Healthy-ish Pasta Salad

As summer quickly approaches, Memorial Day just passed, weather heats up;  our invitations to BBQs rapidly increases. There is a typical BBQ spread of hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, guacamole, chips, and the ever mayonnaisey (new word you guys) pasta salad. Did we mention that summer is also bikini season/ buff man season? No need to add extra fat to your diet, but also no need sacrifice flavor.

We have made for you a healthy-ish pasta salad! Bring this to the next BBQ you go to or the one that you have!

Ingredients: serves 5-10 people (depending on the size of your sides!!)

1 box of whole wheat pasta
2 pieces of corn
2 large beefsteak tomatoes
2 large carrots
3 green onions
3 Tablespoons lite mayonnaise
3 Tablespoons lite Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sea salt

 

Start by boiling a large pot of water with a pinch of salt.

Create your mise en place for your pasta salad. Cut all the kernels off the corn by holding the fat end of the corn and using a knife, run a blade down along the center the corn, cutting the kernels off. Set aside. Dice the two tomatoes into small pieces, set aside. Peel, and thinly slice the carrots, once sliced, chop into smaller pieces, set aside. Cut any browned ends of the green onion, and the little frizzle as well, thinly slice, from end to end, set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, mayonnaise, and white wine vinegar.

Once water boils, add pasta and let cook about 8-10 minutes or until the pasta is slightly al dente. Once cook, drain water, and add pasta to a large bowl. Add yogurt  and mayonnaise mix to pasta, and lightly toss while adding salt a little at a time. Add in vegetables.

Set in refrigerator to cool, and then take to whatever lovely eating party you are attending! YAY!

 

Cinco de Mayo Savory and Sweet Empanadas!!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cinco de Mayo, as I wrote about in last year’s post, is a holiday celebrating the Battle of Puebla. It is celebrated as a holiday of Mexican heritage pride, and is widely celebrated in the United States, becoming more popular in mainstream American culture. So much of America is a huge melting pot of different cultures, that to celebrate a holiday that has been adopted and assimilated in American culture, we have made a dish that has been adopted and assimilated by many cultures; the empanada!

 

Empanadas origins are traced back to Spain and Portugal during the time of Moorish invasions, coming from the word empanar, meaning wrap or coat in bread. Through colonization, travel, and trade throughout the world, the empanada has moved to Latin America, Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and parts of Southwest America; it is a truly universal food.

We made two kinds of empanadas, one savory and one sweet. The savory empanada is filled with potato, chorizo, and queso fresco, the sweet is filled with papaya jam.

This recipe takes about 2.5 hours

Ingredients: serves 10-12

Empanada Dough:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large egg
1/3 cup ice water
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Savory Empanada:
10 oz chorizo
2 cloves garlic
4 medium golden potatoes
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 large pinches salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Sweet Empanada:
1 very ripe papaya
¼ cup + a pinch sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

 

 





Start by making the dough. Either by hand or in a food processor combine flour, salt, and cubed cold butter and mix until everything combined. In a small bowl whisk together one egg, vinegar, and water and pour into the flour mix, and using a fork mix everything together. On a floured surface knead out dough until just combined, pat into a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.

To make savory filling, chop up potatoes, remove chorizo from casings and mince both garlic cloves. Fill a medium sauce pan with water, bring to a boil, then drop in potato and boil for about 10 minutes, or until soft. In a sauté pan set to medium heat, render the fat out of chorizo for about 7 minutes, constantly stirring, then add garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Set chorizo aside and let cool. Once potatoes have been cooked, drain and the water out, add salt, vinegar, and pepper, and mash up with two forks. Let cool.

To make sweet filling cut the papaya in half, remove seeds, and remove from skin with a spoon. In a small sauce pan on medium heat, start smashing up the papaya. Once the papaya starts to bubble, pour in sugar and lemon juice and stir for 6 minutes. Pour in a small bowl and let cool.

After the dough has chilled for an hour, cut in half, and one half at a time on a floured surface roll out about 1/8” thick. Using any circular shape (we used a bowl, and then a cookie cutter) cut out circles, larger ones for savory, and smaller ones for sweet.

To fill the empanadas, in a small bowl whisk one egg. To make the savory empanada; scoop about a Tablespoon of potato, a Tablespoon of chorizo, and sprinkle some queso fresco in the middle. Brush around the edge of the dough with egg, and then fold over, and using a fork push down on edges to seal. To fill the sweet it is a bit tricky and involves so finger skills. Pick up the smaller circle, fold slightly in half, fill with papaya jam, brush the inner edge with egg, push the edges together, lay back down on baking sheet, and using the fork push together. Chill the empanadas for 30 minutes. Keep egg wash.

Preheat oven to 375. Once empanadas chill, poke some holes to allow for steam to escape, and brush with the remainder of egg wash. Sprinkle the sweet empanadas with sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way. You want them to be golden brown. Check the sweet ones at 20 minutes to make sure they don’t burn, sugar can brown very quickly.

Enjoy!!

Panzanella Salad with a Poached Egg

Happy Easter and happy end to Passover so now we can eat bread!

We have made a panzanella salad, it is traditionally a Tuscan summer salad made with day old stale bread. We have made a brunch version of this topping it with a delicious poached egg.

We hope that you had a wonderful Passover and a wonderful Easter.

xx

Ingredients: Serves 2

1 ciabatta roll
3 Tomatoes
1 small cucumber
1/4 cup kalamata olives
2 Tablespoons capers
1/2 cup arugula
1 clove garlic
1/4 olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
kosher salt
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Start by creating your mise en place; dice the tomatoes into inch cubes, peel and dice the cucumber, halve the olives, mince the garlic, and dice the roll into inch cubes.

In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, garlic, red wine vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Place in tomatoes, arugula, cucumbers, and capers and let soak for about 20 minutes so the flavors can really set.

While the flavors set, in a pan set to medium heat, toast your bread cubes for about 7-10 minutes until they just start to crisp. Once toasted toss in with the salad lightly. If you feel there is to much liquid at the bottom, you can drain some of it.

Now we are going to poach the egg! Fill a sauce pan with about 3 inches of water and the rice wine vinegar, and simmer. Make sure your eggs are very cold, crack into two bowls for immediate use. Carefully place the eggs into the water, cover the pot, remove from heat and set timer for 5 minutes. DON'T touch the pot at all, just let them hang out and cook.

Now the salad is ready to be served, divide salad on to two plates and top with a poached egg and a pinch of salt.

Enjoy!

Korean Broccoli Tofu Salad

Over the last month and a half Michael and I have been settling in to our new place, and I have been helping my parents move up to our family home in Sequoia National Forest. I am sorry that there have been no posts but it has been a very busy time!!

In honor of making something quick and making something easy and healthy just in time for summer, we have made a Korean tofu salad. This is something I love to eat whenever I go to my favorite Korean spa, it is light and delicious.

So enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups broccoli

2 green onions

8 oz firm tofu

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

2 cloves garlic

Siracha

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

1 large carrot

pinch salt

This recipe is super simple. Start by cutting the broccoli into small pieces and steaming over a double steamer for 4-7 minutes, until just cooked, but still crispy. Then run under cold water to shock out of cooking.

Prepare everything by mincing the garlic cloves, slicing up the green onions, and peeling the carrot and shredding half of it.

Place tofu in a paper towel and squeeze out excess liquid. Crumble and place in bowl, soak with oil, soy sauce, garlic, and onion, let soak. Add in the broccoli and the carrot and toss together. Top with sesame seed and Siracha.

This salad is best served cold! Enjoy!