Gwyneth's "My Ivy Chopped Salad"

I got my socks knocked off by a salad last night.  Sounds crazy I know, especially considering it contained beets, my least favorite food.  The recipe was out of Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook, My Father's Daughter, which I checked out of the library (I like to test drive before I buy).  The salad is a knock off of the grilled vegetable salad from The Ivy in LA.  It's not something you can really throw together last minute but it's worth the extra effort.

2 large beets
3 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise into slices
2 fresh ears of corn, shucked (I used frozen corn kernels)
1 bunch scallions
2 6-oz wild salmon fillets
2 heads butter lettuce, washed, spun and cut into thick strips
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves roughly torn
1/2 pint grape tomatoes quartered
1/3 cup cilantro leaves roughly chopped
1/2 cup balsamic & lime vinaigrette (recipe follows)
1 lime quartered for serving

Steam or boil the beets until cooked through, about 30 minutes. Cool, peel and dice. Reserve.
Preheat grill or grill pan over medium low heat.  Rub the zucchini, corn, scallions, and salmon with just enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt.  Grill the veg and fish until everything is nicely browned and cooked through. Cut zucchini and scallions into medium dice and reserve.  Cut corn off of cob and reserve.  Break the salmon in to large pieces with your hands and reserve.
You MUST plate the salads separately to ensure everyone gets goodies! Arrange layer of butter lettuce, top with basil, tomatoes, beets, corn, zucchini, scallions, and cilantro.  Lay salmon along the side of the dish.  Drizzle the vinaigrette over the whole thing and serve with lime wedges alongside.  USE the lime it adds to the flavor!  Voila! Not super fast but pretty simple and tasty.  The dressing is also very good and I anticipate I'm going to use it as a shrimp marinade in the near future ; )

Balsamic & Lime Vinaigrette

Whisk together 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice, 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

Hope you are well! XOXO

Turkey, Kale and Brown Rice Soup

I have been wanting to try this soup as another way to use the kale I grew in the garden.  I harvested the rest of the kale and got busy. I made this soup with some of the smoked turkey that I had smoked the day before instead of the ground turkey.  I also waited to add the rice last so it wouldn't get too soggy to give the kale time to cook.   It is more like a stew and I had to add extra stock.  Overall it was quite good.

I've included the link to the recipe on Food Network.  It is by Giada De Laurentiis.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/turkey-kale-and-brown-rice-soup-recipe/index.html#

photo from Food Network

GOOP's Kale Chips

Do you read GOOP??  Occasionally I will hop on Gwyneths site and get lost in the loveliness of it all.  Yesterday, looking for healthy inspiration, I was perusing GOOP and came across a recipe for kale chips.  I was immediately intrigued as I had previously had kale chips, at Josephs Table in Taos, which were mouthwatering!! The nice thing about this recipe is how unbelievably simple it is.  It does take a little foresight because it takes over an hour, but other than that it's ideal. It's nice too that this is a snack food as that tends to be my greatest weakness.  I'm having to use her photos as my computer all of a sudden thinks my sd card needs to be formatted and wants to delete everything so...

Slow-Bake Kale Chips

While you're there you might as well have a look around, there are quite a few very healthy, tasty looking recipes!

XOXO
-Amber

Bean Soup

Amber gave me the box of"Gourmet Bean Blend" to try. The problem is that the beans, peas, and lentils are cooked at different times. Here's what I did to get a soup that I will make again.

 2 cups of bean blend, soaked in cold water overnight
2 tsp salt

 1 T olive oil
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 box chicken stock

 about 1 tsp each:
oregano
thyme
garlic powder
red chili flake
 Cook the beans in just water until done. It took several hours to get everything soft and the lentils are over cooked. I added the salt after 2 hours.   Drain the beans when they are all cooked to your liking.

 Saute the celery, carrots, and onion in olive oil until soft but not brown. Add stock, seasonings and cooked bean mix. Simmer about 30 minutes.

 This is not a soup that you would "feed the queen" but it is a good basic soup for commoners. You can use vegetable stock to make this completely vegetarian.