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Mark Bittman is one of my all-time favorite columnists and cookbook authors. Several times a year he posts an extensive, amazing, simple recipe list. Today it's 101 Simple Salads for the Season
Here are a few that initially popped out:
13. A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.
35. Combine cooked or canned black beans with shredded cabbage and this vinaigrette: olive oil, fresh orange juice, not much sherry vinegar, ground cumin.
38. Cube watermelon; combine with roughly chopped mint, crumbled feta, sliced red onion and chopped Kalamata olives. Dress lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Despite saltiness of feta and olives, this may need salt.
49. Toss greens with walnuts, blue cheese and raspberries; drizzle with a simple vinaigrette. Sell for $14 a serving.
95. Mix cooked couscous or quinoa with orange zest and juice, olive oil, maybe honey, sliced oranges, raisins or dried cranberries, chopped red onion and chopped almonds. Serve over greens, or not.
I love pasta salad but I don't normally crave it in the winter. The sunny and 64 degree weather in Columbus today has my body confused, because I can't think of anything but spring cleaning and pasta salad.
A few weeks ago I was at Trader Joe's and found 1lb bags of multigrain fusilli for $.50. I'm not sure if that's the normal price, but I bought four bags because it was cheap, looked tasty, and 1 serving has 8g protein and 6g fiber. So in this recipe, I used Trader Giotto's Multigrain Fusilli with Flax. I also used the minced garlic from TJ's. I bought a jar recently and just love it. I've been using it in everything lately.
Fresh Herb and Lemon Pasta Salad
In a small bowl combine:
1 tbs chopped fresh mint
1 tbs chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
zest and juice from 1 lemon
In a large bowl combine the following and toss with the dresing:
1 lb cooked pasta, rinsed until cool, and drained
1 cup shredded zucchini, loosely packed
1 shredded carrot
1 chopped green onion
15 oz can chick peas, drained, rinsed
I ate a bowl of this at room temperature right after I made it and really enjoyed it, but I bet it would also be good warm or cold, too. I really threw together bits of what I had around, so the measurements are all estimates, but probably pretty close.
Most of the foods I crave these days are mom's recipes I grew up eating. This afternoon I had a serious hankering for her 3-bean salad. I couldn't get a hold of her for the recipe, but managed to create a delicious/similar variation:
Not-quite-Mom's 3-bean salad
15oz can green beans
15oz can red kidney beans
15oz can limas
minced clove of garlic
diced small yellow bell pepper
2 stalks of sliced celery
Dressing
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp celery seed
salt/pepper
Combine rinsed beans, garlic, pepper, and celery in large bowl
Warm dressing ingredients on stove until sugar dissolves, pour over beans and gently mix.
Refrigerate at least an hour.
