Monday, May 18, 2009

A Trio of Salads

It's been too long since I've posted a salad picture and recipe! I've been missing my salads a lot lately. So today you get three of them!

The first salad is what I made for my dinner tonight. I tried to recreate a fantastic lunch I had a long time ago at a little outdoor restaurant in New York's South Street Seaport. It was the first time I'd heard of Chicken Paillard and I had to ask the waiter what it meant. If you don't know, paillard is a French word that means pounded very thin and grilled quickly. The chicken I had at the restaurant was pounded so thin it was as big as my plate! It was served with some greens lightly dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. I had to add some cannellini beans to mine because I love the whole beans and greens combo.



Chicken Paillard
1 chicken cutlet, pounded as thin as possible
arugula
cannellini beans
lemon juice
dijon mustard
olive oil
salt and pepper

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, grill a few minutes on both sides.
Mix the lemon juice, dijon, and olive oil with a whisk, add salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly dress the arugula with the vinaigrette, add some beans, pile on a plate, top with the chicken, and sprinkle the whole plate with finely grated parmesan cheese and a little more freshly cracked black pepper.


Next I needed to make something for lunch tomorrow. I have some really good feta cheese in the fridge that can't go to waste. And, I cleaned out my cupboards last week and found a box of Fantastic brand falafel mix. Now, I know I'm trying to avoid boxed or packaged foods, but it's simply not very green to throw away a perfectly good box of falafel. Also, the ingredient listing was fairly short and all items I could pronounce so I have made an exception. Maybe next time I want falafel I will try to make it from scratch. I made sure to broil the falafel patties instead of frying for obvious health reasons.


Greek Salad
Field greens
Good qualify feta cheese
Dried cranberries
Broiled falafel patties (packaged mix and water, formed into patties, drizzled with olive oil and broiled a few minutes on each side)
Balsamic vinaigrette


And finally, I had to make this recipe when I saw it on Apartment Therapy. It is honestly the best thing I've eaten in days. I can't put into words how much I love this salad. Something about the sweetness of the cranberries and rice wine vinegar combined with the raw broccoli and toasty almonds, and the mild bite of the red onion....I actually made "mmmm" noises as I took the first bite. It's a recipe I won't be making very often because it's rather addicting and I'm worried I will eat the whole bowl in one day. Plus I'm not sure how lean it really is, since it contains both mayo and sugar, but I am hoping the amount of broccoli offsets most of that! Finally, it gave me an excuse to use my grater attachment on my food processor.

I won't repost the recipe here, because I followed it exactly (I even measured!) but here's how pretty it is.

Praise salads!

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