Green Salad with Grilled Chicken & Caesar Dressing

This weekend, Mike and I volunteered with our friends Jeremy and Kendra at a camp in rural New York. We spent Saturday wandering the campus, picking up remnants of an epic shaving cream battle and harnessing teenagers into a giant three-person swing that drops passengers from 60 feet in the air. As lovely as it was to escape the city, we were both ready to come home and eat something green and not-fried.

Enter Mike's last-minute salad suggestion. We ran to Trader Joe's, grabbed a bag of mixed greens and some grilled chicken for protein, then came home and quickly assembled what we deemed to be a mighty successful, mostly-healthful meal. Definitely going on our list of recipes to tweak and repeat.

Green Salad with Grilled Chicken & Caesar Dressing
(Caesar Dressing adapted from Epicurious recipe)

Salad Ingredients

1 bag of mixed greens
2 carrots, diced
1/4 cup walnut pieces
2ish tablespoons herbed goat cheese
2 chicken breasts

Caesar Dressing Ingredients

7 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5 anchovies, roughly chopped
3/4 cup TJ's reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup reduced fat buttermilk
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat a cast-iron grill pan on medium heat (if you have an actual grill, by all means use it instead). Spray it quickly with olive oil spray to lubricate. Quickly salt and pepper the chicken breasts and then place them on the grill pan. Cover with a large sauce pan lid. Grill breasts for 7-8 minutes on each side, or until juices run clear. Remove from heat, let the chicken rest for 4-5 minutes and dice into bite-sized pieces.

While the chicken is on the grill, finely chop the garlic and anchovies in a food processor. Add the mayonnaise, buttermilk, parmesan, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Blend in the food processor until smooth. Season with black pepper to taste. Cook's note: This will make plenty of leftovers.

In a large bowl, combine greens, carrots and about 1/2 of the dressing (or enough to coat the greens). Serve salad with walnut pieces, diced chicken and goat cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Harira with Israeli Salad

Tonight's meal is another recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook that Brit has fallen in love with. Harira is a traditional North African soup served during Ramadan and is a very hearty and tasty meal. Brit and I cooked most of this dish the night before and let it sit overnight to help soften all of the protein and help the flavors evolve. Brit also quickly chopped up a light and refreshing Israeli Salad that was really nice in this hot weather that we've been suffering through.

Harira

Serves 6

1 cup onion, chopped
4 cups veggie stock
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp grated ginger root
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
15 oz diced tomatoes, undrained
1.5 cups potatoes, diced
pinch of saffron (we actually forgot to include this)
1 cup lentils
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (we also didn't include this as a last second decision)
lemon wedges

In a large soup pot, simmer the onions on 1 cup stock for 10 minutes. Mix the cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and cayenne with a few tbsp of hot stock. Stir the spice paste into the pot and add the carrots, celery, and remaining stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, and lentils, recover, and cook for 15-20 min. At this point the saffron should be added (if you remember to do so). Stir in the chickpeas, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. We waited to season with salt and pepper until the following day. At this point we let the pot sit overnight and transferred it to the fridge during the day.

When we were ready to eat, we re-heated the soup, seasoned with salt and pepper, and squirted some fresh lemon juice before eating. We should have also included the cilantro as a garnish, but were too hungry to wait.

Israeli Salad

1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.


This soup was fantastic. Really hearty. Really tasty. Really good. And there were a lot of leftovers for future lunches. The next time we make this dish, which we definitely will, we'll add extra lentils and garbanzo beans. The salad that Brit made was actually her own variation on an Israeli salad that she first learned from her Norwegian grandmother. The addition of the tomato makes the dish more similar to an Israeli salad, but the rougher chopped veggies and garlic make this her own unique recipe. Ultimately, it was very tasty and perfect to eat in the heat.

Chickpea Patties with Israeli salad

We originally made this dish before our vacation to Oregon and really enjoyed how well the vegetarian patties turned out. The tzatziki sauce was really flavorful and we had added some chili pepper to give it some more spice. Since the recipe makes more patties than we can eat, we froze the extra patties raw for a future dinner. Thankfully, that meant all we had to do was thaw the patties under running water and we were ready to finish cooking our dinner. Brit made a delicious side of veggies that is very similar to an Israeli salad; details of the salad will come later.
Chickpea Patties with Tzatziki Sauce
(Originally posted on the Macheesmo food blog)

makes 8 patties

Patties
2 15 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs, toasted
4 scallions, minced
1/2 cup greek yogurt (we got the non-fat kind from TJs)
3 tbsp cilantro, minced
Salt

Toast the breadcrumbs in a dry pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes until a light brown color. Then, whisk together the eggs, garam masala, oil, and pinch of salt into a small bowl. Mush the chickpeas in a large bowl with a fork until mixed well. It's ok to have it be chunky.

Stir together the chickpeas, egg/spice mixture, breadcrumbs, and all the other ingredients to make a paste. Divide the mixture into 8 equal parts and form round patties about 3/4 of an inch thick while trying not to press the mixture together too much. Over high heat, add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a pan. When glistening hot, add the patties and cook 4-5 minutes per side until browned.

Tzatziki Sauce
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 cucumber, shredded
1 tbsp scallions
1/2 tbsp cilantro
salt

Peel the cucumber and shred using a large pored grater into a colander resting over a bowl. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Placing the colander over a bowl is crucial as the cucumber will lose a lot of its moisture while it sits. Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and spice with chili pepper powder if you so desire.

Turkey Burgers, Veggie Salad, and Homefries

The June issue of Food Network Magazine is apparently "The Grilling Issue" and included 136 summer recipes! Woo! Well, it wasn't really that tacky and actually had some great ideas in it. Brit spotted the "Perfect Turkey Burger" and decided it must be made. In addition to the main dish from Food Network Magazine, Brit had also spotted a recipe from the June issue of Bon Appetit. Brit wasn't so impressed with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover, but got excited for a recipe for a cucumber, tomato, and feta salad. To round out the meal, I decided I would make some sweet potato homefries.

Perfect Turkey Burger
(adapted from Food Network Magazine's recipe from their June 2011 issue)

Makes 8(ish) patties

1 large portabello mushroom cap
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbsp lightly packed parsley
1 to 1.5 lbs ground turkey
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup crumbled feta (I had this left over from the veggie salad)
Bread crumbs to coat
English muffins
Butterhead lettuce
thinly sliced onion, for topping
sliced avocado, for topping

Pour about 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs onto a plate for coating the burger patties.

Use a spoon to scrape out the gills from the underside of the mushroom cap. Dice the cap into small pieces. Pulse the mushroom, onion, garlic and parsley in a food processor until chopped.
Move the mushroom mix into a large bowl and add the turkey, feta, and Worcestershire sauce. Season with a few tsp of salt and pepper. Form balls from the turkey mix and press down into 1-inch-thick patties. Coat both sides of the patties in breadcrumbs, then place them in the freezer (the original recipe just recommends placing in the fridge for 30 min) to help them solidify.

Cook's Note: Since I live in an apartment with no outdoor space, I use a cast iron grill pan to grill the turkey burgers, which works surprisingly well (although it gets a bit smoky in the kitchen when we use it).

Spray the grill pan with olive oil or cooking spray and grill the burgers over medium heat. Turkey burgers need between 5-7 minutes on each side before they're cooked thoroughly.

When Mike and I make burgers, we usually make an aioli to complement the flavors we use in the burger mix - I feel like every good burger deserves an equally good condiment to enhance the experience. This time was no exception.
We then stacked the burger, a few slices of avacado, the butterhead lettuce, and spicy brown mustard on the top english muffin.

Cucumber, Tomato, and Feta Salad

Serves a lot

3 small cucumbers, chopped coarsely
2 large tomatoes, chopped coarsely
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 cup Kalamata olives, chopped coarsely
1/2 lbs goat milk feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup mint, chopped coarsely
4-5 tbsp olive oil (was supposed to be 6)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I squeezed 1.5 lemons)
Salt and pepper
Balsamic vinegar (not in the original recipe)

Combine the first six ingredients. When it gets close to serving, mix the olive oil and lemon juice and use to dress the salad. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then add a few drizzles of balsamic vinegar.

Sweet Potato Homefries

Serves 2

2 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
Few tsp curry powder
Few tsp cumin
Few tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Mix everything in a bowl together and season to smell and taste . I never measure out the ingredients that I use, so you'll just have to use some logic on how much to use. Bake on a non-stick sprayed baking sheet at 450 F for 15-20 min.


The burgers turned out so well; very moist and delicious. Brit and I almost always make an aioli with our turkey burgers but this condiment wasn't part of the original Food Network Magazine recipe. The aioli is always a critical part of the burgers we make and I'm definitely glad Brit made it this time.
The salad was also delicious. The original recipe had not called for any balsamic vinegar, but Brit felt it was lacking an acid. It definitely made a difference and was well worth adding. We might add some more lemon juice next time we make this dish, and I'm sure we will make it.
My homefries are almost always made with a different combination of spices, but almost always include the smoked paprika. They usually don't end up all that crispy, which we could probably fix by putting them under a broiler for a few min, but we're often too hungry to care and they taste great anyways.