Shredded Parsnip and Beet Salad in Pineapple Vinaigrette

I’ve been trying to go back to old cookbooks and try new recipes that I’ve previously overlooked. In one of these reviews, I found this intriguing slaw in Veganomicon. I previously overlooked the recipe because I don’t really care for parsnips. But I love beets and am eating more pineapple since it’s one of the low fodmap fruits I can eat, so I thought I’d try it. The recipe is pretty easy to make. You just shred the raw veggies, chop mint, and then combine the vinaigrette ingredients.

The vinaigrette calls for an absurd amount of pineapple juice (2 cups). I used 1.5 cups and thought it was still an unnecessary amount. The slaw was a bit too wet and sweet for me. Even with the nice mint flavor and the beets, the flavor of the parsnips was offputting to me. I found I could only eat small amounts of this at a time. On the plus side, it kept for two weeks in my fridge without going bad because of the pineapple juice. I don’t think I’d make it again, but if I did I’d swap half the parsnips for carrots and halve the pineapple juice.

http://recipeofhealth.com/recipe/shredded-parsnip-and-beet-salad-in-pineapple-vinag-579200rb

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Colorful Kale, Apple, and Fennel Slaw with Tart Cherries

I love a sweet and savory salad combo. And I love fennel. So when someone gifted me Love Real Food, this was the first recipe I tried. I honestly wasn’t that excited by the cookbook, but was most inspired by this recipe. Despite all the yummy ingredients, I found this really underwhelming. It was actually pretty bland and the dried cherries were too sweet. Between my unexcited reaction to the recipes in the book and this disappointment, I ended up leaving this book on the shelf for several years before trying a cookie recipe from it this past week.

Colorful Kale Apple & Fennel Slaw with Tart Cherries {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan, Paleo}

Marinated Tofu Cabbage Salad

On a day when my feet were hurting too much to go to the store or spend much time in the kitchen, I found this simple recipe for marinated tofu cabbage salad in my old copy of Diet for a New World. Except for the celery seed, everything in the recipe, which has a very limited list of ingredients, was a already in my kitchen. It came together super fast. The tofu is just marinated and added to the salad uncooked. I was a bit skeptical of this, but it came out really tasty. The soft texture of the tofu actually works really well in the coleslaw like salad. Instead of using all sunflower seeds, I used half sunflower seeds and half pumpkin seeds, which I think added some extra interest to the dish. I halved the oil called for in the recipe and thought there was definitely enough oil in it. Even Ian who adds extra oil to a lot of things I make ate it without any amendment. This is a fantastic weeknight dish. Easy, satisfying, and surprisingly tasty for something so simple.

Spinach Raita

Raita is one of my all time favorite foods. As a kid my parents used to take me to an Indian buffet, where I would proceed to only eat raita and naan. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the other dishes, but why eat other things when that would just take up precious raita storage space. As an adult I rarely (but not never) eat raita only meals. But adulthood hasn’t dampened my love of the dish at all. Sadly, eating seasonally means no cucumber raita in the winter. So I was intrigued when I found this recipe for spinach raita in Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House.

The recipe is described as a seasoned salad with yogurt and spinach, which is accurate. The veggie to yogurt ratio is much heavier on the veggie side than traditional raita. This recipe has about 3/4 cup of liquid to 1 cup of spinach plus extra veggies. I looked up other Palak Raita recipes and found they usually had a one to one ratio of raita to spinach with no extra veggies.

I really enjoyed the spices and the spinach went well with the yogurt. However, I thought the chopped carrots took away from the blended flavor of the dish. Next time I’d leave them out. I might also add an extra 2-3 tbsp of yogurt. Not as good as cucumber raita, but intriguing, healthy, and easy to make. I might make this again with a few tweaks. I’d like to try a different Palak Raita recipe first though.

Chinese Cabbage Salad with Orange and Tahini Dressing

I had half of a head of Chinese cabbage left over from another recipe and was looking for something interesting to do with it. I found this recipe for Chinese Cabbage Salad with Orange and Tahini Dressing on page 80 of the Tassajara Cookbook. The recipe was easy enough to make. My only problem was that the tahini clumped and didn’t blend well with the rest of the dressing. I think using a submersion blender would have solved this problem.

I didn’t love this recipe. I liked the combination of cabbage and orange, but the tahini dressing just kind of muted the flavors of the salad. The whole thing was kind of bland and unexciting.

Easy Taco Slaw

A little while ago Ian and I decided to do an impromptu taco night. I had a bunch of cabbage I’d picked from my garden before the cold front came in, so I decided to make a taco slaw. This recipe seemed pretty easy and looked tasty. It calls for mayonnaise. I had never actually used mayonnaise in a recipe before. Every time I needed it for a recipe, I just used my mom’s awesome vegan mayo recipe. But that recipe requires silken tofu, which is not low fodmap. Ian ran to the store and bought the mayonnaise for me and I was off to make my first ever recipe with real mayonnaise!

I left out the jalapeño since I’m avoid spicy foods. Instead of the chopped garlic, I added about a teaspoon of garlic oil. This was super fast to make and really good! Everyone loved it. The flavor was surprisingly delicious for something so simple. I’m going to keep this one in my back pocket for our next taco night.

Easy Taco Slaw | Kitchn (thekitchn.com)

Basic Vinegar Coleslaw

This is my basic vinegar coleslaw recipe. It’s inspired by the coleslaw my mom made when I was growing up, but the proportions are my own.

1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced

Mix together:

1/4 cup white vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp sugar

Add mixture to cabbage, stir well. Let sit for at least 3 hours before serving (ideally at least 8).

Marketplace Salad

I had a great harvest of beets at the end of the summer and needed to use up the last cucumber of the season. I found this salad recipe on page 40 of The Vegetarian Bistro. The salad uses lots of veggies, including beets, cucumber, carrot, green beans, and endive. The beets and green beans are cooked, while the rest of the veggies are raw. I enjoyed the mix of veggies, but didn’t like the creme mustard dressing. I also found the salad was missing some heft. I ended up adding pumpkin seeds, which improved it a bit.

Tomato Salad with Cucumber and Ginger

Since my garden is overflowing with cucumbers and tomatoes right now, I’ve been looking for salad recipes to keep up with the onslaught. This very simple Asian salad recipe seemed promising since it would use both veggies as well as my end-of-season basil.

Indeed, this was a real winner. After the mushy cucumber disaster of the cucumber avocado salad, I just made the dressing ahead of time and chopped the cucumber and tomato I needed for a single meal. This strategy worked well. I used Thai basil, which was quite yummy as well. I added Marinated Asian Tofu from Veganomicon to make this a meal. And voila! A very simple tasty fresh lunch was born. I’ll definitely make this again next summer.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020398-tomato-salad-with-cucumber-and-ginger?action=click&module=Local%20Search%20Recipe%20Card&pgType=search&rank=2

Cucumber-Avocado Salad

I bought several avocados for another recipe, since I was going to make dinner for Ian and he eats a lot. But he didn’t end up coming over and I found myself with a bunch of avocado I needed to use up. The cucumbers in my garden have been very prolific this year, so I thought I’d try this New York times salad recipe.

Alas, I really messed this up. So I can’t report on how the salad should be. My score is for my terrible version. But I can report on my mistakes so that you don’t repeat them. I put the lemon juice in first and then added the salt. Then I left the salted lemony cucumbers to sit for hours instead of minutes. The result was somewhat slimy salty cucumbers. If you make this be sure not to leave the cucumbers for more than the maximum 15 minutes allotted and wait to add the lemon juice! I’ve been forcing myself to eat this but it hasn’t been good. I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to try making it again.

I ate this with Asian marinated tofu from Veganomicon. The two really didn’t go together. Again, just not a win all around.