I love salads of all kinds. 

Here’s a simple salad recipe of pear and goat cheese.   During the summertime, I used fresh pears.  However, in the winter time, I plan on using canned pears to make this salad.  What do you think of it?

Paz

Pear and Goat Cheese Salad

from Sweet Paul

 Serves 4

Greens

2 pears, sliced

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

Salt

Pepper

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon mustard

Place the greens on plates and add pear slices and goat cheese.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Whisk together oil, honey and mustard and pour over the salad and serve. 

Enjoy!

When I was younger, I guess, way back in fifth grade, I never liked avocados and tomatoes.  I tried to avoid them if possible.  Today, I can get enough of either, especially avocado.  Can’t get enough, I tell you.

The other day, I had some walnuts and avocado and decided to make this salad.  Looking at the overabundance of avocado in my plate, you can see that I now love avocado.  I loved the warm mustard vinaigrette over the salad.  The entire salad recipe was easy to put together and delicious!  Try it!  Oh, the recipe calls for sun dried tomatoes and arugula.    I didn’t have those two ingredients and used fresh tomatoes and leafy green salad.  Still tasted terrific.  

Paz

Walnut and avocado salad with warm mustard vinaigrette

Sweet Paul

serves 4

3 avocados, peeled and sliced

small bunch of arugula, washed

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons grainy mustard

1 tablespoon maple syrup

salt

pepper

Place avocado slices, arugula, walnuts and sun dried tomatoes on plates.

In a small saucepan heat up oil, mustard and maple syrup.

Whisk well so you get a thick vinaigrette.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the warm dressing over the salad and serve.

Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)!  Tomatoes! Cilantro!  Avocado!  Need I say more?   I had to make this salad when I saw it.  This is another one of Kalyn’s fabulous recipes.   Oh, man!  I feel like I’m in heaven when I eat this salad.  

Paz

Garbanzo, Tomato, and Cilantro Salad with Lime and Chile Dressing (with or without avocado)

Kalyn’s Kitchen

(4 servings, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from a blog that no longer exists)

Ingredients:

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed well and drained

4-5 tomatoes or 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, diced in 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup green onion, sliced

1 cup (1 large bunch) cilantro, washed, dried, and chopped coarsely with chef’s knife or food processor

1 avocado, diced (optional, but good)

Dressing Ingredients:

2 T fresh lime juice (plus 2 tsp. more for avocado, if using)

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. ground Chipotle chile powder (I used Penzeys, you could substitute hot sauce if you don’t have ground Chipotle)

1/2 tsp. chile powder (mild)

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. onion powder

zest from one lime

salt, fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Drain beans into colander and rinse until no foam remains. Let drain well. Mix together the lime juice, olive oil, ground Chipotle powder (or hot sauce), chile powder, ground cumin, onion powder, and lime zest to make the dressing, then put beans and dressing into a plastic container with a snap-on lid and shake a few times to combine. (Use a bowl that’s big enough to hold all the salad ingredients.) Let beans marinate in dressing one hour or longer.

If using avocado, peel and dice the avocado and toss it with 2 teaspoons of lime juice. Dice tomatoes, place in colander with a small amount of salt and let tomatoes drain 10 minutes while you dice onions and chop cilantro. (You can skip that step if using cherry tomatoes or if your tomatoes aren’t that juicy.)  Thinly slice the green onions and wash, dry, and chop the cilantro.

Combine marinated beans with dressing, tomatoes, green onion, and cilantro and stir gently until well combined, then gently stir in the avocado (if using.) Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Hi everyone: 

It’s terrific to be able to blog once more.  Thanks again to Klaus for fixing the technical problem on my blog.  And thanks to all the readers who kept returning to my blog and your comments below.

Here’s a very simple and tasty chickpea salad recipe that I came across the other day.  I had all the ingredients readily available and didn’t have to worry about doing some extra grocery shopping.  Not only is the salad easy to put together, it’s flavorsome.  The best part of the salad, to me, was the curry powder ingredient.  It brought the taste of the other ingredients in the salad together.  Oh, so delicious!  I ate the salad with pita bread but I could have eaten it alone, with no bread to distract me.  Perhaps, I’ll do that next time.  This is a perfect salad for a hot summer day.

Paz 

Curried Chickpea Salad

from Let’s Dish

Ingredients
1 (15.5 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In  a medium size mixing bowl combine chickpeas, garlic, curry powder, celery, onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

Let’s Dish [note:]
I’m always on the look-out for healthy, protein packed lunches, and this chickpea salad fits the bill. It’s also great as a pita filling, or even between some slices of whole grain toast (you may want to mash it up a bit first).  If you don’t care for curry, you can leave that out, and dill is great in place of the cilantro.

Some time ago, a company named Greek Artisanal Imports sent me a bottle of Euphoria Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil to review.

When I started to learn how to cook, I noticed that a few recipes called for using “good quality” olive oil. Quite frankly, I thought they were all the same. Throughout the week, I used Euphoria olive oil for everyday cooking and salads.   The olive oil seemed to match the flavors of the other ingredients in the food and did not overwhelm it, particularly with the salads.

Compared to other olive oils I’ve used in the past, Euphoria has a beautiful emerald green color that mesmerized me. It has a fresh, deep, earthy, green aroma, which did not overpower but enticed, instead. After using Euphoria, I realized that many of the other oils I’ve used in the past, tasted bland, whereas Euphoria has a rich taste with a clean fruity, peppery hint.

After checking out the company’s website, I was impressed to learn about the obvious care and pride in which Euphoria is produced on a small traditional Greek family grove and is made from 100% Greek Koroneiki olives. These olives are only grown in Greece and supposed to make some of the best olive oils in the world. The olive oil is packaged in a dark glass bottle to protect the oil from light, thus maintaining its fresh flavor longer. In addition, a press date is located on the back label of the bottle. It informs the customer about the freshness of the oil. That way, the buyer is able to make an educated decision on whether or not to buy that particular olive oil. A friend once mentioned to me how he’d usually have to throw out some of the oil in the huge tins, since it goes bad after a while, once opened. After seeing the way Euphoria oil is packaged and the information provided, I realized that the grocery store olive oils I normally buy don’t tell me when the oil was packaged. I have no knowledge about the freshness of the oil I’m buying. Neither do many of the olive oils I buy come in dark bottles to prevent the oil from quickly spoiling. After seeing the thoughtfully-designed Euphoria bottle, I’ve become conscious of the fact that the olive oils I normally pick up, not only come in a relatively clear glass bottle but have been sitting on the shelf under the bright lights of the store for who knows how long.   Hmm… What an unsettling thought.

Would I use Euphoria Greek Virgin Olive Oil again?   Sure. At $27 for a 500ml bottle (I believe that’s about 17oz? Someone correct me if I’m wrong, please.), $153 for six bottles (1/2 case), and $295 for 12 bottles (one case), Euphoria costs more than the supermarket/grocery store olive oils ($7.99 – $12.99) I normally purchase, but I realize that I get what I pay for.   With Euphoria, I know who produces it, where it’s produced, the type of quality olives used, which in turn make superior oil. Plus, based on the press date provided on the bottle, I know that the oil I purchase is at its freshest. I like that the owners are so confident with their product that if, for any reason, a customer is dissatisfied with his or her Euphoria oil purchase, for whatever reason, they will provide a refund.

I’d especially recommend Euphoria to use as dressing on salads, where you can taste its flavor at its best, unadulterated by heat from cooking. The light coating and pure zest of the oil made my salads tastier. It is also perfect for dipping bread.

To learn more about Euphoria Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you can check out their site here.

I used Euphoria oil when I prepared a salad recipe by Leora of Here in HP. I liked this salad a lot. The ingredients include peas, carrots, parsley or cilantro. Those familiar with my blog know that I used CILANTRO (oh, yes!) instead of parsley. When I finished the salad in my plate, I used a piece of bread to sop up the remaining olive oil dressing at the bottom of my plate.   Mmm, Mmm good! The salad is perfect for summertime but it’s also ideal as a winter meal. I served it with side dish of rice and it hit the spot. Because of its simplicity, this salad has become another favorite of mine. Thanks for the salad recipe, Leora.

Paz

No Cook Pea Salad
Here in HP

• 8 oz. frozen peas
• 1 clove garlic
• first cold-pressed olive oil – enough to coat the salad
• 1 half red onion, chopped (or use a sweet vidalia onion)
• sea salt, to taste
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley or cilantro
• optional: pepper, allspice or cumin
• optional: shredded carrots – 1 large carrot or a handful of baby carrots

Put the frozen peas in a container. Crush the garlic clove, and add it to the top. Put in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it (the peas will need several hours to defrost). When you are about to eat, coat with olive oil. Add the chopped onion, herbs, salt, optional shredded carrots and any spices you desire, such as cumin or allspice. Stir and serve.