salad Archives - Just J.Faye

Cucumber Watermelon Salad

July 13, 2015 by Jenna

Oh hey.

Hi.

I’m back.

I went on vacation to Peru.

Vacation = no work.

Vacation = no blogging.

Vacation = chilling in Cusco, hiking the Inca Trail, freaking out over Machu Picchu, and walking around Lima.

One day some day soon I will tell you all about it.

BUT FIRST, this cucumber watermelon salad.

If cucumber watermelon salad doesn’t scream summer to you, then I don’t know what does.

Ice cream, maybe?

Probably, but let’s scream about salad too.

I made this salad when a couple of girlfriends and I went to Red Barn Farm for pizza night. It seems like it was forever ago, but I still remember how delicious this salad (and that pizza!) was.

The sweetness of the watermelon is balanced out with peppery arugula and salty feta cheese. Then there is the cucumber for a nice crunch and the herbs for an extra fresh surprise. Go ahead and double it. Maybe even quadruple it.

Plus, it’s beyond easy to throw together, especially if you take the lazy route and buy the pre-cut watermelon. No one will judge you!

I won’t anyways.

I hope you try it out and become as obsessed with it as I am!

Cucumber Watermelon Salad

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

This cucumber watermelon salad is perfect for summer picnics! It's light, refreshing, and super easy to throw together. It can easily be doubled or quadrupled to feed a crowd!

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 cups watermelon, cubed
1 small cucumber, diced
2 large handfuls arugula
2 ounces feta cheese
½ cup fresh mint and/or basil
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Toss all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Serve and enjoy!

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Raspberry Avocado Kale Salad

March 28, 2015 by Jenna

Let’s talk kale. Have you heard of it? I’m assuming yes, but I still come across people who have not. Mainly men. They get it confused with kelp.

Fellas, it’s not the same. Although I see where you may get confused. They both start with “k”, are green, are plants, etc, etc, etc.

But, kale. It’s a “superfood” full of iron, vitamins, fiber, and calcium. We should eat a lot of it, like err’day. Today we’re going to mix it with a few simple ingredients and make this raspberry avocado kale salad.

Gorgeous, right?

The green and purple kale. The bright red raspberries. The sprinkles of pistachios and almonds. It’s just… so beautiful.

Where is the avocado, you ask? Great question. It is massaged into the kale.

It might sound odd, but massaging kale helps make it soft and takes out the bitterness. Massaging kale with avocado helps make it extremely delicious. I learned this pro tip from my friend Monica. She knows her kale.

This salad takes approximately no time to make. The most time-consuming part is the kale massage, which lasts approximately 3 minutes. It is kind of a boring 3 minutes just standing there rubbing avocado and kale together, but you can multi-task! Maybe do some calf raises, sing a song, count to 180, have someone else give you a massage. If you’re in a room with a bunch of people you could start a whole massage train! Wouldn’t that be great?! Massages for everyone!

Anyways, after the massaging all you have to do is toss it with raspberries, almonds, and pistachios, then drizzle it with some raspberry vinegar. Voila, raspberry avocado kale salad!

Easy. Healthy. Delicious. Beautiful. What more could you want in a salad!?

What? You want to add bacon? Toss it in there! You could also add quinoa or grilled chicken for some additional protein. If you don’t have raspberry vinegar feel free to swap it out for either balsamic or red wine vinegar. So many possibilities. But not kelp. Let’s stick with the kale.

Raspberry Avocado Kale Salad

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

A bunch of kale massaged with avocado, tossed with raspberries, almonds, and pistachios, then drizzled with raspberry vinegar. A simple, delicious, healthy, and gorgeous salad!

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

1 bunch kale
1 avocado
1 pint raspberries
⅓ cup chopped nuts (I used almonds and pistachios)
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Remove the ribs from the kale. Then chop the leaves into small pieces. You can either discard the ribs or chop them up as well.
In a large bowl add the kale, the avocado, and some salt and pepper. Massage the avocado into the kale until it is soft, about 3 minutes.
Toss with the raspberries and chopped nuts.
Swirl with raspberry vinegar.

Notes

If you don’t have raspberry vinegar, balsamic or red wine vinegars would work wonderfully as well.
Add quinoa, grilled chicken, or bacon for some additional protein.

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Summer Chopped Salad with Garlic Scape Hummus

July 12, 2014 by Jenna

This is my first year joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I am a few weeks in and I absolutely LOVE it. A box of fresh, locally grown vegetables every week? Yes, please.

These veggies. They are just so beautiful.

My friend and I are splitting a half-share from Stone’s Throw Urban Farm, which is the perfect amount of produce. Every Tuesday one of us stops by the beautiful micro-farm located right in the middle of a little neighborhood south of Minneapolis. They have a u-pick herb garden where you can load up on fresh herbs. It’s amazing. Mint, basil, oregano, chives, lavender, thyme. Jeez. I now put herbs on everything.

At first this whole CSA thing was slightly overwhelming. I had to read up on cleaning and storing vegetables to make sure they stay fresh. Luckily The Kitchn came to the rescue with their Guide to Storing Fruits and Vegetables. Every Tuesday evening I have drying produce scattered all over my counters. It’s kind of a beautiful disaster. Also, I tend to do my meal planning and grocery shopping on Sundays, so the Tuesday pick-up throws me off a little bit, especially when I don’t know what I will be getting in that week’s box. But then I got over all of that.

The awesome thing about joining a CSA is that it has exposed me to vegetables that I wouldn’t normally purchase, like fennel, and also some that I never even heard of, like tat soi. It’s been so fun to experiment with these different things. I have been trying to challenge myself with new recipes, but a lot of the time I just end up sautéing them, which is still super delicious. Not complaining.

One of the really fun vegetables to play with is garlic scapes. Have you heard of them before? They are essentially the stalks of garlic plants and are swirly and green. Really pretty. They are kind of like a combination of garlic, green onions, and asparagus. You can do lots of fun things with them: throw them in pasta or stir fry, grill them, blend them into pesto, etc. I decided to make this week’s bunch into hummus. It was a great idea. Chickpeas, garlic scapes, some lemon juice, salt, and pepper all blended up. Super simple. Super tasty.

I decided to take this hummus and dump it on a summer chopped salad with cucumbers, red peppers, yellow squash, and grilled chicken breast. It was another great idea.

This week I also received a bunch of fresh dill. I have never purchased or used fresh dill before and, let me tell you, it is a game changer. Dill is strong and packs in a ton of flavor. I love it. So, so much. I mixed it with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice for a simple vinaigrette to top my salad.

This salad. Oh man. It makes me super happy. It’s fresh, bright, easy to prepare, full of flavor, and very good for you. Oh, and it’s delicious.

Feel free to sub the vegetables with anything you have on hand!

Now go get your hands on some garlic scapes and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Summer Chopped Salad with Garlic Scape Hummus

Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

Utilize all the fresh summer veggies by throwing together a chopped salad. The star here: garlic scape hummus.

Author: Jenna Duesterhoeft

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

Garlic Scape Hummus:

1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 garlic scapes, chopped
1 clove garlic
Lemon juice from 1 ½ lemons
Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon-Dill Vinaigrette:

½ cup olive oil (check other blogs for ratios)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice from ½ lemon
1 tbsp fresh dill
Salt and pepper to taste

Summer Chopped Salad:

7-8 cups mixed greens (I used a mix of romaine, spinach, and kale)
2 grilled chicken breasts, cut into ½” pieces
1 red pepper, chopped
1 large cucumber, chopped
1 large yellow squash, chopped

Instructions

To make the hummus: place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Process until it reaches desired consistency.
To make the lemon dill vinaigrette: combine all ingredients in a mason jar, shake well.
To assemble the salad: combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix it up, and divide between 2-4 bowls. Add a dollop (2ish tablespoons) of hummus and a few drizzles of the vinaigrette. Serve and enjoy!

summer chopped salad with garlic scape hummus

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Kale Salad with Roasted Beets and Spicy Granola

May 22, 2014 by Jenna

FACT: Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Sometimes (63ish% of the time) when I think of beets, I think of The Office, then bears and Battlestar Galactica. Gosh, I miss that show.

The Office, not Battlestar Galactica.

On a different, but somewhat similar note: I have never roasted beets before. It always seemed kind of intimidating: the long greens, the tough skin, the intense color. It’s just… a lot.

About a month ago I met some girlfriends for dinner and wine. We ate some delicious roasted beets (among other things) and began talking about how much we all loved beets… and Brussels spouts and wine.

Ever since that night I’ve just had beets on my mind. Beets. Beets. Beets. I must try to roast them myself. What do I have to lose? It can’t be that hard, right?!

Right. It’s not. It’s not hard at all.

Scrub them. Foil them. Roast them. Peel them. Chop them. Eat them. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Last night I hosted the same girlfriends from the earlier beet discussion over for dinner. When trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner I knew I had to do something with beets. I then recalled this gorgeous Strawberry Kale Salad that I came across last week during my nightly blog reading and knew it would be perfect.

I mean, savory granola?! Why the heck did I not know about this earlier? And then putting in salad?! Brilliant. And don’t even get me started on radishes.

I swapped the beets for the strawberries and made some other minor tweaks. I served it with some baguette bread and a bottle of Trapiche that one of the girls brought over. It was a delicious time full of excellent conversation.

Kale Salad with Roasted Beets and Spicy Granola

A raw kale salad with radishes, asparagus, and roasted beets. It's tossed with spicy granola and a lemon tahini dressing and topped with goat cheese. A delicious light and healthy dinner for a beautiful spring evening.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the salad:

8 oz kale, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups radishes, chopped
2 cups roasted beets, chopped
1 cup asparagus, chopped
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled

For the spicy granola:

1 ¼ cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup shelled pistachios
½ cup almonds
½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 egg white, beaten
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp honey

For the lemon tahini dressing:

1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt

Instructions

To roast the beets: Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the beet greens and scrub the beets with a brush. Drizzle them with olive oil (or water), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and wrap in tin foil. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes. Unwrap the beets from the foil and let them sit until they are cool enough to handle. Use a paper towel to gently peel away the skin. Chop and store in the refrigerated until needed.
To make the spicy granola: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl combine the oats, pistachios, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. In a small bowl mix together the egg white, olive oil, tahini, and honey. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until combined, making sure that all the dry ingredients are moistened. Spread the mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 17 minutes, stirring halfway through. Let the granola cool, then break it apart, and store in a container.
To make the lemon tahini dressing: Whisk all the ingredients together until combined or put all the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously.
To assemble the salad: Put the kale in a large salad bowl. Add the olive oil and some salt and pepper; massage it into the kale (this helps it become more tender). Let sit for 15 minutes then toss in the dressing and remaining vegetables. Top with a cup of the granola and the crumbled goat cheese. Serve and enjoy.

Notes

-The roasted beets can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerated for up to one week.
-Cooking time for the bests will vary depending on the size. My smaller beets took 50 minutes, whereas the larger took 60 minutes. They are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork.
-The spicy granola can also be made in advance and stored in an air tight container.
-Raw, unsalted nuts and seeds will work best for this granola. However, I did used salted sunflower seeds because I happened to have them on hand.

Slightly adapted from Cookie and Kate’s Strawberry Kale Salad With Nutty Granola Croutons.

Reading a variety of wonderful blogs such as Cookie and Kate is such a great source of inspiration to me. This salad was inspired by something of Kate’s, which was inspired by something of Deb’s from Smitten Kitchen. People inspiring people inspiring people. It’s a beautiful and continuous cycle that leads to a lot of delicious things.

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