Cuisine: Salad

Tarragon-Aspargus-Salad

Salat mit gebratenem Spargel

The season for white aspargus is about to start.Yeeeah!
It can happen, that I eat white aspargus twice a day, that’s how much I like it.
Today I bought aspargus for the first time in 2015, only a small bunch, so I had a nice salad with roasted aspargus on top.

Ingredients Salad

  • 6 spears white aspargus
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 bowl mixed salad leaves, respectively rucola, lammbs lettuce, radicchio
  • 4 sprigs tarragon, bzw. a small handful
  • 2 cherry tomatoes
  • pepper & salt

gebratener SpargelPeel the aspargus and snip off the ends. Cut the stalks diagonally into 7 mm pieces, keep the heads intact.
Heat the olive oil in a griddle and roast the aspargus for about 10 min. When the pieces begin to colour, add the heads and roast for about 4 min.
Wash the salad, if the leaves are too big, rip into 2–3 cm pieces. Pick the tarragon leaves off the stems, wash with the salad and spin or shake dry.
Depending on size cut the tomates in four or six pieces.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients Vinaigrette

  • 6 Tbsp olive oil
  • 4 Tbsp balsamico
  • 1 small shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 heaped Tsp jam/jelly, if possible raspberry or elderflower
  • 1 heaped Tsp whole grain mustard
  • pepper & salt

Mix the finely chopped shallot with the olive oil, balsamico, jam and mustard, until everything is nice and smooth. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

To assemble the salad, first layer the salad and tarragon leaves in a large soup bowl, add the tomatoes and pour over as much dressing as you like. I prefer mine quite soaked. Top with the aspargus and grind some more pepper on top.

If you haven’t tried the combination of aspargus and tarragon: it is heavenly!!

Salat mit gebratenem Spargel

 

lamb’s lettuce with roasted squash

Feldsalat mit gebackenem Kürbis

At the moment I am really crazy for this salad, although it is no salad season at all. I mean, it is way to cold to eat something NOT warm. But a friend gave me a 1 litre bottle of the finest pumpkin seed oil. And since I opened it last week, I have to eat lamb’s lettuce with pumpkin seed oil dressing twice a week minimum.

With the roasted squash you’ll get a warm salad, but maybe you don’t have squash or you are to lazy to prepare it. No problem. You can throw this salad together with almost anything, e.g. borlotti beans, radishes, tomatoes, etc.

Ingredients roasted quash

  • 1 butternut squash (ca. 1,5–2  kg)
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp salt & pepper
  • 1–3 dried chilies
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

gebackener KürbisPreheat the oven to 175°C. Wash the squash and cut into 2 cm pieces. Finely grind the spices in a pestle and mortar, then add the garlic clove and go on with the pestle and mortar until you get a paste. Mix in the olive oil.
Evenly spread the squash on a baking sheet, pour over the spiced oil and mix everything thoroughly.

Roast the squash in the oven for approximately 40 min, until soft and a little crisp on the edges. Turn over once.

 

 

 

Ingredients lamb’s lettuce

  • 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 3 tbsp balsamico
  • 8 tbsp pumpkin seed oil
  • 1 small shallot or onion, finely chopped
  • salt & pepper
  • 125 g lamb’s lettuce
  • 10 cremini mushrooms
  • pumpkin seeds, roasted

Roast the pumpkin seeds in a hot, dry pan, set aside.
For the dressing mix the chopped onion with the vinegars and salt and let infuse for a moment.
Then mix in the oil and pepper, check for seasoning. The dressing is quite sour, if you don’t like it, use more balsamico and less red wine vinegar and up the amount of the oil to taste. The amount of the dressing is also very generous, if you don’t want to use it all, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Wash the lamb’s lettuce very well, if it was grown on real soil, you might want to wash it three times. Cut the mushrooms into fine slices. Layer everything in a bown, top with the squash and pumpkin seed and pour over the dressing.
Mix well, tuck in. I hope you like it as much as I do, please let me know.
Feldsalat mit gebackenem Kürbis

french green bean salad

französischer Bohnensalat

Today I am enjoying one of my summer classics. Green beans are in season now, so this salad is the choice of the day.

Al dente cooked green beans in a delicious vinaigrette made of grainy mustard, shallots and capers. Very nice.

Zutaten

  • 5oog green beans, stalk ends removed
  • 1 small shallot
  • 1 Tbsp grainy mustard
  • 4 Tbsp olive or rapeseed oil (or both)
  • 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp white balsamico
  • 2 Tbsp capers
  • 1 Tbsp chives
  • salt & pepper

First trim the beans. You only need to cut of the stalk ends, if the tops don’t look too good, snip them off. Very long beans can be halved.
Put a pan of salted water on to boil. Once boiling, boil your beans until al dente (with a bite, a little bit squeaky). This may take from 4 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of your beans. Check after 4 min and decide if they are fine.
Vinaigrette für frz. BohnensalatWhile the beans are cooking prepare your vinaigrette.
Put the mustard, oil, vinegar and the capers in a bowl and mix very well to emulgate. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Drain the beans well, then tip the cooked beans into the bowl with your dressing and toss everything together, making sure all the beans get coated. Have a final taste and top with the chives (I usually cut them with scissors directly into the bowl). Now enjoy.

 

 

französischer Bohnensalat

Balsamico-lentils with sweet potatoes

Balsamico-Linsen-Salat

This is a classic dish in my family. My mother made this salad with regular potatoes. I like the combination of crispy potatoes with  lentils and spring onions, and therefore I cook it often. Today I tried sweet potatoes, which ist nice, but if you only have „regular“ ones, use them, it’s delicious anyway.

This salad feeds 2–3 hungry persons or makes a nice starter for 6.

Ingredients

  • 500g puy or beluga lentils
  • 1 big or 2 medium sweet potatoes oder potatoes
  • 1 shallot
  • 4 spring onions
  • 2 Tbsp oil for frying
  • 8 Tbsp balsamico
  • 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 10 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 good handful parsley

First of all put the lentils on the stove. Boil them according to packet instructions in a large amount of water, do not salt the water.
As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to a minimum and let the lentils simmer. Check on them after 20 min to see if they are done, don’t overcook them, because they’ll get mushy and taste watery. The lentils are perfect if they still have a bit of a bite. (Ok, here I am struggling with my english …)

Peel the potatoes and cut them in cubes of approx. 1 cm. Fry them in 1–2 Tbsp oil, tossing occasionally to brown on all sides.

IMG_4447Chop the shallot and parsley finely and put them in a big bowl.
Halve the spring onions and cut them in 3 cm pieces.
As soon as the lentils are done, drain them well and put them in the bowl with the parsley and the shallot, season to taste with salt and pepper, mix with the wine vinegar, 6–7 Tbsp Balsamico and about 8 Tbsp olive Oil. If you like more balsamico or olive oil, add some more.
When the potatoes are crispy put them also in the bowl.
Fry the spring onions gently in a little oil and finish with 1–2 Tbsp balsamico. Drape nicely on the salad and tuck in.

Hmmm.

 

 

Balsamico-Linsen-Salat

quick antipasti dinner

Antipasti

This is a weekday standard.
I am often very hungry, when I come home from work, but to lazy to prepare dinner.
That is the moment when I start opening a few cans of beans and squash them to a nice purée, add sundried or fresh tomatoes, olives, little bit of cheese. The amount is easily scalable to fit your appetite.

This is what I had today:

Ingredients

  • 2 cans borlotti beans (pinto beans), drained
  • 1 Tbsp parsley, chopped coarsely
  • 1 good handful cherry-tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 2 Tbsp basil leaves, chopped or torn into pieces
  • 1 small handful black olives, with stones
  • 1 small handfull Scamorzetti (little smoked cheeseballs)
  • 1 Tbsp pickled Chilies
  • lemon juice, olive oil, pepper, salt
  • good balsamico to drizzle

Start with draining and rinsing the beans. Heat in a little saucepan a good lug of olive oil and warm the beans through. You can already start with mashing the beans with a fork. No need to do it too thoroughly, it’s nice if the texture remins chunky.
Season with lemon juice, olive oil (loads), pepper and salt. Add the chopped parsely and give it a final stir.

Now you only have to drape everything nicely on a big plate.
First spoon the beans to form a pile, group the other ingredients around it. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper, top with a little bit of basil. Finish with a drizzle if good balsamico (or crema di balsamico).
Already done.
Antipasti

Chickpea Rucola salad

The perfect match for a nice summer day – like today – is a fresh and tasty salad.
Todays choice is a salad with chickpeas. I wanted to make one for so long, so today is the day :-)
The result is inspired by a bean salad recipe from the LEON cookbook.

RucolaSince I planted two rucola plants in my garden two years ago, there is always enough. Now I have rucola growing in almost every corner of the herb garden.

The ingredients are plain and the salad is thrown together in no time. It is just important to let it sit for a few moments, so the flavours can develop.

Kichererbsen_Rucola_Salat
That’s what the finished salad looks like.

 

Ingredients

  • 1 shallot or small red onion
  • 4 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1–2 15 oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 handful of rucola
  • 1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 8 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tsp lemon zest
  • 2 Tbsp parsley, minced coarsely
  • sea salt, fresh black pepper

Zwiebeln marinieren in Zitronensaft Kichererbsen und Tomaten

First of all, cut fine dices of the onion/shallot and put these with the lemon juice in a bowl.
Marinating the onion makes it sweeter.

In the meantime prepare all the other ingredients, meaning cutting the tomatoes in half, drain and rinse the chickpeas, etc …

Finished with all the preparations, put the tomatoes and the chickpeas in the bowl together with the onion. Add pepper and salt to taste and mix well. Let it stand for 5–10 minutes so the flavours can meld.

Now add all the other ingredients, check seasoning, grate ssome lemon zest on top and tuck in.