Prudent Foodie

Carrot and Garbanzo Bean Salad

With longer days and warmer weather arriving, salad sounds better and better.  But produce is still expensive, and it will be months before appealing tomatoes are available here in Michigan.  Although, I planted radishes in my cold frame a couple weeks ago, and they are coming up, so we'll be talking radishes in this space soon!  I addressed the salad cravings I was having last week with a simple, cheap, tasty and healthy salad that can be used in a lot of ways, and which depends on a vegetable that is always available with good quality: carrots.  The health benefits of the carrots are pretty generally known, but mustard seeds and cumin also contain many beneficial nutrient and flavonoids.

This salad is versatile, you can enjoy it as a salad with a regular meal, but a large helping with a slice of bread would make a light vegetarian meal.  You can use the leftovers as  "dressing" for another salad by tossing a bunch of mixed salad greens in a bowl and stirring this up with them.  I carry a salad to work for lunch everyday, and often just toss the greens in the tub and add a dollop of something like this to them to make things quicker in the morning.  You could even make a tasty and elegant scandinavian style open face sandwich with this by buttering a slice of bread, adding a leaf of lettuce and some of this salad along with a rolled slice of chicken, ham or roast beef!  This recipe makes a fairly small quantity, but you can easily double it.

Carrot and Garbanzo Bean Salad

2 large carrots, peeled

1 cup garbanzo beans (you can cook your own, or use canned)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp black mustard seeds (or 1/2 tsp english mustard powder)

1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 shallot - peeled and minced fine (chopped chives, or the white parts of a scallion will work fine too, or omit altogether if you like)

1/3 cup high quality olive extra virgin olive oil (I use Nunez de Prado)

salt and pepper to taste

Put the chopper blade in your food processor and toss in the garbanzo beans.  Pulse briefly a couple times so the garbanzos are very coarsely chopped. Put the garbanzo beans in a bowl, and replace the chopper blade in the shredded (I actually just leave the beans in there while I change this out - but it's personal preference).  Shred the carrots and then put in a bowl with the garbanzos.  Set aside while you make the dressing. If you are using black mustard seeds, grind them in a mortar and pestle a little to open them.  Grind the cumin seeds as well.  In a small bowl whisk the lemon juice and olive oil together well, add the spices and salt and pepper to taste and whisk together.  Pour the dressing over the carrots and garbanzos and stir. 

Enjoy! DeeDee

Balsamic Vinegar Ranch Dressing

Why is the prudent foodie thinking about salad dressing?  Seems like a pretty minor topic, but when you are, as my daughter recently said "the woman who actually lives on salad" it can loom large in your thinking. Personally,I am quite happy just drizzling a little high quality olive oil and putting some salt and pepper on my salad.  My favorite being Nunez de Prado, an organic spanish olive oil you can buy at Whole Foods at a very reasonable price for its outstanding quality.

But my family likes its salad dressing, which presents a problem.  First, because I hate the salad dressing you get at the store - it's expensive and never tastes right. Or, it's cheap, full of chemicals and doesn't taste right.  But, I also hate having to make salad dressing, which seems to be a never ending chore, when you make just enough for each day.  My daughter has developed a taste, moreover for ranch dressing, something I dimly remember liking at her age, so maybe there is hope for her palate yet.

So, with the objective of increasing salad consumption by my offspring, I've been experimenting with homemade ranch dressing, which turns out to be pretty easy to make in larger batches (a pint), and very popular with the consumer at my kitchen table.   You can do this two ways - traditional ranch  style, or, because I was putting fresh blackberries in my salad last weekend (they were on sale for $1.50 /box, how could I pass it up?) I came up with a faintly sweet variation using balsamic vinegar that I really really like, so I 'm sharing it here. I make ranch dressing by basically making some mayonnaise, mixing it 50/50 with nonfat yogurt, and adding garlic,sage and herbs de provence mix, as well as salt and pepper.  Super easy, very good and really cheap too.  For the sweeter version, I substituted balsamic vinegar for the regular vinegar or lemon juice in my mayonnaise recipe.  This resulted in a subtle flavor and hint of sweetness that I really enjoyed.  Here's the recipe - your greens will love you for this.  DeeDee

Homemade Ranch Dressing

1 egg

1 TB vegetable oil (I usually use canola) plust 1 to 1 1/4 vegetable oil

2TB balsamic vinegar, or 1TB lemon juice or white wine vinegar

2 tsp dijon vinegar

1 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt (I use Stonyfields)

1 1/2 TB herbs de provence mix

1 tsp dried sage rubbed or crumbled

1 tsp lavender (fresh or dried, chopped fine)-use in the balsamic vinegar version

1-2 cloves garlic minced or pressed

salt and pepper to taste

Put the egg,1 TB vegetable oil, vinegar (or lemon juice if you are making the sharper version) and dijon mustard in your food processor with the chopper blade and process 1-2 minutes.  While you are doing this, pour 1/4 cup oil in the presser and let it drip through while the processor is running.  When it has run through, pour another 3/4 to 1 cup of oil in and let it run through until the mayonnaise thickens.  You can actually hear the sound of the processor change when this happens.  Open it up and add the yogurt, pressed or minced garlic, herbs and salt and pepper.  Process for 30 seconds.

Pour it out and over your salad!

Sausage Puff or "Toad in the Hole"

What is there to say about a dish which rejoices in the name of Toad in the Hole?  Who thought of that?  And who kept using it???   I prefer to think of it as a sausage puff, if only because I keep getting toad in the hole confused with bubble and squeak. 

This dish is very much like popovers and yorkshire pudding - a fluffy batter that is cooked with butter or pan drippings to create a puffy, crusty oven cake.  In this case you add things like sausage, and if you like vegetables, and maybe you sprinkle some cheese over all of it when it's nearly ready.  You can do nearly anything with this quick easy dish, so that like quiche, you can get many different flavors out of a single basic idea. Since I don't eat meat, I'll even sometimes put the meat all at one end and make one side of it vegetarian for me.  So much easier than making two meals!

2 eggs

1 c. milk

1 c. sifted flour

1/2 tsp. salt

pinch of cayenne powder

2 Tb butter

1 large sausage (or two if you prefer)

a scant 1/4 cup fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

1 cup blanced broccoli florets (optional)

1/2 cup cheese such as asiago, or fontina for melting (optional)

Beat 2 eggs and 1/2 t salt together.  Add alternately 1 c. milk and 1 c. sifted flour and cayenne.  Let stand, covered, for at least 1 hr.  Time saving tip: you can mix this up in the morning while you're making breakfast, and let it stand all day to cook when you get home. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  I like to cut my sausange into 1 inch thick slices and cook them in a small oven proof pan while it's preheating.  You can also slice and brown on the stove instead.  Place 2 T. butter in a 10" gratin pan and put  it in the preheated 450 oven until sizzling.  Mix the batter with the sliced and browned sausage.  Add 2 T chopped parsley.  If you are using broccoli, add that too. Place batter in pan and make sure sausage/veggies is distributed evenly.  You can also pour the batter in the pan, and then distribute the sausage etc. by hand.

Bake at 450 for 15 min and reduce to 375 for 10 min.  It you feel like adding cheese on top, do it in the last 5 minutes.   Serves 3-4.