From the category archives:

Salads

Faki Salata – Greek Lentil Salad

Thumbnail image for Faki Salata – Greek Lentil Salad

Yes, it has been a while since I attended LA Greekfest but I had one more recipe from the cooking class of salads to share with you: this tangy Faki Salata. One of the instructors brought her own jar of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and used it generously here.

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Thai Green Papaya Salad

Well, I now know what to make when our four-couple Gourmet Club has a Thai themed dinner – this delicate Thai Green Papaya Salad. The dressing is Thai-YUM, I wanted to lick the bowl.  It’s a combo of textures, too – crunchy almonds to crisp cucumbers to soft papaya to airy fried rice sticks. [...]

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Paula Deen’s Warm Potato Salad (almost)

What would YOU bring to a potluck of food bloggers? Thanks to blogger In Erika’s Kitchen for pulling this growing group together! I hoped offering a side dish would give me wiggle room to ponder… salad? Veggie? Rice? Pasta? There would be husbands and kids. And of course, really good cooks (those dang food [...]

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Thyme and Goat Cheese Tart Topped with Mixed Tender Greens in Champagne Vinaigrette

This isn’t exactly how we eat around our home, putting salad on top of a cheese tart. Yet, as swank as this appeared, our “Thyme and Goat Cheese Tart Topped with Mixed Tender Greens in Champagne Vinaigrette” (whew, the name alone is a mouthful) was neither pretentious nor weird. This was the salad course [...]

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Greek Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Olives

The simplest salad of all presented at LA Greekfest’s cooking class: Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Olives. Just those three ingredients, no dressing.

Slices of watermelon, chilled
Feta cheese in bite size pieces
Black olives, Kalamata or others, pits removed, sliced

Remove rind and seeds from melon.  Cut into triangular pieces.  Place on a [...]

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Greek Potato Salad from LA Greekfest

Some cooks need an actual recipe to feel comfortable, so this was the PERFECT demo to help break free from those shackles.  LA Greekfest instructors Akrevoe Emmanouilides and Pitsa Captain were “a little of this, a little of that” cooks, and the audience ate it up. By the end of the salad session, we [...]

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Garbanzo, Onion and Tomato Salad from LA Greekfest

OPA! For years, I’ve wanted to attend Greekfest at LA’s stunning St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. I’m a native Angelino, yet had only been inside once before for the wedding of our favorite Greek, Helen. Larry’s been there often; his high school, Loyola, is next door.
No waiting for the right year, I attended [...]

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Emperor’s Farmers Market Salad

Entitled “Cucumber, Carrot and Tomato Salad,” the recipe served 130.  That’s a good sized “cooking for a crowd” recipe, but considered small at Project Angel Food.  This was my cooking task last week with fellow volunteer, Sarah.  Since it had great blogging/household dining potential, I wrote the full size recipe on a box sticker [...]

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Tri-Color Bleu Cheese Potato Salad

Picture a Sunday picnic at a countryside winery with good friends who like to cook and eat.   Homemade gourmet, local wine and a tinge of sun-kissed cheeks on a glorious Southern California afternoon really makes you believe that “life is good.”
Larry and I enjoy Gourmet Clubs, which amounts to three or four couples agreeing [...]

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Nicoise Salad for Two Friends

Friend Laura turned 49 this week and we originally planned to meet at a restaurant for a birthday lunch.  But this past month, I had been telling her about a speech I’ve been making here and there, none of the dates worked for her; she convinced me she really wanted to hear it (the [...]

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Signature Salad Dressing

Not one of Oprah’s best recommendations.  From her show What Ya Cookin’, Nashville? back in 2003, I printed out a salad dressing recipe by a local home cook named Dee.  “This garlicky salad dressing will add pep to all kinds of leafy greens!”  Oprah raved!  Hack, hack, it coated my tongue with oil and [...]

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