Honey See, Honeydew

Posted on August 10, 2014 by melsmosaic

It’s summer, which means it’s melon time! Bon Appetit came a couple weeks ago and I was flipping through it, of course, and there was a recipe with honeydew. I haven’t seen many recipes with honeydew in them. The most I’ve ever done with it is either (1) cut and eat or (2) the aforementioned topped with prosciutto. So, this recipe was game! This delectable food-bearing treat I keep mentioning is Shaved Honeydew, Fennel, and Olive Salad. The last two key ingredient are some of my favorite foods! It’s a no-cook (in the sense of no heat) recipe which is great this time of year. And, gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 ½ pounds honeydew melon, rind and seeds removed, shaved on a mandoline
½ fennel bulb, shaved on a mandoline, plus 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fennel fronds
¼ cup brined green olives,  such as Castelvetrano, pitted,  very coarsely chopped

Directions

Zest the orange (and then make sure you don’t add this to the dressing!!!). I carefully took it out of the bowl after I more carefully read the directions. Why should you read ahead, right?

Whisk orange juice, lemon juice, and  2 Tbsp. oil in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper.

Shave the honeydew…hmmm….what’s the best way to take the skin off the melon? Carrot peeler, not that great, knife ended up being the best bet. Then I quartered the melon and it took awhile.

Next, you do the same thing to the fennel. Much easier to prep/cut!

Add melon, shaved fennel,  and olives to vinaigrette and toss to coat. Top salad with orange zest and fennel fronds, drizzle with more oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Final product (VERY green!)

It was very light and refreshing, though it seems like it was missing something and I can’t tell if it was lemon juice or S&P. I did add more S&P at the table so don’t know if it was the lemon. But overall, very nice. Perfect for summer! Was served with scallops and some delicious grains. Would highly recommend it.

New Snack/’Chip’ Find

Posted on March 4, 2014 by melsmosaic

I was in the deadly Wegman’s the other day roaming through the aisles and an aisle-end product display caught my eye. The main ingredients/flavors were things I like, the nutritional value was good, so I had to give them a try. The product — Lesser Evil’s (love that name) Super 4 Snacks, White Bean, Quinoa, Lentil, Chia, with Kale & Roasted Garlic. And, after visiting their site, I noticed a product I’d tried before that’s addictive, the Chia Crisps.

A serving has 46 pieces — that’s a nice amount to be able to eat! And has 110 calories, 3g fat, 2g monosaturated. There are 18g carbs per serving, with less than 1 of the grams being sugars.

The pieces you eat are light and hollow, the shape of ziti. They just sort of float in your hand, they weigh so little!

Very flavorful. They were a little bit salty, and going back there are 220g of sodium per serving. Overall though, addictive… There are a couple other flavors of them, too — Roasted Red Pepper and Cheesy Nacho. And, on the back of the bag, they nicely note, the product fits into a lot of (positive) categories:

-all natural
-gluten free
-beans are low glycemic
-kosher
-corn free
-good source of fiber
-no MSG
-baked not fried
-not genetically modified
-empty calorie free
-no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors
-no milk hormones

Curiosity…

Posted on September 9, 2013 by melsmosaic

…might kill the cat, but it only creates a (better) cook.

I had this huge bunch of basil left from a recipe I made yesterday and was trying to figure out what I could/should do with it. Didn’t want tomato-basil salad, pesto wasn’t striking my fancy so decided to walk into my kitchen and see what I could do. I opened the freezer and scanned what was in there that I could be creative with and also looked around the counter. And the wheels starting spinning…

I was going to make a unique (?) dressing with fresh basil, fresh lime juice, shallot, pepper, black sea salt (decided that after the first blend) and a bit of olive oil. Wanted to play with appliances so threw it all in the mini-prep. That’s all it took. WOW!

Then, the ingredients I found — simple, basic, easy and healthy — what other words do I need? Like I said, I found them ‘sitting’ around — some were in the freezer and some were fresh. Sort of mentioned this in another post — use what you have! Corn, tomatoes, edamame, mango, olives.

Put them in a bowl (some of each — no specific quantities or ratios), toss with the dressing. Can we say colorful?

Then I served the salad with some pan seared scallops. Great balance of flavors all around. And, a pretty healthy Sunday night meal. Also, with the rest of my tons of basil, I did make pesto — basil, walnuts, olive oil, S&P — that’s it. Forgot garlic…