Top Five Friday: Gettin' Your Green On

Salad "freshens without enfeebling and fortifies without irritating."

~ Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Last week I highlighted my top five favorite soups. This week we look at salads.  I know ~ you don’t like to eat your veggies. I understand that salads are easier to munch on in the summer time when the tomatoes are red and juicy and warm from the sun’s caress in your garden, and your hands smell like the crisp and spicy basil leaves you just plucked.  But salad has its place in the winter too.  And even if you haven’t had a mild winter like we have had so far here in Virginia, you can still enjoy the energy and pick me up you get from eating your veggies.

Cornbread Salad

Also known as layered salad, I make this for summer BBQs and it is a great way to get those veggies down!  The recipe I have actually used is in one of my coveted Southern Living cookbooks, but this one has most of the ingredients and the point of these salads is to play a little.

Fig and Goat Cheese Salad

I discovered this sexy little salad while searching Epicurious for a 4 course dinner for fourteen friends I hosted a couple of weeks ago.  Actually, I took this recipe as a suggestion and made substitutions all over the place.  Figs are not in season, so I used dried instead; raspberry and run raisin goat cheese instead of the yogurt; arugula instead of pepper cress; and I topped it off with balsamic vinegar and EVOO.  Wow.  Now I know why figs are known as nature’s candy.  Even my friends who do not like salad ate it up!

Heirloom Salad

Okay, I agree: this salad really is better in the summer when everything is straight from the garden.  But it still makes the list as one of my top five salads.  I adore fresh tomatoes and basil still wet with dew.  If you are dairy-intolerant like me, forgo the cheese altogether or use Daiya’s Mozzarella ~ love that brand!  It’s not only non-dairy, it’s non-soy.  Yay!

Panzanella Salad

This is a great winter salad because it has bread in it.  And although I try to eat as little gluten as possible for health reasons, fresh French bread is my weakness.  I have used a variation of this recipe several times and each time it’s a hit.  The key is to let the salad sit for a little while so that the bread absorbs the juices from the tomatoes, cucs, and the EVOO.  This one can be an entrée.

Warm Beet Salad with Bacon

Growing up I hated beets.  Now I love them.  Especially in the juicer.  Ahh!  My favorite café in North Arlington is Cassatt’s Kiwi Café and they serve a simply amazing beet salad with goat cheese and honey.  This recipe has the same idea (brown sugar), but with the added yumminess of bacon.  And as we all know, everything is better with bacon!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What are your favorite salads ~ for winter or summer?

Top Five Friday: "No Soup For You!!"

First-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

~ Abraham Maslow

Looking through past posts from 2011, I realize I haven’t posted any menus or recipes since March or April of 2011.  Time to rectify that sad state of affairs!  As it is February (although these past few days have felt more like April), what better place to begin a new month of Top Five Fridays then with food?  So today I highlight my top five soups.  And given the roller coaster weather we have been having, some of these recipes are on the lighter side ~ in texture, if not in calories!

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Epicurious is the best recipe archive hands down.  And even my friends who do not like squash ~ or any type of vegetable ~ love this soup.  I made this for my cousins when they visited the United States for the first time in October and they were blown away.  I guess they don’t puree vegetables in Poland?

Since I don’t “do” dairy, I substituted coconut milk for the cream and a soy-based product for the sour cream.  I do not normally eat or recommend soy products (perhaps a topic for another post) but I have yet to find a good non-soy substitute for sour cream.  Love to hear your suggestions in the comm box!

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Sherry

Again, I substituted coconut milk for the heavy cream and didn’t notice the difference.  And yes, I do still use real butter (margarine is just evil ~ it’s chemicals, people! Blah!)  And even with a dairy intolerance, organic butter does not seem bother my system.  (Thank God! My reputation as a good Southern cook is intact!)

African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans

This is wonderfully hearty soup for when winter nights are actually cold!  Don’t turn your nose up at the secret ingredient ~ peanut butter. It adds a rich and creamy texture to the soup and you hardly notice it.  Serve this with corn bread dripping with butter and honey ~ yum!

Pumpkin Chili

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin custard, pumpkin bread ~ you name it, I’ve put pumpkin in it.  I love this sweet squash!  Having said that, you may not think pumpkin and chili could get along in the same pot.  But just like the peanut butter in the Sweet Potato Stew, pumpkin adds more texture than noticeable flavor in this chili.  I even served this to my manly men friends for Super Bowl Sunday in the past and they went back for thirds!

Corn and Crab Chowder

Ok, so corn is really a summer starch.  And I really try to do the seasonal eating thang.  But this chowder is too good to wait until summer to make.  And I love crab, although not as much as I love pumpkin (Crab pie? Crab custard? Ewww!)

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What are some of your favorite soup recipes? Share your links or lists with us!