple: grate the ginger directly on a small handheld cheese grater. Make sure it has small holes in it so that the ginger comes out as a soft juicy pulp. Take a small ball of this pulp in your hand and simply squeeze the ginger juice directly into your dish. This is much easier and quicker than peeling, slicing, and dicing the ginger.

Norene Gilletz is the leading author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. She is the author of 12 cookbooks and divides her time between work as a food writer, food manufacturer, consultant, spokesperson, cooking instructor, lecturer, and cookbook editor. Norene lives in Toronto and her motto is “Food that’s good for you should taste good!” For more information, visit her website at www.gourmania.com or email her at [email protected]