Salads

Peasant Food Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

19 May 2011 by Jean Johnson
One bowl meals. It's how to turn gorgeous food out on a dime. A dime of both time and money. In this case, there were leftover French lentils and quinoa in the fridge--so into the bowl they went with some jarred roasted red peppers, a pear from the season's end, and ...

On a Roll with Spaghetti Squash

4 January 2011 by Jean Johnson
Mainstream food writers at the Oregonian dismissed spaghetti squash as bland and boring in an article on winter squashes. Too bad they missed the point, but then that's what happens as long as you're looking at things from the Standard American Perspective--which in the case of food is widely known ...

From the Garden to the Table, During All Four Seasons–Mostly

20 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
So far so good. I've still not bought fresh produce (except pomegranates, lemons, and some Clementines) and since the slim garden days of last spring. It's getting to be slim pickins' for sure given Portland's November snow storm that way laid my broccoli and gave the kale and cabbage a ...

Quinoa = Ultrafast + Delish + You the Boss

2 November 2010 by Jean Johnson
Here's how ultrafast cooking works in my hippie kitchen. In the morning when I'm having breakfast, I steam up a pot of quinoa. This grain cooks in 10 minutes and has the highest protein of them all. I leave it sitting out at room temperature and then when dinner comes ...

Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad

28 August 2010 by Jean Johnson
In Cooking Beyond Measure I purposely call the Italian salad, caprese, this: Sweet Basil with Tomato and Mozzarella. That's because I wanted to turn it from something exotic and perhaps strange to a salad everyone can enjoy. And right now with the tomato harvest starting to come in most places, ...

Fava Bean Season is Upon Us

30 May 2010 by Jean Johnson
If you have Hippie Kitchen you'll see this picture on page 52. I choose to show off the fava beans in their pods rather than the actual dish because they have been so maligned. Typical instructions in American cookbooks are to do not pass go and double peel the beans--first ...

Laurel & Carol’s Astonishing Salad

6 May 2010 by Jean Johnson
This is verbatim from Grow Your Own, the third in my measurefree kitchen companion trilogy that comes out this November. Laurel Robertson, who wrote Laurel’s Kitchen with Carol Flinders, is some kind of woman. This salad is adapted from their pages where they titled it “Astonishing.” I’ve made it many ...

Flash Cooking’s Where It’s At

14 April 2010 by Jean Johnson
Flash cooking is the heart of my kitchen scene. It nets me plenty of fresh seasonal vegetables in short order--warm salad style. I've talked about it many times here on the blog, but people resonate with the idea so, that we did a video. It's a 6 minute clip from ...

Thai Slaw Rolls

30 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
When you put these on the table people think they're getting burritos. Then they take a bite and roll their eyes. That's right, soft rolled up pancakes filled with a Thai-inspired slaw is first rate--something I'd make in a heartbeat if Mark Bittman swooped in for a nib. If you ...

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh

25 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
Grow Your Own, the third book in the measurefree kitchen companion trilogy is underway. Here's one from the Leafing Out in Spring chapter. One secret of this take on tabbouleh is making it the way they do in the Levant--where as my friend Rula Awaad-Rafferty observes, “it’s about the green, ...