Saturday, February 6, 2010

Romaine w/ Lemon-Date Dressing & Pizza

This salad is from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook by Donna Klein. It is very simple, but surprisingly delicious. I have a lot of cookbooks, which I'm ashamed to say, I rarely consult. But, every now and again, I like to peruse them for ideas; this recipe reminds me that I should do that more often.

I don't feel like I can give a proper review of this book, because I've only used it once or twice. And, I'm sure a lot of you are like me; you already have too many cookbooks that you don't use very much. But I will say this,  the book provides a broad range of recipes with simple, yet becoming combinations of ingredients and flavors, and she provides the nutrition information for all the recipes. Here's a review I found online that I think sums it up nicely.

Now, back to the salad. The dressing is simple: olive oil and lemon juice, add in a pinch of cinnamon and some crushed coriander seed...it all pairs deliciously with the romaine and the chopped dates. The recipe calls for sugar, but I left it out...who needs sugar when you've got the sweetness of the dates? The cinnamon and coriander really make this salad a treat. (I snuck in a bit of flax oil  for nutrition's sake...if you're not a fan, leave it out and enjoy the simple flavors unadulterated.)  I can't publish the exact recipe...but combining the simple ingredients to your taste would probably do the trick.

Tip: the dates tend to get a sticky when chopped, so mix up the olive oil and lemon juice in bowl, then toss the chopped dates in and give it a good stir...the oil in the dressing separates the date peices nicely.

Then,  I was channeling Alicia of Vegan Epicurean  when I made this healthy spinaccoli pizza:


It's a whole wheat pizza with lightly cooked broccoli, garlic slivers, and chili pepper, topped with fresh spinach, walnuts and pinenuts. I put the spinach and nuts on at the very end of baking and let them heat up a little so they weren't cooked, but just warmed.

For the sauce, I made a batch of VE's Sundried Tomato Marinara, and it is delicious...it went perfectly with the broccoli and spinach. The marinara is meant to be a raw recipe, but it I baked it with the pizza crust, so became unraw...but really yummy just the same. We ate the pizza slices topped with nutritional yeast.

 

Happy Saturday All!

9 comments:

  1. Rose,

    Dan said this does sound like something I would make. Brilliant! But I guess I would think so. I wish I could taste it. ;)

    I am so happy to hear you liked the sun-dried tomato marinara.

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  2. The marinara is really good...mine came out really garlicky, which I absolutely love...those around me maybe not so much:)

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  3. Rose,

    I love garlic too. It must be our Italian DNA. ;)

    Alicia

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  4. this salad dressing sounds especially good today. coriander snd cin. i am going to try this! i eat salad everyday and as much as i LOVE throwing everything into the bowl that i have on hand:) i think this will be something dif

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  5. That salad looks again like something served in a four star restaurant. Very elegant.

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  6. Hi DirtyDuck,

    It is a great combo...I hope you like it.

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  7. SV,

    Thanks for your kind words...I definitely recommend it; it's a simple combo, but very tasty.

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  8. I like the mix of raw and cooked in this pizza. It's original and it gives some fresh. I note the idea, thanks.

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  9. Virginie,

    Thanks for your comment...we enjoyed the raw veggies, and I recommend Alicia's sauce too; it's delicious with this combination.

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