Recipes for Eating Locally

*Recipes for the following salads are in the continued reading section.

While it's all fine and good to eat a peach, other items of interest in my Eat Local Challenge are much better cooked and seasoned. The maple syrup-curry potato salad dish is hugely popular. I try to serve it right after the dressing has been poured on and is beginning to soak into the warm potato flesh. People have a difficult time pinpointing the exact ingredients because they simply blend together.

For some reason (perhaps the tartness of an apple early in the season combined with the bitterness of chopped radicchio and the subtle sweetness of red wine vinegar), this absolutely simple salad is always a big hit at lunchtime. Once the apples are peeled, season them with a touch of lemon juice to prolong the discolouration of their flesh. Early Crispin and Early Golden Delicious apples from Ontario are starting to appear in our green grocers. The earthiness of apples is a poignant turn toward autumn away from the succulent sweetness of the berries of August.

Bell peppers are everywhere. They usually are I guess since they're so popular in so many different dishes - kebabs, stir fries, pasta sauces, marinated and used on sandwiches, raw with dip. I like the vividity of their colours, like heirloom tomatoes, they radiate that purity of primary colours, put them all in a bowl and it's like a kindergartener's finger painting - reds, oranges, yellows, purples. I don't have the purple bell pepper in my photo but I've become a big fan of the ones sold at the Creemore Farmer's Market. This salad takes the crunchy fresh watery flavour of the bell peppers and combines it with mint and tarragon and coarse salt with the tang of rice vinegar.

Curried Potato Salad with Green Beans

Place the still warm, cooked potatoes on a platter (if you aren't using tiny baby potatoes then cut them into large bite size chunks or halve them). Add the green beans and cut each on a diagonal in half.

Then make the dressing. I use tall glass 2 cup measuring bowl. 1 cup of vegetable oil. 1/2 cup cider vinegar. 1/4 cup finest maple syrup. 2 Tbsp of curry powder (or to taste). 1 Tbsp coarse grainy mustard (with seeds). 2 garlic cloves minced. Salt and pepper. Whisk together with a fork. And pour over your mountain of potatoes and bright green beans. Using a large wooden spoon, keep combining the potatoes in a rotating manner until they are all equally dressed. Soon the piper will sound, and the night will truly begin. After all, your potatoes are all dressed up now.

I use this potato rational: 3 baby potatoes per person
I usually cook 2 handfuls of beans for 12 people (they go a long way, especially cut in half and this is a potato salad not a bean salad)
Feel free to add red onion, shallots or green onions
As well as any herb you might like to use as flavour

Voila -- a new potato salad with NO mayo

Apple Nut Salad

8 apples, washed, and cored, and pushed through a top ended blade in a food processor
3 celery stalks, diced
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/2 head of radicchio chopped in long slivers
1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds husked
1/3 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar (you can substitute cider vinegar)
coarse salt and pepper

The dressing looks pathetically simple but it works - subtlely coating the ingredients, adding some tartness and a refreshing combination of sweet and salty. Serve as part of a buffet for a summer lunch.

Simple Mixed Pepper and Mint Salad

f you aren't serving this with other things then it's easy to dress up and take to work: you can add crumbled cheeses like a creamy chevre or a goat's feta; you can toss in sunflower seeds or sesame seeds; you can pile the peppers on a bed of white navy beans or you can just bring a big huge crunchy bit of bread and a pear and a baggie of olives and you'll do just fine.

2 red bell peppers, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 organge bell pepper, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 english cucumber, chopped
1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped
1 Tbsp red onion, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp whole grain french mustard
Coarse sea salt

Mix all the vegetables together in a bowl or tupperware. Prepare your dressing by whisking the mustard into the oil and vinegar. Toss with the salad and sprinkle a bit of coarse salt.

Comments

[Stephanie]

They look delicious! Plus the added fact that they seem nutritious. :) Thanks for the recipes.

[Constance]

I love potato salad, and a little variation will definitely do for me. :) Thanks for the recipes.

[Lizzi]

Thank you for the recipes. :)