Dining Al Fresco: Greek Salad

Finally, summer has arrived! The signs are clear: the farmer's market was open for business this week, and of course, we turned on our air conditioning for the first time this year!

The most apparent sign, of course, is my garden is starting to take off.... I see flower buds forming on my tomatoes plants, the mizuna is lush and the cucumber seeds have finally sprouted. My radishes have shown their true leaves and we can't wait to snack! (Fingers crossed.)



Unfortunately, none of my lettuce sprouted (I had to re-seed), but I found this nut growing in the lettuce beds likely planted by some wily squirrel last autumn.



Summer is a natural time for salads. Cool, refreshing and light-tasting made with in-season produce. When it's hot in the kitchen, I love a fresh salad with a side of grilled garlic bread for dinner. However, one of the salads I never like was Greek salad. In my defense, my introduction to Greek salad was not exactly inspiring: Insipid soggy iceberg lettuce, weighted down by grainy tasteless tomatoes and oily dressing. But that changed for me about two years ago, when my future husband and I went to Montreal to visit his parents. They took us to a fantastic Greek restaurant where I was properly introduced to Greek salad: Fresh sweet tomatoes, crispy crunchy peppers, graced with lightest touch of olive oil, and delicate salty feta. I came home that weekend with a new love and made that salad almost every weekend last summer. This salad has easily become one of my favourites.

In the warm days of summer, this is such a beautiful, colourful and clean-tasting salad to eat. It's a perfect accompaniment to chicken soulvaki and lots of tzatziki.

The secret to this salad is to slightly pickle the red onion for at least half an hour. The onions remains crunchy, but the onion's sharp taste muted. It takes away the bite (and also the bad breath!) The rose-tinged vinegar doubles as part of the vinaigrette.




Greek Salad

1 small onion - sliced thinly
1 c white vinegar
3 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
1 small sweet yellow pepper, cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 seedless cucumber, cut into half moons
1/4 tsp ground oregano (or a small handful of fresh oregano leaves)
1/3 c Kalamata olives
1/3 c crumbled goat's milk feta

extra virgin olive oil
large flake sea salt

1. Soak onions in vinegar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Toss peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and oregano together.
3. Top with olives and drained red onions.
4. Sprinkle feta.
5. Drizzle 1.5 tbsp of the vinegar and olive oil on top.
6. Serve.
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A Different Salad for Summer

Sometimes recipes that you love happen by accident. This week's summer salad is a good example of one. Usually, I have a good sense of what I am going to make before I even step into my kitchen. But several weeks ago, I thought I might make a salad for dinner. In my mind, it was going to be a simple green salad with celery, peppers and tomatoes. Then my husband reminded me that our contractor was going to be arriving the following week which means we needed to purge our clutter.(We are "lowering our basement." I know that concept may sound strange for most people but in our neighborhood in Toronto where the tiniest houses sell for a mint, a way of extending your living space when you can't add an addition to your house is to dig down your basement floor to create enough head space. This gives you an additional floor of livable space. If this sounds expensive, you're quite right, it is, but it is cheaper than moving. Unfortunately, we will be working for quite a while to pay this off. But we hope in the end, it will be worth it.)

That little impetus gave me some thoughts to see what was in our pantry and there I saw it, Israeli couscous, in a gleaming mason jar. I had been thinking about using it and I thought I might try it as sort of a "light" pasta salad in that there would be more vegetables with just a highlight of starch.

The result is a clean, fresh tasting salad with the flavours of summer: tomatoes, peppers, and celery. It's juicy and crisp and feels like the type of salad you want to eat when the days are long and it is too humid to cook dinner. Even leftovers are delicious, it stays crisp even overnight and the couscous continues to absorb the flavours of the gardineria and the marinated mushrooms.

In fact, this “recipe” is so simple that I hesitate to call it that. It is really a couple of ingredients we had in the fridge tossed together. This recipe would work well for a picnic or a potluck where you might have limited access to refrigeration, easily doubles or triples to feed crowds and is easy to transport.

Israeli couscous is often mistaken for a grain, but in reality, it is actually quite similar to pasta. If you can't find Israeli couscous, you could use the more common finer-grained couscous or try a small pasta such as orzo. Israeli couscous can be found near the grains, rice section of your grocery store.


Israeli Couscous Salad


1/2 c Israeli Couscous

1/2 yellow / orange pepper
3 stalks celery, trimmed

1/2c marinated mushrooms*
1/2c gardinieria*

2 medium sized tomatoes

1. Cook Israeli Couscous per package's instructions in plenty of water until al dente. Drain couscous.

2. Meanwhile, chop pepper and celery into uniform medium-sized chunks. Add to a large bowl, toss with marinated mushrooms & gardinieria including some of the marinade. Add the warm couscous and toss well. Leave for at least 30 minutes (for best flavour).

3. Slice up tomatoes and add to salad when ready to serve.

*You can purchase marinated mushrooms and gardinieria (a delicious mixed vegetable pickle usually includes cauliflower, carrots, celery and hot peppers.) Both are so easy to make, but in a pinch we buy it. Alternatively, you could lightly pickle fresh vegetables by cutting up bite size pieces of your favourite vegetables - carrots, celery, cauliflower - tossing them in a boiling mixture of distilled white vinegar for up to 5 minutes. Strain and cool. Save some of the pickling liquid to toss with the couscous.
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Weekday Stir Fry

This summer Ryan and I signed for a half share of a Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA). We used to have organic vegetables delivered to our condo but stopped when our lifestyle changed. Since we bought the house, we have been more conscious of our ecological footprint and how we live and the decisions we make daily impacts the world around us. I read an article about CSA and found one that delivers to our neighborhood. It seemed like an appropriate answer to the our need for fresh food and we liked the idea of supporting a small scale farm doing something we believe in.

The depot is a ten minute walk from our house and down the street from a new farmer's market. We walk to the farmer's market first to top up on the meats, fruits and cheese, and then off to the depot to pick up our weekly vegetables.

Serves 4
Stir fries are one of the fastest and healthiest ways to bring a meal to the table – and you usually have all the ingredients right at home. This recipe is almost vegetarian. And you shouldn’t roll your eyes if you aren’t inclined that way because you don’t believe it’s a meal without meat. Give it a try.

If you’re wondering why I have used quinoa which is a high-protein grain instead of rice (and boy do I love rice!), it's a nice change and still just as satisfying. Quinoa has a nutty and crunchy texture and it is a delight, even if it is unusual pairing for a stir fry.

1lb block of tofu
4 baby bok choy – rinsed well (or use 4 c of bagged baby spinach)
1 red bell pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp corn starch + 2 tbsp of water mixed thoroughly to make a slurry

1 tsp black sesame seeds

2c quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2c vegetable stock

1. Add quinoa and stock into a saucepan and cook on medium-high
2. Quickly chop vegetables into bite size pieces.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok, once the oil shimmers, add vegetables and sauté quick, once the greens have wilted, add tofu, fish sauce, oyster sauce, & vinegar.
4. Once warmed through, stir cornstarch and water together and add to vegetables. The cornstarch will turn the liquid cloudy, once it heats, the cornstarch transforms into a shiny translucent glaze. Stir to coat vegetables & tofu. Turn off heat and plate. Sprinkle black sesame seeds on top of stir fry.