Asian Pork Tacos with Watermelon Cucumber Salsa

July 12, 2018

2018 Update: Since this is one of my favorite recipes, and one that I reference all the time, I thought it was about time for an upgrade! I originally published this recipe in almost exactly 5 years ago (yikes!). Back when I sort of knew what I was doing and only published recipes occasionally.

But even after all that time, I still love making this recipe during the Summer! It’s actually really easy thanks to the use of a slow cooker. Just throw everything in, set it, and forget it.

I don’t want to take everything away from 2013 Lindsey, so I will leave in everything else I wrote back then and just trade out the horrendous photos!

Trust me, I am doing us all a favor.

A few weeks ago B and I went out to dinner and had the most amazing tacos. They were brilliant in their simplicity. Pork belly glazed in an Asian inspired sauce and topped with watermelon cubes. We were pretty unsure about the watermelon and pork at first, but we were quickly won over.

We knew we wanted to try to recreate these at home, and after some experimenting, we found a recipe that rivaled the restaurant version. The best part is, they are pretty easy to make and are probably a lot healthier.

I hope you give these tacos a try. You truly won’t regret it! And don’t let the watermelon weird you out. Once you try it, you will love it!

Recipes

You can find my recipe for homemade tortillas here. They are delicious and absolutely worth the extra effort!

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Watermelon Cucumber Granita

July 11, 2018

There comes a time every Summer when I just dread turning on the oven.

It’s already so hot outside and the AC is struggling to keep up; why would add any more heat to its load?

Granita is the perfect thing to make when you want to avoid using your oven but still want something sweet. It’s super refreshing (especially this watermelon cucumber granita) and super easy to make!

How to Make It

Start by chopping up a bunch of watermelon and cucumber. For something like this, you can leave the skin on the cucumber if you’d like. It will just get filtered out later.

Add all the fruit and veg to a blender or food processor. The juice of a lime (or lemon), and just enough water to get the blender to do its job. If your watermelon is juicy enough, you may not need any!

Pour the blended mixture through a sieve to strain out all the pulp.

You should be left with a beautiful red juice that is seriously delicious.

Honestly, you can stop right here and pour this over a couple ice cubes for a refreshing Summer beverage.

But let’s continue turning this into watermelon cucumber granita, shall we?

Pour the juice into a shallow dish and then place it in the fridge. Every 2 hours or so (or every time you remember), take the dish out and scrape a fork over the surface. For the first few hours, it may seem like you aren’t doing much. Once it starts to set up you will start making really fine ice crystals.

It doesn’t take too long to completely freeze leaving you with a beautiful (did I mention healthy?) dessert!

I like to eat this watermelon cucumber granita all on its own. However, it would also be delicious alongside some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you need something a bit richer.

It will definitely help you beat the Summer heat!

Supplies and Recipe

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Spiralized Cucumber Greek Salad

July 12, 2017

Even though my spiralizer is pretty much a one trick pony (it pretty much just spiralizes), it is one of my most used one-trick ponies in the kitchen. Especially in the Summer when I don’t feel like cooking anything and it will instantly transform something ordinary into something fun and unique.

Like this spiralized cucumber Greek salad. What makes this salad so special? Nothing really….except the spiralized cucumber. It just changes the whole thing. Instead of feeling like you are eating a salad, you almost feel like you are eating a veggie packed pasta (cold pasta, I’ll admit).

Now cucumbers are not the easiest things to spiralize thanks to all those seeds in the middle. But be patient with them and they will give you some beautiful cucumber noodles.

I like to lay my cucumber noodles out on a layer of paper towels to drain out some of the extra liquid.

The rest of the salad is pretty simple: sliced onion, bell pepper, and halved cherry tomatoes. You could add olives if you wish, but olives are pretty much the bane of my existence, so I left them out.

All that was left to do with this Greek salad was assemble it. I tossed all the veggies together and then topped them with some feta and fresh mint. Then when we were ready to eat I drizzled over some homemade Greek dressing.

After adding some roasted chicken, this was a complete and healthy meal. Plus so much more fun than eating your basic Greek salad. Who need that pesky lettuce anyways?

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Quinoa Tabbouleh Recipe

April 28, 2017

Quinoa is kind of amazing, isn’t it? It’s a grain…or is it? Is it a seed? I don’t know. All I know is that is a super food. Like throw some tights and a cape on that stuff kind of super.

It’s one of my favorite things to make along with some chicken or salmon for a quick and healthy dinner. But sometimes it can be kind of bland. Which is what makes it the perfect canvas for a tabbouleh!

Tabbouleh is a traditional Middle Eastern chopped veggie salad that can be made with a variety of ingredients from parsley to mint, cucumbers to tomatoes. But the true star of the show is parsley. If you don’t like parsley, then you probably won’t like this recipe.

Just telling it like it is.

For my tabbouleh, I kept things simple with parsley, tomatoes, red onion, and lemon juice along with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Normally I would say just chop up a tomato, onion, and parsley and toss it in the quinoa. But onions can come in lots of sizes and I don’t want you to go overboard with the onion…or the parsley.

Once all the veggies are chopped up (I can’t believe I am about to say this…), measure them. I’m not a bit measuring person when it comes to throwing a dinner together. Most of the time I do, since I now I will have to publish the recipe. But a little part of me dies every time. I am more of a “pinch of this, dash of that” kind of girl.

Add your measured veggies to the quinoa. Or don’t. Live life on the edge and throw the whole tomato in there. No one will know except you.

Then toss everything together with a bit of a lemon juice-olive oil dressing.

Now you could eat it right away. But I would implore (you know I’m serious when I go to the thesaurus to look up synonyms for “urge”) you to let it rest for at least 10 minutes. You want that lemon juice and olive oil to marinate, bathe, steep (sorry, took it too far with the thesaurus) the rest of the salad. It will help take the bite out of the onion and soften the parsley.

This bright and fresh quinoa salad makes the prefect healthy side dish for anything from some delicious chicken (like my favorite Chicken Doner), steak, fish, or even just on it’s own!

Remember how I said quinoa was the super hero of all grains (or something like that). What makes it so great is that it’s a complete protein. I think it might be one of the only grains/cereals that is a complete protein (don’t quote me on that…I can be wrong sometimes). That means that you can eat this salad all on it’s on and get just about everything you need, nutritionally.

Told you quinoa was pretty super!

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Watermelon, Feta and Cucumber Salad

August 10, 2016

I don’t know about you, but it was drilled into me from high school through grad school, “cite your sources!”. It’s now a huge pet peeve of mine when people (especially bloggers) don’t acknowledge the source of the inspiration. That’s why I have no problem telling you where the inspiration for my recipes comes from (got to give credit where credit is due!), Like this particular salad which was 99.9% inspired by this recipe.

I saw it posted over at the Kitchn, and I was smitten. I mean, it’s just so pretty! I had to make it the first chance I got. Fortunately, that chance would come pretty quickly when I had to make a salad to bring to our Small Group dinner on Sunday.

The salad was pretty much constructed based on the picture alone and I didn’t actually consult the recipe (not that I needed to, the picture speaks for itself). That’s why my recipe is just a tad different, like the addition of lettuce, dressing, red onions, and balsamic reduction.

I started with a bed of romaine lettuce that I lightly dressed with some white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I topped it with the spiralized cucumber that I cut into smaller noddles to make it easier to serve and eat. Next came the watermelon balls and the chucks of feta. I kept my feta pretty big because I wanted everyone to get a big hunk of cheese with every bite. I then topped it with thinly sliced red onion, mint, and the balsamic glaze (from Trader Joes).

All of these flavors go so well together. The sweet from the watermelon, crispness of the cucumber, saltiness from the feta, bitterness from the onion, and tangy-ness from the balsamic. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite (and super easy) appetizers. It’s so refreshing and flavorful. It’s a great salad to make during these hot and muggy dog days of summer.

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