Green Beans with Walnut and Feta and Mint Vinaigrette

May 9, 2016 by 1 Comment

When I realized that I had way too much feta from my Costco order which I had delivered via Instacart (which I’ve raved about before for bringing me needed items at the last minute right to my door – and I don’t need a Costco membership), I immediately thought of this recipe for Green Beans with Walnut and Feta and Mint Vinaigrette for the next potluck at work in order to help use it up.
Recipe for Green Beans with Walnut and Feta and Mint Vinaigrette, an easy salad to serve cold or at room temperature for a potluck or get together that is vegetarian

I had the recipe idea pinned from The Kitchen is My Playground for a while, with it’s intriguing promise of fun textures of the firm green beans, walnuts, and feta while highlighting a fresh mint vinaigrette.
Recipe for Green Beans with Walnut and Feta and Mint Vinaigrette, an easy salad to serve cold or at room temperature for a potluck or get together that is vegetarian
Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-2 inch or so pieces
  • 3/4 cup of diced red onion
  • 1 cup of chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
  • 3/4 cup of olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup of minced fresh mint leaves
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt or to taste
  • 1/2  teaspoon of  black pepper or to taste

Directions:

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the cut 1 1/2 pounds of green beans and cook for only 3 minutes –  we want it to turn bright green only. Drain the hot water and immediately plunge the green beans into ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain again and pat dry with paper towels.
    Trimmed green beans to length of 1-2 inches, which is enough to be a forkful without having to figure out how to fold it into your mouth!
  2. In a mixing bowl set the dried blanched green beans. Add the 1 cup walnuts, 3/4 cup diced red onion, and 1 cup crumbled feta; toss to combine.
    1 cup walnuts, 3/4 cup diced red onion
  3. In a food processor combine the 3/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 1/4 minced fresh mint, 3 cloves worth of minced garlic, salt, and pepper for 30 seconds or so.
    To make the Fresh Mint Vinaigrette, In a food processor combine the 3/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 1/4 minced fresh mint, 3 cloves worth of minced garlic, salt, and pepper To make the Fresh Mint Vinaigrette, In a food processor combine the 3/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 1/4 minced fresh mint, 3 cloves worth of minced garlic, salt, and pepper
  4. Add the dressing to the mixing bowl and toss everything. Chill for about an hour before serving.
    Easy vegetarian recipe for a potluck or group meal, healthy Green Bean Salad with Red Onion, Feta, Walnuts in a Fresh Mint Vinaigrette

So this salad was definitely great for lunch for a couple days… great for the potluck for a group as it was easy to transport to work and leave out. For later lunches it was a nice crispy side of veggies and nuts with a bit of acid to balance out a grilled cheese sandwich.
Easy vegetarian recipe for a potluck or group meal, healthy Green Bean Salad with Red Onion, Feta, Walnuts in a Fresh Mint Vinaigrette

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Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta

April 18, 2016 by 6 Comments

At work, I organize a quarterly potluck for my team in Oregon as a way for us to have time to decompress from our normal lunch routines and work day by socializing together, talking about how our projects are going and how our lives are going to connect professionally and personally. So, I’m always looking out for dishes that I can contribute that can be prepped at home the day before, can be cold or room temperature, and can be vegetarian and nut-free to accommodate some dietary restrictions. This Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe is one I prepared last time.
Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe: very easy to make and quick to prepare the day before, and substantial enough to feed a group and can be cold or room temperature, perfect for a potluck recipe

So I can definitely tell you from experience that this dish is very easy to make, quick to prepare, and substantial enough to feed a group when you don’t know what everyone else is bringing. In this case I used vegetable pasta, but you can use regular pasta if you wish or gluten-free pasta, and you can use a variety of pasta shapes.

If you want to make this dairy-free as well you can cut out the feta for chopped olives instead to still have bit of slight salty kick and Mediterranean feel. For me, I served the feta on the side so people could choose whether to add it or not. You can also consider adding slivered almonds for texture, or if you want protein some diced grilled chicken.

Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces pasta – penne, rotini, elbow, farfalle shapes all would work well, a shape you can stab with a fork
  • 4 cups baby spinach (approximately – I used 4 handfuls!)
  • 3 1/2 cups heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved – I like using both red and yellow tomatoes here. Alternately, you could use red tomatoes and for yellow add in some bell pepper.
  • 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
  • 7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately a juice of a large lemon)
  • 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
  • Salt, to taste
  • Pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. First, cook your pasta in a pot of salted water until al dente and drain. Immediately rinse with ice cold water to cool the pasta, drain well and place in a large container that has room to toss in the other ingredients. I honestly had to use 2 mixing bowls, and then my final serving vessel to take to the potluck was a big 13×9 casserole dish from my mother-in-law.
  2. Now, add your 4 cups of baby spinach and the 3 1/2 cups of halved heirloom cherry tomatoes. You can also add in your 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese now, or hold off and serve the feta on the side as an optional addition.
    Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe: very easy to make and quick to prepare the day before, and substantial enough to feed a group and can be cold or room temperature, perfect for a potluck recipe
  3. In a bowl, whisk the 7 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of whole grain mustard, 2 minced garlic cloves, and 2 teaspoons of grated lemon peel. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
  4. Pour the dressing and now toss everything! Now you can put this in the fridge and you are all set to take it to your potluck or gathering the next day, and you can serve this cold or room temperature.
    Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe: very easy to make and quick to prepare the day before, and substantial enough to feed a group and can be cold or room temperature, perfect for a potluck recipe

I like how the dressing has the brightness of the lemon, but a bit of bite from the garlic and bit of spiciness from the mustard. The bursts of cherry tomatoes and creamy slight salt from the feta make this a good flavor combination. The colors of the green, red, yellow and white looks great, and it’s healthy to make up for the inevitable stack of sweets that show up at a potluck, am I right?

Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe: very easy to make and quick to prepare the day before, and substantial enough to feed a group and can be cold or room temperature, perfect for a potluck recipe
This recipe is adapted from one on Epicurious for Lemon Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Feta, but I added the spinach and ignored the bell peppers as I was upping the cherry tomatoes instead. Other versions I have seen include a Lemon Pasta Salad recipe from Food Network by the Neelys that use the same dressing but add asparagus, peas, and dill leaves instead of the spinach, so this is a very versatile pasta salad recipe.
Lemony Spinach and Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Recipe: very easy to make and quick to prepare the day before, and substantial enough to feed a group and can be cold or room temperature, perfect for a potluck recipe

I bought my cherry tomatoes, spinach, and feta from Costco – which meant I now had the unexpected consequence of a LOT of feta since the container was so large. I chose to use the feta in another potluck dish I’ll share in a future post.

Do you have a go to recipe for a potluck? What do you make?

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Recipe: Cashew Cheese on Cucumbers

July 6, 2015 by 15 Comments

With the heat wave in the past couple weeks,  I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you might want to keep things simple when making food. I have been mostly doing quick sautés or dishes that require no cooking at all.

This recipe for Cashew Cheese on Cucumber does require a little forethought to soak the cashews in water for a few hours. Otherwise you only need a processor and a knife plus the ingredients to put together appetizers for a potluck or picnic, or just a healthy snack at home.
Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto

I like this combination for the refreshing cool crunch of the cucumber,  creamy but cheesy flavors with hint of garlic of the cashew cheese, and touch of salty herb from the pesto. I eyeballed a lot of these so make sure you taste to see what amounts fit your taste levels. The more nutritional yeast you use, the cheesier the flavor while being dairy free. Nutritional yeast is also a great topper to sprinkle on popcorn to have cheese popcorn with your movie!

Ingredients:

For the Cashew Cheese

  • 1 1/2 cups raw cashews soaked in water for 2 hours
  • 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup water; the more water used, the thinner and creamier the cashew cheese will be, so you want to add to your liking for consistentcy a bit at a time
  • 3 or so tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste if you’d like
  • 1-2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, or more to taste if you’d like
  • 1 clove of minced garlic, or more to taste if you’d like
  • Dash of onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt or more to taste
  • 1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper or more to taste

For the Pesto – this is more of a rough guideline as I often just eye it after grabbing handfuls from my plant

  • 2 cups fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup or so of olive oil
  • 1/8 cup or so of pine nuts (for more flavor, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for a few moments until aromatic, but be careful it doesn’t burn)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of minced fresh garlic
  • pinch or so of salt
  • a few grounds of freshly ground pepper

Directions:

For the Cashew Cheese

  1. First, you will need to soak the raw, unsalted cashews in water for about 2 hours. The water level should cover the tops of your cashews.
    1 1/2 cups of unsalted cashews Soak 1 1/2 cups of unsalted cashews in water for 2 hours
  2. Then, drain the water. Place the cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and onion powder and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended.
    After 2 hours of soaking, drain the water from the cashews To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended
  3. Now as you continue to taste, add in the remainder of the water to get the consistency you would like. If you’d like, you can choose to add more lemon juice, or more nutritional yeast, or more minced garlic or salt to your preference depending on how garlicky, cheesy (from the nutritional yeast), lemony, etc you enjoy.
    To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended. Add more water if you want it to be creamier, or leave it rustic and more dense To make the cashew cheese, place the drained pre-soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, the minced garlic and salt in the food processor and pulse until roughly blended. Add more water if you want it to be creamier, or leave it rustic and more dense
  4. Add a few grounds of freshly ground pepper. You can serve as is immediately, but if you refrigerate it for a couple hours the flavors will develop more and texture get a bit thicker so  it will be even more tasty the next day – put it in a container to be used as a dip for a picnic with veggies, or spread on a sandwich, so many possibilities!

For the Pesto

Blend all the ingredients for pesto together – you may want to add a little bit more olive oil, salt, or pepper to taste. Puree until the mixture is smooth. Make sure you pause once in a while to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed to make sure it all gets mixed well, as well as to taste and adjust to your liking.

For the final Cucumber Cashew Cheese appetizers

Slice the cucumbers and slather on a bit of the cashew cheese. With a spoon, add on a bit of the pesto. Serve!

Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto Cucumber with cashew ricotta and pesto

I put this combo on cucumbers buy it’s also great in sandwiches and the cashew cheese can be substituted in pasta like Ricotta in pasta shells or lasagna too.

What have you been making in the kitchen during this extended heat wave in Portland (or wherever you may be when it’s hot in the summer!)?

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Summer Picnic Recipes that Travel Well for Two and a Group

July 29, 2013 by 10 Comments

Picnics- a meal outside, in the sunshine/shade and open breezes. Shoes off, legs stretched out, the feel of the beach of the sand or blades of grass underneath you. The images that come to mind are wicker baskets and slightly rumpled gingham blanket and a glass of wine and certainly for me, a cheese plate (of course).

It might be a special occasion like the concerts on the lawns I used to attend multiple times during my summers in Chicago- the orchestra filling the air with a symphony while you lie back on the blanket staring at the clouds. Or, it was on the 4th of July, with fireworks, and the buzz of people around you sharing that experience and joining in group “oooos” while you still have your own space.

It doesn’t have to be a special occasion though. It might be a matter of logistics on a long day hike. It might be a romantic getaway where you can focus on just the two of you. Or maybe, it’s just a celebration of a normal day and beautiful weather.

The last time I had a picnic, it was at Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR after walking with a cheetah, and it was a breakfast picnic that included soft doughy marionberry scones, fresh fruit, and fixings for mimosas on a safari printed tablecloth. Overall, it was a picnic recipe for fun!

Wildlife Safari, Winston OR, breakfast picnic with marionberry scones, fresh fruit, and mimosas Wildlife Safari, Winston OR, breakfast picnic with marionberry scones, fresh fruit, and mimosas

For a July picnic with the Portland Bloggers group, I decided to go more out than the typical “gathering” of cheese plate and various deli items from stores with a few items I would put together at home. Here are my picnic recipes, geared towards being picnic recipes that are easy to prep, require little effort, travel and keep well, and can be healthy. They can easily be made for two, or a group.

First, I started out for myself with a Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Salad sandwich, and a Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Tomato and Greens Sandwich for F. I only made enough for one sandwich for F, but I made a larger yielding batch of the buffalo chicken so that I could eat more of the sandwiches all this week (or in some cases, just eat the buffalo chicken out of Tupperware).

For the group, I wasn’t sure how many people would be there and decided to lean on the generous side. Worst case scenario, I would have some to bring to work the next day. I like these because you can put these together while watching TV, they are relatively healthy and fresh, and they are easy to eat on the skewers/toothpicks and can be refreshing if it happens to be a hot day. Mine are all red, but if you got a mix of colors from heirloom tomatoes this would be so much prettier!

Picnic Recipe 1: Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Tomato and Greens Sandwich

Ingredients (yields 1 sandwich):
Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Greens Sandwich ingredients Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Greens Sandwich

  • 2 slices of your favorite bread
  • 1/4 cup of hummus of your choice
  • 1/2 large avocado
  • 1 teaspoon of lime juice
  • 1/2 cup microgreens (or you may choose 1/2 cup spinach, arugula, or whatever greens you would like)
  • Tomatoes- I used grape tomatoes, but you can also use regular slices of tomatoes, or roasted tomatoes, or sun dried tomatoes. You want enough to be happy with your sandwich 🙂

Directions

  1. Spread the hummus on one side of the bread, and top with the microgreens
  2. In a bowl, mash up the avocado (for 1 sandwich you only need 1/2, but I mashed a whole one and used the other half for my sandwich below) and add 1 teaspoon for half the avocado, or in my case 2 teaspoons, of the lime juice. Mash and mix well, and then spread on the other slice of bread

Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Greens Sandwich Vegetarian Hummus Avocado Greens Sandwich

Picnic Recipe 2: Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Salad with Avocado and Greens Sandwich

Buffalo Chicken Salad with Avocado and Microgreens Sandwich

Ingredients (yields 4 cups of chicken salad, I overload my sandwich with almost 1 cup each but you also just use 1/2 a cup and be sensible about it):

  • 1 pound of skinless chicken breast (2 chicken breasts) for poaching
  • 5 oz non-fat plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/3 cup Franks Red Hot Wings Buffalo sauce
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup (2 oz) crumbled blue cheese
  • 4 slices of your favorite bread
  • 1/2 cup microgreens (or you 1/2 cup chopped celery or whatever greens you would like)

Directions

  1. I started by poaching the chicken. Alternatively, you can also buy cooked chicken or reuse other leftover chicken of course to get you started a little faster. I like poaching in that it still keeps the chicken tender, and it lets me multitask as I’m cooking it low and slow with other kitchen prep. You can choose to poach it in just water, but that doesn’t add any flavor. So you can use the stock of your choice in the pot (I started with 2 cups, and then poured in a smidge more to cover the chicken by another inch) that I also added a tablespoon of chopped basil, a tablespoon of rosemary, and some ground pepper. But you can choose to also/instead add a little sherry, or wine, or fresh vegetables, whatever you want to add. After bringing the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to a bare simmer, partly cover the pot. Cook longer for about 10 minutes, then turn off the heat, leaving the chicken to finish cooking in your liquid of choice for 15 more minutes. Remove chicken, then shred it for the chicken salad.
    poaching chicken breasts in broth and herbs
  2. In bowl, whisk together the other ingredients: the yogurt, buffalo sauce, garlic powder, and black pepper. Stir in chicken, celery (if you are using it), and blue cheese.
  3. For my sandwich for the picnic, I decided to use some of the leftover avocado lime juice spread I still had for the other half of my sandwich (so half an avocado with 1 teaspoon of lime juice mashed together). I also added the radish microgreens, though again any of greens you enjoy would work here. And let’s say I forgot to add the blue cheese earlier so just decided to put it on top of my avocado (you can omit the blue cheese altogether if you are not a fan or want to make it optional for those eating the sandwich). Overall, of the buffalo chicken salad there was enough left for probably 4-5 more sandwiches for me to put away for the rest of the week. Refrigerate until serving or up to 5 days in the fridge.
    Buffalo Chicken Salad with Avocado and Microgreens Sandwich Buffalo Chicken Salad with Avocado and Microgreens Sandwich Buffalo Chicken Salad with Avocado and Microgreens Sandwich Buffalo Chicken Salad with Avocado and Microgreens Sandwich

Picnic Recipe 3: Caprese Skewers

Ingredients (yields 136 skewers):
Caprese Skewers, appetizer, picnic food Caprese Skewers, appetizer, picnic food

  • 4 pints (~40 oz) of cherry tomatoes
  • 12 ounces of fresh mozzarella
  • 2 ounces of fresh basil, which was about 6 stems for me, depending on how full each stem is of leaves
  • olive oil (approximately 1/3 cup)
  • balsamic vinegar  (approximately 1/4 cup)

Directions

  1. Cutting: Cut all the cherry tomatoes in half. Also cut the mozzarella into small pieces about 1/3 inch squares. Also, remove the basil leaves from the steam, for the larger basil leaves you may want to cut them in half as well.
  2. Assembly: On each toothpick, in between the cherry halves add one piece of the mozzarella and one medium or 1/2 of a large basil leaf.
  3. After filling your first row (in case you decide to do a pile like I did), use a spoon or a pastry brush to carefully add a little drizzle line or light touch of olive oil, and then the balsamic.
    Caprese Skewers, appetizer, picnic food Caprese Skewers, appetizer, picnic food

F helped a friend moved, so the sandwich disappeared before any photo could be shot of the sandwich cut in half.The best I can show you from our afternoon picnic with the Portland Food Bloggers was our additional tray to accompany our sandwiches. I like to always bring cheeses, and this time went with two cheeses (Fiscalini Hopscotch Cheddar a cheddar soaked in Devil’s Canyon Scotch Ale and Mariposa’s Chubut a mild Argentiean cheese).

I also like a little protein, and I picked a Chop Butchery & Charcuterie farmhouse pate (not shown, on another board to separate from the vegetarian options, and I think the best pate in Portland). I rounded out this picnic with hummus, and organic seedless green grapes (anything you eat the skin on be it fruits, vegetables, potatoes I believe are worth buying organic), cut up some artisan seedy bread and Mary’s Gone Crackers. This part of the picnic recipe is easy- just a matter of gathering some good individual ingredients together.

Thank you Portland Bloggers group for making me put together a Family Picnic, and setting up this event! It was very laid back with no agenda other then just a little chatting to see the people we read online in person, and the new Portland Bloggers logo was also unveiled. Check out the twitter hashtag #portlandbloggers for more photos from this event. I’m sure there will be posts coming soon too, and I’m excited to read all about all the other perspectives!

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