Two Mini-Cookbooks for Easy Summer Dishes
While rummaging through my bookshelves for a cookbook with easy summer recipes that require little or no cooking, I found not one, but two slender books. They are available at Amazon.com used books for less than $1.00 each. Now, that’s a bargain! Both books are small in size, about 5″ X 7″ and each with less than 100 pages, so finding some suitable summer recipes is easy.
The first one is Main-Dish Salads by Martha Rose Shulman and beautifully illustrated by Debbie Drechsler. In addition to the 25 salad recipes, the author also includes Drizzles, Dressings, and Garnishes. The main-dish salads are divided into Salads that Can Be Eaten Warm, Vegetable Salads, and finally Grain, Bean, and Pasta Salads. What’s great about this mini-cookbook is that she has wonderful hints about creating salads peppered throughout the book, such as Salad Basics, How to Wash Greens, and an herb chart separating sweet/pungent/minty herbs from savory/bitter herbs. These are all very helpful, especially to a novice salad maker. See herb chart below:
from page 47 of her small, but helpful book:
Sweet, Pungent, and Minty Herbs:
Basil (sweet)
Chervil (sweet, delicate, & slightly pungent)
Chives (sweet, oniony)
Cilantro (fresh coriander, pungent)
Dill (sweet/pungent)
Fennel (sweet, anisy)
Mint (peppermint is the most peppery)
Tarragon (sweet, pungent).
Savory and Bitter Herbs:
Lovage (celerylike)
Marjoram (savory/bitter)
Oregano (savory/bitter)
Parsley (savory/bitter; flat-leaf is the tastiest)
Rosemary (savory/pungent)
Thyme & Lemon Thyme(savory/pungent,
Sage(savory/pungent).(One of the author’s favorite herbs.)
These are sun-kissed herbs growing on my patio.
(See my recipe for Herbal Garden Salad in this posting of Kitchen Nutrition with Recipes.)
Below is one of Shulman’s salad recipes I plan to make during the summer. If I do, I will post the picture at a later date.
Creamy Cucumber and Feta Cheese Salad
Ingredients
1 long European cucumber, washed and finely chopped
or 2 medium-size ordinary cucumbers, peeled if waxed, washed, seeded and finely chopped
salt to taste
2 cups fromage blanc* or 1 1/2 cups low-fat cottage cheese blended until smooth with 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about one cup)
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced (optional)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, pounded to a puree in a mortar and pestle or put through a press (optional)
1 or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or oregano (optional)
freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
1. Toss cucumber with a generous amount of salt and let sit in a colander for 30 minutes.
2. Stir together the fromage blanc or the cottage cheese/yogurt mixture and the feta cheese. Toss with the cucumbers in a bowl. Add the onion, garlic, and herbs as desired, lots of freshly ground pepper, and salt to taste.
3. Chill until ready to serve.
*Note from the author: Fromage blanc is a smooth-textured fermented milk product, which tastes like a cross between cottage cheese and yogurt. It comes in very low fat versions. You can find it in some supermarkets and health food stores. You can make something that resembles fromage blanc by blending three parts cottage cheese and one part plain low-fat yogurt together until smooth.
The second selection is Low-Fat Dips & Spreads by Jody Weatherstone. The subtitle boasts “Over 70 Healthy and Delicious recipes for Dunking and Slathering.” While there are no illustrations or photos of the recipes, I earmarked 17 to try. (Very ambitious of me!) The book has not only dips and spreads, but also chutneys and salsa recipes, as well as pates, mousses, and terrines+. So for a tiny book, it has a large agenda.
Here is a recipe I picked because I love avocados and peas, both of which I have used in previous recipes in Kitchen Nutrition with Recipes. I also like the author’s usse of lime instead of lemon juice. (Check the Index)
+ A terrine should not be confused a similar-sounding word, tureen, which is a large deep and usually round or oval covered dish, used for serving soups and stews. Terrine is derived from the same name as the type of ceramic serving dish used (terrine). The edible terrine is usually made by pressing cooked ingredients in layers, chilling, and then serving on a plate as a spreadable paste (pate). Although this dish generally refers to meat pates, I have seen several recipes for vegetable terrines and hope to experiment with making one or two during the summer or fall.
Green Pea Guacamole
Ingredients
3 cups peas, fresh or frozen and defrosted
1/2 small Haas avocado, peeled and diced 1/2 inch(pieces)
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
Thinly sliced red onion for garnish
Dash of red pepper flakes
Directions
Coarsely mash the peas with a potato masher or pulse them several times in a food processor. Place the mashed peas in a food mill set over a bowl, pas through to pure smoothly and remove the skins. (If you do not have a food mill, you can place the peas in a sieve and press them through with a rubber spatula, discarding the skins.)
Ass the diced avocado to the peas and blend in, coarsely mashing with a fork. Stir in the lime juice, cilantro, and diced red pepper and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill for at least one hour. Garnish with thinly sliced red onion and a dash of red pepper flakes right before serving. (Makes 1 1/2 cups)
Note from Ellen Sue:
Cilantro is one of my least-favorite herbs, so when I make this, I plan to substitute parsley.