Chilled Green Bean Salad with Rosemary & Garlic Oil ♥

Today's summer salad recipe: Just in time for the summer's first green beans, a simple salad, nothing more than beans tossed in oil infused with rosemary and garlic but somehow, somehow so much more. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real". Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 or 2 points. Happiness Quotient 100.

Tis a magical thing, when summer and the first beans arrive on the same day, a sign that something just might be 'right' with the world. So it happened on June 21, the day of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere, what the Finns and other Scandinavians call 'Midsummer.' I wore a dress from Finland, I cooked my favorite Finnish recipes, especially the oh-so-lovely Finnish Summer Soup (kësakeitto) and a favorite fruit dessert I intend to make all summer long, just to sample all the variations.

But the beans, oh my, the beans. They'd been off the bush no more than 10 minutes by the time they plopped into the bubbling pot of water so the only thing fresher would be dusting them off right there amid the tomatoes (doing fine, thank you, especially the cherry tomatoes I'm so fond of) and onions and cabbage and pattypan squash and cucumber, then crunching right in to taste sun and the sky captured in a bit of greenness no longer than a finger. There we were with a Finnish feast and all we could think was, "Let's make a meal of the beans."

Mine is a northern soul but if these beans are a sign of the summer to come, bring it on.

REVIEWS
"... you are so right, the beans are so wonderful and delicious." ~ Sherry
"What a terrific dish! I've made it 3 times already!" ~ Anonymous
"Tried this dish last night. ... even my guest asked for the recipe." ~ Sparkling Mimi

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Weight Watchers Spinach Dip ♥

Today's healthy veggie dip recipe: My variation of the spinach dip from Weight Watchers. Just 1 point (Old Points) or 2 points (PointsPlus) and low carb too.

On warm summer nights, I love that 'gathering moment' before supper. The meat is on the grill, the salad waiting in the refrigerator. In hand is a glass of something cold and wet, occasionally what my sister Adanna calls an 'adult beverage'. These few minutes bridge the day's busy-ness and the evening's relaxation.

So during the summer, I make one homemade veggie dip after another, some quick concoction that will last a few days, one celery stick at a time. This is my adaptation of the Feta & Spinach Dip from Weight Watchers. I've modified it some, starting with 4X the spinach and substituting low-fat sour cream for non-fat sour cream, which I find too gloppy and sweet.

Feta cheese is a brilliant addition to cream-cheese based dips, adding both moisture and 'tang' that really revs up the flavor profile. It's also featured in this tzatziki-ish dip from Kitchen Parade, Cucumber Dip with Feta. If you like feta, you'll love these dips!

PORTION CONTROL for WEIGHT WATCHERS When we simply 'dip' into a common dip dish, it's easy to lose track of how many points we consume. To carefully track points, portion out however many points you've allowed into your own 'dipping' plate, then 'dip' to your heart's content!

REVIEWS
"This was delicious. I added chopped water chestnuts to make it more like the spinach dip recipe (full fat) I usually make." ~ Anonymous
"... tried your recipe and it was a fave amongst the guests." ~ Hummus

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Southwestern Potato Salad ♥ Weight Watchers Friendly Potato Salad

Today's recipe: A new take on potato salad, laced with southwestern-style flavors such as chipotle, lime and cilantro. Dramatically lightened with my new technique for mayonnaise-based salads, the addition of buttermilk. Weight Watchers, you'll love this potato salad, it adds up to just 1 or points, down from 4 points in the inspiring recipe.

Survey a potluck table and one ingredient will stand out: mayonnaise.

Potato salad. Cole slaw. Broccoli salad. Pasta salad. Seven-Layer Salad. So many favorite summer salads are dressed in mayonnaise. To my taste, this makes them all taste the same: like mayonnaise. To my taste, a mayonnaise dressing is too thick, too gloppy. Plus, we all know the calorie implications of heavy mayonnaise salads.

I loved the idea of a potato salad with southwestern flavors, I even thought about roasting some poblanos and roasting some corn, akin to Sweet Potato Salad with Roasted Poblano, Roasted Corn & Chipotle. (One reader made it over Memorial Day weekend and called it 'wonderful'!)

But instead, I decided to lighten the dressing. The recipe called for a cup of mayonnaise, I used only 1/3 cup of mayonnaise but then — this worked brilliantly — stirred in an equal measure of buttermilk. This made the dressing more liquid, so it would distribute more evenly. It also added 'tang' and removed some of that too-distinctive commercial mayonnaise taste. (Yes, I could have made my own mayonnaise. But ...) This is a technique I'll use again, for sure. UPDATE: And so I have, see the yummy Cold Shrimp in Creamy Dill Sauce with Capers!
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Asian Greens ♥ (How to Cook Fresh Greens with Asian-Style Taste)

An easy way to cook fresh greens (such as kohlrabi leaves, beet greens, chard, and other greens) and then season with Asian-style flavors. Low carb. Weight Watchers zero points or just one point. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

So maybe I should set up a challenge, "Never again throw away fresh greens".

We all know the drill, right? We love the fresh beets from the farmers market. We're enchanted by the perfect globes of kohlrabi in our CSA box. But the greens? The beet tops? The kohlrabi leaves? Not so much.

Last week, after making a big batch of Roasted Kohlrabi, I started to throw away the kohlrabi leaves – and then stopped myself, knowing that it was wasteful, financially and nutritionally. But what to make with kohlrabi leaves? I considered the technique from Greek Greens, my favorite way to cook greens when they're fresh, to hold for a day or two, then took inspiration from a recipe by Ivy Manning published on Culinate.

Yay – an Asian twist to cooking fresh greens! In fact, while I used the recipe for cooking kohlrabi leaves, I would recommend this simple technique for the many greens found in Asian markets.
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Warm Black-eyed Peas with Yogurt & Ginger ♥

Today's recipe: A side dish made with black-eyed peas and gentle spices, served warm.

It seems a sorry shame that black-eyed peas are relegated to New Year's fare. All the good fortune that black-eyed peas are supposed to deliver during the new year? We could use a little of that year-round, don't we think? What with the Gulf oil spill, the European financial crisis, home foreclosures, the battle forming along the U.S.-Mexico border, the continuing recession ... well, if all it takes is a few black-eyed peas to turn any one of those corners, to put just one behind us, I'm in.

This is a great little side dish, familiar ingredients mixed in an unfamiliar way. It's best served slightly warm but can be made ahead of time and then rewarmed, albeit gently. For a vegetarian entrée, I'd serve it with a yogurt sauce on the side, like the cilantro sauce in Veggie Burritos with Cilantro Sauce. If you'd like a black-eyed pea salad, one that can be made in advance and served cold or at room temperature, I recommend the very good Lucky Black-eyed Pea Salad published a couple of New Year's ago on Kitchen Parade.

REVIEWS
"I tried your warm black eyed peas and yogurt yesterday, delicious." ~ Betty

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Lemony Broccoli & Lemon Vinaigrette ♥ Recipes for an Easy Salad

Today's easy salad recipe: Think lemon on lemon, broccoli tops soaked in lemon juice atop lettuce dressed in a creamy lemon vinaigrette. Only two or three points for Weight Watchers and low-carb too. Simple and surprisingly substantial.

While visiting my father earlier this month, one objective was to provide Olga, his loving companion since my mother died, a 'vacation' from cooking and clean-up. Given the unseasonably warm temperatures and our light appetites, suppers were more about assembling salads than actual cooking.

This salad was a surprise hit, including for me, the cook. ;-) That first night, we added some leftover grilled meat to the salad plates (Note to Vegetarians) and found the meal surprisingly substantial: we ALL skipped dessert that night.

I've made it at home twice now since returning and am completely hooked on the simple combination of lemon on lemon. The broccoli tips soak up the lemon, the greens are dressed in a creamy lemon. I tried one version with asparagus but the spears just can't absorb the lemon flavor as well as the broccoli tops.

To my taste, the salad is more than a sum of its parts.
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Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie ♥ Two Recipes!

Today's smoothie recipes: Two ways to make smoothies from rhubarb and strawberries, one with raw rhubarb, another with a quick stove-top strawberry-rhubarb sauce.

Last week, I went dumpster-diving freezer-diving and spied one last bag of frozen rhubarb. Zip, zip, I worked up a couple of rhubarb smoothies starring one of spring's magical seasonal combinations, strawberries and rhubarb.

RAW RHUBARB For Smoothie Numbers One & Two, I used the rhubarb in its raw albeit wet and freezer-softened state. It had a tang, a sourness, that I especially liked, but some of rhubarb's natural stringiness survived the trip through the blender – not everyone would overlook this.

COOKED RHUBARB For Smoothie Numbers Three & Four, I cooked the rhubarb and strawberries together, letting their flavors meld, and sweeten, overnight before making the smoothies. The taste here is more like a traditional smoothie, fruity and sweet and well, yes, this is why they're called 'smoothies', smooth.

These recipes are so quick and easy that I'm adding them to a growing collection of easy summer recipes published all summer long in 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column, and now again in 2010. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

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