Kale, Apple and Beet Salad with Pistachio Brittle

Sometimes it takes a candied nut to help kale go down. Since creating this salad, I find it disappointing to have a kale salad with out some kind of candied nut. Don’t be turned off by the length of this recipe. You can make the dressing and pistachio brittle a day ahead. I’d even suggest making a couple of batches of pistachios so you can throw them into any salad. You can substitute the dressing below for a simple vinaigrette of your own, or use your favorite creamy dressing that has some acidity to it.
 

Asparagus, Kalamata and Bread Salad

This salad makes me sad that most people I know don't like olives. I made it the other night as an eat-whatever's-in-the-fridge dinner and loved it. It was unexpected and the ingredient amounts were undocumented. That's ok, because salads are quite easy to put together. Here's my "non-recipe" for Asparagus, Kalamata and Bread Salad.

Cold Ramen Salad with Egg

Noodles are one of the first foods on my mind once the weather reaches “Feels like 15 Degrees”. I love a hot bowl of thick, buttery ramen at Chucko Ramen in Prospect Heights or a pile of pad thai at Cheers Thai in Williamsburg. My brother’s been raving about Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles in Chinatown which I’m hoping to try soon. Here’s a cold noodle salad I made with some leftover ramen; it makes for an easy lunch. What's your favorite noodle shop?

Creamy Summer Farro Salad

I recently tried this farro salad from Bklyn Larder, a cheese and provisions shop in Brooklyn, and I’ve been itching to recreate it at home for many weeks.  As I ate it, I tried to note all the flavors to make sure I got as close to the real thing as possible.  I typed up what I like to call a guess-cipe, a guessed recipe that I can test and tweak in the kitchen.  I’m happy to report that I did a pretty good job matching the flavors.  The creaminess of the mayo adds a nice fat factor, the lemon juice brightens it up, the farro’s nutty texture is super fun and the vegetables bring some crunch to the party.  There are two months of picnic weather left and this is a crowd-pleasing salad to have on your gingham blanket.

Hotel Chopped Salad

I stopped liking blue cheese about ten years ago.  I've always been slightly grossed out by eggs in salads and I typically don't go for salads with corn in them even though I like corn.  And I can take or leave walnuts.  When Alan and I went on vacation to St. Martin last week, our first meal was at the beachfront C Le Restaurant at the Radisson Blu where we stayed for four sun-filled days.

Peanut Miso Kale and Kelp Noodles

I am not a health nut.  I like my bacon cheeseburgers as much as I like my vegetables.  And a chia seed or a goji berry has never passed my lips.  But recently I started a home fitness routine using Blogilates.com and I came across instructor Cassie Ho's version of a salad she gets at Cafe Gratitude in LA.  Kale, kelp and avocado in a peanut dressing just sounded so appealing.  I think anything you put peanut butter on tastes good.  So as soon as I finished my bodega salad ingredients, I quickly moved on to this.
 

Bodega Salad

Last week's candied cranberries didn't go over as well as I'd hoped.  My brother seemed to like them, but he's a fan of insanely tart flavors just like me.  When we were little, we used to soak pieces of sliced white bread in red wine vinegar and eat them in from the TV, our lips turning white from the acidic burn.  Other people might not have the same tolerance for zing as we do.  

Green Tomato Salad

This tomato salad is so good.  I’m currently on the hunt for some green tomatoes so I can make more of it.  I never knew that anything else could be done with green tomatoes besides frying them, but this is a crisp, refreshing way to use these underripe tomatoes in the fall, right after the warmth of summer has died off and the chill of winter is approaching, but it’s not quite cold enough for soups and stews. 

Mexican Caesar Salad

This salad was inspired by Chop’t Creative Salad Company’s Mexican Caesar salad.  It’s very similar to the original, except I wasn’t sure how to make their dressing so I invented my own.  For some reason, whenever I buy a jalapeno, I lose it.  I bought a nice glossy jalapeno for this recipe, made the salad and ate it all before realizing that the jalapeno wasn’t in it.  It wasn’t in the fridge either, or on the floor, or behind the chopping block or in the fruit bowl.  

Kale Salad with Apples and Almonds

Sometimes you need some roughage.  You all know that a salad shouldn’t be dressed until right before serving, but kale is a hearty, thick green that can be dressed in advance, tossed into a large airtight container or ziplock bag, tucked into a tote bag and brought to a picnic or potluck.  The apples in this salad add a nice sweetness and the almonds bring the crunch.  

Corn with Butter and Tajin

Alan’s brother and sister-in-law always visit bearing gifts like a jumbo bottle of Cholula hot sauce or some delectable pastries.  A while back, they brought us some Tajin Classico Seasoning which they promised would be great on anything.  It really is.  

Pickled Beet and Herbed Goat Cheese Salad

I love the beet salad at General Greene with its blood red beets, arugula, grape tomatoes, pine nuts and dollops of goat cheese.  I also love their pickles which are made with local, seasonal vegetables and are bursting with enough sharp vinegar to make you cough and squint.  I also can't stop thinking about their Brownstone Old Fashioned, their fried chicken with hot sauce and their bacon mac and cheese, but that’s beside the point.  We always order both the salad and the pickles every time we eat there and I always wish that the beets in the salad were pickled as well.  So that’s how this Pickled Beet and Herbed Goat Cheese Salad was born.

Arugula Fennel Apple Salad with Chives

What does a food blogger do when they are gifted with a box full of fresh local produce?    Most likely they’ll do a happy dance which is exactly what I did when I got to take home a box of excess goods from my new company last week.  Out of the box I pulled leafy greens, pears, apples, cheese, milk, sausage, bread, cookies, green garlic and fresh herbs along with simple recipes for the contents of the box.

BBQ Sides and Condiments

I started a brand new job this week at a company in Brooklyn that is doing some really cool things with locally farmed foods.  I am so excited that I finally found a place where I can merge my skills and my passion for food.  To celebrate, I decided to have a small BBQ celebration. I ended up cooking for about 12 hours straight in preparation.  When I start cooking, it’s hard to get me to stop.  I start rummaging through the fridge and cabinets looking for ingredients that I can turn into dishes.

Raw Asparagus Salad with Red Onion and Pecorino

“Raw power honey just won't quit, raw power I can feel it, raw power honey can't be beat, get down baby and a kiss my feet.”  Perhaps rock-star Iggy Pop knew about the power of a raw asparagus salad, how it pleasantly surprises people who thought asparagus could only be eaten cooked. I was skeptical when I saw Anne Burrell’s recipe for raw asparagus salad in her cookbook, Cook Like A Rockstar, but her headnote promised that it would be a unique crowd-pleaser.  

Orzo, Spinach and Feta Salad

If you’re like me, you let last weekend's gloomy New York skies discourage you from kickboxing, going jean shopping and doing laundry.  Instead, you watched episodes of Lost that you’ve already seen, suffered through a good chunk of the Miss America pageant, flipped through US Weekly and waited for your homemade pickled carrots to pickle.  You’re excited because they pickled nicely with a perfect balance of astringency and sweetness.  You might have also eaten way too much pizza and a few too many slices of last week’s date cake.  Oh wait, that was my weekend.
  

Brussels Sprouts and Red Onion Salad

Usually I post on Monday nights, but I couldn’t find any words after last Friday’s terrible news.  That paired with my two back-to-back cold viruses and a week full of Christmas shopping has pushed my post to tonight.  I’m sure you’ve been at the edge of your seat, but no worries, Brooklyn Salt is back in action.  Last night Alan and I wrapped gifts in front of our midget tree while watching A Christmas Story and drinking bourbon.  He was lucky to have all easily wrap-able square gifts while I struggled with cylinders, pyramids and other odd shapes, smashing excess paper down with strips of tape.

Acorn Squash, Frisée and Barley Salad with Warm Scallion Dressing

Aside from a bit part in bags of Spring Mix, frisée rarely makes an appearance in markets or restaurants.  The reason is widespread frisée hatred, and I mean hatred.  The Amateur Gourmet declares war on the innocent vegetable in his blog post “I Declare War on Frisee!”.  Googling "frisée hate" brings up results riddled with phrases like "who likes this sh*t?" and "is it hair?".  I’m here to show my support for frisée, a lettuce with a backbone that can stand up to heavy ingredients like figs and lardons, that does not wilt under the rule of dressing.  When properly chopped and accessorized, this shunned green lends an ideal textural contrast to soft ingredients like squash.  It’s time we gave frisée another chance and the respect it deserves.  With all that said, you're welcome to use arugula or endive instead of frisée but that would totally defeat the purpose of my rant.

Tofu Caprese

It's a challenge to have a cooking blog and a beach body simultaneously.  In preparation for my upcoming trip to the clear, blue water beaches of Ft Lauderdale I’ve had to eat light and stick to my living room kickboxing routine no matter how much it may have annoyed our downstairs neighbors.  Usually, my desire to eat cheese-covered, bacon-wrapped, pan-fried, butter-slathered, cream-topped dishes outweighs my desire to have Maria Menounos abs (does that gal ever where a shirt?) but lately the weather has been too hot to digest more than fresh vegetables kissed with olive oil and some Balsamic vinegar.  Just a month or two after being inspired by David Chang’s Cherry Tomato and Tofu Salad in Alice Water’s cookbook, “In The Green Kitchen”, I received a request from a Brooklyn Salt reader for some tofu recipes; the Tofu Caprese was born.  It’s pretty nifty how similar firm tofu is to fresh mozzarella, so I’m excited for my lactose intolerant readers to give this one a go.  I’m not a tofu nut, but I had absolutely no trouble polishing off a whole plate of this stuff.  Well, I’m off to the beach…talk to you all next week!

Crispy Prosciutto Salad

Beast, a low-lit corner restaurant in Brooklyn, serves up out-of-this-world dishes like fried manchego cheese bites with lemon and caramelized onion and fig pesto tarts.  Their boston salad with crispy prosciutto gave me months of prosciutto daydreams until I just had to try crisping up that salty meat in my own kitchen.  Fried, it becomes partly crackly, partly chewy and intensely salty making it perfect for tossing with a mild salad and some sharp cheese.  While photographing the dish out on the porch, we were cornered by a massive flying insect which I won’t describe any further for fear of ruining your appetite, but the little bastard headed straight for my salad!  I picked off the part he landed on and ate the rest.  I was worried I might suffer a fate similar to Jeff Goldblum’s in The Fly (1986) but so far, I’m still completely human and that Crispy Prosciutto Salad was worth the risk.  Also try my Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken and Poached Egg with Crispy Prosciutto.