Salads Archives - vespresso cooking

Butter Bean, Tuna and Cherry Tomato Salad

This butter bean and tuna salad is simply divine! It’s very tasty, nutritious and hearty. It is a rustic, unpretentious salad, but at the same time the flavor and texture combination give it a particular charm. It’s so easy to make and to gain some time, I start the recipe by roasting the cherry tomatoes just until they caramelize nicely and burst with flavor. While my tomatoes brown patiently in the oven, I make the creamy mustard dressing and I chop the rest of the ingredients and the dinner is ready. Or the lunch. Or the brunch, if you’re as greedy as I am. I serve this lovely salad on a garlicky whole-wheat toast and I enjoy every last bite of it. Continue reading Butter Bean, Tuna and Cherry Tomato Salad

Spinach Salad with Baked Tofu, Fennel and Mandarin Oranges

There’s not much to say about this tofu and mandarin salad, only the fact that I tend to prepare it excessively lately. It’s so colorful and packed with bold flavors and great textures and the best part is that it’s plant – based. The crunchy, fragrant fennel goes wonderfully with the sweet and juicy mandarin slices and the green onion and the baby spinach give this salad a nice, springy twist. For this salad I like to cut my tofu in triangles, marinate it in mandarin juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, ginger and garlic and bake it in the oven until golden brown. Simlpe and delcious!

Why I love spinach salad with tofu, mandarin and fennel:

it’s vegan
it’s so colorful and tasty
it’s nutritious
it’s high in protein, so it’s very satisfying
it’s lovely all year round, I just pick whatever veggies are in season

Continue reading Spinach Salad with Baked Tofu, Fennel and Mandarin Oranges

Cabbage and Cured Duck Breast Salad

Cabbage and smoked duck salad is such an interesting salad. Everything about it is interesting, the bold flavors, the sweet and the earthy scents, the warm colors and wild textures. Crunchy cabbage ribbons dressed with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, juicy blood-oranges, toasted hazelnuts, flavorful candied apricot strips and salty and gamey duck breast; this simple yet sophisticated salad has about five or six ingredients, but they work so well together, creating a veritable taste and texture symphony.

Why I love cabbage and smoked duck breast salad:

it’s exquisite, it has a verisimilar complexity, it’s sweet, salty, sour and bitter, somehow each one in the right amount
it’s lovely during the cold months
its hearty and satisfying
it’s ready in less than 15 minutes and it takes even less to devour it
it looks so appealing and sophisticated, even though it is so effortless

Continue reading Cabbage and Cured Duck Breast Salad

Roasted Pumpkin and Corn Salad

For me, autumn basically translates itself by pumpkin. Pumpkin soups and creams, pumpkin salads and stakes, pumpkin cakes, pies and smoothies. This humble and extremely versatile vegetable has won my heart through time, due to its lovely flavor, texture and sweetness. Undoubtedly, my favorite variety of pumpkin is Musquee de Provence, a French variety that I’ve been growing in my own veggie garden for years. This beautiful giant has a gorgeous burnt orange skin with teal patches and a deep-orange flesh. The flesh is delicious and flavorful and if it’s finely sliced, it can be served even raw. Continue reading Roasted Pumpkin and Corn Salad

Melon and Prosciutto Crudo Salad

This salad is actually a different approach to the classic “Prosciutto e Melone”, a very popular Italian antipasto. The smoked ham and the juicy melon are a wonderful combination, as the sweetness of the melon balances the saltiness of the ham. This combination is so simple but so complex in its own simplicity. So I took these two elements and I’ve integrated them in a summery salad. I added some juicy cherry tomatoes, some crunchy cucumber ribbons and some fresh mozzarella cheese. The result was a juicy, delicious and very satisfying salad. Extremely tasty and incredibly easy to make! Continue reading Melon and Prosciutto Crudo Salad

Vegan Quinoa and Sour Cherry Salad

I’ve been waiting since forever to present you my favorite salad, and now, as the sour cherries are in season, I can finally get to talk about it. It is such a rustic, simple and unpretentious dish, but it is also unbelievably tasty. This salad has just a few ingredients, ingredients that might not “go together” at first sight but they complete heavenly one another taste-wise and create a true flavor symphony. These being said, let’s get to the best part: this salad is not only delicious, but it is in fact vegan and extremely healthy! Continue reading Vegan Quinoa and Sour Cherry Salad

Vegan New Potato Salad

I’m a new potato lover and I’ve always been. I love them boiled, steamed, fried, roasted, it doesn’t matter how are they cooked, as long as I can still perceive that lovely nutty flavor. It’s not spring until I make a new potato salad and I prepare it at least once a week. Who am I kidding, I make it every other day! My all time favorite new potato salad is unbelievably flavorful, very satisfying and (funny enough) vegan. In this recipe I used new potatoes, which I’ve picked from my own garden and I boiled them in vegetable broth (you can only imagine the flavor on these guys). I mixed them with radishes, onion rings and roasted tomatoes and I dressed them with a fresh herb, olive oil and vegetable broth emulsion. Let’s get serious, what’s not to like? Continue reading Vegan New Potato Salad

Asparagus and Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed-Lemon Dressing

I absolutely love strawberries. I find them delicious both in desserts and in savory dishes. They go so well with a lot of other salad ingredients, from arugula, baby spinach and asparagus to green beans and cauliflower. Strawberries not only add an elegant touch to any dish, but they also add nutrients and flavor. During May and June, when strawberries are fresh and mouth-watering, I include them almost daily in a salad.

For this particular salad I sliced a few strawberries and I placed them on top of some blanched asparagus. I added pea sprouts, avocado and feta cheese and I dressed them with a fresh and flavorful poppy seed-lemon dressing. Very simple and so delicious! Continue reading Asparagus and Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed-Lemon Dressing