Beluga Lentil Salad with Avocado, Apple and Summer Herbs

People, I have the salad for you and all of your summer expeditions!

It’s summer, so portable food is on my mind all of the time.  If we’re heading out the door for a day of adventure, I’m thinking about what we’re going to eat when we stop to take a lunch break.  I mean hey, a girl’s gotta eat, and I like my food to taste good no matter where I am.

When you’re packing food that’s going to be stuffed in a backpack or cooler and then hanging out and jostled for several hours before you sit down and eat it, you don’t want something that’s too fussy about temperature, nor something that’s going to fall apart.

A lunch of Beluga Lentil Salad with Avocado, Apple and Summer Herbs as the fog lifts

There’s another problem in the summer:  since we are on the go so much, I don’t keep the fridge full of ingredients, because chances are good that we won’t be home to eat them.  So on a recent weekend trek, while scrounging through the last dregs of raw ingredients in fridge, cupboard, and freezer, I came up with this salad that has since become a favorite.  It’s easy to make and can be served at room temperature or chilled, which means you can make it the day before and eat out of your fridge for lunch or dinner, or you can pack it in sealed container in your backpack, let it bounce along as you hike the trails out to the sea, and then dine al fresco watching the swans swim calmly and gracefully while the seagulls soar, dip, beg and squawk overhead.

Swans near Porkkalanniemi, Kirkkonummi, Finland

We took this picnic out to Porkkalanniemi, a natural reserve in Kirkkonummi on the edge of the sea about one hour’s drive from Helsinki.  There are 40 hectares of trails out there, and I would guess from the little green berries and bright flowers on the bilberry, raspberry, lingonberry and wild strawberry bushes, that those who like to forage will be well-rewarded in this area in a couple of weeks when everything is ripe.  If you want to take something to grill, there are covered grilling areas for public use.

Take a swimsuit and test the summer waters – it’s a lot warmer than it looks!

Time for a swim – Finnish summer at it’s finest!

If you are into bird watching, grab your binoculars and head out to the rocky shoreline of Porkkalanniemi – it’s a rewarding and peaceful place to watch your feathered friends at work and play.

Wild Roses bloom along the rocky shoreline

Back to the salad:  I used Beluga lentils here because they keep their shape when cooked and have a great texture and a beautiful color that looks good mixed in with the vegetables.  Apple adds a sweetness, Red Pepper a splash of color and flavor, Avocado a smoothness, and the mint and parsley add a summer freshness that plays well with the other flavors. The lemon juice and olive oil combine together to form a simple dressing with the added bonus of taking the biting edge off of the onion and preventing the apple and avocado from browning.

Take 20 minutes to make this salad, then head out the door for some more summer fun.  Let the good times roll.

Beluga Lentil Salad with Avocado, Apple and Summer Herbs

Beluga Lentil Salad with Avocado, Apple & Summer Herbs

In small pot combine:
1 cup Beluga lentils, rinsed
3 cups water
1/2 tsp salt. 

Bring to a boil; reduce to simmer; simmer 20 minutes, then drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.

In a medium sized bowl combine:
3/4 cup loosely packed parsley, chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
1 medium-sized red pepper, chopped
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 medium sweet, firm apple, chopped (fresh pineapple would be excellent as well)
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

Stir to combine and allow the mixture to rest while the lentils cook.  When the lentils are done, add them to the vegetable mixture and stir well to combine.

Serves 4.

Great for picnics, hikes and day trips.  Can be easily doubled or tripled.

Kicked-up ketchup goes really well with burgers, and with new potatoes too

Here’s what summer means to me:  Sun, warm weather, beach days, cabin days, lazy days, volleyball, hiking, kayaking, berry-picking, fresh garden vegetables, grilling, burgers, ketchup.

Ketchup.  A lot of you have a bottle of this stuff in your fridge this time of year, I would guess, particularly if you own a grill and ever choose to fire it up to grill up a burger.  Just in time for the Fourth of July celebrations in the USA, and before your summer grilling thrills are over, I bring you a new way to enjoy ketchup.  Make it yourself, and add a kick.

America’s, and perhaps the world’s favorite ketchup is Heinz.  As one of my favorite writers Malcolm Gladwell describes very well in his 2004 article for the New Yorker Magazine taste tests have shown that while people’s preferences differ on many types of food, for some reason, this isn’t true with Ketchup.  Most people prefer the same flavor in ketchup and studies have shown that this flavor is epitomized in a bottle of Heinz.  Further research has indicated that this is because of the level of umami in Heinz – the little extra something that satisfies the palate and keeps us dipping our french fries and slathering it on our burgers, sometimes eggs, occasionally potato chips (yes I’ve seen it – who am I to judge?  There are even ketchup-flavored potato chips available in some parts).

Kicked-up Ketchup and a summer burger

Ketchup has a wonderful and familiar flavor that is a part of summer for me.  I’ve used as part of a BBQ sauce for BBQ pork ribs as well as in the traditionally way to dress a beef burger.   And I’ve always used Heinz.  So why would I bother to make my own ketchup?   It’s just that I like to make my own food if possibly because I enjoy the fun of the challenge.  And I like to know what exactly goes into my food, and making my own allows me to choose organic over non, and honey over sugar, etc.

This time I started with tomato sauce, not raw tomatoes, and added an extra happy kick using chili flakes.  The hot bite here is noticeable, but not overwhelming, and becomes quite addictive after a few bites.  The sauce takes a while to cook down to the desired consistency, but requires very little attention, so it’s great to put on some evening after dinner while you enjoy some relaxing time and let this sauce bubble and do it’s thing for a couple of hours.  The recipe below makes 4 cups / 1 liter, which ought to last you a little way into the summer at least.  It will keep well in the fridge for 2-3 months.

If you don’t like the flavor or heat of chili, you can still enjoy this ketchup without the kick by reducing or omitting the chili flakes.  If you think this will make more ketchup than you need, feel free to cut the recipe in half.  As it is, it makes for a pretty addictive condiment.

You can judge for yourself if you like this stuff, or whether you prefer to stick to your bottle of Heinz.  As for me, I’ll be pulling out this jar to dress up burgers and fries all summer long.

Enjoy every delicious bite.  Add a little more Kicked-up Ketchup with a spoon.  Take another bite…

Kicked-up Ketchup

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 yellow onions, diced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 – 680g jars or 6 cups organic Tomato Passata or tomato sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon soy sauce, optional (preferably Tamari)
1/4 cup packed honey or brown sugar 
1 teaspoon ground coriander

In a medium, heavy-bottom pot, heat the olive oil and then add the garlic and onion.  Saute until the onions are translucent and tender – 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cover with a lid, but keep the lid ajar so that steam can escape.  You are trying to reduce the moisture in the pot so that you get a thick sauce, but the ketchup likes to splatter and the lid helps keep splattering to a minimum

Cook at a simmer for 90 min – 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches your desired consistency.  Taste.  Add more salt and pepper if desired.  Strain through a fine-mesh sieve or food mill to remove the chunks.  Store in glass containers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

Makes 4 cups / 1 liter.

Thyme Wild Mushroom Barley-sotto

I’ve been thinking a lot about acid lately.

We sat down for a lunch of this barley-sotto today, and while the flavor was nice, it felt like it needed just a little something to make it sing.  As much as I love the flavor of mushrooms, dishes that are mushroom-centric can seem a little muddy, especially those that cook for a long time.  JJ reminded me of my discussion with him about the importance of acid in food, and suggested we add a few drops of lemon juice.  That was it.  Perfect.

Acid’s role in balancing out a dish has been proven to me again and again in the kitchen as I am playing with food during recipe development.  Taste:  does it need more salt?  Taste again: more of a certain herb? more spice?  more pepper? It needs something…but I’m not sure what.   If this has ever happened to you, as it has to me hundreds of times, the chances are good that the missing component is acid.

I add acid to my borscht soup once the textures are perfect and just after I turn off the heat.  I use a mixture of lemon juice and red wine vinegar because I like the balance the combination these two acids provide against the otherwise heavy backdrop of cabbage, tomato, beets and beef.

I was making Asian Chicken Salad for a party the other day, and after tasting the dressing multiple times, I finally realized that it didn’t need more ginger or chili or sesame oil.  The missing ingredient was acid.  I added the juice of two limes and the dressing suddenly became 5-star.

I’ll add a bit of lemon juice to chicken noodle soup sometimes.  The cassoulet I made with Touluse Sausage didn’t taste right until I added lemon juice – the pre-acid version was simply too cloying.

Here are some other examples where acid enhances the flavor of your food:

• Papaya + lime
• Mango + lime
• Fish + lime or lemon & salt
• Avocado + lime or lemon and a little salt (especially important for Guacamole)
• Strawberries + balsamic vinegar
• Tomatoes + balsamic vinegar or salt & lemon juice
• Roasted root vegetables + red wine vinegar or tart orange juice
• Asian dishes with coconut milk + lemon or lime juice

Thyme Wild Mushroom Barley-sotto

Thyme Wild Mushroom Barley-sotto