As much as I love, and I mean, LOVE, creamy dressings and sauces, I rarely prepare them at home. To me, it’s not worth the extra calories. So when I come up with a recipe that accomplishes the creaminess that I’m after with only a fraction of the calories, I do a little happy dance. And then I make the recipe over and over and over again.
My absolute favorite breakfast sandwich is smoked salmon with cream cheese, red onion, tomato and capers on a poppy seed bagel. My goal was to take the flavors of that breakfast and turn it into an entrée salad without using a large block of cream cheese.
Mission accomplished.
by The Splattered Apron
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Israeli couscous {I box, prepared according to package}
- 2.5 oz. goat cheese {about a quarter of a small log}
- 1 cup 0% Greek yogurt
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- Salt and pepper
- 1/8 cup chives, snipped
- 1/3 cup chopped parsley
- 8-10 grape tomatoes, quartered {add as many or as few as you’d like}
- 4 oz. wild sockeye smoked salmon
Prepare the couscous as directed by the package; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the Greek yogurt, goat cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, chives, parsley, salt and pepper.
Flake or chop the salmon into bite size pieces. Add the salmon, tomatoes and couscous to the yogurt dressing. Stir well to combine. Serve immediately.
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I like to serve this warm, but it can also be served cold.
The tanginess of the goat cheese and the lemon give this salad a great brightness. The combination of Greek yogurt and goat cheese achieves the creaminess I was after without being heavy. The smoked salmon provides a bit of richness and I just love being able to walk out to my garden to grab any herbs I want. In this case, parsley and chives. I added tomatoes for a bit more texture on top of the chewiness of the Israeli couscous.
This would be a great dish to bring to a potluck. Just don’t expect to have any leftovers to take home.
Enjoy!
I think I talk about our neighbors a lot. Not in a bad way! In a way that says I spend a lot of time with them. It seems like every other week I talk about some dish that I made to share with our neighbors, doesn’t it? I really, really like our neighbors.
Last week we had our neighbors with an adorable new baby over for dinner. It was hot, so Jeromy grilled a London broil and kale and I made a cold cucumber salad. I also really wanted dessert but I didn’t want to bake. I had farm fresh peaches, a bag of gorgeous cherries and limes sitting in my kitchen and bushes of fresh mint growing in the backyard. I did what any sane person would do. I made a granita.
by The Splattered Apron
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: n/a
Keywords: freeze vegetarian vegan granita
- 2 cups water
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 10 mint leaves
- 2 ripe peaches, diced {skin on}
- 8 ripe, but firm, cherries, pitted and cut in half
- 2 limes, juiced
In a pot, combine the water, sugar and mint. Cook over medium heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. Immediately remove from the heat and discard the mint leaves. Set aside.
Place the diced peaches, halved, pitted cherries and the lime juice in a blender. Pour in the simple syrup. Cover and puree for 15-20 seconds, until the mixture appears very smooth.
Pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into an 8-9 inch glass baking dish. Push the solids through the sieve to get out as much of the juice as possible.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer.
Allow to freeze for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
When ready to serve, remove the dish from the freezer and scrape the granita with a fork. Serve in a martini glass {or any other fun vessel you like!}
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This was so easy to assemble. The hard party was scraping the ice into a granita before serving. I didn’t need to workout after that.
A granita is such a refreshing way to end a meal. In my version, the peach and cherry flavors sing with a subtle hint of mint. It’s summer in a margarita glass.
Tequila would not hurt this dessert.
Enjoy!
Remember these muffins from last year? I loved them. But I thought I could make them better. This weekend, when the temperature was low enough {yaay high 70s – low 80s!} to actually turn on the oven, I did just that.
I added in almond meal in place of some of the all purpose flour and omitted the walnuts and shredded apples. And let me tell you, I like these ones better.
by The Splattered Apron
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Keywords: bake bread vegan dairy-free zucchini summer
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1 medium zucchini, shredded and squeezed to get out excess moisture
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 flax egg {1 tablespoon flax meal plus 3 tablespoons water}
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Set aside the flax egg to gel and shred the zucchini. Squeeze the zucchini to get rid of as much excess water as possible.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Next, combine the dry ingredients {flour, almond meal, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon}.
In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients {applesauce, flax egg, milk and vanilla}.
Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Then stir in the zucchini until just combined.
Spoon the batter into a prepared muffin tin {I prefer not to use muffin liners}.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are puffed up, brown around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean.
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I have to confess. I baked these at 11 pm on Saturday night. As soon as they came out of the oven, I ate one. It was an awesome midnight snack on what was clearly a wide and crazy night.
The combination of apple and zucchini is one of my favorites.
I can’t wait to have one of these for breakfast.
Okay, fine. I’ll be eating two.
Enjoy!
It’s amazing how sometimes, the simplest ingredients can create the most flavorful yet humble dishes. This is one of those dishes. My Sitoo {you know her for her Tabbouleh, Fudge Cookies and Stuffed Shrimp} made this for us when we were visiting Massachusetts a few weeks ago. Using a pot that belonged to her mother, she stewed these green beans and potatoes to perfection. I couldn’t get enough. You know who else couldn’t get enough? Caroline. She ate this for 3 days straight. Sure sign of a good dish.
by The Splattered Apron
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
- 1 onion (on the larger side) chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 3 tablesppons olive oil
- 2 lbs green beans, cleaned
- 2 lbs small white potatoes, peeled
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- salt and pepper
In a heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil.
Saute the onions until they have a little bit of color, but are not browned.
Add the garlic cloves and saute for a minute.
Add the green beans and stir until coated with olive oil. Add the the potatoes and both types of tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine, cover and simmer over medium low heat for one hour.
After one hour, season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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Green beans. Tomatoes. Garlic. Onions. Potatoes. Does it get any simpler?
Despite cooking for an hour, the green beans still have a little bit of bite. Somehow, they don’t become mushy. The potatoes break apart easily with a fork. For Caroline, I cut up the green beans and mashed the potatoes. Girlfriend gobbled it up before touching anything else on her plate.
My Sitoo has been making Loubieh for years and years and it always tastes the same. To me, it tastes like home.
Enjoy!
