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Greek Potato Salad
This light Greek Potato Salad is full of a bright, fresh tang from the freshly squeezed lemon juice, an incredible fresh crunch from the red onions and cucumber this all comes together with the fresh fill and oregano to create perfect Greek flavors. Step away from the mayo and opt for my family’s favorite summer side dish.
Summertime is the time of quick meals, picnics, BBQs and cookouts. As much as I am a big fan of mayonnaise, I have never been able to get down with the idea of it on my cold salads. I have never enjoyed it on potato salad, coleslaw or pasta salad. Not sure why. Maybe it’s too many picnics in my youth, seeing the salad and the mayo baking away in the sun, no one has a care in the world. I won’t ruin it for those of you that like it, but it’s just not for me.
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Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon
With summer nearly upon us, we are already planning a summer of BBQs, cookouts and picnics. While I am not a mayo hater by any means, I have always felt indifferent about traditional mayo-based potato salads. It’s just not my thing, something about it doesn’t sit well with me. I think it’s years of seeing it sitting in the sun at picnics, uncovered looking all gnarly. Yuck.
I have over the years developed several variations instead on vinegar and herby based potato and sweet potato salads that have become staples at all of my summer shindigs. That is until this Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon from Heather Christo’s book Pure Delicious. For the foreseeable future, this may just give all other potato salads the boot! It’s that good.
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Grain-free Basil and Mint Zucchini “Noodles”
Being in the blogging world over 6 years now, I have had the pleasure of meeting some very incredible people along the way. But some, they walk into your life and you know that they were placed into your path with a purpose. I met Amie Valpone last year, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a busy conference. We spoke like half-witted high school girls, catching up, giggling, sharing and connecting over our personal healing journeys. Amie has an infectious lust for life and for living that instantly resonated with me. As someone that has spent the past 10+ years dealing with various (though very minor in comparison) health struggles, I very much appreciate how Amie has chosen to use her struggles as a means to help others, through her website thehealthyapple.com, I also admire that she has used her very challenging healing journey to fuel her passion to teach others that your health and vitality lies in your hands and that you DO have the power to overcome. I feel like the word “inspiration” is hardly enough for this firecracker.
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Spring Greens Salad with Roasted Beets, Walnuts and Creamy Feta Vinaigrette
There is something so magical about the spring, all the beautiful new produce, the delicate, fresh and new little baby stuff especially makes me happy. It’s like seeing those adorable fuzzy little ducklings at the park following around their mama duck. They just suddenly appear out of nowhere and break your heart with sweetness. But, I also love that we still have the remnants of the long winter season, the hearty, long-lasting, robust foods of the colder time. Squash, the bright and fresh citrus, all the root veggies. Even though we are well into Spring at this point, the swing-season status of Spring lasts the longest of all, which I really adore. The crossover of produce makes for some of my favorite dishes.
We’ve been getting tons of beets in our weekly CSA boxes (community supported agriculture) from the farm and besides beet kvass, I have mostly been roasting them, as it’s my favorite way to enjoy the flavor of beets. The roasting actually brings out a subtle sweetness and takes down some of the earthiness for those that aren’t big fans of it. Plus roasting makes peeling beets a breeze, the skin literally slips right off. Beets are, in my opinion, a very underrated superfood, offering liver support by thinning bile to decongest a congested liver or biliary stasis or insufficiency. They also contain high levels of folate and manganese which support gallbladder function. Underground vegetables like potatoes, beets, carrots, etc – they also contain silica – important for collagen formation and for connective tissue’s elasticity and resilience. Silica also regulates calcium placement in bone and tissue. Beets also include fructooligosaccharides which is a great nutrient source for healthy micro-flora in the GI system. Finally, beets contain trimethylglycine, a methyl donor used in liver detoxification. Trimethylglycine is used by the body to detoxify substances by donating one of it’s methyl groups to the toxic molecule yielding a less toxic methylated substances and dimethylglycine. Dimethylglycine is also a methyl donor and is also used to stabilize toxic substances for further processing and elimination.
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Spicy Garlic Roasted Broccoli
What is most interesting to me about cooking and food, is it’s role as a common thread to connect us. Food is something that we all experience on a daily basis (at least I hope so), we can all connect over this need to eat for sustenance and also the collective memories we have created over this nourishment, on our own or together. Food knows no boundaries, it sees no limits. We all need to eat. Where you go with your choices for food and your personal approach to eating, that’s up to you. But we can all bond over the nourishment, the community and the beautiful moments and memories food can elicit, too.
When I created this website way back nearly 6 years ago, simply a hobby at the time, I had hoped to create a space where you, the readers, would always feel encouraged and inspired to get into the kitchen. Too often I find that cooking and recipes can become elitest and overcomplicated, so much so that it becomes less accessible to people with for-real busy lives and in some cases it can actually intimidate people from ever stepping into the kitchen first place. Then it’s back to the fast foods, the take out, the packaged foods and the meals of convenience. This idea is absolutely devastating, soul-crushing and heart-breaking, to me.
I always want to elicit excitement around cooking and creating in the kitchen. Some days I feel like this is my true life’s mission. There is so much joy that can come from constructing beautiful, nourishing meals, made with love. That said, I also think about cooking the way I do about most other things in my life: Less is more, keep it simple, don’t overcomplicate things and focus on what you love. These simple ideas have never failed me in life and they have also never failed me in the kitchen, either.
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Zucchini Noodles with Caramelized Fennel and Spicy Sourdough Breadcrumbs
As someone that generally has so much to say in real life, at times I can find this blank window of a new post to be completely daunting. I am not a writer, not by any stretch of the imagination. My posts are riddled with incorrect punctuation and remedial grammatical errors – probably every last post on this website. I can be somewhat insecure about this fact, it used to almost be crippling at times. Being ever a perfectionist, I want everything to always be on-point and I can give myself an insanely hard time when I feel that things don’t meet my expectations.
Thankfully I have the utmost confidence in my recipes and my ideas, so I power through. I chat a little, I share what’s on my mind and we just get through it together. This is one of those times that my brain is so overloaded with everything going on, that while it feels full to the brim, somehow, I am also at a loss. With mid-terms last weekend, Expo West this weekend add a back injury, parties, a newborn nephew on the other side of the country, tons of people in town right now, and everything in between – there is almost too much to share that somehow there ends up being nothing important enough to write to you about. Or maybe my brain is just beyond tired. I am leaning more towards that.
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Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Garlic Tahini and Toasted Pepitas
There are two things that I will never tire of when it comes to food. The first is roasting. It quite literally is my favorite preparation for most veggies, bringing out their inherent sweetness and an unmatched level of comforting flavor. Second, I absolutely adore tahini. I want to put it on everything. Always.
Cabbage, now that’s a food I haven’t always been such a huge fan of. Admittedly, I used to hate the stuff. If you ask me, steamed cabbage gives this delicious, nutrient-dense veggie a very bad name. But times have changed, I love cabbage these days. Big fan. I like it in sauerkraut, that stuff has become a huge part of my every day. I also really love cabbage in a good homemade spicy slaw. But roast cabbage, this stuff is a total game changer, especially for those who swear they don’t like it.
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Warm Kale Salad with Roasted Fennel and Cranberry Meyer Lemon Salsa
‘Tis the season for sweets and treats, Christmas cookies and cocktails galore. You guys already know by now that I am one for balance and not setting such strict rules on yourself that you restrict everything completely and end up flailing around and ruining your lifestyle after one “slip up”. Balance and occasional indulging is important, especially during this special time of year. However, I am also someone that absolutely HAS to have my daily greens. It absolutely is not an option for me to skip out.
I believe a few treats here and there during the holidays can be a special indulgence without derailing all the special attention you give to your food, lifestyle and your health throughout the year. But, I also feel that just means it is more important than ever to make sure you are getting the good things. Nourishing, properly prepared, nutrient-dense foods – this is precisely the fuel our body needs to get through this hectic, and oftentimes stressful, time of year.
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Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potato Noodles, Persimmon and a Smoky Orange Vinaigrette
It’s that time of year again, the web is a buzz with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie and all the sides, so here we go!! This salad celebrates the best of the season and not only is it beautiful, but it packs a punch in the flavor department. It is sure to impress anyone you serve it to and I can promise this salad will be the Knight in
shininggreen armor at any carb-heavy holiday meal.
Amongst this crazy busy time of year, I would bet we could all use a massage or two, so let’s treat our kale, too. Seriously though, all joking aside, if you haven’t yet experienced the magic of massaged kale, you need to get on this train. I find many people think that they don’t love raw kale, I agree, it’s not super palatable in it’s raw form. It’s rough, fibrous, strong and often times bitter, but you would be shocked what a 5 minute rub down can do for this popular superfood. The flavor mellows, the texture becomes more silky and it’s infused with the soft flavors of the olive oil and citrus.
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Roasted Sweet Potato Rounds with Garlic Infused Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs
Sometimes, less really is more. I feel like there can be a lot of pressure in the recipe developing world, to go further, to come up with super crazy flavor combinations, to mix unsuspecting ingredients together or to be the first to come up with the next big food idea. Those big ideas and crazy creations often spread like wild fires amongst other bloggers, some ideas may become infamous on Pinterest, but ultimately I find for me it can all just be a thankless rat race. When I am cooking for myself or others, I always come back to the idea that less is more, don’t over-think it, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid). The most simple recipes here on Tasty Yummies are typically the most popular. I like to be able to cook recipes with ingredients that I already have on hand, on a week day, I don’t want to run to 45 stores to get all the ingredients for one dinner. I like easy, smart and quick.
Life has been busy this month, one of the busiest I can remember in a long time. There have been countless trips, more hotel rooms than I can count, flights, visits with family, conferences, events and so much more. When I come home and I look at my to-do list and the next round of travels, I feel overwhelmed, so the last thing I can imagine doing is developing some epic creation in the kitchen. If I feel that way, I have to imagine that many of you do, as well. The last few weeks have been about easy meals, bone broth and homemade soup, crock pot meals, grilled local grass-fed meats, ALL the veggies and lots and lots of salads.
As life has me spinning and the message to “Honor Yourself” has continuously presented itself to me over the past few weeks, I have been trying very hard to give myself the space to do this. This isn’t an easy feat when life is feeling wildly out of control. I found myself fighting a cold last week, likely from all of the going and not properly taking care of myself and I am sure being on planes and in hotels with lots of germs, didn’t help either. Since I didn’t have the space to fully allow my body to heal, earlier this week I felt myself fighting off a sinus infection. I realized no matter how hard it would, I had to stop. Breathe. Give myself space to ground in. I found time to meditate, I sat with my feet in the sand at the ocean, I took a walk with my hubby and our pooch.
It isn’t easy to stop going when life is crazy and it doesn’t always feel good to say no to the bigger and “better” things in life, but ultimately when we can nourish ourselves, we are in a much better place to then nourish those around us, in our family and in our community. A fact I was reminded of recently by a friend.
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Grilled Leeks with Spicy Grilled Corn Salsa
Summertime eating, for me, is all about salads and grilling, ok and maybe ice cream and popsicles. I try to get pretty much all of my meals to fit into one of those categories. I have to say, I do a fairly good job of it.
With an abundance of leeks coming in our weekly organic produce boxes, I’ve been looking for ways to get creative with them. I used to think of leeks more as a cool weather food, I love roasting them with other root veggies or adding them to a hot soup, but since they seem to be very much in season locally right now, when it comes to leeks in the summer, what’s better than grilling?
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Tomato Cucumber Salad with Avocado and Olives
This post is part of my ongoing Restricted Diet series with the Free People blog BLDG 25
This refreshing, summer-inspired Tomato Cucumber Salad with Avocado and Olives is a beautiful addition to any summer meal. Growing up in a Greek family, tomato cucumber salads were a staple with many of our meals in the summer. We would go to the garden, grab what we needed, mix it up, top it off with some variations of a Greek-inspired dressing, maybe some feta and kalamata olives and that was that.
I swap the feta cheese for avocado in this rendition, creating a dish to please everyone. This light and colorful side dish has a beautiful crunch from the cucumbers, a salty brine from the olives, creaminess from the avocado and the bright fresh flavor of the tomatoes. If you have an abundant garden of your own or maybe a weekly CSA box delivery, I am certain this classic refreshing salad will become a mainstay on your summer menu.
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Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Orange-Parsley Chimichurri
Ya wanna know what I think? I think roasted Brussels sprouts are just about the most brilliant creation ever. I know for many people Brussels sprouts are a you either love ’em or you hate ’em kinda thing, but I would bet even the biggest of haters could get down with these Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Orange-Parsley Chimichurri. It’s THAT good, people! We got some Brussels sprouts in our CSA box from Beachgreens this past week and I have more oranges growing than I know what to do with and some extra fresh parsley, so this dish was born out of what I had on hand. As most of my favorite dishes are.
In my opinion, this delicious and flavorful spicy orange-parsley chimichurri is the perfect addition to an already delicious food. It compliments the roasted and toasty flavor of the Brussels in the most perfect of ways. A little pop of bright sweet, tartness from the orange juice and zest, the wee bit of spicy and a load of flavors from the parsley, oregano and garlic. Oh and be sure to bookmark this recipe, this chimichurri is so amazing on other foods like any of your other grilled 0r roasted veggies, try it with baked sweet potato fries, steak, pork chops, fish and more. Use it as a marinade or a dipping sauce, too.
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Red Curry Roasted Pumpkin and Fennel Quinoa Salad
Well, Thanksgiving is officially done and over (insert sad face) and everyone is already onto Christmas (ok, insert happy face). Self included. We decorated the entire house this weekend, inside and out. That said, it is still Autumn, people. Despite the gnarly winter storms that have already clobbered the east coast, we still have another three weeks of fall. I feel like poor fall always gets rushed. We want to hang onto the last bits of summer and then we rush into winter with the holidays. My point is, how quickly we discard all things pumpkin for gingerbread, egg nog, peppermints sticks and the like, the minute Thanksgiving is over.
Many winter squashes and pumpkins are still in season and need our attention. Don’t leave them in your dust in favor of a Peppermint Mocha, quite yet. You can have your holiday yummies too, but just remember that pumpkins and other winter squashes are still in season. Need more convincing not to ditch these orange beauties just yet? Read this amazing History of Pumpkins from my friend Tori Avery for PBS Food.
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Roasted Beet and Persimmon Salad with Goat Cheese and Toasted Walnut Vinaigrette
First of all, I have to be honest and tell you that I really wanted to call this post “Ode to Persimmon”. If you can believe it, just a couple weeks ago, I finally tried a persimmon for the first time ever. Yup, to my knowledge, I had never had one until very recently. I haven’t been actively avoiding them, by any means, it just hadn’t happened. I mostly attribute it to growing up in Western New York, where they don’t seem to grow and aren’t as common. On the contrary they seem to be everywhere out here in California.
For me, it was love at first bite. A persimmon is unlike anything I have ever tasted before. I honestly can’t compare their flavor or even their texture to anything else, they are a completely unique and beautiful creation. Their size and look seems more like something of the tomato family than any other fruit. The flesh is soft and creamy, similar to a peach or nectarine, but not as juicy. Something about the sweetness reminds me of dates, but I can’t put my finger on it. The skin of persimmons is edible.
So far, I have enjoyed the persimmons I have been getting in my CSA boxes, raw, sliced or eaten like an apple, in smoothies and in salads. This particular salad has quickly become a favorite of mine. It has the earthy rustic flavor of the beets, with soft sweetness from the persimmons, the creamy, richness of the goat cheese in contrast plus the fresh and bright flavor of the micro-greens (ir a baby green if you so choose instead) and finished with the toasted nuttiness of the tart vinaigrette.
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Sautéed Green Beans with Mushrooms and Caramelized Leeks
It’s hard to think about much else these days, while visions of a Thanksgiving menu swirl around in my head. This year we have a pretty big “Friendsgiving” planned, could be as many as 10 people for dinner. All of our other California transplant friends are coming to our place and I am making a huge feast. Oh and before you ask, I am working on a follow-up to last year’s 99 Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes, so stay tuned for that and in the meantime, check out last year’s post and keep an eye out for other fun recipes!
Anyhow, back my Thanksgiving menu obsession. I woke up the other morning, bright and early before the sun, as usual, and I sat up in bed thinking about food (a fairly usual occurrence for me), but not just any food, I was thinking about the Thanksgiving side dishes that I would be serving our guests.
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Autumn Harvest Salad with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette
This healthy, fall-inspired Autumn Harvest Salad with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette, is the perfect way to enjoy all of the many amazing flavors of the season in one flavor-packed healthy salad. It is light enough to not leave you heavy and weighed down, but also hearty enough to be a meal on it’s own. This makes 2 large meal sized servings or 4 side salad-sized servings. I like to make this salad and dress the servings individually so I can enjoy the leftovers later. This was the perfect lunch during a long day of yoga teacher training, a few weeks back.
Lately, this is one of my most favorite ways to enjoy raw kale and I find even those not super crazy about the superfood green, absolutely love it in salad like this. The key is to massage the kale to get rid of the toughness and the bitterness. Yup, I said “massage”! No, you don’t have to whisper sweet nothings to it or buy it dinner first, just a good ‘ol fashioned no-strings-attached massage.
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Za’atar Roasted Squash with Crispy Kale and Pomegranate
Squash season is my favorite of all the seasons! I honestly have a really hard time believing that squash is good for me, that it isn’t one of those foods you absolutely LOVE, but really know in your heart you should enjoy in moderation, like white potatoes or chocolate cake! This time of year, I find myself planning all of my meals around what squash we are going to eat.
Lately, I have been enjoying these beautiful Chile Delicate Squash Rings for breakfast with an egg , I made a bit pot of this Butternut Squash and Roasted Red Pepper Soup for lunch and I have been roasting butternut squash like it’s my job. Of course, though I haven’t yet, I will be making my popular Butternut Squash and Chickpea Slow Cooker Curry very soon, too! I could go on and on telling you the ways I have prepared squash over the last few weeks but instead I will share this amazing, simple new recipe with you.
This recipe features two of my favorite varieties of squash, at least this week, acorn and delicata. I love how sweet and delicate they both are and I love that you can eat the skin on both varieties. Both of these squash are insanely versatile and are wonderful in a savory dish, but just as good with a little maple syrup and some fresh cinnamon and nutmeg.
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Greek-Style Roasted Green Beans and Tomatoes with Feta Cheese
Each week, when our farmer Tony drops off our CSA box, besides gabbing about all the luscious, seasonal produce he has for me and his perfectly perfect fresh eggs, maybe talking about the weather and how business has been, we always spend a few moments sharing our stories of growing up Greek. We chat about our favorite foods and our fondest memories of the traditions and I try to impress him with the 3 or 4 Greek words that I know. I love it!
This past week when Tony dropped off the box and I saw that I got some of his beautiful green beans, we spent a good couple of minutes talking about one of my favorite Greek dishes, Fasolia (aka Fasolakia Fresca), a traditional Greek Green Bean Stew. As much as I wanted to make a large pot of that with these beans, the idea of cooking a hot steamy stew on the stovetop all day, it just wasn’t appealing to me, with this crazy heat.
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Bacon Roasted Grape Salad (gluten-free + dairy-free w/ vegan option)
This Bacon Roasted Grape Salad is life-changing in it’s simplicity. Smokey, savory and a little sweet – this salad will forever change how you look at grapes!
I am not one that is necessarily good with rolling with the punches and going with the flow. In many ways I am very easy going and able to just pick up and go, deal with what is handed to me and make lemons out of lemonade. On the other hand, when it comes to my work and the things I am most passionate about, it can be hard when things don’t go exactly as I planned.
This seems to be the theme of my life right now. Whether it’s rethinking my publishing schedule and the few weeks of recipes I had planned to make, due to 20+ lbs of fresh grapes coming from our grape vines or realizing the trip to San Francisco I was meant to go on with my hubby for work, just wasn’t going to happen and that he would be going alone and I would have to stay behind.
The recipe was originally meant to be shared on another website, a big time foodie site that had asked me to put together a recipe for an ongoing gluten-free column they were interested in. After working away on my pitch and this recipe, I found out that they had VERY different ideas and expectations than what I had. What they wanted and what they were willing to offer me, just didn’t add up. It meant a great deal of work for me and from their end I would barely be compensated for the groceries I would be buying. Rather than getting caught up in the glitz and glamour of their name, forgetting about the bragging rights and what it would feel like to have their name on my resume – I decided to respect myself and my work enough to say “NO!” One of the very hardest things to do, especially when my pride is concerned. So, originally this recipe wasn’t going to be shared here on Tasty Yummies today, I was saving it for a this fun new column I thought I was going to have.
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Cucumber Ribbon Salad with Garlic Tahini Dressing
As always, I am late to the party on this one, but I finally got a Spiralizer last month and I have been obsessed with it, ever since it showed up. I have been having so much fun making salads, veggie noodles, curly cut sweet potato fries and all that good stuff. So, be on the lookout for many more recipes very soon.
For now, I have this super simple cucumber ribbon salad for you guys, that I have been living off of, with the beautiful cucumbers we’ve been getting in our CSA boxes. This garlicky tahini dressing is just so amazing, it is simple to throw together and full of so much great flavor. I’ve been making my own tahini* lately and that, in my opinion, really sets it over the top.
