spiralizer

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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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.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:66]

Thai Salmon and Spiralized Vegetable Salad

April 22, 2016

I had something else planned to post today, but I couldn’t wait to share with you how I used my new spiralizer! As some of you may have seen on Snapchat, I picked up a spiralizer attachment for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer this past weekend. I immediately came home and spiralized just about everything I could find…or everything in my fridge that could be spiralized (and a couple things that couldn’t). In the end I was left with a huge bowl of zucchini, cucumber, carrot, and bell peppers. What is a girl to do with all those veggie noodles.

It only seemed appropriate with the mix of vegetables that I do something Asian inspired. And since I had some salmon in the freezer, Thai Salmon it was! I knew it would go perfectly with the cashew dressing I had in mind for the veggie noodles!

For the salmon, I marinated it in a mixture of soy sauce and chili powder for about an hour, then broiled it for a few minutes until it was cooked through. It was so easy! Sometimes I forget how easy salmon is to cook at home.

The cashew dress was a little bit more complicated, but it was oh, so worth it! Normally I would make a peanut dressing using peanut butter, but I’m avoiding that right now (thanks, Whole 30) so I used cashews instead. If you don’t like cashews, you can easily replace the cashews with peanuts (or peanut butter). Since cashew butter is hard to find, I just ground up some cashews into basically a butter consistency, then mixed in some soy sauce, coconut milk, chili powder, and cilantro.

Once the salmon and dressing were done, all that was left was to load up a bowl with some spiralized noodles and top it with the Thai salmon and cashew dressing.

Not only did we have this for dinner, but I also had it for lunch the next two days. It was so good! And that’s saying a lot for a girl who doesn’t totally love fish. The cashew dressing is delicious and the marinade on the salmon is so flavorful and just a little bit spicy. Enough to hide the fishy taste, which is very important for me.

If you aren’t a salmon lover, you can make this same salad with with chicken. You don’t have to replace any of the ingredients! I can see myself making up a big batch of spiralized vegetables and chicken for my lunches during this round of Whole 30, and even afterwards. That’s what I love about this recipe, is that even though it is Paleo, it’s not rub-it-in-your-face Paleo. Which is the best kind of Paleo.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:22]