Are you hungover on chocolate? And Thai food? And wine?

I am.

So today, you’re probably looking for a nice light recipe, right?

I have just the thing!

Especially if you’re in a salad rut.

Lately, I’ve become really sick of the large tubs of mixed greens and spinach. They all taste earthy. I had a bad run-in with beets a year ago, and anything with an earthy flavor makes me quiver.

A few types of leafy greens I never grow tired of: romaine, leafy red + green, kale, and butter lettuce

I also have a thing for cabbage. It’s such a nice change of pace.

So.

Crunchy.

This is a remake of a salad I recently had at The Empire Lounge, in Louisville, CO.

It was a brussel sprout salad with pecorino cheese + walnuts, that came tossed in a honey lemon vinaigrette. The best part was that it came piled high, just the way I like it.

So simple, but so pleasing.

I changed things up a bit, using cabbage instead of brussel sprouts. For a bit of softness, I mixed in green leaf lettuce as well.

The pecorino cheese really put this over the top, but feta or goat cheese would be excellent as well. If you’re looking for a little more pizzazz, I would suggest tossing in dried cranberries and/or chopped orange slices.

Lemon Honey Cabbage Salad with Pecorino + Walnuts

serves 4 side salads

4 cups green leaf lettuce, shredded
4 cups green/red cabbage, shredded
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup pecorino cheese
salt + pepper

Lemon Honey Dressing

1/4 cup walnut oil
5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1.5 Tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
pinch of black pepper

In a dry sauté pan, set to med-low, toast the chopped walnuts for 4-6min until lightly browned. Stir frequently then set aside to let cool.
In a large bowl, combine the shredded lettuce + cabbage.
Toss with 3/4 of the cheese + 1/2 cup of the walnuts.
Whisk [or in a blender or magic bullet] all of the dressing ingredients together until well blended.
Pour desired amount over the salad and toss until evenly distributed.
Portion out and top with remaining cheese + walnuts, and a sprinkle of salt + pepper if desired.

tips/substitutions: Almond oil or olive oil will work instead of walnut. Most sharp, strong cheeses would work well: goat, feta, extra sharp cheddar, fresh parmesan, etc.

I promise this will dig you out from your salad rut.

And tomorrow, you’ll see what I made for last night’s dessert.

It had to do with my roasted maple cinnamon almond butter.

Which you need to make.

Pronto.

Ashley

Potatoes are underrated.

Potatoes in tacos are way underrated.

I don’t think I’ve ever even had a potato in a taco.

All these years, so many delicious taco nights, could have been that much better.

Shall we get started?

Chris’s dad + sister are in town, visiting from Pennsylvania. They’ve been with Chris’s brother and family the past few days, and are now staying with us through Saturday.

My dinner idea was taco night. Easy to please a crowd with, customizable with different toppings, easy to make vegetarian while keep meat-eaters happy, etc.

My other reason for taco night, was an easy excuse to eat down more of the veggies, stockpiled in our house.

zucchini
cabbage
peppers
corn
onion

I kept the zucchini separate from the main veggie mix because Chris + Kelly are not huge zucchini lovers. All I did to prep the zucchini, was chop up 1 medium zucchini, add 1 minced clove of garlic, few pinches of salt + pepper. Wrapped it up in foil and onto the grill it went for about 6-10min.

My fabulous friend Heather, who works for Small Planet Foods, sent me an awesome package filled with Muir Glen products + coupons. In the box were 4 different canned tomato products. One item, were these fire roasted tomatoes. I’ve never seen this can in stores before! They were delicious, as are all of the Muir Glen products I’ve tried.

Fire roasted tomatoes are excellent mixed with veggies for taco night. Love that roasted flavor and it helps keep things moist.

Okay, really what started off this taco night idea, was the ginormous head of napa cabbage still creeping in the fridge. Seems like an odd thing to spur taco night, but who doesn’t like a little crunchy slaw topping on their tacos?

If you haven’t tried it before, you’ve been missing out.

Whenever I go out for Mexican, I love squeezing lime juice all over my food. I also am a huge fan of lime flavored tortilla chips. So my thought was:

crunchy + limey + salty + sweet

And guess what? It worked. Amazingly! You could eat this as a little side salad or use as a topping. Either way, it added a nice crunchy + refreshing bite to dinner.

Zesty Lime Cabbage Slaw

10 large cabbage leaves [I used Napa]
2T fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2t lime zest
1/2t salt
1.5t pure cane sugar [or honey]
2T sunflower oil [or other light oil]
2T apple cider vinegar

Wash, pat dry, and chop your cabbage. [I like chopping into ribbons]
In a small bowl, add all other ingredients + whisk together.
Taste + add more salt/pepper/sugar as needed.
Toss together in a large bowl + serve.

Now, onto the potato + bean mix.

I’m determined to not by pre-cooked beans anymore. I’ve been slow-cooking beans the past few weeks, and besides tasting better, it’s much cheaper. I’ve gone through waves of making my own beans, but the convenience of the can is so hard to resist.

Slow cooking makes things easy though [tutorial soon!]. The slow cooker does all the work + you come home to tasty, fresh beans and a few extra dollars in your wallet. With the amount of beans we eat, those dollars add up!

Black Bean Potato Taco Stuffing [serves 6]

3c black beans
6-8 small red potatoes, cubed [about 3” wide]
1T cumin
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2T sunflower oil
2T chili powder
1/2t coriander
1t oregano
3/4-1t salt
black pepper [a lot!]
cayenne pepper [optional]

Wash + chop potatoes into small cubes.
Steam potatoes, until tender + drain. [~12-18min depending on the size]
In a large bowl mix cooked black beans, steamed potatoes, and all other seasonings.
Spread onto a baking sheet + grill or roast in the oven, around 400* for 10min, stirring 1-2x. *Until slightly roasted + crispy. If using the oven, you may want to carefully broil for 2-3min, watching closely.
Taste 1/2 way through and add more seasonings as needed.

Next up? Spiced veggies + roasted tomatoes. Super easy, just requires a bit of chopping action! Once they’re chopped, you just throw them on the grill for 10min.

Taco Veggie Mix [serves 6]

1 can fire roasted, diced tomatoes - drained
2 ears corn [or ~1c frozen]
3 small green peppers, chopped [or red/orange]
1 med. yellow onion, chopped
2t chili powder
1/2t salt
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1T sunflower oil
black pepper

Chop green peppers + onion and place in a large bowl.
Drain tomatoes + add to the bowl.
Slice corn from cob, on a cutting board, holding it vertically and slicing down.
Add corn to bowl, with all other ingredients + stir.
Spread on a baking sheet, and grill or roast at 400* for about 10min, stirring 1-2x.
Taste 1/2 way through and add more salt + pepper if needed.

Here I am talking about taco night and what did I do? Smashed my tacos, so I could pile on the toppings to the sky. It’s way too hard to stuff that much veggie goodness into a taco.

Definitely, top 3 meals of the summer!! I would say maybe even #1. I know…crazy!

So much texture. So much flavor.

And guess what? I meant to shred a block of cheddar cheese but completely forgot. So without the dollop of Greek yogurt on top, this meal is not only gluten free, but completely vegan. Everyone at the table had seconds + even thirds.