Black Rice Salad

I was flipping through the healthy recipes in January's Bon Appetit, and stopped dead in my tracks at this gorgeous black rice salad on one of the pages. It looked delicious against bright orange squash, green onions, and purple microgreens.  I knew I had to make it for dinner.

I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I changed the recipe up significantly. It was the look I was after more than the squash and rice flavor profile. You can click here for the original, or read on for my version.

Fun fact, black rice is loaded with antioxidants, making it not only prettier, but also healthier, than white rice. (another fun fact, white rice is my #1 least favorite food).

Black Rice Salad with Carrot Slaw
1 cup black rice
2 carrots, sliced into thin matchsticks
1/2 a head of raddicchio, sliced into thin ribbons
1/4 cup chopped red onion (you could use scallions instead)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare rice according to package directions. Just a heads up, this type of rice can take around 35 minutes.

While rice is cooking, slice your carrots into thin matchsticks and slice the radicchio into thin ribbons. Combine carrots, radicchio, onion, and parsley in a bowl, and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together oils, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt and pepper.

When rice is ready, place in a serving bowl. Combine with carrot mixture, and drizzle with dressing. Serve hot or at room temperature.

To make ahead, you can prepare and refrigerate rice, carrot mix, and vinaigrette separately, and combine just before serving. If you let the rice and carrots sit together for too long, the carrots absorb a little of the black color.


Enjoy!

Lentil Salad

It’s January, and like everyone else in the world I’m trying to eat healthier. I’m being realistic about it too- healthy from Monday-Thursday. Weekends I can do what I want.  I’m not trying to lose weight or anything, I just think I could cut my cheese and carb intake slightly.

So I came up with this yummy, healthy lentil salad to take the place of the orzo or couscous we’d normally have on the side of dinner. It’s good warm, cold, or room temperature, and will last in the fridge a day or two.

Lentil Salad
1 cup lentils
2 ¼ cups chicken stock
¼ cup wine
1 package cleaned and cut butternut squash (do yourself a favor and buy this precut)
2 cups chopped Tuscan kale (don’t sub the curly variety)
¼ cup feta
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Arrange squash on baking sheet, drizzle with salt, pepper, oil (I don’t measure). 

Combine lentils, stock, and wine in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for 35-45 minutes, until tender and stock is absorbed.

While lentils cook, bake squash at 425 for 40 minutes.  

Combine lentils, squash, feta, and kale in a bowl and toss to combine. Drizzle with olive oil to taste, and salt and pepper if needed.

Best Thanksgiving Tip: Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

I love to be able to make things ahead of time for a party, as long as it doesn’t compromise the taste or quality. Certain things just need to be done at the last minute, and for a long time, I thought mashed potatoes were one of them.

 

I really wanted to serve them at my first Thanksgiving, but couldn’t get comfortable with the idea of mashing five pounds of potatoes, carving a turkey, and plating all the side dishes at once, in front of 15 guests, in my less than 80 sq foot kitchen. So I skipped the potatoes.

 

But the following year, I was messing around on Chowhound and saw this discussion on using your slowcooker to keep mashed potatoes warm, so that you could make them in advance.  

 

The directions were simple:

 

1.      Butter the slowcooker

2.     Pour in a little bit of half and half, milk, or cream (about 1/4 cup worth)

3.      Add mashed potatoes and put slowcooker on warm.

These will stay perfect for several hours. I cooked mine at 2:30 and served them at a 5:00 pm dinner.

 

I consulted with the USDA on the safety of this, because I’m neurotic, and they assured me that as long as the mashed potatoes stay at 140 degrees (which they should, easily, in a slowcooker), they will be safe. You can check with a food thermometer if you are worried.  Actually, you probably should check with a food thermometer just in case your slowcooker runs hot- if it's too hot, it will keep cooking the potatoes, and that’s not good either.

 

This is seriously one of the best tips I’ve gotten- you will be so relieved when your mashed potatoes are done hours ahead and still taste perfect!

Roasted Delicata Squash and Cauliflower

 

I’m obsessed with Wegman’s grocery stores. Great prices, great atmosphere, delicious catering, awesome cheese section, love the liquor store…I could go on and on.

But my favorite thing about them is their genius marketing. Every quarter, they put together their “Menu” magazine, full of quality seasonal recipes that use Wegman’s brand ingredients. For example, they’ll suggest a beef stirfry recipe, and you can go to the meat department and find “Beef for Stirfry” strips already cut and sized to the recipe, and then head on over to the vegetables and find all the items in the recipe precut, measured, and packaged. It’s not necessarily my favorite way to cook, but it’s brilliant marketing: make the cooking easy, approachable, and then sell everything needed for it. (Oh, and if you don’t want to cook, the recipes are obviously available ready-made in the Prepared Foods section).

Seriously, my dream job is to work for this magazine, if only their HQ wasn’t in a place I’d never live. 

 

Anyway, my number one Thanksgiving side dish recipe, Roasted Delicata Squash and Cauliflower, comes from an old issue of the Wegman’s magazine. It’s simple, healthy, and delicious, and it reheats beautifully, so you can make it the day before a party.

 

I wrote the recipe using Wegman’s ingredients, but if you don’t have a Wegmans nearby, I provided alternatives in parenthesis. I’ve done this recipe both ways, and it’s always delicious.

 

 

 

Roasted Delicata Squash and Cauliflower, from Wegman’s

1 head cauliflower, cored and cut into bite size pieces

1 20 oz pkg cleaned and cut delicata squash (alternately, a 1.5 lb delicata or butternut squash, cut into 1 inch pieces)

¼ cup Wegman’s Basting Oil (alternately, olive oil and your favorite dried herbs and a ½ tsp garlic salt)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 6 oz package baby spinach or arugula 

 

Preheat oven to 450.

 

Toss cauliflower, squash, and oil together. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast 30 mins, until browned.  (Can be made at this point up to one day ahead. Cool, refrigerate, and reheat for 20 minutes at 350 before serving). 

 

Add spinach to a serving bowl, top with hot cauliflower and squash mix, and toss. Serve.

 

Serves 6-8.

 

This is also good at room temperature, which makes it great to take to a Thanksgiving potluck.