Juicy Fruit Salad

I love when my friends have parties / get-togethers - because of the obvious reasons that I enjoy spending time with them as well as doing fun stuff - but also because it gives me an excuse to make a homemade recipe and blog about it! Sweet!

My friend Vanessa was celebrating her 29th+ birthday (wink wink!) at a Maryland winery and invited her friends and family for a day of picnicking, wine tasting, and enjoying the mid-June weather in a beautiful rural setting. Thanks lady!

I love the usual suspects found at winery picnics: cheese & crackers, cookies, grapes - but since those are all things I try to limit in my diet as much as possible, I wanted to bring something healthy that I could eat and share that would also be refreshing on a hot day. The first thing that came to mind was a fruit salad! Yum!

I make this berry medley on a weekly basis for my boyfriend and I to scoop into our breakfasts - him oatmeal, me chia pudding - so I thought I would use that for the basis of my fruit salad, since berries are my favorite no-brainer-low-glycemic-go-to. A few times I've added herbs to the mix, so bf suggested I do that for this salad, and then I wanted to do something extra spesh in addition to the herbs. That's where the juice idea came in.

In years past, I've tossed fruit salad in sup'ed up orange juice for an extra layer of flavor, but since I'm avoiding OJ, I decided to make my own juice concoction out of ingredients that fit my diet and would be tasty for others as well. Last fall I started making green juice for all of the health benefits it offers, so I have a juicer on hand. If you don't have a juicer, I suggest buying some strawberry nectar or juice from your grocery store. (Usually you can find something like that in the ethnic food section.) Then you can muddle the rest of the ingredients & soak them in the juice for a couple hours in the fridge. Strain out the whole pieces and poof - you have a juice very similar to the one included in my recipe below! See, there are ways around everything :-) The bonus here was that I made enough juice to have extra to enjoy as, well... juice. I poured it into a mason jar and threw it in the cooler/picnic basket with sparkling water and drank it at the winery so I didn't feel left out of a fun drink while everyone was drinking wine. How smart is that?! (Look for that quick recipe at the bottom of the page.)

This salad was bright, cool, and refreshing on the 90 degree day we spent picnicking at the winery, and the leftovers have been a tasty addition to my breakfast this week. So whether you're taking this dish to a get-together, eating it for breakfast, or using it as a topping to swirl into yogurt or ice cream, it's worthwhile to make a big enough batch so that you have plenty for leftovers!

OK let's get juicin'!

Juicy Fruit Salad
Servings: 12
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: n/a

Ingredients:

Juice
1 organic apple, peeled
7 large organic strawberries
1 handful mint leaves
6 large basil leaves
1/2 lime, cut into wedges
1/4 lemon
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled

Salad
2 organic apples, cut into small cubes
5 organic strawberries, sliced
3 double handfuls blueberries
2 handfuls blackberries
1 12 ounce package raspberries
2 large basil leaves, juilenned
4 large mint leaves, julienned
5 ounces juice (recipe above)

Start by adding all of the fruit for the salad to a large bowl.

 Then, make the juice.

Turn on the juicer and add one ingredient at a time.

Once you have the the juice made (this recipe will make about 20 ounces of juice), use a long spoon to stir it so that all layers are combined evenly.

Pour 8 ounces of the juice into a mason jar filling it all of the way to the tippy top. Screw on the lid and immediately store in the fridge.

Pour about five ounces of juice over the fruit salad.

Use a large spoon to toss the fruit in the juice.

I actually made enough juice to drink some right away, and should be the case for you as well. If so, pour the remining 7 ounces or so into a glass and drink with a straw while you put together the rest of the salad.

Now, add the fresh herbs. You can use a sharp knife to julienne the herbs, or you can cut them into the salad using kitchen scissors. I did the latter.

Toss the salad one more time.

Serve as you wish.

If you're taking this to a picnic, place the salad into a food storage container with tight fitting lid. Keep refrigerated/cold until you're ready to serve.

Or you can scoop it out into cute little serving bowls.

Like this!

Salute!

Juicy Mocktail

If you're so inclined, this drink would be great with a shot of plain or flavored vodka or some gin. But it was super tasty on its own, alc-y free!

Ingredients:
5 ounces strawberry juice (recipe above)
3 ounces sparkling water

Simply add the juice to a cocktail glass, and pour the sparkling water over it.

Serve with a wedge of lime squeezed over the top and enjoy!

Salute!

FancyPants Potato Salad

First, I'd like to apologize for my absence. I was out of town on a work trip for a whole week (no kitchen in the hotel = no cooking = no new blog recipes. Boo!), AND I've been dedicating a lot of time to my other baby - my start-up photography business! Wee! Stay tuned for my website launch :-) 

 

Now back to my first internet baby, this ravenous blog!

 

While it's not officially summer yet, it sure is smokin' hot here in the NCR (that's national capitol region, one of my fav acronyms!). Not only has it been hot, it's been humid. What a combo! But hey, I'll take it over the freezing cold winter wonderland that was bestowed upon us this winter. When it's this hot outside, the last thing I want to eat for dinner is some piping hot, steaming plate of heavy food. I recently decided to whip up this light, refreshing, cold potato salad to cure my craving for (low glycemic) carbs and it was so delicious, I have made it twice now! If that ain't deserving of a blog recipe, I don't know what is!

 

This is the *perfect* dish to take to a picnic, party, barbeque, or potluck, because it contains no mayo, which can spoil if left out of the fridge for too long. I use oil & vinegar based dressing on plenty of pasta salads, so I figured I could go ahead and use one on a potato salad as well. Why not?! I recently purchased some fancy-pants champagne vinegar to use for making a dip for some oysters my boyfriend and I were shucking at home (brave, I know!). Since I had it laying around, I thought it would be tasty on my potato salad. And I was right - it turned out to be *super* tasty!

 

My boyfriend has a very luscious garden growing on our balcony right now. He grew all of it from scratch himself! Beets, brussel sprouts, peppers, tomatoes, sage. It's very green out there - just like his thumb! Since we have so much sage, I've been trying to think of new ways to use it. My friend Erica and I made a really delectible pizza a few years ago on NYE where the recipe called for fried sage, and that idea has stuck with me. I thought the fried sage would go well with the potatoes, so I threw some of that in there!

 

For this recipe I used feta cheese because that is what we had on hand, but the first time I made this salad, I used grated pecorino-romano and that was really good. I think I actually prefer that, but if you're a feta fan, try it this way. And if you're a dairy-freer, use nutritional yeast or skip the cheese altogether - no biggie!

 

OK let's get cookin'!

 

Fancy-Pants Potato Salad

Servings: 5

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

 

Ingredients:

4 large red potatoes (skin on), cut into large cubes

1 sweet potato, peeled, cut into large cubes

2 cipollini onions, peeled (or if you can't find cipollini, use a 1/4 of a sweet onion, sliced)

1 teaspoon minced shallot

2 tablespoons champagne vinegar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) for cooking + 4 teaspoons for dressing

1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt + 2 pinches for dressing & onions

3/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

7 large fresh sage leaves

 

Start by setting your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Place a large pot filled half full with water on the stove over high heat. When the water comes to a boil, add the potatoes.

While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the onions for roasting.  Place the peeled whole onions in a small baking dish. Drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with salt & 1/4 teaspoon FCBP. Toss to coat & place the dish in the oven on the middle rack.

Now make the dressing. Add the 4 teaspoons EVOO, the vinegar, minced shallots, and salt & 1/2 teaspoon FCBP to a container with a tight fitting lid. Shake vigorously to combine the ingredients into a dressing-like consistency.

Set aside.

Cook the potatoes until they are fork tender but not falling apart - about 20 minutes. When they are done cooking, remove the pot from the heat and drain the water from the potatoes in a colander set in the sink. Run cold water over the potatoes.

Shake off the excess water and then place the potatoes back in the now empty pot in which you cooked them.

Set the potatoes aside to cool slightly.

Now, fry the sage leaves. Start by setting up a paper towel on a clean plate so you can drain the fried sage when it's done cooking.

Place a small non-stick pan on the stove over medium heat. Drizzle in two tablespoons EVOO.

Carefully add the sage leaves to the oil. Move your hand quickly because the oil will spatter!

Fry on the first side for about 15 seconds, and then use tongs to flip each leaf over to cook on the second side. Once the leaves are crispy and fragrant, remove them from the oil and place on the paper towels to drain and cool.

While the sage leaves are cooling, add the dressing to your potatoes, and sprinkle in a 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Use a large spoon to toss the potatoes in the dressing & salt.

The sage leaves should be cooled by now, so stack them on a cutting board and run a sharp knife through to coursely chop them. Then sprinkle the chopped leaves over the potatoes.

By now, the onions should be roasted and softened. Remove the dish from the oven and place the onions on your cutting board.

[You see more than two onions here b/c I made

additional so I could eat them separately! Yum!]

 

Use two forks to pull apart the layers of the onions...

... and then use a sharp knife to coursely chop the onion.

Add the onions to the potatoes and toss to combine.

You're about ready to serve! Pile the potato salad in a serving bowl.

Sprinkle the top with some feta crumbles or a handful of grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.

 Serve alongside your other picnic favorites and some nice iced tea.

Salute!