Kale and Apple Honey Mustard Slaw with Pumpkin Pie Spiced Quinoa Crunch Almonds

This is one of those recipes that came out of the need to re-purpose and extend leftovers. I had leftover cabbage from making the Apple Honey Mustard Slaw, a bunch of kale, and some toasted nuts. It is the perfect crunchy and clean fall salad to accompany any heavier, richer main course, or you can add a chewy grain and some chickpeas or lentils, and you have a lunch salad for the week. I served it with a melty Taleggio grilled cheese, but you could really eat it with anything. It only gets better with age.

The Pumpkin Pie Spiced Quinoa Crunch Almonds are delicious and perfectly fall on their own and an excuse to make a big batch of them, but you can also substitute toasted almonds. You will just want to adjust the seasoning a bit.

Kale has so many wonderful nutritional benefits, some of which you may not know are vision boosters. A few months ago, I reviewed the book, Eat Right for Your Sight from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation when I made a variation of their delicious Spicy Udon Noodles. The mission of this organization is particularly personal because my mother and sister are both ophthalmologists and have many patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration. In addition to containing wonderful and easy recipes, the book taught me that kale contains lutien and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants that protect the center of the retina and may reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. So in honor of National Kale Day (October 7th) and the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, here is a perfectly fall kale salad recipe.

Kale and Apple Honey Mustard Slaw with Pumpkin Pie Spiced Quinoa Crunch Almonds

Salad:
1 bunch lacinato kale, stems removed and leaves cut in chiffonade
1/2 small head red cabbage, very thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 sweet and crisp apple, washed and julienned
1 cup Pumpkin Pie Spiced Quinoa Crunch Almonds, roughly chopped
sea salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons honey, preferably local (maple syrup if vegan)
pinch sea salt

Combine kale, red cabbage, carrot and salt into a large bowl. Massage salt into mixture an allow mixture to wilt. Meanwhile prepare dressing. Whisk dressing ingredients together. Pour over kale and cabbage mixture and toss to combine. Add apple and almonds and toss. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve. Enjoy! Serves 6 as a side.

Grilled Corn and Zucchini Toss

So you want to know one of my favorite things about summer? Those sheets of corn kernels that fall off the cob when you run your knife down alongside it. There is something so satisfying about their texture. Sure, eating corn right off the cob is pretty fun too, but it can be messy, and kernels get stuck in your teeth inevitably on the day you run out of floss. Corn kernel sheets take the cake for me. If only there was a foolproof way to maximize the number of kernels in a sheet.

This corn and zucchini number is pretty awesome. I put a lot of pressure on myself for making the most of these corn sheets other than just nibbling them up by themselves, and I think I did them justice. I toss sweet corn, tender zucchini, and a spicy chile with zingy red wine vinegar and buttery walnuts. Simple, beautiful, and really delicious. I promise.

Grilling corn, if you have never done it, is so easy. It beats boiling it or even sauteing it because it caramelizes the corn's sugars in the most perfect way. If a grill is not accessible, broiling it is always an option, just be sure to turn it every so often to prevent burning.

Grilled Corn and Zucchini Toss

2 ears of corn, husks and silks removed
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 large zucchini, washed and cut into 1 cm dice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 red chili, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat grill to high. Alternatively, turn your broiler on high. Rub each ear of corn with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Grill or broil, turning occasionally for about 10 minutes or until lightly charred all around. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, slice corn off the cob, preserving as many corn sheets as possible, and set aside. I use a small bowl turned upside down in a larger bowl to help catch any rogue kernels (see photo).

Meanwhile, heat a skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium- high heat. Add diced onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened and slightly golden, about 5-8 minutes. Add zucchini and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for another 5 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Add sliced red chili and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.

Carefully combine corn and zucchini mixture. Sprinkle in toasted walnuts and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy! Serves 4.

Barley and Quinoa Herbed Summer Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes

I take my tomatoes seriously. I will wait from late summer to late spring- what feels like an eternity- for their return to the farmers' markets. I resist buying the tomatoes from the grocery store from some place far away. And when I taste that first one in late June, I am reminded that the wait was worth it. Summer cherry tomatoes, still slightly warm from the sun, are too irresistible to not just pop right into my mouth, completely unaltered. But they can also bring a welcome acidity to so many summer salads, especially to those loaded with herbs.

I originally made this recipe as a dish to carry to a family potluck. I had grains and lentils stored in the fridge that I had cooked a few days prior and a new bounty of the first summer tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs from the local farmers' market. The dish was so delicious, I made another batch when I got home. It is a delicious salad served alongside grilled foods or even with a hard-boiled egg. It may seem daunting to make two grains for a salad, but the texture you get from the chewy barley and nutty, almost crunchy quinoa combination is pretty awesome.

Barley and Quinoa Herb Summer Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes

1/3 cup cooked beluga lentils*
2/3 cup cooked pearl barley**
2/3 cup cooked quinoa***
2 English cucumbers, sliced lengthwise and then thinly sliced cross-wise in half-moon shapes
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup crumbled feta (I used goat milk feta which I highly recommend)

Herbed Arugula Dressing
1 cup loosely packed arugula
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/2 teaspoon of salt, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Combine barley, quinoa, lentils, cucumbers, and tomatoes in a large bowl.

Make the herb dressing: Add all dressing ingredients to a mini food processor and blitz until mostly smooth.

Pour the dressing over the ingredients in the bowl and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with pine nuts and crumbed feta. Stir until mixed. Taste and adjust salt. Enjoy! Serves 4-6. 

* To cook beluga lentils: Use the ratio 1 part beluga lentils to 4 cups water. Rinse the lentils under running water and drain. Add lentils and fresh water to pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, checking the texture around 15 minutes. You want a firm but not crunchy lentil. When lentils reach desired doneness, drain lentils, and set aside. 1 cup uncooked lentils yields about 2 cups cooked lentils.
** To cook pearl barley: Use the ratio of 1 part pearl barley to 3 parts water. Bring the water and barley to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow to cook for 30-35 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes before removing the lid. 1 cup of uncooked pearl barley yields about 3 cups of cooked pearly barley.
*** To cook quinoa: Use the ratio 1 part quinoa to 1.5 parts water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the quinoa, stir, and cover pot. Reduce heat to low, and allow to cook for 25 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes before removing the lid. 1 cup of uncooked quinoa yields about 3 cups cooked quinoa.

Two Potato Salad with North African Spiced Yogurt

In the summer, we find a lot of excuses to use the grill. We grill a lot of vegetables -corn, broccoli, zucchini, you name it, but there's also my Aunt Jackie's famous grilled flank steak that marinates for days, hand-mixed burgers, local sausages, and even fish if we can find a sustainable source for it. We are always looking for fuss-free, make ahead dishes to tag alongside. Grain salads are always fun to whip up, but potato salad can be really comforting. It's cool, creamy, and the ubiquitous summer cookout food. 

I grew up with the traditional mayonnaise and mustard version where the ratio of dressing to potatoes always seemed way too high. It was always a little disturbing when the "salad" would need soup bowls to contain it and soup spoons to eat it. Not being a mayonnaise aficionado either, I mostly avoided it. Then I was introduced to the German version where I was relieved to find oil and vinegar as the main ingredients. Not being a bacon lover, however, I would leave it out. The grainy mustard, punchy vinegar, and fresh parsley gave plenty of flavors to the potatoes. This oil and vinegar version has become the standard genre of potato salad we make in the summer, but I think this recipe takes things to another level.

Boiled potatoes become little sponges for whatever you dress them in, and this recipe dresses them in a beautiful and delicious dressing that pairs so well with the mix of yellow Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes that I used. I stumbled upon a Moroccan Potato Salad that Mike from the food blog The Iron You, made a a little while ago, and it looked too interesting to not give it a try. He uses olive oil, vinegar, AND Greek yogurt for a hint of creaminess and tang that works beautifully with the warm Ras el Hanout spice blend. If you are not familiar with Ras el Hanout, it is a North African spice blend with a variety of different spices such as coriander, turmeric, cardamom, clove, paprika, cayenne, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but it can vary from brand to brand much like a curry blend can. It can also vary on spice level, so be sure to test how spicy yours may be before being too generous with it. The one I had on hand from was from Seasoned Pioneers and featured galangal root, dried rose hips, and even ginger, but you can also make your own at home from a recipe here. It is a lovely, surprising ingredient that will really add some interest no matter where you use it.

I modified a few things from the original recipe, especially since I like more green with my potatoes and a little less spice (as in heat), but the template is a winner. I also used a mix of sweet potatoes and Yukon Golds because I love sweet potatoes and it also was quite beautiful when mixed with the yogurt and citrus dressing and herbs. The dressing is a delicious dip, too, so feel free to make extra. They key to this salad, as Mike mentions, is to not overcook the potatoes. You want them to hold their shape rather than turn to mush so keep checking them a few minutes before the timer goes off. This only gets better as it sits, so you can make it several hours before or even the days before and all of the flavors will soak in. I hope you try it at your next cookout!

Two Potato Salad with North African Spiced Yogurt

2 pounds potatoes (I recommend a mix of sweet potatoes and Yukon Gold or red potatoes
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I used 2%)
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh herbs (I used equal parts mint, parsley, cilantro, and a few scallions)
1 tablespoon red wine or white wine vinegar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 teaspoons Ras el Hanout
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the potatoes. Wash the potatoes, peel them if you would like, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. I like the peel so I chose to leave it on. Place chopped potatoes in a pot and cover with water by 2 inches. Bring water to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer and cook until just tender, about 6-8 minutes, checking around the 5 minute mark. Drain, sprinkle with salt, and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt, herbs, vinegar, lemon juice, lemon zest and orange zest, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Prepare the spiced oil. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the Ras el Hanout and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour the oil over the cooked potatoes and stir to combine. Add the yogurt mixture and stir to combine, careful not to break up the potatoes. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. Enjoy! Serves 6-8 as a side.

Kohlrabi and Lentil Lettuce Cups with Olive Vinaigrette

We are finally getting a break from the heat here in Philadelphia, but for a few days, it seemed like nothing I did could cool me down. I even resorted to looking up alternative solutions to staying cool at night with no clear winner. The worst suggestion: dampen a towel, freeze it, and then lay it on the bed prior to sleeping. Who thinks these things up? I can just use my imagination to know that that is a horrible idea. Not only would I probably still be hot in the middle of the night, I would now have a soaked mattress.

Basically, turning on the oven was not an option. These lettuce wraps were the perfect nearly no-cook solution to this heat wave. Crunchy, salty, punchy, and fresh, the filling in these little cups can be made ahead of time and scooped in your choice of green whenever you are ready. Or forgo the lettuce leaf and eat the filling all by itself.

Kohlrabi is one of those vegetables that I would see at the farmers' markets but could never could commit to buying. I never knew what to do with it. It was not until my mother decided to grow some in her garden one year where we had no choice but to figure out how to use it. Once you start cooking with it, you will see that it has a lot of potential. It comes from the cabbage family and is mild in flavor, but it has a wonderful crunchy, almost starchy texture. In these wraps, it fills in for the rice or grain that I would typically go for and has a wonderful clean flavor.

The filling is punchy. Fresh parsley, Dijon mustard, kalamata olives, and red wine vinegar really give a lot of flavor. Roasted red peppers, beluga lentils, extra-virgin olive oil and toasted walnuts help round everything out. It is vegan as is, but I am sure this would be delicious with some crumbled feta, goat cheese, or fresh mozzarella sliced on top.

Kohlrabi and Lentil Lettuce Cups with Olive Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
11/4 cup chopped, pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper (about 1/2 pepper)
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 kohlrabi (1/2 pound), peeled and diced into 1/2-cm cubes
1 cup cooked beluga lentils*
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons, chopped, toasted walnuts
1 head of red leaf or romaine lettuce, leaves separated, washed, and dried
salt and pepper to taste

Make the dressing. Combine the red wine vinegar, mustard, olive oil, and olives in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

In a larger bowl, combine the parsley, chopped red pepper, minced red onions, diced kohlrabi, cooked lentils, and chopped walnuts in a bowl and stir to combine. Pour dressing over mix and stir until everything is well coated.

Fill lettuce leaves with vegetable mixture. Enjoy! Serves 4.