Greek Style Salad with Simple Dressing

photo by Alison Tyne

Slowly but steadily I have had a new fan every week or so on the Artistic Eatables Facebook page, even during my recent hiatus - thank you to all who have patiently waited for a new recipe!

This weekend, my friend Alison came to photograph my husband's band. After they got home, we decided on a non-traditional salad for dinner and chose to create our version of a dish from Salads by Jane Price.



INGREDIENTS (serves 3-4)
For a vegan meal, be sure to omit the cheese.

• 1 bag baby spinach
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained, halved or quartered
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• sundried tomatoes, cut into strips
• kalamata olives, pitted
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced (roasted red peppers would also be nice)
• feta cheese (optional; parmesan is another alternative)
• olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper, optional

DIRECTIONS
To plate each salad:

1. Lay down a bed of baby spinach.
2. Arrange a few artichoke hearts, olives, and red pepper slices around the edge of the plate.
3. Sprinkle sundried tomato strips over greens.
4. Top with some lemon zest and feta cheese (if using).
5. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil, then about 1/4 of the lemon juice over your salad.
6. Top with some freshly ground black pepper, if desired, then serve.

Bacon, Tomato, and Corn Chowder

This is a variation on my traditional corn chowder recipe. On the Artistic Eatables Facebook page, we were having a discussion about our favorite hearty meals. My boss from where I used to work reminded me of this wonderful alternative to corn chowder.

Of course, don't let the bacon deter you if you are a vegetarian. It can be made sans meat by omitting the bacon. It still has a wonderful, different kind of flavor due to the addition of tomatoes! I encourage you to give it a try.

Ingredients

• 1 lb bacon, cut into small pieces
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 8 small potatoes (I used new red potatoes), chopped into small pieces
• 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes (juice will be used)
• 4 vegetable bouillon cubes
• water
• 1 lb frozen corn
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• milk
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat large stockpot to medium heat.
2. Cook bacon until somewhat crispy. Put cooked bacon into a bowl; set aside.
3. Pour out most of bacon grease. Place stockpot back over heat.
4. Add olive oil and butter.
5. Cook onion until translucent.
6. Add potatoes, bouillon cubes, and tomatoes and their juice. Cut tomatoes into small chunks using a pair of kitchen scissors.
7. Add enough water to cover vegetables. Cook until potatoes are done.
8. Add corn. Cook until corn is heated.
9. Turn heat to low. Add in cheese, a little at a time, stirring so it melts without clumping.
10. Remove from heat. Add as much milk as you like, until it has thinned the soup to your desired consistency.
11. Season with salt and pepper.
12. Serve, topping each bowl with cooked bacon. Enjoy!

Fresh Tomato and Red Onion Salad

Do yourself a big favor. Go to the nearest farmers' market or roadside stand and buy the most beautiful tomato you can find. Slice it up, drizzle some oil and vinegar on top, and sit down. Stop everything else you're doing right now and let yourself enjoy the flavor. It is summertime: the perfect time for tomatoes.

Sure, you can buy beefsteak or vine ripe tomatoes from the store, but you would be doing a huge disservice to your palate. Talk to the farmers - ask about their favorites. The tomato I bought today was absolutely gorgeous. It was a deep red, bordering on purple, with a crown of green. The farmer told me that it was the perfect time to eat them. He said, "You will never taste a better tomato in your life." In a world of over-exaggerated statements, this one was 100% accurate.

I love the simplicity of this salad, as well as its flexible nature. Feel free to try it with different tomatoes, different vinegars, additions, or even caramelizing the onions to create a sweet / salty combination.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 large heirloom tomato, cut into wedges (room temperature is best)
• sliver of red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
• drizzle of olive oil
• drizzle of balsamic vinegar
• freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Arrange tomatoes on a plate. Sprinkle onion around them.
2. Dress with a drizzle each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
3. Top with freshly ground black pepper.
4. Enjoy!

Marinated White Beans with Tomatoes

While preparing for a recent picnic, I decided to mix up some marinated beans. After seeing this recipe on Budget Bytes, I had been thinking about a cold bean mixture to enjoy during the hot days of summer. I adapted her idea with a few tips from Jamie Oliver's salad video to create this great snack, crostini topper, or side dish.

Ingredients for Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp high quality mustard (ex: stone ground or Dijon mustard)
• small handful fresh flat leaf parsley, minced
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Other Ingredients

• one or two 15 oz. cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (for a dish with lighter dressing, use 2 cans of beans)
• 1 small vine ripe tomato, diced

Directions

1. In a small lidded container, combine dressing ingredients and shake well.
2. In a separate bowl or container, combine beans and tomatoes. Pour dressing over top and stir until coated. 
3. Let mixture sit at least fifteen minutes before serving atop toasted baguette slices or as a side dish.

Mixed Summer Vegetables with Feta

I love shopping for vegetables in the summer. I go to the farm stand and buy whatever is beautiful. This week, the beets and I fell in love.

I know what you're thinking: beets are gross. My question to you: on what beets are you basing your judgment? Those slimy canned discs are NOT beets - they're aliens! Grab some fresh ones from your local farmers' market, boil them, and enjoy their delicious sweet flavor.

• 4 small/medium beets, washed and greens removed
• 1 yellow squash, halved lengthwise and sliced (into half-moon shape)
• olive oil
• red or white wine vinegar
• salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 vine ripe tomatoes, cut into small wedges
• 3-4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled or broken into small pieces

1. Place beets in small pot of water and bring to a boil. Cook until tender.
2. While beets are cooking, heat up grill or flat top griddle to medium heat.
3. Spear squash slices onto kabobs.
4. Place kabobs on grill. Drizzle with both olive oil and vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Cook 8-10 minutes on each side, until charred.
6. Place squash in serving bowl to cool.
7. When beets are done, slice in half horizontally, then into small chunks. Let cool, then add to serving bowl.
8. Add tomatoes and feta.
9. Toss gently and serve at room temperature.

Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Sandwiches

I've heard lots of different names for this fabulous combination: Margherita and Caprese are both popular titles for tomato, basil, and mozzarella together in a dish. The red, white, and green symbolize the colors of the Italian flag, and the name was given to honor Queen Margherita of Italy.

I was immediately attracted to Beth's recipe on Budget Bytes, which featured this famous medley. After a few alterations, I was ready to give it a try. My biggest concern was to preserve the crispiness of the bread. By grilling the sourdough on its own, it is protected from absorbing too much vinegar and keep the stability of the sandwich intact.

Prosciutto isn't necessary to enjoying this sandwich, but Dan the Man highly recommends it! The saltiness goes wonderfully with the creamy fresh mozzarella.


Ingredients

• loaf of fresh sourdough Italian bread, thickly sliced
• butter (for grilling)
• vine ripe tomatoes, sliced across into rounds
• ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced
• fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
• balsamic vinegar (for drizzling)
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• freshly ground pepper 
• small package of prosciutto (optional)

Directions

1. Heat up frying pan or griddle to medium heat.
2. Butter both sides of Italian bread slices. Grill both sides of each piece until crispy; remove from heat.
3. Assemble sandwiches from the bottom up: tomato, mozzarella, basil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of olive oil, and freshly ground pepper. Top with a few slices of prosciutto, if using.
4. Slice sandwiches in half and enjoy immediately!

Polenta with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil, and Shallots

Polenta is cooked cornmeal. Translation: a great dinner option for those who are avoiding wheat or other products with gluten.

Polenta can be purchased pre-cooked, usually in a package whose shape resembles a giant pill. Or, you can go the old fashioned route and buy cornmeal, cooking it according to directions that are usually written on the back of the box.

Try out this dinner meal alongside grilled chicken, or as a vegetarian option accompanied with some greens. Ours cooked up crispy on the bottom and smooth inside. You can mix it up by adding parmesan cheese to the polenta before you bake it, or changing the toppings to your liking.



Ingredients

• 2 cups cornmeal
• olive oil
• 4 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 bunch fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 1 large shallot, sliced (or can substitute 1 medium red onion)
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cook cornmeal according to package directions. (usually a 1:1 ratio with water)
3. Coat glass 8x8 baking dish with olive oil.
4. Spoon cornmeal into pan and top with tomatoes, basil, and shallots.
5. Drizzle olive oil on top of vegetables and add salt and pepper.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until shallots are tender.

Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern dish made from bulgur wheat. Bulgur is a hearty grain high in fiber and protein, with a chewy texture. Tabbouleh was first introduced to me by my former boss Karen, who served it on top of salad greens. The combination of different textures and flavors stuck in my mind. I've written the American version of the dish (which highlights the bulgur itself) versus the Lebanese version, which is heavy on the parsley and mint. I encourage you to try this! It's definitely out of the ordinary for some people, so serve it with something familiar, such as cold shrimp on the side.


Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 cup bulgur wheat
• water
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 European / English cucumber
• small bunch fresh mint leaves AND/OR fresh parsley leaves
• 4-6 oz. feta cheese, block or crumbled
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• salad greens, if desired

Directions

1. Cook bulgur wheat according to package directions. (Mine was 1 cup dry bulgur to 2 cups cold water.)
2. Once bulgur is cooked, place saucepan in fridge and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
3. While bulgur is cooling, chop tomato, cucumber, mint/parsley, and feta into small pieces.
4. Scoop bulgur, tomato, cucumber, and mint/parsley into a large bowl, stir well, and refrigerate for another 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from fridge. Add feta and stir well.
6. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Add lemon juice to taste. Stir well and serve immediately as main dish, or atop salad greens.

Tomato Florentine Soup

This is a great soup because it is accepting of any flavors you might want to add. It's loosely based on Budget Bytes' Swamp Soup recipe and it caught my eye because of the ingredient list. I've never made a tomato based soup that actually used pasta sauce in it before, but it made perfect sense to me. We often have a half full jar of tomato sauce in our fridge that is left over from one thing or another. Adding it to this soup tasted great because the sauce is already seasoned so I had to add very little in terms of spices for this soup.


After changing the recipe quite a bit and working with the contents of my own kitchen, I ended up with this. Dan the Man wanted it on the record that future versions of this soup should experiment with the addition of chicken or pasta. To make it a little heartier I'd like to try adding another can of smaller beans, like Great Northern beans, to add some extra protein and color variation.


Ingredients
for a vegan or dairy-free meal, omit the parmesan cheese at the end and replace with fresh basil leaves for garnish.

• drizzle of olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 4 carrots, sliced in 1/4-inch pieces
• 4 stalks celery, sliced in 1/4-inch pieces
• big pinch (about 1/2 tsp) oregano
• big pinch of basil
• big pinch of parsley
• freshly ground pepper
• 3 oz (about 1/2 bag) fresh baby spinach
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes (don't drain - you will need the juice)
• 15.5 oz can beans, drained and rinsed (I used red kidney beans)
• 12 oz (or 1/2 jar) tomato sauce
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• parmesan cheese for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large stockpot over medium heat.
2. Add garlic, onion, carrots, celery, spices, and pepper. Stir well and let cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add spinach, cover stockpot, and reduce heat to low. Cook until spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes (with their juice), beans, tomato sauce and broth. Cover, return heat to medium and cook until soup is heated throughout.
5. Serve as is or sprinkled (covered?) with parmesan cheese.

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone

For weeks, I had been drooling over this soup recipe from What Megan's Making, one of my favorite food blogs. I loved the idea of roasting vegetables to bring out their flavor in an unexpected place like soup, and couldn't wait to give this a try as the weather has cooled off here. 

To switch up the original recipe, I changed which vegetables to roast, catered the seasoning to my liking, and altered the amounts for a smaller crowd. This recipe will make enough for 3-4 people as a main dish.

Ingredients for roasting vegetables

• 1 bunch small carrots, sliced in rounds
• 1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 yellow (summer) squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1/2 red onion, halved and sliced thinly
• generous drizzle of olive oil
• salt + pepper

Ingredients for rest of soup

• more olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• pinch of dried thyme leaves
• 14.5 oz can cannellini beans, drained
• 6 cups vegetable broth (more if you want it brothier)
• 2 cups pasta shells, uncooked
• 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
• salt + pepper
• fresh parsley or Parmesan or mozzarella cheese (garnish, optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Combine ingredients for roasting vegetables in large baking dish and cover. Bake at 500 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside, still covered, until soup is complete (Step 8).
3. While vegetables are roasting, heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. 
4. Add garlic, celery, and thyme. Cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add cannelini beans and vegetable broth. Increase heat to medium-high until broth boils, then reduce to low. 
6. Add pasta shells and cook until they are al dente (about 10 minutes).
7. Add tomatoes and cook until heated throughout. 
8. Pour roasted vegetables into soup and stir to incorporate.
9. Season with salt and pepper, and top with desired garnish.

Fresh Tomato and Roasted Garlic Salsa

Ingredients

• 5-6 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 2 small ripe tomatoes
• 1 green tomato
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut tips off the top of each garlic clove. Place in small baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 450 degrees until garlic is roasted completely, about 20 minutes.
3. While garlic is roasting, finely chop tomatoes and jalapeno pepper. Mix together in medium bowl.
4. Squeeze each garlic out of its paper and onto a cutting board, mince and add to bowl.
5. Add lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cooked Tomato Salsa

This is the second part of my mini-series on using fresh tomatoes before they go bad. I was reading one of my favorite food blogs, La Fuji Mama, and one of her recent posts was what she calls "Tomato Salsa #95". Depending on the ripeness and type of the tomatoes, the strength of the onion, and the other additions you include, the amount of seasonings will be quite flexible. You'll see that with the recipe below: I started with La Fuji Mama's recipe as a base, then altered it to create a salsa that was spicy enough for my liking.

Cinnamon and cloves were quite a surprise to me when I read the ingredient list, as well as the lack of any type of hot peppers, jalapeno or otherwise. My directions reflect my test of a close match to the original recipe, then additions for spicing it up a little.

See the comments below about seasoning with the green and regular Tabasco sauces.

Ingredients (makes 2-3 cups)

• drizzle of olive oil
• 3 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• green pepper Tabasco sauce
• regular (red) Tabasco sauce

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add tomatoes and onion. Cook until tomatoes begin to change color and liquid bubbles, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Quickly drain tomato mixture in mesh strainer, then pour into food processor bowl. There will be some juices left.
4. Add lime juice, vinegar, salt, oregano, cinnamon, and cloves. 
5. Process using the Pulse button, very quickly, just long enough to chop tomatoes into smaller pieces. (This should take no more than 3 seconds.)
6. Put entire mixture in Tupperware or other container, and place in fridge for at least one hour.
7. Once salsa is cold, season using green and red Tabasco sauces. (I did 15-20 drops of green Tabasco, and around 10 drops regular Tabasco sauce.)

Comments

I found it necessary to drain the liquid from the tomatoes before processing them, and was glad I did. The final salsa was still watery but draining improved the consistency a lot.

Judging spiciness was difficult to when the salsa was still hot; all I could taste was the warm tomato flavor. After refrigerating it, it was a million times easier to see what flavors were needed. Green Tabasco sauce is a bit milder than the red, but still has a nice bite to it, so we seasoned with that first. The regular (red) Tabasco sauce was added at the end for that "bite" for which it is known.

I was also pleased that the cinnamon and cloves were successful in the final product. I could taste them but they also helped the spiciness of the Tabasco to stand out more.

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic

What do you do with a bunch of big, beautiful tomatoes that are given to you, before they take over your kitchen?

This is the first of two recipes working to solve that "problem". I roasted chunks of tomatoes and minced garlic right in my cast iron frying pan, allowing the whole mixture and pan to heat up as the oven did. Everything timed out perfectly so the tomatoes were done roasting at the exact moment when they were needed for the pasta. It's an easy recipe that has a lot of flavor, since roasting vegetables is the best way to bring out their best qualities.

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb cut pasta (such as penne or ziti)
• 3-4 spoonfuls basil pesto, or more to taste (I like Classico's pesto)

Directions

1. Turn on oven to 425 degrees.
2. Drizzle olive oil in an oven-safe dish or pan. Add chopped tomatoes and garlic, stir quickly to coat, then place in oven while oven is still preheating.
3. While tomatoes are roasting, boil water and prepare pasta according to package directions.
4. Drain and rinse pasta; return to pan.
5. Add pesto to your desired taste.
6. Remove tomatoes from oven. Add to pasta and serve immediately alongside a chunk of crusty bread.