Jan 9, 2013

Rocca Salad with Cheese

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This salad is the kind you can have it as a side dish, as a starter, even as a breakfast, which is how we enjoyed this time. A very simple dish and so versatile, you can use your favorite kind of cheese, and even the bread.

Ingredients:

  • one bunch of rocca
  • one red tomato
  • a few slices of baguette bread
  • about 150 grams of sliced cheese (I used the goat kashkaval kind)
  • 1 tablespoon thyme
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 C
  • Put few drops of olive oil over the bread slices, place one slice of cheese on the top, sprinkle with thyme and put in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts
  • In a plate place the leaves of rocca
  • Slice the tomatoes and place them around the rocca
  • Place the slices of bread on the top
  • Prepare the dressing by mixing the salt with the balsamic vinegar and the remaining olive oil, pour the mixture over the salad.

ET VOILA… C’EST TOUT. BON APPETIT,

Filed Under: Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , ,
May 31, 2012

Endive Salad With Parmesan Cheese And Cheese Dressing

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When I used to live in Abu Dhabi, three friends and I would arrange a Scrabble night once a week . We had decided that the host would only make a salad to avoid adding any extra work and also for us to eat less. Since we used to rotate who would host, it quietly became a competition who would make the most delicious salad, each one of us trying to outdo the other. It was a fun time. Tonight, I remembered those days while playing Words With Friends with my daughter and decided to make one of my more flavorful salads made with endives, parmesan cheese and dressing made out of cheese also.

Ingredients:

  • 3 endives
  • 3 cucumbers
  • 2 tomatoes
  • few leaves of iceberg or lettuce
  • 1 grated carrot
  • few leaves of parsley for decoration
  • 100 grams sliced parmesan cheese

For the dressing:

  • 100 grams cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • dash of black pepper

Preparation:

  • Wash all the vegetables, pluck the endives leaves and spread them out in a serving plate
  • In the center place the iceberg leaves
  • Slice the tomatoes an cucumber and put them over the iceberg
  • Top it off with the slices of cheese, the grated carrot and the leaves of parsley
  • Mix well all the dressing ingredients; adjust the seasoning as you like and keep it in a saucer on the side
  • Invite some friends over and play Scrabble 🙂

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT. BON APPETIT 🙂

Filed Under: Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 22, 2012

Spring Rice Salad

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Today my son has a long day at University, which means I will have lunch by myself. Cooking for myself alone is not very tempting. This is why I decided to make a salad as a one dish meal. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I believe salad is a very free plate, something you should have fun with. So, I decided to prepare a salad with rice to be consistent and light meal.

Simple and easy.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rice
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 tomato, cut in medium sized pieces
  • 1 carrot grated
  • 1 green pepper cut into thin strips
  • 1/4 cup mix of olive oil and apple vinegar, a dash of hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper for the dressing salad
  • 1 small onion sliced and separated into rings
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried mint

Preparation:

  • In a small saucepan, place the rice with water, salt, curry and vegetable oil and bring to boil
  • Reduce the heat, stirring from time to time, cover and let it simmer until the rice is cooked
  • Place rice in a plate and let it cool to room temperature
  • Add tomato, carrot, green pepper
  • Season with the dressing and garnish with onion and dried mint

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT:)

Filed Under: Lent, Main dish, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 4, 2012

Tabboule

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Tabboule is our Lebanese pride, along with hummus. Lebanon is the record holder in the Guinness Book of World Records when 250 of our Lebanese Chef’s made the biggest plate of Tabboule in the whole world. We Lebanese can and will eat tabboule any place, any time: for breakfast, lunch, as a snack or even at dinner. It is THAT Delicious. The best thing about it is that tabboule is made just from vegetables and bulgur, so anybody can enjoy it and it goes well with most anything!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of finely  chopped fresh parsley
  •  few leaves of fresh mint chopped with the parsley, or else they will turn black
  • 1 small onion filnely diced
  • 3 red tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of bulgur, fine and dark brown color
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • salt, seven spices, olive oil

Preparation:

  • Wash the chopped parsley with mint and put in a strainer
  • Add the chopped tomatoes to the parsley
  • Mix the chopped onion with a dash of salt and a little seven spices and add it to the mixture of parsley, tomatoes and onion
  • Wash the bulgur and drain it, then add one tablespoon of lemon juice to it
  • Now the Tabboule is ready, season it to your taste with salt, allspice, lemon juice and olive oil
  • Mix it well and put it on a serving plate garnish with lettuce or cabbage

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT:)

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Lent, Main dish, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 21, 2012

Fattoush (Lebanese Salad)

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“Fattoush” is a traditional Lebanese salad, made of mixed vegetables, bread and special seasoning and since this dish is made out of vegetables it is suitable for people fasting during lent.

My grandfather used to tell me the story of how the Lebanese started to make this salad. In some village in Lebanon, after a group of people finished their food and salad, if they were still hungry and there was remaining dressing in the salad, they would dip bread in the dressing and eat it. Eventually toasted bread found its way into the salad regularly, until finally they added more kinds of vegetables and adjusted the dressing to have what we know today as the traditional Fattoush.

And here is the recipe. I’ve left out the quantities because you can tailor it to your own taste.

Ingredients:

  • lettuce
  • tomato
  • cucumber
  • green onion
  • radish
  • purslane (baqle in arabic)
  • parsley
  • salt, olive oil, summak, olive oil, frying oil, arabic bread(pita)

Preparation:

  • Wash the lettuce, tomatoes and cut them
  • Peel the cucumber and cut it in dices
  • Peel the radish and slice them
  • Cut the green onion in slices
  • Peel the leaves of the purslane and wash properly
  • Chop few leaves of parsley
  • Cut the arabic bread and fry in the oil for few minutes until it becomes light brown color
  • Put all the vegetables in a serving bowl and mix together
  • Add the salt, summak and the olive oil
  • At the end put the fried bread and mix with the vegetables
  • You can decorate with few cherry tomatoes if desired.

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT.. BON APPETIT

Filed Under: Lent, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 18, 2012

Potato Salad with Eggs

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Vegetables, potatoes and eggs. All children need their greens, but they never eat them! Because they’re stubborn and don’t know what’s good for them. But momma knows best 🙂

Use this for a side dish with steak or chicken.Personally I just have it as a light dinner, like I did tonight. You’re probably going to have these ingredients lying around in your kitchen so there’s no complication, and it won’t take you any longer than twenty minutes to prepare. Great for a lazy night in front of the TV.

Ingredients:

  • 3 potatoes
  • 3 eggs
  • some leaves of lettuce and Iceberg
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 green pepper

Preparation:

  • Peel the potatoes, cut them in medium size cubes and boil with salted water
  • Boil the eggs
  • In the meantime wash the vegetables and cut them and put in a big serving bowl
  • Prepare the dressing for the salad by mixing one teaspoon of salt, a tbsp of mayonnaise, juice of one lemon and three tbsp of olive oil
  • When the potatoes and the boiled eggs  are cooked add them to the vegetables
  • Put the dressing and mix well.

ET VOILA C’EST TOUT…:)

BON APPETIT

Filed Under: Main dish, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , ,
Feb 8, 2012

Tuna salad with pasta

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I consider salad a free dish. I mean, you can put all kinds of vegetables you like, you can add some fruits to have an exotic salad and you can even put any kind of meat, poultry or fish and have a complete meal. As for the dressing, use your imagination and your “taste” to create all kinds of dressings..

Today I made tuna salad with pasta, which reminds me of the good old times when me and my friends used to play scrabble at night; we would decide to make a salad instead of having a heavy dinner while taking a break from the game. This way, its easier to prepare for the host, and less calories for us at dinner time.

This tuna salad is one of my favourites, because you can prepare it within 20 minutes maximum.

Try it, you will see…

Ingredients:

  • 250 gs of pasta
  • one tomato
  • one green pepper
  • one red capsicum
  • lettuce ( any kind you like )
  • one can of sweet corn
  • one can of tuna

For the dressing:

  • juice of one lemon
  • one tablespoon of mayonnaise
  • salt, pepper
  • a pinch of black pepper
  • olive oil

Preparation:

  • Fill a pot with water, put a tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and bring the water to boil
  • Add the pasta and respect the cooking time you find on the box
  • In the meantime, wash the vegetables and cut them into very small pieces
  • When the pasta is cooked, drain it from the water, put it in a serving bowl, add the vegetables, and the tuna
  • Mix the ingredients of the dressing together very well and pour it over the salad

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT.

Filed Under: Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , ,