Category: Salad

Apple Celery Veggie Dip

Not surprisingly, I come from a family of excellent cooks. My aunt B. is one of them. With lots of daughters to help out in the kitchen, she’s got enough sous chefs to make each and every dish not only taste good, but look good too. All of her salads are chopped to perfection and served mezze-style for each of her guests. Her pastries, too, are a work of art, and worthy of any bakery.

The following recipe is one that aunt B. prepares for many family get-togethers. The apples add an unexpected burst of flavor, while the garlic adds a nice kick. Altogether, this dip is full of flavor and perfect on the side of crudites.

So instead of buying a bottle of french dressing, or whipping up a tired bowl of ketchup ‘n mayo, give this delicious dip a try at your next party.

Apple Celery Veggie Dip

2 cups mayonnaise
1/3 c water
4 cloves garlic
1 red apple, peeled and quartered
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tbsp mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Serve with crudites.

TIP: For a fun presentation, hollow out the inside of a red apple using a melon baller. Rub lemon juice over the apple so it does not turn brown. Clean a short stalk of celery with a lot of leaves and use it as the spoon.


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Stuffed Roasted Eggplants

With the chagim behind us, I think we can all use some light and healthy recipes for a while. While I’m transitioning to a low carb diet, I don’t want to feel hungry, and I definitely don’t want to feel deprived. For me, the trick is to spice it up, so that I’m not left with bland and boring bowls of salad. Preparing healthy recipes that are packed with flavor helps to curb my cravings and keep me satisfied. Which brings me to this recipe…

Fire-roasted eggplants are traditionally used to make chatzilim or babaganoush, but using them as a base for the Israeli salad really turns this dish into a complete meal. I like to smear roasted garlic hummus on the eggplant when it’s piping hot and then load it with Israeli salad, sprinkle some chickpeas all around, and finish it with a drizzle of tahini and olive oil. Feel free to load on your fixings of choice. Feta cheese works really well too!

It seems like every recipe book I open has a different recipe for Israeli salad. You’d think it impossible to come up with so many variations, it’s a salad after all. But that’s just the thing. Israeli salad is almost as diverse as the people who eat it. Some like its texture to be chunky, others tiny. Some load on the fresh herbs, others stare clear. Take my husband and I. He’s squarely a tomato & cucumber kind of guy. No onions, no herbs. Just 2 simple veggies, in a ratio of 2:1. Me? I’m not too picky. Leave out the cilantro and I’m good to go. Feel free to follow my basic recipe below, or create your own.

What’s your favorite way to prepare Israeli salad? Share it with me in the comments below!

Roasted Eggplants with Israeli Salad
1 eggplant
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
Israeli salad (recipe follows)
roasted chickpeas, optional
1/4 cup store-bought or homemade hummus
1/4 cup tahini
fresh parsley and lemon, for finishing
optional additions: falafel, shawarma, red cabbage salad, Israeli pickles, harissa

For the eggplants:

For optimum flavor, you can fire-roast the eggplants over an open flame on your stovetop. Because this is messy and time consuming, I prefer to broil them. To do this, cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place flesh-side down on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and and sprinkle with salt and broil on high on the top rack for 20-25 minutes, until skin is charred and the flesh is soft. Turn over and sprinkle flesh with salt (and pepper, if desired).

For Israeli salad:

2 plum tomatoes
1/2 english cucumber
1/2 red pepper
1/2 red onion
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh parsley, to taste

Method:

Finely dice tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onion. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley or chop finely and add to salad.

To plate, place 1/2 eggplant on a dish. Season with salt and pepper. Smear with hummus. Spoon Israeli salad onto eggplant, garnish with parsley and sprinkle on some roasted chickpeas. Drizzle with tahini and finish with a final squeeze of lemon.

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Couscous with Thyme & Honey Roasted Root Vegetables


I came up with this dish when thinking of how to incorporate some simanim as well as fall vegetables like beets, carrots and parsnips into the Rosh Hashana meal. These root vegetables complement each other really well, and the addition of honey and thyme really rounds out the dish. If you’d like, you can leave out the couscous altogether, but I like the texture and how it turns purple from the beets. In fact, my kids call this “purple couscous” and they eat it by the bowlful.

This salad incorporates 3 simanim, beets, carrots, and honey. Serve it with fish or meat.

>Beets are called Silka, which is similar to Siluk, meaning removal. We ask Hashem that our adversaries be removed.

>Carrots have a dual meaning. In Yiddish, they are called Meren, meaning to increase. We ask Hashem to increase our merits.

>In Hebrew, carrots are Gezer,  meaning decree. We ask Hashem to judge us positively.

>Honey (as well as carrots) is eaten because of its sweetness. We ask Hashem to bless us with a sweet new year.

Couscous with Tyme & Honey Roasted Carrots, Parsnips and Beets

2 cups Israeli couscous
olive oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
2 carrots, diced
2 parsnips, diced (woody core removed, if desired)
2 beets, diced
olive oil
honey
thyme (fresh sprigs or dried)
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt

Dressing:
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp orange juice
3 tbsp light olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 heaping tbsp orange marmalade
1/4 tsp dried thyme
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a sheet pan, drizzle beets, parsnips and carrots with olive oil, honey, thyme, kosher salt, and pepper. Roast in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until tender and browned around the edges.

For the couscous, add a drizzle of oil to a pan and toast until browned. In a separate pot, boil stock with salt added. Pour stock into pan with couscous and simmer for 8 minutes. Cool.

For the dressing, whisk or blend in a food processor until emulsified.

To prepare, add vegetables to cooled couscous (make sure it’s cool otherwise it will absorb all the dressing) and pour dressing over right before serving. Garnish with fresh thyme.

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Tuna Pasta Salad

I love to make this salad for lunch when I have leftover pasta in the fridge. It’s a definite upgrade from a tired tuna sandwich! It also makes a great one-dish lite dinner. Experiment with pasta shapes – kids love them! If you have different types of leftover pasta, you can even do a fun mix. Any shaped pasta works well. Try wheels, shells, bowties, rotini, or cavatappi (like I used here).

In this recipe, I use a mixture of corn, red peppers, onions and hearts of palm. Feel free to play around with different veggies, or use whatever you have available in the fridge. Peas, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, pickles, radishes, scallions and fresh dill are all good additions.

Tuna Pasta Salad

1/2 box shaped pasta
2 cans albacore tuna in water, drained (don’t flake, leave chunky)
1 11 oz. can corn niblets (do not drain)
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
4 hearts of palm, chopped
1/2 cup mayo (or more, if needed)
squirt of mustard, optional
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp garlic powder
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Method:

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and add to a bowl. Add tuna, corn (with liquid), peppers, onions and hearts of palm. Mix in mayo, mustard, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add more mayo, if needed, to make it creamy. Chill and serve.

NOTE: Using the liquid from the canned corn helps make the pasta salad creamy. I use the Green Giant corn niblets which use less water. If you are using a different company, and the corn comes packed in a lot of liquid, use only about 1/8 of a cup of the liquid.

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Chanale’s Salad


There are a lot of things I can’t remember about High School. Like which classroom I was in, where I sat, who most of my teachers were, and a lot of what I learnt! One of the clear memories I do have is associated with food. I imagine we all must have a special memory box that holds the tastes and smells of foods we have experienced. Why is it that those memories always seem to be poignantly embedded in our minds?

I never ate in the lunch room in high school. I always used lunch time to cram for the upcoming test, and noshed on rice cakes and carrots (maybe that’s why I can’t seem to swallow raw carrots anymore). There was one girl in my class who would eat in the classroom as well: Chana’le. Every day, she would come with the same carefully packed lunch – a bag of thinly sliced rommaine, a container of dressing, and a ziploc of thin chow mein noodles. Now you have to remember, those were the pre-shmorgasboard-of-shabbos-salad days, and I had never seen chow mein noodles put into a salad! By the time Chanale’s salad was mixed, she had a large audience around her. The stuff smelled so garlicky and yummy, everyone in the class would just drift over. She was always happy to share, and some were lucky enough to get a crunchy noodle from time to time.

I hadn’t thought of that salad in forever. Recently, something spiked the memory, and I decided to recreate it. It took a few tries, but I knew I had it right when one bite seemed to turn back time, and there I was in my high school uniform, getting a taste of Chanale’s salad!

This salad is so light and refreshing, it makes for a perfect summer meal with a side of protein. Or, if you like to serve lots of dips on Shabbos, you can serve a big bowl of this as your greens. If you are watching your diet, you can leave out the noodles (or just put a few), but it’s just not Chanale’s salad without it!

On a very serious note…It would be remiss of me not to make mention of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the Kletzky family. I think there are some forms of human suffering that are above and beyond all comprehension. There are no words, only tears. May the Kletzky family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim. And may Hashem, the ultimate protector, watch over us and our dear children. I, for one, am holding them closer tonight.

Chanale’s Salad

Rommaine lettuce
thin chow mein noodles

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup extra light olive oil

Method:

Clean lettuce and pat dry. Slice thinly. For dressing, mix all ingredients except for the olive oil. Add olive oil slowly, whisking until emulsified. Pour dressing over salad right before serving and top with chow mein noodles.

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