BBQ Cauliflower Salad

Buffalo cauliflower is one of my favorite recipes to make because it's so adaptable, you can use it in salads, on pizza, in a sandwich or just by itself. I found this BBQ cauliflower recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it.

Adapted from Fork & Beans.

Buffalo Cauliflower Recipe

Ingredients:
-1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
-1/2 c. BBQ sauce
-1 avocado, sliced
-3 c. lettuce
-Carrots diced
-ranch dressing

Preheat over to 350.

Place cauliflower florets on the sheet and bake 5-7 minutes. Brush the BBQ sauce onto the cauliflower and bake another 2-3 minutes.

Build the salad in a large bowl, top with the avocado slices and BBQ cauliflower.

The BBQ was really weird with the cauliflower, I prefer the buffalo cauliflower over this recipe. It wasn't bad, it's just not something I would make again. The BBQ I used was a spicy one, that might have been why I didn't like it. I really like the avocado on the salad, I think that would be good on a salad with buffalo cauliflower.

Caesar Style Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

As a vegetarian I really enjoy eating salad, but I don't use Caesar dressing because of the anchovies. I was drawn to this recipe because of the updated dressing, but the original contained Worcestershire which also has anchovies in it, so I subbed soy which is my go to substitute for Worcestershire.

We served this with Creamy Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup.

From a Cup of Jo.


Ingredients:
For the dressing:
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. mustard (whole grain Dijon if you have it)
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 lemons, juiced
Sea salt & fresh black pepper
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

For the salad:
3 heads romaine lettuce, roughly chopped
5 oz. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 package croutons
Black pepper for serving

Makes 6-8 servings.

To make the dressing: Whisk together all ingredients. If you're cutting this recipe in half, I recommend halving the vinaigrette because it made a lot of dressing. The oil, soy and mustard will try to separate, just give the dressing another good whisk before serving.

Assemble the salad on a plate and spoon as little or as much dressing as you'd like.

I really enjoyed this recipe. The romaine lettuce was crisp, but missing the hard pieces that other mixed lettuce has (am I the only one who hates those incredibly crunchy pieces of lettuce?). The fresh black pepper was a nice touch and the tangy vinaigrette dressing was the perfect pairing. I would much rather having this dressing over a heavy dressing like Caeser. The most prominent flavor was the garlic, but the mustard was also detectable, this is a recipe I will be making again as a side dish.

Grilled Vegetable Panzanella

Happy Grilling Wednesday!!

This recipe comes from Vegetarian Times, July/August 2013 p.27. As soon as I saw this recipe in the magazine, I knew that I had to make it. I purchased all of the ingredients as soon as I could and put this delicious grilling recipe together. this makes a great lunch.

Other Grilling Wednesday Recipes: BBQ Maple Balsamic Burger with Sharp Cheddar, Grilled Pineapple with Honey, Cinnamon and Lime, Grilled Caprese Sandwiches, Grilled Spicy Pepper Poppers,  Red White and Blue Burger, Grilled Nacho Pizza, Spicy Hoisin and Sesame Glazed Corn and Grilled Peaches with Lemon and Thyme.

Ingredients:

-4 slices rustic French bread (8 oz.)

-1 12-oz. pkg. cherry tomatoes

-16 large green beans (4 oz.)

-1 large yellow squash, quartered lengthwise

-2 Tbs. olive oil

-2 Tbs. white balsamic vinegar

-1 large clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)

-1 small head radicchio, diced

-1 oz. chilled blue cheese, crumbled or coarsely grated (⅓ cup)

-4 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped

This will make four, two cup servings.

Spray the grill well with cooking spray and grill the vegetables and bread.
The cherry tomatoes should be bursting.
The bread should be toasted.
The other vegetables should be charred.

Cut the bread into cubes.

Put all but four of the tomatoes in a bowl, smoosh them to release their juices.
Pour over the bread.

Whisk together oil, vinegar, and garlic and add remaining 4 tomatoes.

Cut green beans and squash into 1/2-inch pieces.

Add cut vegetables, radicchio, and blue cheese to bowl with dressing. Toss to coat. Add bread cube mixture, and toss to coat. Sprinkle crumbled eggs over top.

This recipe was delicious! I cut it in half because I was only serving two people and there were no leftovers. Grilling is such a popular way to prepare food during the summer and I enjoy leaving those basic recipes behind to try something new. The blue cheese, cherry tomatoes as well as the dressing were tangy, the summer squash and green beans added a nice charred flavor. The bread was crunchy, while the other ingredients were soft. This was a perfect combination of flavors and textures.

Endive Taco Salad

With this salad I really wanted to make something simple using ingredients that I had on hand. I made this in the middle of a heat wave so my goal was to not use the oven or stovetop because it was already too hot in the house! 

Ingredients:
-Endive leaves
-Cheddar cheese
-Cherry tomatoes
-Tortilla chips
-Other desired toppings
-Ranch dressing
-Salsa 

Fill a bowl with the endive leaves and the toppings.
Crumble the tortilla chips over the salad.
Lastly, mix together equal parts of ranch and salsa to pour over the top.

J. and I were not fans of the endive at all, it had an aftertaste with an interesting bite, it's not something I will be using again. This could easily be done with lettuce or any other green. The best part of this was the salsa ranch, it's a nice way to top of a taco salad, a lot of recipes call for a cilantro based recipe, but I'm not a fan of cilantro and this dressing was a really nice alternative.

Tomato Cucumber Salad

My mom called this recipe Angie's salad, because it was something that my grandma always made when there were fresh vegetables. My grandma never measured anything when she cooked, she always just knew how much looked right and it turned out great every time. My mom and I used what looked good, and I tried to keep track of how much of each ingredient we used. 

Ingredients:

-1/2 cucumber

-2 tomatoes

-1 Tbsp. fresh basil (or more to taste if you like)

-2 Tbsp. olive oil

-1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

-salt and pepper.

Peel the cucumber and slice it thin.

Cut the tomato into big chunks, and make sure you get all
the juice from the tomatoes in the salad.

Add the balsamic and olive oil.

Chop the basil into pretty big slices.

Mix it all together.

Spoon some on top of some of some Italian bread.

You can eat this on a piece of bread, or just eat it with a fork if you want. The juice from the tomato mixes with the olive oil and balsamic to make a kind of sauce that is really good to dip bread it as well. This was a really good summer appetizer since it used fresh vegetables and basil.

Watermelon Feta Salad

This recipe comes from the Novice Chef.

Ingredients: 
-2 pounds seedless Watermelon, sliced into rounds

-1 cup crumbled feta

-2 large shallots, sliced

-Salt and Pepper, to taste

-Balsamic Vinegar, for drizzling

Cut your piece of watermelon.
I cut a slab and then cut the pieces using a biscuit cutter.

Top with feta cheese and sliced shallots.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!

I know this isn't much of a recipe, but it's so good! The saltiness of the feta went perfectly with the sweetness of the watermelon, the shallots were a perfect addition they added a nice layer of flavor of savory with the saltiness and sweetness. This is a nice way to dress up a traditional summer favorite.

Grilled Peach Salad

This is the last post for Salad Wednesday, here is a list of our other salads from this spring:

Cucumber Salad, Deconstructed Wedge Salad, Edible Flower Salad, Buffalo Cauliflower Salad, Panera Apple Fuji Salad, Minestrone Salad, Tangerine, Hazelnut and Goat Cheese Salad, Stacked Apple Peach Salad, Broccoli Salad, Apricot Pineapple Salad, and Tortellini Salad.

Our next Wednesday series will be Grilling Wednesday, perfect for the summer. This recipe is a transition between the two, it was a salad, but it used grilled peaches. Look back every Wednesday where will will try out some interesting vegetarian recipes for the grill!

This idea came from Paula Deen.

Ingredients:

-3 peaches cut into slices
-1 Tbsp olive oil
-1 tsp salt
-5 cups spinach lettuce mix
-1/2 cup chopped pecans
-1/3 cup mozzarella cheese

I used a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette as dressing, and it went well with this salad.

Make up a plate of the greens, pecans and cheese.

Brush the peaches with a little olive oil and salt.
Put on the grill for about 2 minutes per side.

A few fell apart, but not many.

They got some nice grill marks.

Add the peaches and dressing to the salad.

This was one of the best salads I have made. It is great to be able to use the grill, and grilling the peaches really brought out their flavor. The spinach and the peaches were a good combination too. I would recommend this as a side dish next time you grill.

Tortellini Salad

                                     

Happy Salad Wednesday! I made this tortellini salad once last summer for a party at J's and everyone love it.

Feel free to adjust the quantities and ingredients as you would like. The tortellini salad I made probably had about four small servings.

Other Salad Wednesday recipes: Cucumber Salad, Deconstructed Wedge Salad, Edible Flower Salad, Buffalo Cauliflower Salad, Panera Apple Fuji Salad, Minestrone Salad, Tangerine, Hazelnut and Goat Cheese Salad, Stacked Apple Peach Salad, Broccoli Salad and Apricot Pineapple Salad.



Ingredients:
-1/2 a bag of tortellini, cooked and rinsed in cool water.
-3 or 4 chives, (you could also use green onions)
-1 medium tomato, chopped in bite sized pieces (you could also use cherry tomatoes)
-Mozarella cheese, cubed (if desired)
-Italian dressing

Once the tortellini is coked in rinse, put it in the container you'll be serving the salad in.

At the tomatoes and chives, stir so they're distributed throughout.
Lightly coat in Italian dressing. 

It's that easy.

If you need to feed a crowd this is easy to take to a picnic because it makes a great side if you're grilling. The flavors go great together and it's a colorful presentation. This is also a great way to use local ingredients, I was able to use chives from my chive plant and if you have a summer garden this is a great way to use a tomato surplus. I really like this recipe because you can adjust the ingredients however you would like, add whatever you would like to add or use the whole bottle of Italian dressing if you want a lot of flavor.

Watermelon Basket

I've seen carved watermelon a few times on Pinterest, and I've seen them do carving competitions on the food network, but I really thought it was something too difficult for me to actually do. This basket though looked on the easier side, so I tried it. It really turned out much better than I had expected, and wasn't as much work as I thought it would be.

I saw this in a few places, but the best instructions I found and used as a guide was from kcparent.

There aren't really ingredients for this one, just use a large ripe watermelon and whatever other fruit you want to make your fruit salad.

First cut off the bottom of watermelon so
there is a flat surface so the watermelon
will be able to sit without rolling.

This was actually the hardest part for me, I was a little worried when I started, but it got much easier. It was a little awkward to cut sideways through the rind, but you just need enough so it will stand up.

Score the watermelon around the middle.
Also score it through the top, around the place the handle will be.

Make deeper cuts through, and take out a
quarter of the watermelon at once.
Once I got through the rind, it was pretty easy to cut.

Do the same thing on the other side so you have a handle.

Use a melon baller or some scooper to get out the watermelon.
I had drain out some of the liquid a few times.

I went back through with a knife to round out the top of the handle.
I just used a knife to cut out triangles to make the jagged pattern.
Cutting the triangles was much easier than cutting the rind at the beginning.

Cut up whatever other fruit you like to make fruit salad.

This one really was worth the work. It looked pretty impressive, and wasn't as difficult as I thought. I really doubted my ability to carve a watermelon, but it was easier than I thought.

Apricot Pineapple Salad

This isn't quite a traditional salad, but this side dish was good as a side or on it's own. It was pretty sweet, and could even been used a dessert. I ate this for a side to lunch, but then I ate another one for dessert the next day. Using baby food was easy, rather than using an apricot and having to puree it yourself. The pineapple chunks were a really good match for the peach and apricot flavor.

This recipe comes from the cookbook Storebought to Homemade by Emyl Jenkins.

Other Salad Wednesday recipes: Cucumber Salad, Deconstructed Wedge Salad, Edible Flower Salad, Buffalo Cauliflower Salad, Panera Apple Fuji Salad, Minestrone Salad, Tangerine, Hazelnut and Goat Cheese Salad, Stacked Apple Peach Salad and Broccoli Salad.

This makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

-1/3 cup of water

-1/3 cup of sugar

-1 packet of peach vegetarian Jell-o substitute

-4 oz cream cheese

-8 oz crushed pineapple

-4 oz apricot baby food, or pureed apricot

-8 oz cool whip

Mix the sugar, water, and jell-o, until it boils.

Take the mixture off the heat, and mix in the cream cheese.

Add the other ingredients.

Stir then serve.

This recipe made 4, so I put them in pretty big cups. It was a lot to eat at once, next time I might put them into smaller containers to have a smaller side.