Fall Black Rice Salad

Fall Black Rice Salad with apples, bacon, pecans, arugula

Less than 2 weeks until Thanksgiving — though it feels like March was yesterday. In the spirit of the season, I thought I’d use this post to remind myself (and hopefully others!) of the positives. This week I’m thankful for:

  • How so many people showed up and voted for change and inclusivity in the US this month

  • Snow, which has helped combat Colorado’s wildfires, and reminded me that fall is really here, even though this year has gone by in the blur

  • Fall cooking and baking. Favorites this week, were: this wild rice salad, tahini rice crispy recipe from Bon Appetit, quiche, Massaman coconut curry with tofu, sourdough focaccia, and miso braised greens. Next week I’d like to make cranberry hand pies and a pear coffee cake!

  • The upcoming holiday break — while it certainly won’t be a “normal” Thanksgiving, it will be nice to have a break and unplug

Fall Black Rice Salad with apples, bacon, pecans, arugula
Fall Black Rice Salad with apples, bacon, pecans, arugula

Fall Black Rice Salad

Published October 6, 2020 by
   Print This Recipe

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 30 minutes



Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
  • 1 small sweet onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup black wild rice, such as Forbidden Rice or TJ's Cultivated Wild Rice (Wild rice blends will also work well)
  • 2 cups chicken broth, or more as indicated on package (If using an Instant Pot to cook the rice, reduce to 1-1/4 cup broth)
  • 3 slices bacon, cooked
  • 1 apple, such as Sweet Tango or Honeycrisp
  • 1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans
  • 2 cups baby arugula
  • Salt & pepper

  • Directions:

    1. Heat oil in the bottom of a sauce pan (or Instant Pot on Sauté setting). Sauté onions and garlic until transparent.
    2. Add rice to pot, along with broth. Cover, and cook according to instructions on the rice packet. (If using an Instant Pot, set to Multigrain setting for 14 minutes with the vent in the sealed position. Natural release for 10 minutes.)
    3. Chop the bacon into 1/2-inch pieces. Core the apple, and dice. When the rice has cooled, add bacon, apple, pecans and arugula. Toss, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

    Comment

    Root Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette

    Root Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette

    It is rare to find an exciting vegetable in the grocery store in the middle of February. It’s all orange-green tomatoes, rock-hard avocados, and kale. This month, however, I was planning a crunchy root salad already when I came across pink daikon radishes. I paused for a minute, knowing that likely, not everyone that reads this blog will be able to find pink daikon radishes. But I bought them anyways, because their brink color was irresistible. Yes: you can use any sort of radish instead. Regular white daikons. Watermelon radish would be pretty. Easter egg radishes. Red cherry radishes. They will all work, and taste just about the same. I just fell in love with how bright and fresh the pink looked, and how it added little pops of pink to this salad. 

    Radishes, like many root vegetables, are a good fall back this time of year when little else is fresh or ripe. And while it’s easy to think of root vegetables as potatoes and yams, this salad proves that root veggies can also make a refreshing, bright, and light salad, too. Serve as a side with pulled pork, brisket, chili, or even a panini. 

    Root Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette
    Root Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette

    Root Slaw with Lemon Vinaigrette

    Published February 6, 2020 by
       Print This Recipe

    Serves: 4   |    Active Time: 20 minutes



    Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup radish, peeled and julienned (pink daikon radish, daikon radish, watermelon radish, or red radishes)
  • 1/3 cup cucumber, julienned
  • 1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 1 golden beet, peeled and julienned
  • 2 tablespoons minced parsley 
  • Black pepper to taste

  • For vinaigrette:
  • Juice from 1 Meyer lemon 
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 
  • 1/2 teaspoon honey 
  • 1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard 
  • Generous pinch of salt 

  • Directions:

    1. Combine all julienned vegetables and parsley in a medium-sized salad bowl.
    2. In a jar, combine all ingredients for vinaigrette. Place lid on jar and shake to emulsify.
    3. Drizzle vinaigrette over vegetables to taste (you may not need all of the vinaigrette) and toss to coat. Season to taste with pepper.

    Comment

    Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

    Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

    Sunshine has been all I crave lately. After a very snowy Thanksgiving week and a few weeks of fighting a cold, I feel like I’ve barely spent anytime outside over the last month. It’s getting to me. Staying home to cook all day is one of my favorite activities—but only if I’ve gotten enough fresh air, too. Otherwise, I just feel stir crazy. Next week, my office closed for the whole week (!!), so I am hoping to flip-flop my outside time issue. Miraculously, it’s suppose to be a sunny week… so sunshine, here I come!

    Here is a holiday/winter side dish with a little sunshine built in, in the form of bright citrus juice: Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes. They are slow roasted with a bit of butter, maple syrup (just a touch!) and orange juice. Each bite is a mix of sweet, salty, starchy and acidic.

    Happy holidays!

    P.S., If I know anything about you all, it’s that you love sweet potatoes. This roasted sweet potato salad is the most popular recipe on Foraged Dish! (Or is it the goat cheese?)

    Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes
    Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

    Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

    Published December 19, 2019 by
       Print This Recipe

    Serves: 4-6   |    Active Time: 70 minutes



    Ingredients:

  • 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • Zest and juice of 1/2 an orange
  • 1-2 generous pinches of salt
  • Freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 1-2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley

  • Directions:

    1. Preheat oven to 400°F. While the oven preheats, place a baking dish (about 9x9 inches) in the oven with the 2 tablespoons of butter in it—this will melt the butter. When butter is melted (just a few minutes) remove from oven and set aside.
    2. Wash the sweet potatoes, and then optionally, peel them. I like to roughly peel them, leaving a bit of skin on. Chop sweet potatoes into about 1-inch thick by 2-inch long pieces.
    3. Add maple syrup, orange zest, orange juice, and salt to the baking mix and stir everything together. Add sweet potatoes, and use a rubber spatula to mix them in the maple-butter mixture until coated.
    4. Cover top of pan with foil, and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove foil from pan and continue to bake for another 30 minutes. Sweet potatoes should be browning on the edges, and extremely soft when done. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
    5. Season with black pepper to your preferences, and garnish with minced parsley.

    Comment