Summer Tomato Salads for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week, Plus Blog Day!

All this week I'm sharing ideas for using tomatoes in a little celebration I'm calling How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week, and in a minute I'll talk about great salads made from tomatoes. But first, today is Blog Day, a once-a-year event when bloggers of every kind are urged to spotlight new blogs they've discovered. I thought about skipping it this year, since I'm smack in the middle of my tomato celebration, but I love the idea of this day, so I decided I'd just quickly tell you some newish blogs I think are great. In no particular order, six food blogs that have caught my fancy recently are Quick Indian Cooking, Talk of Tomatoes, Tinned Tomatoes, A Wee Bit of Cooking, Briciole, and A Thinking Stomach. (Yes, I know I was only supposed to pick five, but I couldn't decide!) All these blogs are charming and unique, and I hope you'll go visit them and leave a nice comment wishing them a happy blog day!

We're on Day Five of celebrating garden tomatoes, and so far we've had slow roasted tomatoes and three types of pasta sauce, but no tomato celebration would be complete without salads. Here are some wonderful summer tomato salads from the recipe archives, including the absolutely delicious Caprese Salad with Apricots above, created and photographed by the talented Rand, my food-loving brother. I'm pretty sure at least one of these salads will make you drool.

Summer Red and Yellow Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese and Basil Vinaigrette

Garbanzo, Tomato, And Cilantro Salad with Lime and Chile Dressing

Middle Eastern Tomato Salad

Tomato, Egg, and Olive Salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette

Sliced Tomato, Olive, and Goat Cheese Salad with Onion-Caper Vinaigrette

Zucchini Salad with Tomatoes and Basil

Tomato and Garbanzo Salad

Yellow Tomato Salad with Roasted Red Peppers, Feta, and Mint

So which one looks best to you out of all those tomato salads? I'd have a hard time choosing myself, although I've been loyal to Middle Eastern Tomato Salad for quite a few years now. Tomorrow I'll be sharing a new salad I made recently for a certain summer picnic that a lot of food bloggers are talking about, plus some other good salad recipes I've seen around the web, and then on Sunday we'll finish out tomato week with a recipe for something that's one of the all-time best tasting things I ever made from fresh tomatoes. When I first made this dish last year, I called it a life-changing experience. Any guesses about what that might be?

(You can see the whole collection of idea for using tomatoes at the first post for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week.)

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes Garden Tomatoes

It's How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week: Roasted Tomato, Italian Sausage, and Basil Sauce

Yesterday for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week, I revisited my time-honored recipe for Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce and then confessed I'd been experimenting a bit with a different tomato sauce recipe this year. I blame it all on Christa from Calendula and Concrete. As soon as I saw her post about the tomato sauce she calls Liquid Summer Sun, and read how she roasted the tomatoes before she made the sauce, I smacked myself in the forehead and said "duh." Nothing concentrates tomato flavor like roasting does, so sauce made from roasted tomatoes would have to be good. Once I'd committed to that step,there was no turning back. Christa used a food mill, so of course, I had to have one.

Was the sauce good enough to be worth the extra effort of roasting the tomatoes and putting them through the food mill, compared to a sauce made with partly canned tomatoes? Absolutely it was; this was without doubt the best sausage and basil sauce I ever made. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with yesterday's Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce, and if you don't have a food mill or you're short on fresh tomatoes, you should just happily make that sauce and eat it all up. But if you'd like to try my new, kicked-up sauce with roasted tomatoes, sausage, and basil, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

This is my post for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted right here at Kalyn's Kitchen this week. Of course, my herb is basil, which I've already written about many other times. Since this is a holiday weekend in the U.S., I won't be posting the Recap until Monday. If you want to participate, here are the Rules for Weekend Herb Blogging. You need to send your entry to kalynskitchen (at) comcast (dot) net by 3:00 on Sunday, Utah time. Now here's how to make the Roasted Tomato, Sausage, and Basil Sauce of your dreams.

Start with the freshest, vine-ripened Roma tomatoes you can find to make this sauce. I had a whole kitchen sink full of tomatoes the day I tested this recipe!

Cut tomatoes in half, then toss with olive oil, basil, oregano, marjoram, and ground fennel. (You can use any herbs you like, but I used the same herb mixture I love on Slow Roasted Tomatoes.)

Roast the tomatoes with a generous handful of garlic cloves. I roasted my tomatoes at 350 F for about 90 minutes.

Remove tomatoes from the oven, then pulse about 2 cups at a time very briefly in the food processor before putting them through the food mill. (At first I didn't do that, but I found it released a lot more juice if the tomatoes were broken up a little before they went in the food mill.)

Put tomatoes through food mill, with a pan underneath to catch all the liquid sunshine that comes through. (Don't you love my new food mill?)

While you're processing tomatoes, heat frying pan with a small amount of olive oil, then squeeze Italian sausage out of the links and brown well. I used hot turkey Italian Sausage to keep it South Beach Diet friendly.

When sausage is brown, add tomato juice and start to simmer on low. I added just a bit of dried basil and ground fennel seed to this mixture.

Simmer 2-4 hours, until sauce has thickened and concentrated. Stir in finely chopped basil the last five minutes of cooking time.

Roasted Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausage and Basil
(Makes about 4 cups of thick sauce, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce and Liquid Summer Sun from Calendula and Concrete.)

Equipment needed:
2 large cookie sheets for roasting tomatoes
food processor (I use a Cuisinart DLC-10 )
food mill (this is the type of food mill that I bought)

40-50 vine-ripened Roma tomatoes

To season tomatoes before roasting:
2 T olive oil
2 T ground fennel
4 T dried basil
2 T dried oregano
2 T dried marjoram
about 1 cup peeled garlic cloves
(You can use any combination of herbs you like, but don't skip the fennel)

1 pkg. (5 links) hot Turkey Italian Sausage
additional olive oil
2 tsp. ground fennel
2 tsp. dried basil
1 T chopped fresh garlic (optional, I did not add more garlic)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Wash tomatoes, then cut each in half lengthwise. Toss tomatoes in olive oil, ground fennel, dried basil, dried oregano, and dried marjoram. Put tomatoes on two cookie sheets, cut side down, and scatter half of garlic cloves among tomatoes on each sheet. Roast tomatoes about 90 minutes, until skins are starting to shrivel but tomatoes are still quite plump looking. Remove tomatoes from oven and let cool slightly.

When tomatoes are nearly done, heat a small amount of olive oil in large frying pan (big enough to hold all the sauce.) Squeeze turkey sausage out of casing, break apart well, and saute until well browned.

Put food mill over a large sauce pot and fit with disc with smallest size holes, then place next to food processor on the counter so tomatoes can be easily transferred from food processor to food mill. Using a food processor with a steel blade, add about 2-3 cups of tomatoes at a time and pulse about 15 seconds, just long enough to slightly break up tomatoes. Then transfer tomatoes to food mill and turn handle until all juice has been released from tomatoes and only skin, dry pulp, and crushed garlic remains. (Discard skin, pulp, and garlic cloves, then repeat until all tomatoes have been processed.)

Add tomato juice mixture to browned Italian sausage, scraping the bottom to get all the browned bits of sausage. Add ground fennel and dried basil and additional garlic if desired, then simmer sauce at very low heat for 2-4 hours. Stir frequently, and scrape sides of pan each time. Simmer until sauce is reduced by at least half, or more, depending on how thick you prefer your sauce.

When sauce is nearly thick enough, wash fresh basil and spin or shake dry, then chop finely with chef's knife. Add chopped basil to sauce and simmer 5 minutes. Sauce can be refrigerated for about a week or frozen for months if placed in tightly sealed containers. To use, reheat gently on stovetop, and serve hot over pasta shape of your choice.

South Beach Suggestions:
Tomato sauce like this is great for phase two or three of the South Beach Diet as long as you are sure to use Dreamfield's Pasta or other whole grain or low-carb pasta.

More Pasta Sauce with Roasted Tomatoes:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Roasted Tomato Sauce from Too Many Chefs
Roasted Tomato Sauce from Champaign Taste
Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce from Smitten Kitchen
Roasted Tomato Sausage Pasta from Stephen Cooks
Pasta in Roasted Asparagus Tomato Caper Sauce from Karina's Kitchen
Roasted Tomato Pasta from Closet Cooking

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes Weekend Herb Blogging
Garden Tomatoes

It's How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week! Make Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce

(Updated recipe, originally posted August 2006)

I first made this type of tomato sauce about ten years ago, when I realized that fresh basil was so easy to grow, and I developed this recipe through trial and error over the years. Since we're celebrating How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week around here, this marinara sauce absolutely had to be included. Making pasta sauce and freezing it is one of the main things I love to do with my fresh tomatoes every year.

This recipe calls for peeling the tomatoes, a job that isn't difficult, but can be a bit of a bore. This year I invested in a food mill, which eliminated the peeling step. Tomorrow I'll share my newest sauce recipe, made with a food mill, my newest kitchen toy, and no canned tomatoes. But if you don't have a food mill, or don't have quite the abundance of fresh tomatoes that I do, this recipe is a fantastic way to make marinara sauce. No matter what you do, don't leave out the ground fennel, an ingredient I think makes all the difference in this sauce.

The original recipe for Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes has step-by-step photos if you'd like to see them.)

Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes
(Makes 8-10 cups of sauce, recipe created by Kalyn, originally posted August 2006)

15-20 very ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced in pieces 1/2 to 1 inch
1-2 cans tomato sauce (I use Muir Glen tomato sauce)
1-2 cans diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes)
3 T dried basil
3 T dried oregano
2 T ground fennel seed
3 T minced garlic or garlic puree
5 dried bay leaves
1 pkg. (5 links) turkey Italian Sausage
(mild or hot, but I prefer hot)
1/4 cup olive oil plus 1-2 T for browning sausage
1/4 cup (or less) chopped fresh oregano
1/2 cup (or less) chopped fresh basil

To peel tomatoes: Bring a deep pot of water to a slight boil. Wash tomatoes, then cut a V into the top of each tomato, cutting away stem area. Put tomatoes with stem area removed into boiling water 1-2 minutes. Remove tomatoes to cutting board, and peel off skin, which should come off easily. If it doesn't slip right off, leave tomatoes in boiling water a tiny bit longer. I do 4-5 tomatoes at a time, and usually let them cool for a minute or two before peeling them.

Chop tomatoes and put in large heavy pot. Add tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, ground fennel, minced garlic, and bay leaves and let sauce simmer 1-2 hours.

Heat 1-2 T olive oil in a large frying pan. Squeeze sausage out of casing and brown, breaking up with heavy turner or potato masher, until sausage is well browned. Add browned sausage to sauce mixture and simmer 2-3 hours more.

Add olive oil, fresh oregano and fresh basil to sauce and simmer 10-15 minutes. Let sauce cool before refrigerating or freezing. This sauce will keep for close to a year in the freezer if it is stored in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid.

(See all the ideas for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week at the post for Day One.)

More Delicious Recipes with Marinara or Tomato Sauce:

(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients. Remember to use Dreamfield's Pasta or another type of low-carb pasta for the South Beach Diet.)

Baked Penne with Sausage
Italian Sausage with Tomato Sauce
Homemade Marinara Sauce from Saffron Trail
Heirloom Tomato Sauce from Hedonia
Tomato Sauce for All Seasons from Seriously Good
Penne Baked with Tomato Sauce from Almost Turkish Recipes
Heart-Healthy Pasta with Quick Tomato Sauce from Christine Cooks
Elicottero with Creamy and Hot Tomato Sauce from Once Upon a Tart
Chicken Marinara from Simply Recipes
My Mother's Lasagna from Cream Puffs in Venice

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Garden Tomatoes

It's How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week: Make a No Cook Pasta Sauce

For years I turned my nose up at the idea of no-cook pasta sauce. I'm not sure why I was so uninterested in sauce of this type, but for some reason I had it in my mind that you needed to cook tomatoes to make a flavorful pasta sauce. Was I ever wrong about that! This sauce ranked right up there with Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches as one of the best tasting things I've made with fresh tomatoes. And since we're celebrating How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week, this is a perfect way to use tomatoes when they're at their peak of flavor, which is precisely what makes sauce like this so fantastic tasting.

Probably it was the fact that I saw this recipe in the September issue of Fine Cooking Magazine that tipped the scales in favor of me trying it. If you haven't discovered Fine Cooking, I'm rapidly becoming convinced it's the ultimate in cooking magazines. So far, every recipe I've tried from it has been completely a keeper, including this one. Considering how I like to do my own thing with recipes, I actually followed the recipe fairly closely, except for adding more basil, and I did get distracted and let it sit a lot longer than the recipe specified. I hope you'll try the recipe, and if you do, I predict it will become one of your all-time favorite ways to use garden tomatoes.

Cut up 3-4 vine-ripened tomatoes into pieces about 1/2 inch square and put them in a glass or crockery bowl. (Don't use metal, since the tomatoes will be sitting in the bowl for quite a while). Add some olive oil, lots of chopped basil, and a bit of thyme, garlic, salt, and Aleppo Pepper.

Mix the ingredients up a bit and let them sit in the bowl on the counter for several hours. (I actually had mine sitting out for about 6 hours, and it was perfect.)

Cook pasta, drain, and then put pasta back in pot and pour in the sauce. Gently combine, and top with lots of freshly-grated parmesan. Serve and wait for raves from your family or guests. Don't tell them that you hardly did a thing to produce such a fantastic flavor.

No-Cook Pasta Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil and Thyme
(Makes about 4 generous servings, recipe slightly adapted by Kalyn from Fine Cooking Magazine.)

3-4 large vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (about 3-4 cups tomatoes)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use your best olive oil for this)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. finely minced fresh garlic (or more if you love garlic)
1/2 tsp. sea salt (or more to taste)
pinch Aleppo Pepper or other hot pepper flakes

about 8 oz. pasta of your choice (I used Dreamfields Penne)
freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving

Wash tomatoes, pat dry, then cut away stem part and cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. (Be sure to save as much of the tomato jelly around the seeds as you can since it's the most flavorful part) Put diced tomatoes into large glass or crockery bowl.

Wash basil leaves and spin dry or dry with paper towel. Finely chop basil with chef's knife and add to tomatoes. Wash several thyme branches, pat dry, then strip off the leaves into bowl with basil and tomatoes. Add olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and aleppo pepper and gently combine. Let sauce mixture sit on the counter at room temperature for at least one hour and as long as all day.

When ready to eat, cook pasta in boiling salted water for 8-9 minutes, until barely al dente. Drain pasta well, then put back into cooking pot, pour in sauce mixture and gently combine. Put pasta on individual serving plates and serve with lots of fresh-grated parmesan cheese. (Raw tomatoes should never be refrigerated, so I recommend making only as much as you will eat at one meal.)

(See all the ideas for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week at the post for Day One.)

South Beach Suggestions:
Sauce like this combined with Dreamfield's Pasta or other low carb or whole-grain pasta is a perfect meal for phase two or three of the South Beach diet. For phase two, I would eat a small serving of the pasta, with big serving of perfect salad. For phase three, you could have a larger serving of pasta.

More Tasty Versions of No-Cook or Quick-Cook Tomato Sauces for Pasta:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Food Processor Pasta Sauce from I Like to Cook
Summer in a Bowl from I'm Mad and I Eat
Chimichurri Pasta from Tea and Cookies
Pasta with Cold Sauce from Too Many Chefs
Five Minute Tomato Sauce from 101 Cookbooks
No Cook Tomato Sauce from Andrea's Recipes

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes Garden Tomatoes

It's How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week! Make Some Slow Roasted Tomatoes

This photo of the red and yellow tomatoes is actually a favorite picture I took last year, but it's perfect for now when I'm feeling the same pressure I feel every year around this time, when my garden starts bursting with tomatoes, and the short window to preserve them seems even shorter because I have to go back to work. I have both those kinds of tomatoes again this year, and right now I have to pick tomatoes almost daily to keep up. Recently I missed a couple of days picking, and when I finally picked tomatoes again I had nearly three grocery bags full. So you can see, using the tomatoes is serious business around here.

Since I've been growing a garden for so long, I have many favorite ways to use my garden tomatoes, including tricks for keeping that fresh-tomato flavor so I can enjoy it during the winter. All this week I'm going to share tomato recipes, some of my favorites I make every year, as well as a couple of new ones I've tried out recently. I'll come back each day and update this page, so eventually it will be a nice list of ideas for using garden tomatoes. Now, let's start the week out by making some Slow Roasted Tomatoes.

In August of 2006 I posted How to Make Slow Roasted Tomatoes, which is one of my most-read posts. You can click through to that if you want to see step-by-step photos of the process of making slow roasted tomatoes. I've already made a couple of batches this year, and nothing can compare to the way your house smells when the oven is full of tomatoes, slowly roasting and carmelizing. Slow roasted tomatoes taste like concentrated summer, and I love having them in the freezer to use all winter long.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes Kalyn's Way
(How to Make Slow Roasted Tomatoes originally published August 2006, recipe adapted from Alanna's master recipe)

20 Roma type tomatoes (same size tomatoes are best if your garden cooperates)
2 T olive oil, plus a little to oil the pan if you don't have a mister
1 T ground fennel
2 T dried basil
1 T dried oregano
1 T dried majoram
(Any combination of herbs that appeals to you can be used.)

Preheat oven to 250 F (about 9 hours roasting time) or 200 F (10-11 hours roasting time.) I used the shorter time, but mainly because my antique oven will not stay at 200 F.

Wash tomatoes, dry, and cut each tomato in half lengthwise, keeping the stem spot in one piece (to grab when peeling the tomatoes later.) Put tomatoes in a bowl and toss with olive oil and herbs.

Spray cookie sheet with olive oil mister (or brush very lightly with oil). Arrange tomatoes cut-side down on cookie sheet.

After about 8 hours, start checking tomatoes. They're done when skins puff up and tomatoes are reduced in size by at least half. It's a personal preference as to how dried you like them, and I prefer to cook mine until they look fairly dense, but still a tiny bit juicy.

These tomatoes have an intense tomato flavor that you probably can't get any other way. They can be eaten hot or cold. They freeze wonderfully to use all winter in soups, stews, and pasta sauces.

More Yummy Recipes with Slow Roasted Tomatoes:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Slow Roasted Tomato Hummus
Slow Roasted Tomatoes from Kitchen Parade
Slow Roasted Tomatoes from Gastronomy Domine
Better Living Through Slow Roasting from Orangette
Slow Roasted Tomatoes from Stephen Cooks
Tomatoes Confites from Chocolate and Zucchini
Roasted Baby Roma Tomato and Fetta Tarts from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once
Tomato Confit from Chez Pim
Tomato Chutney from What Did You Eat
Pasta with Oven-Baked Herb Tomatoes from Lucullian Delights
Roasted Tomato Roundup from Swirling Notions
Slow Roasted Tomato Bruschetta and other links from The Perfect Pantry

More Ideas from How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week:
Day Two: Make a No Cook Pasta Sauce
Day Three: Make Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce
Day Four: Roasted Tomato, Italian Sausage, and Basil Sauce
(requires a food mill, no canned tomatoes used in this sauce)
Day Five: Kalyn's Favorite Summer Tomato Salads
Day Six: Chopped Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Mint, Feta, Lemon, and Thyme
Day Seven: Gazpacho, the Life Changing Summer Soup

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes Garden Tomatoes

Tuna Salad Recipe with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Parsley, and Basil

This last week I went through the yearly transition of adjusting to back-to-school routines, a change that's always challenging. Even though there are things I love about being a teacher, there's nothing I love more than being home, puttering around the kitchen or garden. For one thing, going back to school means I have to start planning what to eat more than I do in the summer. I don't find it that difficult to plan healthy lunches to take to school, but it does take a lot more thought than standing in front of the fridge, thinking, "Hmmm, what should I eat?" This salad is an example of something I'd make ahead and take for lunch, and it will last well in the fridge for a day or two.

The idea of combining sun-dried tomatoes with the wonderful tuna packed in olive oil came from Valerie Phillips, the Food Editor of the Deseret Morning News. When Valerie wrote about this type of tuna, she featured my recipe for White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley, and the article had her recipe for a Tuna and Tomato Pasta Salad (after you click that link, scroll down to see her recipe.) I loved her idea of using sun-dried tomatoes with the tuna, and I've had her pasta salad recipe on my "must try" list for the longest time now. Meanwhile, here's my latest version of tuna salad. This one's for basil lovers, and next time I might add some pine nuts, but either way, this would be a delicious lunch.

Dice cucumbers into small pieces, salt, and let drain in a colander for about 30 minutes. If you don't have fresh garden cucumbers, you might want to scrape out the seeds and possibly peel the cucumbers.

Yes, I've seen all those cookbooks saying basil should never be chopped, but I chopped the basil as well as the parsley for this salad with a chef's knife. Measure the herbs after chopping, although the proportions can be adjusted to your taste or based on what you have on hand.

Tuna Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Parsley, and Basil
(Makes 2-4 servings, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration for using sun-dried tomatoes with tunafrom Valerie Phillips )

2 cups finely chopped cucumbers
1 tsp. salt for draining cucumbers (I used kosher salt)
1 can tuna packed in olive oil (I like Tonno Genova tuna, which is relatively inexpensive)
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup chopped fresh parsley (I prefer curly parsley for a salad like this, but either curly or flat parsley will work)
(optional: next time I might add 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts)
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Dressing:
3 T good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice

Wash cucumbers and chop into pieces between 1/4 - 1/2 inch square, then place in colander with salt and let drain for about 30 minutes. (You may need to peel cucumbers and scrape out the seeds if you don't have fresh garden cucumbers like I used.) Put tuna into separate colander over a bowl and let oil drain away while cucumbers drain. (Discard the oil from the tuna.)

While cucumbers drain, chop red onion and place in salad bowl. Rinse sun-dried tomatoes with hot water to remove some of the oil if desired, then chop into small pieces and add to onion. Wash basil, then parsley in salad spinner (or wash and dry with paper towel.) Chop herbs and add to onion-tomato mixture.

Blot cucumbers dry with paper towel (this also removes some of the salt) and add to mixture in bowl. Flake tuna slightly with a fork and gently stir into mixture. Add pine nuts if desired.

In small bowl, wisk olive oil into lemon juice until dressing is emulsified. Gently mix dressing into salad. (You may not want all the dressing, depending on how wet you like your salads.) Season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Serve at room temperature or chilled. The flavor of this actually blends together better after it's been in the refrigerator for a while, which makes it perfect to make ahead and take for your lunch.

South Beach Suggestions:

Salad like this is perfect for any phase of the South Beach Diet. Even though the tuna, dressing, tomatoes, and pine nuts all have oil, they all contain what South Beach considers to be "good fats." I would eat this on a day when I'm not having a lot of high-fat foods for other meals.

More Delicious Salads with Tuna:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley
Garbanzo and Tuna Salad with Parsley and Red Pepper
Tuna Stuffed Avocado Salad with Tomatoes, Cilantro, and Lime
Nicoise Salad Recipe from Simply Recipes
Herbed Balsamic Tuna Salad from Gluten-Free Bay
Herbed Tuna Salad with Feta and Pine Nuts from Pinch My Salt
New York Times Tuna Salad from Smitten Kitchen
Tuna and Relish Salad from Once Upon a Feast
Garbanzo Beans with Tuna from Exploring the Silver Spoon
Stinky Tuna and Egg Salad from Daily Special

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes

Lamb Curry Recipe with Cauliflower and Double Cilantro

I've previously confessed my intimidation about cooking Indian food, and admitted I'd likely use a product like Patak's Curry Paste if I was making an Indian dish. The folks at Patak's must have heard from other timid cooks like me; they've now published a cookbook designed to help people get more authentic results while using Patak's jarred sauces for some of the dishes. Meena Pathak Celebrates Indian Cooking, was written by the wife of Kirit Pathak, from the family that owns Patak's (they dropped the "h" in the product names.) If you cook authentic Indian food from scratch, you have my complete admiration, but if you like Indian food but don't know much about cooking it like me, you'll agree this is a great book, one I've now added to my ever-growing list of Cookbooks I'm Using. This recipe was adapted from the recipe for Lamb Shakuti on page 69, although you know how I am; after I'd simmered the curry I added some cauliflower, kind of on impulse, but it was a great idea. I served this with the whole wheat couscous I featured yesterday, and it was a delicious meal. If you don't have the Patak's Madras Curry Paste the recipe calls for, use any kind of hot curry paste or powder that appeals to you.

Now I need to be telling you a bit about cilantro, since this is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Scott of Real Epicurean this week. I'm not sure what's left to tell, since if you enter "cilantro" into my search bar in the upper left corner, you'll get 347 search results for cilantro! (Maybe even more if this page has been indexed by the time you do it.) Let's just summarize and say I'm mad for cilantro, enough so that I used both dried and fresh cilantro in this dish to increase the cilantro oomph. Dried cilantro is completely worthless as a substitute for fresh, but in a dish that's simmered a while such as soup or this curry sauce, it can add a nice cilantro undertone. Now here's how I made my double cilantro lamb curry, which tasted delicious even if it wasn't that authentic!

Lamb Curry with Cauliflower and Double Cilantro
(Makes 4-6 servings, recipe adapted from Lamb Shakuti in Meena Pathak Celebrates Indian Cooking.)

1-2 T olive oil or vegetable oil
3/4 cup onion, cut into slivers
1 1/2 pounds lamb, fat trimmed and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 tsp. garlic puree
1 tsp. ginger puree
1 can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organic Tomatoes)
1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp. Agave nectar or 1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. dried cilantro (or use heaping T chopped fresh cilantro)
3-4 T Patak's Madras Curry Paste (or less if you don't like spicy food, use any brand of hot curry paste or powder that you have)
salt to taste
2 cups cauliflower, cut into small flowerets
1 cup light coconut milk (original recipe used dessicated coconut)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

In a large heavy pan,heat oil and saute onion about 5 minutes. Push onion to the side, then add lamb and brown about 5 minutes, turning a few times to lightly brown all sides.

Push lamb and onions to side, add garlic and ginger and cook about 1 minute. Then add tomatoes, water, agave or sugar, dried or fresh cilantro, curry paste, and salt to taste. Stir to combine, then reduce heat to very low and simmer covered for about 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, remove lid, add cauliflower and coconut milk and simmer just until cauliflower is barely tender, about 15-20 minutes. Stir in chopped cilantro, retaining 1-2 tablespoons to sprinkle on when serving. Cook 3-5 minutes more, remove from heat and serve hot.

South Beach Suggestions:
You could eat this alone as a phase one dinner for the South Beach Diet, but it would be more traditional to serve it with white rice, or even Couscous, as I did. Uncle Ben's Converted Rice would be the best choice for a low-glycemic type of white rice.

More Curry Dishes to Wake Up Your Mouth:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet Friendly, check ingredients.)
Bengali Red Dal Curry from Jake
Chicken Breasts with Cilantro and Red Thai Curry Peanut Sauce
Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon, Curry, and Cumin
Curried Chicken on the Grill with Cilantro Chutney
Lamb Curry from Simply Recipes
Kashmir Lamb Curry from Erin's Kitchen
Lamb Masala in a Tomato and Ginger Gravy from Posie's Place
Bollywood Cooking: Chicken Curry from What's For Lunch Honey
Kenyan Chicken Curry from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once
Chicken Curry from English Patis

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes Weekend Herb Blogging