Today is a really hot day, and it’s suppose to go up to 109ºF!! After moving up to the hot northern part in california, my cooking style has definitely explored into chilled and cooling foods to enjoy in a 90+ Fahrenheit degree weather. This past week has been a bit busy with work and I didn’t have time to prune off the flowers on my basil plants, so I decided to use them in a chickpea/garbanzo salad with a basil and cilantro vinaigrette. The flowers aren’t a must in this recipe, but they do create a feeling of delicacy and romance to the plate plus it adds a beautiful touch to a regular plain chickpea salad. Continue reading
Category Archives: Salads
Orange, Cabbage, Carrot Salad + Cilantro Tahini Dressing
Today’s feature: Organic Farm to Table Salad! Last year at my old place, my landlord told me I couldn’t plant a garden in my 25×5 ft backyard lawn, so I planted everything in pots. To my surprise it was amazing how I was able to feed myself from summer to winter with potted vegetables. I grew from seeds: kale, tomatoes (which i still harvested until November!), arugula, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini, green beans and among others. This summer I am at a new spot where I have all the garden space to grow even more veggies! On mother’s day I got 25 different types of tomatoes, tons of bell, poblanos, serrano, jalapeno, and banana peppers, eggplant, lots of melons, different squashes, beans, cucumbers and others you will see later through out my posts.
For the rest of this year, I want to do a farm to table recipe index, and showcase the benefits of growing your own vegetables. When I lived in Mexico, my dad made me read a giant book of Permaculture, which is the art of agricultural cultivation in really small space but still have a production 3 times the space! So if you have a small place you can still grow a good amount of vegetables with all the advantages of a mini farm right at your home! So anyways today I picked up some lettuce and carrots from my garden-in-progress, and decided to whip up a tahini dressing to coat a delicious organic garden fresh salad! Ooohhh so crunchy, oh so good!
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Asparagus, Strawberry & Goat Cheese Salad
Asparagus, Strawberry & Goat Cheese Salad
My two favorite spring vegetables and fruits are asparagus and strawberries because they are sweet, crunchy and refreshening. These guys are just about delicious whether they are prepared in a simple way or in a delicate dish. Today the weather in Santa Cruz, California, is at 89 degrees Fahrenheit! And let me tell you…it is soooo HOT!!! I haven’t felt this heat since I was in Puerto Rico. So I looked in my fridge to see what kind of ingredients I had to make a refreshing salad to cool myself, and I found some fresh asparagus that we picked up the day before yesterday at a farm, and some local strawberries from Watsonville. One of my favorite ways to enjoy a salad and switch it up from the regular leafy salad, is to peel the vegetables into long thin slices. So I peeled asparagus and carrots to give it a nice sweet crunchy flavor and mixed it with avocado and goat cheese. This salad has a magnificent layer of flavors from creamy to crunchy and sweet to sour. I hope you enjoy this salad on such a beautiful hot & sunny day!