This is a great way to have your veggies cold, especially nice when the outside temps are in the 100′s, much like today in Southern California. Trader Joe’s works best, where possible.
Cook the frozen brocoli. Use the microwave for this to help keep the house cool. You don’t have to cook it all the way, just until it is thawed all the way. When it’s done, get it into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and get the temperature down. Drain.
To your salad bowl, add the cooled and drained broccoli, tomatoes and onion. Toss with dressing. For best results, let marinade in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour before serving.
No TJ’s nearby? You can use fresh broccoli instead, just steam it first. Need a different dressing? I’m partial to a simple red wine vinegar and olive oil mix for this, but we had the cranberry walnut handy.
Serve as a salad with anything you like. Goes particularly well with beef or grilled chicken.
One of my favorite stores as some of you know is Trader Joes. Part hippy grocery store, part regular grocerty store, part liquor/wine store, all contained within the space normally occupied by 2 7-11s, sometimes less. Great quality stuff at fantastic prices. I’m sorry if you don’t have one nearby, especially since today’s recipe is made entirely from items purchased there.
Simple and good. If you can find the ingredients at Whole Foods or your local market, it would be worth while.
Needs
What to do
Serve this over a bed of Jasmine rice.
Changes/Additions You could boost the color/flavor by adding fresh diced tomatoes or green onion. Or a little pesto (regular or sun dried tomato). Serve over pasta instead of rice would be good as well. Add a shot of dry white wine to the pan after draining, before the butter to get more of a scampi flavor.
Beverage choice The butter is going to want something crisp/acidic/sharp to contrast. A nice Pinot Grigo, Fume Blanc or Savignon Blanc. You beer drinkers should learn to drink wine, but if that’s not an option, any fine Mexican brew would be nice with this.
If it’s not already, this recipe should totally be in the Cooking with All Things Trader Joe’s
Sure it’s all cold and crappy now, but as soon as the weather warms up a bit you might want to give it a try. Simple and good and very similiar to one of my all time pasta dishes, Angel Hair Pomadoro (angel hair pasta, olive oil, fresh basil and fresh diced tomatoes).
This is a great use for all of that Angel Hair Pasta left over from last night.
We are looking for warm, not hot. Not room temperature either. Closer to body temp.
Warm the pasta and artichoke hearts in a saute pan with a little olive oil. Add vinegrette, toss to coat and heat through. Plate as you like, top with parm and cilantro.
Add to this what you like. Fresh cracked pepper, pesto or fresh diced Roma Tomatoes would be very nice additions. Makes a great side dish to chicken or fish. Add some shrimp and make it a dinner.
A nice crisp white or light ale would be fabulous with this too.
I’m sure you would all like to know how to build a great sammy for superbowl or any thing else.
Here you go!
This recipe was originally posted on January 1st, 2007. Since I made this on Christmas Eve, I have had a few requests for it.
And, as usual, if anyone actually makes this, I would be interested in hearing how it turned out!
Chop/pull the sausage apart and cook in your soup pot on medium heat until they are nice and brown and released most of their fat. Add the onion, jalepeno cut in half (leave the seeds you sissy) and the tops from the green onions. Cook for about 1/2 hour.
Chop all your veggies into about 1/4″ pieces. Remove the jalepeno and add the rest of the veggies to the pot. Save the green onions and cilantro. Add the barley and lentils. Add the chicken stock. Cook for about 1 1/2 hours until the lentils are tender. Add water as need to keep it from turning into stew.
Finish with green onions and cilantro.
This will be hot! You can actually leave it, covered, on the stove for 2 hours before you serve it. A nice loaf of french bread would be good with this, or a small side salad.
Try this with Corn Bread. Good stuff!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to use my stuff, just Be sure to let me know.