I’m not a fan of bell peppers, but….

I blogged the other day about this amazing summer salad I had. Meet this delicious Mediterranean summer salad - perfect for a warm summer day. It also keeps nicely til the next day (I’m sure it would keep longer, except that it’s so delicious that it might not last that long). I love sour things, but I never really thought about including pickled ingredients in my salad – I can’t imagine sour gurkens in my salad. But this, this was so delicious that I’m going to have to try out more recipes like that. Even my Dad, who isn’t a big fan of salad, said that the salad was yummy and that he’d like to eat it again soon. (And yes, I need to improve the lighting on my pictures).

mediterranean summer salad on cress

We ate the salad with homemade flatbreads – another Smitten Kitchen recipe. So good! You might think that the mixture of honey, thyme and salt is weird, but it comes together nicely, with the finished object being more than it’s components. I’ll be making this one again, soon.

flatbreads with freshly crushed sea salt

Orange vanilla bean dressing

Sixoneseven put up a blog post a few weeks ago about this orange vanilla bean dressing. It sounded delicious and I was waiting on just the right occasion to try out the dressing. The other day we had tons of oranges left – you can make only so much fresh pressed orange juice – so I decided to make a napa cabbage, cucumber and orange salad with walnuts, and this dressing. The idea of using vanilla beans in a dressing sounded very interesting.

The salad was great, but the dressing didn’t quite meet my expectations. I’d use less oil next time, and a bit more honey, depending on how sour the oranges are. I also used a bit of my pickled spring onions, and that helped give the dressing a bit more body. I think the idea of the dressing is great, but it still needs more work. But with the basic idea is interesting.

I know what I ate last Friday

OMG. I think Friday’s dinner was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. So delicious. We ate every last bit. No leftovers.

I mentioned the other day that I love Smitten Kitchen – so much so that I’m subscribed to the email updates. The other day I stumbled upon a recipe for these delicious corn, buttermilk and chive popovers. I’ve been itching to try it out, and figured the popovers would work well with salad. I love salad, especially non-classic iceburg lettuce and a dressing salad.  (How boring). I like to mix up my salad with different textures and tastes – something smooth, something crunchy, and something tangy. I love fruit or fruit juice or lemon in my dressing.

I get hungry just looking at them!

My sister had told me about a delicious Cauliflower and Broccoli salad, with strawberries and a poppyseed dressing, so I figured I’d try out the salad myself. Well, no poppyseeds in the household means no poppyseed dressing. So I searched Smitten Kitchen, and found a yummy Broccoli slaw recipe, with a buttermilk dressing. I was very tempted to make the slaw, but I figure there’s another day to try out that recipe. Anyway, buttermilk dressing on the salad and some sliced almonds took care of the salad. Add hot popovers, with a pat of butter. Yum yum yum. Judge for yourself.

pre-application of dressing

Peanuts are not my friends

I so want to make this cabbage and lime salad - it looks like the perfect summer dish. Everyone else doesn’t seem to excited by the idea of a cabbage salad, but that just means that there’s more for me. Yay! Tangy and crunchy, what more could I want in a salad? Oops, the salad also includes peanuts. That’s a bit of a problem. You see, I don’t like peanuts. We’ve just never gotten along. I don’t like peanuts in all their incarnations – not raw, not cooked, not raw and salted, not as peanut butter, brittle or in M&Ms, and definitely not in cake. No Peanut butter just makes my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. And I’d rather eat Nutella, thank you very much. Hazelnuts and chocolate, what could be better?

I imagine that some almond slices would be a good substitute. Or some chopped up hazelnuts?

Watermelon salad

I had this for the first time at Kafe Leopolds in DC a few years ago. I’d never heard of a watermelon salad before, and the idea of pairing watermelon with feta sounded interesting. Plus the salad included thyme, once of my favorite herbs. The salad seemed simple enough and it was delicious, so I decided to recreate it. The key, in my opinion, is to drizzle really good olive oil on the salad, preferably once the salad has been plated – not a lot, but that little bit really makes a difference. And some crushed sea salt.

Of course I only found out later that a watermelon salad isn’t exactly a rare thing. Some people include other vegetables in their watermelon salad, but I still like my version best. That way the flavors are the cleanest, and each individual ingredient shines. It’s still great the next day – that is, if it lasts that long.

I’m also planning to make some of these other melon salads. Sometime.

ETA: I forgot that I didn’t post the ingredients I used: in case it’s not clear, the salad is made of just some cubed watermelon, cubed feta, fresh thyme, a bit of sea salt and good olive oil. This salad still tastes good the next day, and the day after (if it lasts that long). The flavors will have mingled so it’s a different experience but still yummy.