Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad

Summer simply does not want to arrive in Finland this year.  We had a beautiful May, and then the arrival of June brought with it increasingly cold weather.  Last Tuesday, there was slush in Helsinki, snow in Tampere, and freezing temperatures around the country.

Finland’s Midsummer weekend, 20-22 June, a time when you typically open the summer season with outdoor barbecues, giant bonfires, and late nights out by the lake/seashore, boasted soaring temperatures of +12°C and lows of +6°C.  This is why sauna was invented here:  “Suomen kesä on vähän luminen” (Finland’s summer has only a little snow) is a phrase I’ve heard repeated by many Finns, but never quite grasped the meaning of until that recent snowy Tuesday in June.

Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad

But never mind:  imported summer fruits from warmer climates have made their way to my table to be combined with herbs from my garden, and this salad, while it won’t warm my cold toes, brings with it the essence of summer with vibrant colors and a rush of flavor.  Simple to throw together, it’s great as a side dish, or as breakfast – which is how I enjoyed it this morning.  It’d be an easy take-along for a picnic; as a side salad for your burger; thrown on top of a pile of freshly-picked lettuce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or simply enjoy a bowlful.

Just you with a spoon in hand & a big bowl of this salad, preferably with sunshine on your face, but drizzle outside the window if the weather insists on being ornery, and let this salad bring on the essence of summer anyway.

Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad

Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad

1.5 kg / 3 lbs watermelon; peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
200g feta cheese, drained
1/4 cup / 1/2 dl mint leaves, rinsed, leaves picked (I used a combo of pineapple mint & peppermint)

1.  Cut up the watermelon and put into a medium-sized bowl.
2.  Add the feta cheese.
3.  Stack the mint leaves on top of each other.  Slice very thinly into ribbons, and then cut cross-wise again to make small bits of mint.  Add to the bowl.
4.  Stir well to combine all ingredients.  Cover & place into the refrigerator for at least one hour and up to overnight. 
5. Serve and enjoy.

Coconut-Orange-Cacao Nib Power Bites

If you’ve ever run an endurance race, climbed a mountain, backpacked up a long trail, competed in a triathlon…or gone to the gym straight from work, looked for snack after a day of power shopping, chances are good you’ve purchased some kind of packaged energy bar.  Some of them are decent, especially those I’ve seen more recently like the Raw bars and the Pure Bars.  Some were designed by athletes-turned-entrepreneurs, like the Clif Bar, who’s founder wrote a great story about how and why his company was founded, Raising the Bar – a book well worth reading.  Others, like Power Bar, though ubiquitous, always make me feel a bit put out and gloomy – as though I’ve gotten the short end of the stick and there’s nothing left to do but gnaw on the chewy end of a brown mass of unrecognizable ingredients.

After you’ve eaten your way through a formidable pile of these, though,  you can start to wonder if the price-value ratio is in line, or…if maybe you start playing with flavors and just make your own.  So I saved the wrapper on an energy bar recently and read the marketing text on the front and the back:  “dates and nuts.  that’s it” it proclaimed.

Hmmmm….dates and nuts….I have some of both hanging around the house, so off I rumbled to the kitchen once more to see what a bit of experimentation might yield.  Judging from the name, I’m guessing the Raw people don’t toast their cashews, but I like the flavor of toasted cashews, so that’s where I started.  And then, while the combination of dates and cashews sounded appealing by itself, so did the addition of a few other ingredients, so I tinkered and weighed and tasted and tasted and tasted….

Really, really nice.  I’ve been packing a few of these Power Bites to work every day for that energy slump that inevitably comes between lunch and the 5 PM “go-home” time.  I don’t know how many calories they have, but dates and cashews are both calorie dense, so don’t go too crazy with these if you are watching your waist line.  On the other hand, if you are heading out for a day of hiking, biking, running, whatever…pack the whole batch and share with your friends. You’ll all be happier at your destination.  Though I’ve gotta say, they are not bad with a cup of coffee either…just in case leaving home today is not in your plans.

Dead easy to make.  Disappear quickly.  Nothing dodgy. And you’ll be able to spell and pronounce every ingredient (though cacao vs. cocoa can twist your tongue and your mind).

Power Bites!  Come on, you know you want one.  Go ahead, make the inner athlete in you feel very, very happy.

And if you try them, please let me know what you think of them in the comments below.  I’d love feedback on these.

Coconut-Orange-Cacao Nib Power Bites

Coconut-Orange-Cacao Nib Power Bites

300 g / 10.5 oz pitted dates (I used Iranian dates; Medjool or other would work well too)
150 g / 5 oz cashews, toasted
25 g / 3 tablespoons cacao nibs*
zest of one organic orange**
25 g / 1/4 cup small, raw coconut flakes*

*25g = roughly 1 oz
** in a perfect world, all of the ingredients would be organic.  If you have to choose one, though, buy organic oranges to avoid the pesticides on the peel/zest.

Toast the cashews in a heavy pan or pot over high heat, shaking the pan regularly to make sure they don’t burn.  Alternatively, toast them in the oven at 200°C/400°F for 5 minutes or until lightly golden.   In either case, watch them closely so they don’t burn.  You want them just lightly toasted for added flavor, but not overly crunchy.  Remove from heat/oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pit your dates by slitting them lengthwise with a knife and removing and discarding the pit. Zest the orange into the bowl with the dates.

Pour the cashews into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the standard blade.  Place the lid on and process until the nuts are chopped very fine.  With the motor running, add the dates along with the orange zest, a little at a time.  Towards the end, you’ll need to stop the motor to scrape the very sticky mixture back down to the bottom toward the blade.  When the dates are all in and mostly incorporated, add the cacao nibs.  Process a few minutes more until dates are chopped small and the mixture looks mostly uniform.

Using a tablespoon or a small ice cream scoop (1-2 tablespoon size), scoop the mixture into round balls onto a plate or pan.  Once you’ve scooped out all of the mixture, roll each ball in coconut flakes, coating the entire outside.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature for as long as they last.

Note:  these are quite soft.  If you’d like them to be more firm, increase the quantity of cashews by 50 grams or so.  I did like that they were on the moist side, though – typically I need to chase energy bars down with a long drink of water – but these were a pleasure to eat, with or without a liquid accompaniment.

Makes 28 power bites.

Smoked Paprika and Chipotle White Bean Dip

Sometimes a woman just needs a good snack.  A few days ago, I had a loaf of corn pudding sourdough baking in the oven, pushing its fragrant fresh bread smells out past the kitchen and into the living room where I was trying to get stuff done.  It was clear that once the bread was out of the oven and cooling on the rack, some sampling would need to happen and I probably would need something to sample it with.

I had been planning to make a white bean soup for dinner, so the beans were already bubbling away on the stove top.  Meanwhile, I’d been distracted reading a story on London’s best brunches and noted that one of the recommended restaurants served white bean hummus as part of the brunch.  And so of course the wheels started turning in my head about how I too could whip up a batch of white bean hummus to go with my soon-to-be-ready corn pudding sourdough, and off I rumbled to the kitchen to get started.

The dish quickly turned from hummus to bean dip when I decided that the wonderful flavor of Tahini was not what I was in the mood for, and I decided to kick it up with some spices instead.

Go ahead, get started on this one.  If you plan ahead, you can soak & cook your own beans.  If that feels like too much bother, use canned beans, but I recommend warming the beans up in their juice on the stove so that the juices just begin to bubble, and the proceed with the recipe.  Best served warm.  With fresh bread.

Except there’s one more thing:  by the time the bean dip was done, the bread was still too hot to eat, so I spread the bean dip onto croutons I’d made from the previous batch of bread.  That was delicious.  So was the corn pudding bread with bean dip a little later in the day.  You really can’t go wrong with this, no matter what kind of bread receptacle you put it on.

Smoked Paprika and Chipotle White Bean Dip

Enjoy.

Smoked Paprika & Chipotle White Bean Dip

If you start with dried beans, the night before, combine in a bowl:
1 cup dried white beans 
3 cups cold water

The next morning, drain and rinse the beans, cover with about 1 inch of water in a pot.  Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer so the water just barely bubbles.  Simmer for 45 minutes and then add:

1 teaspoon table salt
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half

Continue simmering for 15 minutes.  The beans should be very tender.  If not, cook an additional 10 – 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.

If you start with canned beans, do this:
1 can of white beans – should equal about two cups, with liquid
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half

Pour beans into a pot, with liquid.  Add garlic cloves.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Proceed with recipe.

Pull out your food processor or blender.  Pour the beans and their liquid (if more than 1/2 liquid, reserve some and add later if needed) in the processor/blender bowl.  Process until the mixture is smooth, then add:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle
6 grinds fresh black pepper (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Process until the mixture is thoroughly combined.  Taste to see if you need more salt. Adjust as necessary. Tip out into a bowl and serve warm or at room temperature.  You can make this ahead and store in the refrigerator for up to a few days, and then warm it up slightly before serving.

Makes 2 cups.