2 posts tagged “salad”

Chances are if you're attending or hosting a 4th of July get together this weekend, potato salad will be involved. Usually it's potato salad purchased from a deli or one that comes in a tub, both utilizing mayonnaise as the binder. But instead of firing up the grill for just dogs and burgers, and maybe some corn, throw on some potato salad as well. I not only find grilled potato salad tastier, but it's also healthier and you can leave it out in the sun all day if you want without worrying about mayo-spoilage. This comes from Heidi, and with a full size grill can be made with relative ease. First, prep your ingredients

10 medium potatoes, quartered - I used new and red
4 medium squash, halved - green or yellow
1 bunch of green onions
2 lemons, quarter
1 onion, quartered

I prepped all the ingredients first and let the potatoes soak in cold water for a while to help weep out some of the starch.
Toss all of the above ingredients in olive oil, season, and toss on the grill. I have a grill pan so I had to cook everything in waves, but all of the ingredients should fit at one time. If you have a small grill you can also help speed up the potato cooking processes by parboiling them or throwing them in the oven for a while first.

It's been warm enough (40's in the morning) to ride my bike in short sleeve jerseys this past week, but other than freshly planted flowers, signs of summer are nonexistent lately. Although this dish would be great any day of the year, to me it begs to be served in the breeze of open windows or out of a picnic basket. Greens and grains is a simple way to make a salad more interesting and hearty by combining cold, crisp lettuce with warm rice or grain. Toss with vinaigrette and top with cheese and nuts and you're ready to go. Meghan was inspired to bring this dish into existence after looking in the fridge and noticing we had ample mixed greens from Morse Market along with a fruit bowl full of oranges. The inspiration came again from Heidi, but I made a few substitutions as we had brown rice on hand, but not farro. Coincidentally, Heidi also posted a different version of this recipe after I made it, but she incorporated  yellow split peas, further illustrating the versatility of this simple combination.

First, cook the grain or rice. Almost anything will work here: barley, brown or wild rice, farro, lentils, etc. Left overs would work too, but the hot/cold combo of the grain and greens is pleasant and the residual heat of the grains/rice helps melt the cheese just enough.

Next, make the vinaigrette. My adapted version of Heidi's citrus vinaigrette is below. As usual, the better the ingredients, the better the final product, but this is especially true here.

1 orange, zest and juice
2-3 scallions
1/3 C parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
2 T white wine vinegar
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Toss the greens in about half of the vinaigrette.