Wednesday was hectic. I had to prepare a meal for the volunteers, help with a bread and produce distribution at La Manzana (a resource center in Watsonville), work on edits for my cookbook, figure out what I was going to prepare for my class based on what produce they would be getting, write up a bilingual recipe card for my cooking class, then load up the portable kitchen and go teach. Recipe classes are a lot of fun, and this one was especially easy – we’ve been talking about sugar, so we made smoothies! Not that smoothie making is all that complicated, but this combination was delicious:
- raw spinach
- frozen bananas
- strawberries
- watermelon chunks
- orange chunks
- water
I was talking to one of the professional chefs that volunteer with our cooking class, an amazing woman named Beth, and she brought up the very good point that it is absolutely unnecessary to add juice to smoothies, since so much fruit is already going into it. And picking fruit like watermelon and whole orange junks means all the juice you could need, but without getting rid of all that fiber-y goodness found in whole fruits. The smoothies were a big hit, but by the time cleanup happened, the van was returned to the food bank, and I walked home, I was exhausted. It was hot in my house and since I’d been making food all day, the last thing I wanted was a complicated dinner. Enter: The salad!
I swear, salads are amazing for the fact that you can layer sliced/chopped vegetables, pour dressing over them, and have a meal. This one was particularly simple, though looks deceptively fancy. The raw garlic could be a little intense if you don’t really, really love garlic (I do), so this would be a great time to use roasted garlic if you are the type of person to have a collection of roasted garlic on hand. I am not that guy.
This is a single portion salad, but easily tripled or quadrupled or however many times you need to multiply to make it for your usual dinner crowd.
Spinach Salad with Roma Tomato, Cucumber, and Basil Goat Cheese
Spinach Salad with Roma Tomato, Cucumber, and Basil Goat Cheese
1 generous handful of raw baby spinach
1 roma tomato
1/2 of 1 Cucumber
About 2 oz. of goat cheese
2 sprigs of fresh basil
1/2 clove raw garlic
pinch of sea salt
about 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Wash all your veggies and lay out baby spinach on a plate.
With a serrated knife, cut the roma tomato into 1/2 inch slices, then arrange them on top of the spinach.
Cut the cucumber into 1/2 inch slices as well.
Mince the garlic and grind with sea salt.
Cut the fresh basil into tiny pieces.
In a small bowl, mix the garlic, salt, basil, and goat cheese until everything is uniformly distributed.
Spread the cheese mixture on the cucumber slices, and layer them over the tomatoes. More than one tomato-cheese-cucumber layer would be perfectly acceptable here.
Drizzle the whole thing with balsamic vinegar.
Enjoy!
Vegan versions: Goat cheese has a sort of grassy flavor that tofu definitely doesn’t, and a store-bought vegan cheese would definitely NOT do this recipe justice. I think your best bet for something similar would be a nut-cheese, like cashew. There used to be this amazing raw food place in my college neighborhood that made the most amazing nut cheeses, but alas it has since closed. Alas, I have never made a nut cheese before. Hopefully this weekend I can tackle that and write about it!
Kitchen Mitts 