Vegan MoFo #9: Florentine Salad

Gleaming green, crisp, and tangy. Read on.

I have to confess, I’m really not a salad-making person. Or a person who makes just veggies. I’m a person who generally tends to mix up everything in one pan and serve it up, like a soup, or a  stir-fry or a curry, that includes greens and veggies and protein all in one. But when we have fresh greens, it’s nice to have a salad, and I must admit my imagination kind of sputters out when it comes to salads.

We don’t have any fresh greens from the garden right now except kale, which I’m still learning to like (I know, what kind of vegan doesn’t like kale?), so I had to buy the spinach this recipe called for. Spinach I have gotten to like quite well, shockingly enough, being the person notorious for Not Wanting to Eat Leaves.

I purposely picked several salad and veggie recipes out of the cookbook just to learn some new ideas. This salad is actually really quite good. The lemon juice gives it tang, the garlic gives it zip, the bright green leaves are a pow of colour (Tang! Zip! Pow! This starts to sound like a Batman comic.)

Anyway, I was pleased. I left the tofu out of mine and replaced it with more bacon crumbles, because I didn’t want to thaw out a whole block of tofu just for the little bit required. But next time I have fresh or thawed tofu handy at the same time I have spinach, I’ll probably add it in. I also left my garlic mincings in the oil, because I’m too lazy to fish it out of the oil a little raw garlic never hurt anyone.

This recipe was originally found on page 132 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 clove garlic, slivered
1/4 c finely cubed tofu (this is to replace the egg in the original recipe and is optional)
4 T oil
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
12 oz spinach, torn if desired
1 T bacon crumbles

Let garlic and tofu stand in oil 1 hour; discard garlic (if desired). Mix oil, lemon juice, salt in salad bowl. Add spinach and toss until leaves are well coated. Sprinkle with tofu and bacon; toss.

Vegan Mofo #2: Bright Bean Salad

In order to make this recipe, I first had to go out to my garden and pluck a carrot from the loving bosom of the earth.

You really never know what the loving bosom of the earth is going to spit out at you, do you?

I reckoned that this weird blobby carrot thing was probably mostly equivalent to one medium carrot. So I chopped it up. Also while I was out in the garden I picked some parsley. Since I had Lou Who in one arm and the weird blobby carrot thing in my free hand, GooGoo helped by carrying the parsley in the pockets of her new denim dress she’s so proud of that came from a slightly older daughter of my good friend Edda. (Okay, so really GooGoo’s just proud to wear anything that has pockets.)

And then I came back to the trailer and I mixed it all up. The original recipe called for some creamy herbed ranch dressing, and that seemed like too much work and I don’t really like dressing all that much anyway. So, if you want to use some sort of herbed vegan dressing or something like Vegenaise, have at it, but what I’ve done here is just used a little oil and the herbs you were supposed to add to the dressing. A little more healthy and a lot less slimy (to me). I also didn’t cook the beans; I thawed some we had frozen in hot water and called it good.

The finished product.

This recipe was found on page 137 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 9-oz package frozen green beans, cooked and drained
2 T chopped onion (try 1 tsp onion powder if you’re a raw onionphobe)
1/8 tsp salt
1 T olive oil
2 tsp snipped parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp dried thyme

Mix all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

For part of the four hours I waited I did actual stuff. For the rest of the four hours I sat here with other MoFo blogs and the PPK and a Tazo tea bottle full of the juice of one lemon, three drops of iodine, and cold water. It felt so earthy to gulp down pulpy fresh lemon juice and I’m sure a couple seeds, too.

Then lunchtime came and we had the bright bean salad with some soup and chickpea cutlets. Our verdict: it was just okay. The beans really should have been cooked, and I think that in itself would have improved it a lot. I think I’d probably use a sweeter onion next time too.

A Sandwich Spread Salad

This is like a cross between tuna salad and chicken salad and I <3 it on sandwiches.

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans (or 2 cups of home-cooked garbanzo beans)
2 Tbsp leeks or green onions, minced
2 Tbsp vegenaise or mayo of choice
1 Tbsp Dill Relish or finely chopped pickles (I like Bubbies pickles)
Celery salt to taste

Mix ingredients. Serve with lettuce and tomato (or whatever other fixings you fancy) on a whole wheat bun.

Note: Garbanzos from a can tend to be harder than home-cooked ones, so I recommend smooshing the beans a bit before mixing the other ingredients together. Otherwise, they have this slightly annoying tendency to band together to start an anti-consumption revolution and roll right off your sandwich onto your plate.

Tabouli of Deliciousness

For my first salad post, I’m going to actually link you to another blog, because as I was browsing my recipes, this one called my name.

My favourite tabouli recipe is here. There’s even a nice demo video of how to make it!

These are the only things I changed when I last made it:

1. I didn’t add the mint. (I’m not overly fond of it. So that’s up to you and your personal taste.)

2. I didn’t have olive oil, so I just used whatever oil I had on hand at the time.

3. I don’t always have fresh parsley on hand, so I think once I substituted 1/2 c dried parsley flakes for the cup of fresh.

It’s a super easy recipe and I’ve taken it to potlucks at church twice and it has always been a big hit, with people asking to take any leftovers home.

Enjoy!