Another Bean Salad

Cannellini and Green Bean Salad

Bean salads have become one of my go-to side dishes because they're so easy to make with whatever you have on hand, and they're filled with fiber and flavor. They are good as an accompaniment to pasta, a sandwich or a homemade pizza. My formula is a simple one; beans (of course), vegetables, something from the onion family, oil and an acid.

Close-up

Here's another one made with cannellini beans, green beans, red bell peppers and green onions. This salad is dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Tuna and Chickpea Salad

Tuna and Chickpea Salad

Rachael Ray's 30-minute meals show inspired today's lunch. Last night on her program, Rachael Ray put together a similar Mediterranean salad as a side dish. I can't remember the specific ingredients she called for in her recipe, but I had enough in house to assemble something close. All it involved was some chopping; lettuce, tomato, green onion, and olives, and opening up a couple of cans; tuna and chickpeas or garbanzo beans. Lemon juice and olive oil or "EVOO" as R.R. likes to say, makes up the dressing. Use solid white tuna and toss it lightly unless you want your tuna to disintegrate and disappear like mine did.

Did you say there was tuna in here?

Despite being only one component in a 30-minute meal program, it still took "Mr. unorganized me" 20 minutes to prepare. I wish I had a talented staff of Food Network prep cooks to boss around during commercial breaks!:)

Here's Rachael Ray's Recipe.

Soba Noodle Salad

Soba Noodle Salad

For a quick lunch, I put together this soba salad. It's just soba buckwheat noodles over lettuce, topped with all kinds of goodies (read whatever's in the fridge) cucumber slices, imitation crab sticks, egg omelette and Nam Fong char siu courtesy of Mom and Dad.

Man, that Nam Fong char siu is the best stuff not counting Dad's home made char siu. Unfortunately for me, Nam Fong is in Chinatown in Honolulu so for the time being I have to ration my frozen, vacuum sealed supply.

Close-up

I foraged around and came up with a dressing made from Japanese ponzu and Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce. It worked perfectly. Sweet, sour, with a chili kick to it. The inspiration came from a somen noodle salad my Mom makes with a soy sauce, sugar and vinegar dressing so that explains why I was kind of steering the taste in that direction.

Lemony Green Bean, Radish and Fennel Salad

Lemony Green Beans with Radish and Fennel

This is an easy salad of haricot verts, radish and shaved fennel to go with the Portuguese cod fish stew last night. Just parboil beans until tender, rinse and cool, slice radishes, and thinly shave fennel bulb using a mandoline. Thicker pieces of fennel can be tough so make sure they're nice and thin. Toss the ingredients and dress with fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and cracked black pepper. Garnish with chopped fennel fronds and lemon zest.

Beans Beans They're Good For Your Heart...

Romano Bean and Kidney Bean Salad

We eat a lot of beans in this household. You've been warned!!! Just kidding. We eat them because we like them. They taste good, fill you up, can be prepared in many ways (although we eat a lot of them in salads like this) and they're really good for you. There is some truth to the childhood song, "Beans beans their good for your heart...". With the amount of fiber they contain, anywhere from 9 to 22 grams per half cup, eating beans may hold the key to lowering cholesterol, controlling hypertension, aiding in digestion and keeping your lower insides healthy. I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on T.V., but there is a lot of information out there regarding the benefits of a high fiber diet. Look it up for yourself. As for the second line of that childhood song, who doesn't let one rip once in a while? That's Mother Nature's sense of humor.

Okay, now that you've completely lost your appetite, these are Romano beans with kidney beans, parsley, olive oil and red wine vinegar. One bean short of a three bean salad.

Zebra Heirloom Tomatoes with Bocconcini and Basil

Zebra Heirloom Tomatoes

The zebra heirlooms I found at the farmers market last Saturday couldn't have been more perfect. They were vine ripe and firm with tight skins. The flavor was intensely bright and tomatoey. There was even a slight berryness to the finish which makes sense seeing as how tomatoes are classified as a fruit. Eat enough supermarket tomatoes and it's easy to forget what tomatoes are supposed to taste like.

Zebra Heirloom Tomato Caprese

When it comes to produce this fresh, simpler is better so I chose to prepare them in a classic Caprese style salad with mozzarella bocconcini, some basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and fresh cracked pepper.

Close up

Like a Heatwave

Yesterday it was unbearably hot. The temperature was in the mid nineties all day but felt more like a hundred. What's going on? It's already October!

Extremely hot weather always seems to diminish my appetite. I don't feel like eating anything heavy. The thought of cooking over a hot stove may sound nice when it's cold and dark outside but yesterday felt like August in Death Valley-inside the house as well as outside. We needed something simple and light.

I've always liked the concept of making a meal out of several small plates. Eastern Mediterranean cultures have meze, the Spanish have their tapas, the Japanese have izakaya, in Hawaii they serve pupus and so on. Most of the savory small plates that comprise these ways of eating are traditionally served with drinks but can also be served as stand alone appetizers or more often here in L.A. these days, are combined and shared to make up a whole communal meal. What's nice about this style of eating is that it's casual, not confined to courses and you get a taste of everything. Go back for seconds of your favorites or order another plate. Have some of this and some of that, have a bit to drink and eat a little more. Our Christmas eve tradition is to start with a nice breakfast then pull out all the stops and get right to work cooking little dishes of our favorites and eat them all day into the night, something I look forward to all year. Sorry, I got off on a tangent... back to last night's dinner.

Cannellini Bean Salad

Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta

Pasta with Shrimp, Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Basil, Olive Oil and Toasted Garlic

I wouldn't really define last nights dinner as any of the above ways of eating (alchohol wasn't included and there wasn't a lot of variety) but if it had anything in common, it was made out of three small light dishes. The first was a refreshing cannellini bean salad dressed with olive oil and lime juice. The second dish was brussel sprouts with red onion and pancetta (a dish I copied from a local Italian restaurant) and the filler was pasta with shrimp, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil and toasted garlic. It was light, that's for sure. The flavors where more summer like than fall but felt appropriate for our hot weather. At least I didn't sweat through dinner.

The Sidecar

Artichoke, Grape Tomato and Red Onion Salad

Whenever we have a pasta dish, we usually accompany it with a side of sauteed fresh vegetables or a small salad of some sort.

Last night with our spaghetti bolognese, we had a quick, easy salad of marinated artichoke hearts, orange grape tomatoes and red onion (soak the red onion slices in some chilled water to remove the bite). I dressed it simply with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a little sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. The acidity of the vinegar serves well to offset some of the richness of the bolognese sauce.

Tuesdays Lunch

Herb Rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Tomato, Lima Bean Salad

Yesterday I grilled a pork tenderloin that had been marinating in the fridge for a day. I minced a few garlic cloves, stirred them into olive oil, added the juice of two limes and poured the mixture over the pork loin and placed it back in the fridge. When it was time to grill it, I rubbed the tenderloin with a dry herb blend and let it come back to room temperature. Pork tenderloin is a very lean cut but I've found, grills quickly over high heat without drying out.

T1 packed it for lunch accompanied with a simple tomato, lima bean salad dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Ground Chicken Larb in Lettuce Leaves

I've always liked lettuce wrapped salads. You can usually find one version or another of a lettuce cup dish in any of the Chinese restaurant chains across the country. At Korean barbecues they often serve a plate of lettuce leaves to accompany your grilled meat.

This is my attempt at the Laotian/Thai version. I had some leftover lemongrass from last week that I used for lemongrass pork chops. Not wanting it to go to waste, the remaining stalk of lemon grass served as the inspiration for last nights dinner.

I browned ground chicken from our recent trip to the market, lemongrass, onions and red pepper, added a couple of tablespoons of Thai fish sauce, lime juice, a dash of soy sauce and a pinch of cane sugar and threw in chopped green onions at the last second. This was served with a side of red leaf lettuce leaves, mint leaves and a simple beansprout and tomato salad.

Ground Chicken Larb with Beansprout Tomato Salad

T1 mentioned that wrapping up the ingredients into little parcels before popping them into your mouth makes you feel like you've eaten quite a lot of food.

This is a perfect weeknight meal because it's made in a single pan or wok and the rest is just rinsed greens. Easy, quick, light and full of bold fresh flavor.