Chicken Burrito Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

We've been eating tons of salads at our house lately, and this was a super easy variation. I would suggest cooking up a large batch of beans and freezing them in smaller containers or just draining and rinsing canned beans. We have one cheese hater in the family so we keep that on the side.

Chicken Burrito Salad

500g chicken breast

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 cups cooked rajma beans

1 can corn, drained (or ~2 cups from frozen)

lettuce, roughly chopped

3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped

Grated cheese, optional

Cut chicken breasts in half (parallel to cutting board) to create thin cutlets. These will cook faster. Generously season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper or whatever seasoning you like. Grill or saute chicken and set aside.

Layer salad bowl with lettuce, tomatoes, corn, and beans. Add cheese if desired. Cut cooked chicken into smaller pieces and lay over the top of the salad.

Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing from Fifteen Spatulas

1 large bunch fresh cilantro/coriander, cleaned

1/2 cup plain yogurt, thick (like ND's brand)

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 Tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 chili, seeds removed, optional (I did not use this)

Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Drizzle in olive oil and blend until smooth. Adjust the tastes with a little more salt or honey as desired to balance the tanginess.

Chickpea Salad

Salads....I love that a salad can really be just about anything you want it to be. I especially appreciate salads that you can make when good lettuce is either not available or not in your house that day. This chickpea salad is really not much of a recipe, but hopefully it will be an inspiration to you. This salad works well as the protein for a vegetarian meal. You can make it as simple or deluxe as you like, but here are the basics of what I do. You can use dried chickpeas or canned ones that you've rinsed and drained. You just need to add more salt if you've started from dried chickpeas.

Chickpea Salad
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1 cup tomatoes, diced or chopped
1 cup red onion, sliced thinly
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons vinegar (cider, red wine, or balsamic)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Optional add-ons:
1-2 cups fresh rocket/arugula
1 teaspoon dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary)
Crumbled cheese (feta, paneer, or even parmesan)
Fresh herbs (mint or basil)
Cucumber, chopped

Toss everything into a bowl. Adjust seasonings, vinegar, and oil to taste. Allow to chill and marinate at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Panzanella

I love this salad. It is seriously one of my favorite salads in the world! I learned about it a few years ago from Barefoot Contessa when I was trying to find a way to use up some stale bread leftovers I had. You can pretty much use any salad vegetables you want, which is perfect for those seasons when the lettuce doesn't look great. Any kind of crusty bread will work for this, but sandwich bread would be too soggy for this salad. This dressing is also the base for most of the vinaigrettes I make, too.

Panzanella
1 loaf day old crusty bread (boule, baguettes, foccacia)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 large cucumber, roughly chopped
1 green pepper, cut into small cubes
Handful salad greens or other salad vegetables
3 Tablespoons capers (optional)
1 red onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon mustard, Dijon preferred
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (AKA "grape" vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon mixed herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

Cut bread into chunky crouton-size cubes. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and when warm, add the bread and 3/4 teaspoons salt. Toss to coat the bread evenly with the olive oil. Saute, shaking the pan often, until the bread is toasty and golden. Remove from heat and cool. In a salad bowl, toss together all the salad vegetables, pulling apart the red onion so slivers mix throughout. In a small jar, combine all the ingredients from the garlic cloves through the pepper. With the lid on, shake to combine the dressing. Toss the bread cubes and about 1/2 the dressing into the bowl with the salad. Allow the flavors to meld about 30 minutes before serving, adding more dressing according to individual tastes.

Maple Roasted Pumpkin

About this time of year, pumpkins begin flooding our vegetable stalls in various stages of ripeness. The classic thing to do is turn them into puree that you can use to make cakes, pies, and nutty breads, but if you’d like to showcase pumpkin another way, give this a try. The recipe includes the combination of thyme and allspice, but if you don’t have access to allspice, try substituting nutmeg or swapping for a sage/nutmeg combination. If you don’t have those, just sprinkle on some cinnamon and leave out the herbs. Anyway you do it, these will give you another way to enjoy pumpkin. I think this would look gorgeous if you roasted some beets with the pumpkin for an orange and red combo. 

Maple Roasted Pumpkin 
3 cups pumpkin (or other winter squash), cubed

2 Tablespoons oil
2 Tablespoons maple syrup or brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt (more to taste afterwards)
Pepper

Place the pumpkin cubes in a baking dish. Sprinkle over all the ingredients and rub with your hands to coat evenly. Bake in a 200C/400F oven for about 20-30 minutes until they have golden edges and are fork tender. 

Note: If you use brown sugar rather than maple syrup, I would suggest placing a sheet of foil in the bottom of the pan for easier cleanup after roasting.  

Autumn Fruit Salad

For those of you who are salad traditionalists (lettuce+cucumber+tomato=salad), this recipe may seem a bit unorthodox, but it's a delicious way to combine the crispness of lettuce with crunchy cool weather fruit. It goes really nicely with Pumpkin Ginger Soup for a fall evening meal or lunch. This is another adapted recipe from the Simply in Season book using local ingredients. The actual "recipe" isn't much at all. It's all the add-ins that make the salad interesting.

Autumn Fruit Salad
3 cups lettuce greens, torn into small pieces
1 large apple or Asian pear, thinly sliced and tossed with lemon juice

Add-ins:
1 packet Honey Almonds or Honey Sunflower Seeds
Handful of soft or salty cheese (feta, goat cheese, parmesan, etc.), crumbled or grated
Dried cranberries or golden raisins
Cucumber, diced

Dressing:
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Place all the dressing ingredients into a jar and shake to thoroughly mix. If you want a really good emulsion that stays for a while, pulse this a few times in the blender. Adjust seasonings to taste. Place the apple slices and whatever add-ins you would like on top of the lettuce. Toss the salad with about half of the dressing, reserving extra for adding directly according to taste.

On it's own, the dressing is nothing magnificent, but something about the combination of that with the sweet fruit and crunchy greens brings it to life. The original recipe has double the salt content of this adjusted recipe, but I found it a touch too salty so I cut back. You can sometimes get the Dijon mustard on B1G1 promos, and the honey-flavored nuts are generally sold with snack foods like chips. I don't often have the precious cranberry stock so I just leave those out. Locally made soft goat cheese really takes this to another level, too. It's one of the cheapest "luxury" type cheeses.

Goma Ae

One of my absolute favorite Japanese sides is goma ae. It's made either with spinach or green beans, both of which are delicious! Pairing this with a bowl of miso soup and some rice is a wonderful light meal in my opinion. Just think about all those great probiotics you can be getting from the miso soup, too! Very handy for the ol' digestive tract when you're living in South Asia.

Goma Ae
200g green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
5 Tablespoons sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon dashi stock (this is why it works with the soup, just scoop it from the stock)

Steam the beans with a little salt until crisp tender. Drop into an ice water bath immediately after cooking. Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan until fragrant. Grind the sesame seeds and sugar into a paste in a blender (dry grinding attachment if you have one). Add the soy sauce and dashi stock (or water) to the dry. Toss the green beans and sesame sauce together.

You can also substitute spinach for this. You can boil a bunch of spinach in salted water, plunge it into cold water to preserve color, and chop it into 1 inch pieces. You do need to squeeze the spinach in a towel to reduce the amount of water. Either way this is a gorgeously tasty little side "salad" of sorts.

Brown Rice Salad

In the next few weeks, I hope to brush up on my food photography, but in the meantime, we're still working with unphotographed food. This salad is one of my quick lunch favorites. First, I'll give you the trick to perfect brown rice, and then the way to make this healthy ingredient a little not-so-healthy, but oh-so-delicious!

Perfect Brown Rice
2 cups brown rice
3 cups water

After rinsing the rice, turn on the heat and bring it to a boil uncovered. As soon as it begins to boil, put the lid on the pot, and drop the heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep the lid closed for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

I prefer my brown rice with a slight chew so 10 minutes is just right, but if you want it softer, you could leave it for the final steam longer. You can also vary the amount of rice, but the ratio should be 1 rice to 1.5 water.

Brown Rice Salad
6 slices bacon (how can we not love that?!)
1 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cup white or red wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 piece chicken cube
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (sub regular if you don't have it)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried
3 cups cooked brown rice

Cook the bacon until crisp and browned. Set aside to drain on a paper towel. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the grease. Saute the onion in the bacon grease until translucent. Add the vinegar, water, chicken cube, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Add the rice and crumbled bacon. Cook the rice on low until all the liquid is absorbed. This will take 7-10 minutes. Stir in the dill and cool slightly before serving. At this point, I also like to toss in some cold chopped vegetables like tomatoes or cucumbers just to give a cool contrast to the warm salad.

This is a great make ahead salad that keeps well in the fridge, too. It's perfect for days like today when we decide to come home for lunch after church.