Hearty “Everyday” Chickpea Salad

I have gained weight and have a little belly which is unacceptable to me! Rich or poor I have always been thin DAMMIT, so why is it every time I am in a relationship I gain 10-15 pounds...Ugggg! I am attributing this to the “Freshman 15”  with a slight variation of a new relationship vs. college. Most associate the term "Freshman 15" with the phenomenon of how college students gain weight their first semester attending a college or university. College freshmen seem to be the most susceptible to gaining weight their first semester (or year) at college, mostly attributed to a severe lifestyle change. While my collage days are long behind me (we won’t go into how long, LOL). I know I have gone through a very severe lifestyle change (for the better). Before meeting S, I was a retired “club/party girl” and single for many years, living the life of a starving artist creating and designing jewelry for several years since I gave up my day job (catering sales manager) . I pretty much ate and slept when I wanted to and only when my body demanded it. I met S and moved to Vietnam to be with him and now we live in France. I LOVE food (actually we both do) and experiencing all the different foods during our travels (Vietnam, Singapore, Bangkok & Paris), not having to work, having the money to really cook  nice dinners again, being rather isolated due to language barriers and therefore marking the time of day with meals and  a more regular sleep schedule; I realized just how out of control this has gotten when S jokingly said I looked a little pregnant. So I am starting a new diet regimen of fresh veggies, whole grains and lean meats. We just walked (burn those calories!) back from the green market (beautiful fresh veggies) and a local Lebanese grocery (dried beans, bulgur and brown rice) and now I am now planning what to do with the treasures we purchased.

Our dinner tonight will be this “Everyday Chickpea Salad” recipe I got from Shutterbean, one of the blogs I am following They in turn adapted it from  Appetite for Reduction, by Isa Moskowitz.  One of the reasons this recipe appealed to me was the fact that no oil is used in the dressing. I have no issue with olive oil but using cashews as a substitute intrigued me and it turns out the oil is not even missed. The other attraction to this recipe is that this seemed like a guilt free “hearty” salad that would fill you up without the eggs, cheese or meat I would normally associate with a "dinner" salad. Diets make me grouchy (just ask S!) and I am doing this diet without any diet pills or any of my old fallback remedies. So I am happy to say that we just finished dinner and my stomach is full, my taste buds satisfied and I am content.  I made a couple of substitutions to the original recipe based on the seasonal fresh produce that I randomly picked up today at the green market and what was in my cupboard, see notes at bottom.

Hearty “Everyday” Chickpea Salad

Makes 2-3 large dinner size servings
For the dressing:

• 1/4 cup cashew pieces
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup white wine or water
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoon natural brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Place the cashew pieces & shallot in a food processor and pulse until totally chopped (chunks are still visible) . Then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend for at least 5 minutes, and scrape the sides with a rubber spatula. Now blend until completely smooth.

For the salad:

• 1 cup Fine Bulgur cooked & cooled
• 1-2 large green onion (including green part), thinly chopped
• 1-15oz. can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 1 pepper, sliced (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 green)
• several cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 4 cups mixed mache & roquette lettuce (Mache is otherwise known as Lamb’s lettuce or Corn lettuce and Roquette is Arugula)

In a large mixing bowl, mix all but the greens together. Add the dressing (reserve a bit for the greens later) and toss to coat. Keep chilled in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days. I tossed the greens with the reserved dressing and then added to the rest right before serving.

My Notes:
-Shutterbean's recipe calls for:

• Couscous instead of Cracked Bulgur
• Spinach instead of Mixed Greens
• Shallots instead of Spring Onions
• Water instead of White Wine.
• Agave nectar vs. natural brown sugar ( gee, I was fresh out of Agave LOL…but really many Vegan’s use this as a sugar substitute)
• Original recipe included cucumber and a couple fat cherry tomatoes  that were sitting in my veggie drawer was my addition.

-Shutterbean suggests other possible fixins: avocado, sprouts, sunflower seeds, walnuts, roasted bell pepper, artichoke hearts...whatever your heart desires!

My Wild Rice and White Bean Salad

Planning home cooked meals here in Hanoi, Vietnam can be challenging. I have leftover wild rice from last night and am thinking of making a wild rice salad. I go to the gym in Tay Ho  which is an area with a high population of ex-patriots and many of the stores (grocery and otherwise) cater to this clientele . So today I am looking for lemons/limes, green onion, cucumber, carrots & lettuce. The availability of thing in Hanoi is kind of hit or miss, either everyone has it and is selling it at every stall and shop  or you cannot find something and have to substitute. So I am playing it kind of fast and loose on this recipe. I could not find lemons or carrots at the 1st grocery store I went to in Tay Ho and when I tried to stop at another shop in a cab with my purchases thus far, the police were on the street so the cab could not wait for me to shop. I decided to just head back home vs. loosing the cab since it was getting close to rush hour (which is a mess as normal car traffic stays at a steady 30-40 mph and rush hour brings this down to 25 mph).  I ended up finding a woman selling limes as I was walking down my street from where the cab dropped me off…yea! Then I tried to do without the carrots but ended up going back out and picking some up at the last minute as I really wanted the pop of orange and sweetness of the carrots to counteract the vinegar in the salad. So here is my recipe for Wild Rice and White Bean Salad…off the cuff! I have already sampled several bites and it is yummy! Let’s see if Stephane my other half likes it too…

Salad Ingredients:
3 cups leftover wild rice pilaf (or wild rice cooked in chicken or vegetable stock)
1 can butter beans (or any other white bean you have on hand), drained and rinsed
2 small cucumbers (or 1 large), peeled, sliced and quartered
1 good size carrot, shredded (would probably be nice julienned)
2 spring onion sliced thin (include green part)
Dressing:
Zest and juice of 1 lime
3 T white wine vinegar
3 T olive oil
1T dried tarragon (fresh would be great if you have it!)
1T dried parsley (again fresh if you have it)
1/2 tsp. whole grain mustard
1/4 tsp. mustard powder
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic (smashed through salt)
1/2 tsp. sea salt (more or less to taste)
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Make dressing first so that the herbs sit in vinegar as long as possible. Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bottle, I used a recycled jelly bottle and shake. While this is sitting prep your salad ingredients and combine in bowl. Toss salad stuff add dressing and toss again. Let sit in refrigerator for 1-2 hours and you are good to go. Enjoy!

Glass Noodle Salad w/ Chicken

This my first successful attempt at an Asian inspired meal since moving to Vietnam last September. It is mid May now and thankfully today was not as hot as it has been (mid to high 90’s already) so “no cook” meals have a definite appeal at the moment. I have adapted this recipe from Anne Taylor Pittman, Cooking Light, August 2010 to fit my needs and seasonal local ingredients available. See my notes on Additions and Substitutions at the end of the page, along with the definition for Sambal which I had to look it up and then still couldn’t find in the closest grocery store…my homemade version worked just fine! The original recipe (pictured below) yields 4 servings; mine however as you can see above is probably 6 main dish servings.  I do tend to live in the moment when I cook. It is easy for me to  get slightly carried away adding fresh veggies plus I threw in about 4 handfuls of noodles until it felt right. Dinner was super yummy and we have left overs for tomorrow…yea!

Ingredients:

• 1 (3.75-ounce) package uncooked bean threads (cellophane noodles)

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste) or chile paste with garlic

Salad:

• 2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
• 1/2 cup matchstick-cut or grated carrot
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper strips
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation

• 1. Place noodles in a large bowl. Cover with very hot tap water, and let stand 10-15 minutes.
• 2. While noodles soak, combine vinegar and next 4 ingredients (through sambal), stirring until sugar dissolves. Combine chicken and next 5 ingredients (through mint), tossing well.
• 3. Drain and rinse noodles with cold water; drain well, squeezing to remove excess water. Snip noodles several times with kitchen shears. Combine noodles and chicken mixture, tossing well to combine. Drizzle noodle mixture with vinegar mixture; toss well to coat. Top with peanuts.

Additions:

• Sliced Shitake/Baby Portabella Mushroom
• 1 halved and sliced peeled cucumber 
• Blanched fresh baby peas
• 1/2 each julienned Yellow & Green Pepper
• I added more fresh cilantro & mint
• I made another batch of the dressing and added 4 T olive oil to serve on the side
• Serve on side: Sliced Fresh Chili, Lime slices, Homemade Sambal

Substitutions:

• Leek & Grn onion vs. shallots
• Marinated Chicken breast cooked on stove top, since I cannot find rotisserie chicken locally. My marinade was threw together spur of the moment using similar ingredients to the dressing.
• My own version of sambal: 3 small fresh chili, 3 cloves garlic, 3 shallots, 1/2 tsp chili sauce (Vietnamese), lime zest, 1T lime juice/pulp, 2 tsp. peanuts blend in food processer. Add 1 tsp. fresh cilantro & mint if on hand.

Sambal ulek (oelek)

Chili (bright red, thin and sharp tasting). Some types of this variant call for the addition of salt or lime into the red mixture. Oelek is a Dutch spelling which in modern Indonesian spelling has become simply ulek; both have the same pronunciation. Ulek is Indonesian special stoneware derived from common village basalt stone kitchenware still ubiquitous in kitchens, particularly in Java. The Ulukan is a pestle shaped like a hybrid of a dinner and soup-plate with an old, cured bamboo root mortar (ulek-ulek) employed in an ulek manner: a crushing and twisting motion (like using a screwdriver) for crushing lime leaves, chilies, peppers, shallots, peanuts, and other kinds of ingredients.

These stats apply to the original version only:
• Calories: 346 Fat: 11.7g
• Saturated fat: 2g
• Monounsaturated fat: 5.4g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 3.5g
• Protein: 27.1g
• Carbohydrate: 34.1g
• Fiber: 2.4g
• Cholesterol: 60mg
• Iron: 2.1mg
• Sodium: 589mg
• Calcium: 44mg