avocado

Meatless Monday: Summery Kale, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

I realllly wanted to call this salad The Best Summer Quinoa Salad Ever, but that was too ambiguous. Or even Quinoa, Kale, Black Bean, Avocado, Tomato, Onion, Hot Pepper, Corn Salad with a Lemon Vinaigrette but that just seemed like too long of a name and you would probably would have stopped reading then. So just go with it.

Anyway, I love a good summery salad. Something with a good light vinaigrette, add in corn and avocado and I’m sold. So when I realized we had pretty much all of my favorite ingredients for a salad thanks to our Fresh Fork CSA and some farmer’s market finds, I knew I had to just put it all together and make the best summer salad ever. Add in some quinoa and a can of black beans and it was perfect for a vegetarian main meal. Oh yeah – even B ate it as a main dish without meat. That’s how I know it’s a success.

Don’t be fooled by the name, I may just be making this salad this fall and winter too. Because we all need some summer meals all year round, don’t we?

kale, quinoa, black bean and avocado salad

Kale, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/3 olive oil (divided)
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 hungarian hot peppers or jalapenos, diced
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 2 cup water
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 3 c. thinly chopped raw kale leaves
  • 1 c corn (approximately one giant cob)
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • 1 avocado, chopped into cubes

Here’s what you do:

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add garlic, onion and hot pepper, and saute for about 3-4 minutes. I also added a few slices of kale, but feel free to use all the kale in step #4 and keep it raw.
  2. Add quinoa and two cups water.  Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
  3. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients for the salad. First prepare the dressing. Mix 1/4 c lemon juice (about one whole lemon) with 1/3 cup olive oil and cumin.
  4. Finely chop the kale (remove the large thick middle stems from the leaves and then roll up kale into rods before finely chopping) and add to the salad dressing. Coat kale thoroughly in dressing. Add in corn and black beans.
  5. By now the quinoa should be nearly done cooking. After letting cool for a minute, add cooked quinoa, onion and pepper to kale, corn and tomato. Mix well.  Gently add in chopped tomato. Just before serving, add in avocado.
  6. Enjoy! Mine made 3-4 vegetarian main dishes.

kale, quinoa, black bean and avocado salad

Fresh Fork Week 8 – And Fennel, Tomato and Avocado Salad {Recipe}

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

How are we already EIGHT weeks into our Fresh Fork summer share? It may seem weird to say this – and somewhat cheesy – but I feel like it’s become a part of B and me. We look forward to picking up our weekly share, trying the new recipes and enjoying all the glorious fresh produce and some other local grub (those local corn chips … and local oats … and more – were SO good!).

Anyway, enough blabbering with how much I am loving my Fresh Fork. Here’s what we got this week:

  • 1 lb grassfed ground beef
  • 1 bulb fennel
  • 3# red skin potatoes
  • 1 candy onion
  • 1 head red cabbage
  • 1 lb yellow beans
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 1 pint sweet cherries
  • 1 quart apricots

And a blurry photo of what we got (I may have been at Parnell’s for happy hour before the pick up):

fresh fork week 8

We’ve finished pretty much everything, minus the beef, which is in our freezer until B figures out what he wants to do with it. Because I don’t really like ground beef unless it’s in a meatball. Even then I prefer turkey. It happens.

Some of our meals:

B made this dish, featuring the cabbage (doesn’t it look professional?!)

pork and cabbage

We had a wine and cheese night – and the apricots went deliciously with it!

wine and cheese

A summery meal featuring potato salad from the potatoes (and the corn, tomato and eggplant are from week 9 – shhhh yes I’m skipping ahead)

20130803_203724

And my favorite (well, not my favorite – the pork and cabbage was probably the best, but don’t tell B) – fennel, tomato and avocado salad – which we enjoyed with the beer can chicken.

20130728_174833

You can make the fennel salad too – it was really easy so here’s another non-recipe for you to enjoy for the next time you get fennel. There was something just so delicious about the sweetness of the fennel with the bitterness of the balsamic. And who doesn’t like tomato and avocado?

fennel tomato and avocado salad {i crashed the web}

Fennel, Tomato & Avocado salad

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 bulb fennel
  • 2 fresh tomatoes
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • Your favorite balsamic vinaigrette. Don’t have one? Make your own! Here’s my favorite recipe – it makes more than enough for this salad plus more:
    • 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
    • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
    • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 garlic clove, crushed or minced

Here’s what you do:

  1. Cut up the first three ingredients. Chop up the fennel bulb into 1/2 inch thick slices. Cut up tomato into thin slices. Find a ripe avocado and cut it into bite sized pieces.
  2. Arrange tomato, avocado, and fennel on a plate.
  3. Drizzle about 1-2 tbs of your favorite balsamic dressing over the salad. If you’re making mine, combine vinegar, oil, mustard and garlic in a jar and shake well to combine before drizzling a little over the salads. You’ll have leftover dressing for later.
  4. Enjoy!
fennel tomato and avocado salad {i crashed the web}

Fennel, tomato and avocado salad

For other Fresh Fork Recaps:

Fresh Fork CSA Week Three And Tomato, Corn, Onion and Cilantro Salsa {Recipe}

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

Week Three of Fresh Fork was great! I’m so excited to be getting all of this fresh produce and meat each week and not have to plan meals. It’s so easy to just use what I have as opposed to making a trip to the grocery store to pick everything up. Yup, I’m drinking the Koolaid.

closeup of B's favorites - the cheese, corn chips ("crackers") and ground beef

closeup of B’s favorites – the cheese, corn chips (“crackers”) and ground beef

check it out! More strawberries, plus lettuce, RADISHES, cilantro and some more yum yums

check it out! More strawberries, plus lettuce, RADISHES, cilantro and some more yum yums

Can’t tell from the picture what we got? Week Three included:

  • 1 lb grassfed ground beef
  • 1 bag heirloom corn chips
  • 1 piece, 6 oz, aged sharp cheddar (called Hull’s Trace)
  • 1 bunch swiss chard
  • 1 head green leaf lettuce
  • 1 bunch radishes
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 2 ct zucchini
  • 1 quart strawberries

So what did we make this week?

  • Corn chips: Were eaten with the sharp cheddar (B liked, but I wasn’t a huge fan. I prefer less sharp -softer?-cheese) and we also ate with the corn, onion, tomato and cilantro salsa.
  • Grassfed beef: B made some burgers on our grill over the weekend. I had turkey burgers, but had a bite of the grassfed beef and was pleased – it seemed pretty good!
  • Lettuce and radishes: used for salads and snacks. I LOVE radishes just cut up as a snack so those were gone immediately.
  • Swiss chard: I cooked it up and we had it for dinner one night with some chicken I marinated. B liked it a lot!
  • Zucchini: I roasted some to serve with the chard and chicken.
Chicken, zucchini, swiss chard and lentils

Chicken, zucchini, swiss chard and lentils

  •  Cilantro: This was a tough one because B is not a huge cilantro fan. So I put it on a few salads and added it to a few dishes that I was eating on my own. I did make a salsa to serve with our burgers and chips with some cilantro that was pretty good. That sorta/not-really-a-recipe is below.

tomato corn onion cilantro salsa

Tomato, Corn, Onion and Cilantro Salsa

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 1/2 ish Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp lemon or lime juice  (I bet lime would be great! I used lemon. Because that’s what I had on hand)
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 1 15 oz can of corn (or if you want you can grill up some corn on the cob and use about 2 cobs worth of corn!)
  •  As much cilantro as your heart desires (if you’re like B, the answer is none. If you’re like me, it’s more like 2 bunches…only sorta kidding)

Here’s  what you do:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, lemon juice and minced garlic.
  2. Finely chop onion and tomatoes. Taste the onion – if it’s too spicy (B thinks that red onions can be too spicy at times) soak it in ice water for a little while.
  3. Combine chopped onion, tomatoes, and corn. Mix with dressing.
  4. Add cilantro to taste.
  5.  You’re done – enjoy! It’s a nice refreshing salad that we served with our grilled burgers and corn chips.

Optional: Chop up 1-2 avocados and add those as well.

tomato corn onion cilantro salsa

For other Fresh Fork Recaps: