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Mediterranean Open-Faced Sandwich

Lately I have been kinda lazy… With lots of work and travel, I have not been the most creative in the kitchen, cooking from scratch for myself. For lunch or dinner, lots of sandwiches and snack foods. I know… not so good.

But I was training for a half marathon so I needed to get some good vegetarian protein in my diet especially for after my workouts. They help rebuild muscle when taken right after training. I sometimes turn to my trusted pretzels with hummus combination… or my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But I had gone to La Hacienda, a popular gourmet market and deli here in Puerto Rico and I had bought a garbanzo bean salad and this is what I came up with it… you can call it a pizza or an open-faced sandwich, but there’s no denying that you will certainly be adding “mouth-watering” and “addictive” to whichever name you choose.

OPEN-FACED MEDITERRANEAN SANDWICH

1 flat bread of your choice… I like FlatOut brand

½ cup of cooked garbanzo beans or garbanzo bean salad from La Hacienda

3 wedges of avocado

1 roma tomato, sliced

2 large handfuls of mesclun salad greens

Kosher Salt

Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This is just assembling…

Drizzle and spread some olive oil to the flat bread and toast it in the oven… I like my flat breads crispy. I use the toaster feature in Light.
Take the toasted flat bread from the oven and place the garbanzo bean salad and the avocado wedges and mash it all together with a fork trying to cover as much flatbread surface as possible. You can sprinkle a little salt, pepper and olive oil to the mixture while you’re mashing.
Place tomato slices over the mashed garbanzo/avocado mixture.
Place mesclun greens or even baby spinach over the tomato slices. Season salad greens with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Cut into pieces using a pizza cutter… I found it was easier than using a knife.

Tip: I found the mashing worked best than leaving the garbanzos and avocados in pieces… they would roll off the flat bread and I ended up eating more out of the plate with a fork than over the bread itself. So that’s why I recommend mashing…

Tags: #karmafree, avocado, flatbread, food, lettuce, mesclun greens, tomato, vegetarian, whole grain

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Categories main courses, sandwiches

A new Salad to start 2014

18 Feb

This was a post I should have written to publish early in January. Well, it’s already early in February and this will have to do.

This salad was part of our first KarmaFree Cooking class last December. And what’s different about a salad you should ask… well, besides trying to instill into people’s minds the importance of eating a large green raw salad every day, we wanted to introduce some new and different ingredients people might not use raw in a salad. Can you pick them out in this picture here???

Scroll down to see if you guessed right…

Raw pumpkin and raw beets… They’re usually eaten cooked, but these are sweet and delicious additions to any salad.

I know that all you folks who are going thru winter might not crave something cold and raw like salad when it’s cold outside… but eating a healthy portion of raw veggies each day will certainly keep the cold and doctors away.

Here are the components of our Salad:

Green leaf lettuce

Baby Spinach

Alfalfa Sprouts

Yellow Bell Pepper

Shredded Pumpkin

Shredded Carrots

Shredded Beet

Sliced Red Onion

Toss all the ingredients in your desired proportions together in a salad bowl. Dress with your favorite dressing. May we suggest a healthy serving of our Parsley Garlic Dressing.

Parsley Dressing…. GONE!!!!!

May your winter be pleasant and your salad bowl is always full.

Tags: alfalfa, beet, bell pepper, carrot, food, lettuce, onion, pumpkin, Salad, sprouts, vegetarian, yellow bell pepper

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Categories appetizers, Salad, side dishes

Caribbean Caprese Salad

16 Aug

To be honest… I was not going to blog about this. This was just the salad I had for lunch yesterday.

This was the order of events…

I am proud to say, I am friends in FaceBook with Top Chef Master Suvir Saran. We have friends in common and once I confused him with someone else because his face was familiar to me. Hello!!!! The mutual friend made me come to my senses and instead of him taking offense with my confussion, he friended me. And we’ve been “FaceBook Friends” ever since.

Suvir shared a picture of a delectable Caprese Salad yesterday in his page and I was inspired to have a Caprese Salad for lunch too. I had some avocado I do not want to go to waste and I added some to my salad. That’s it… that’s how this dish came to be.

Photo Courtesy of Chef Suvir Saran

Today, I shared my pic in Facebook, emulating Suvir’s move and there are so many Likes and compliments that I was urged to share here with you all. People want to learn to make this salad… so, here’s the non-recipe:

CARIBBEAN CAPRESE SALAD

Romaine Lettuce – 3 leaves, cut thinly into strips

About 10 GrapeTomatoes, halved

3 slices of Fresh Mozzarella – ripped into smaller pieces

2 wedges of avocado, cut small

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar – the best aged one you can find

Salt and Pepper to taste

Just assemble the veggies in a plate.
Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar over the veggies. Sprinkle with salt and pepper over salad.
Toss to combine as you eat it.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This was fresh, filling yet left me space to eat some mashed potatoes with broccoli. I know the combination sounds weird, but that’s my lunch menu for you.

Thanks Adela for encouraging me to share this… please, now PIN AWAY!!!! 😉

Tags: avocado, balsamic vinegar, food, fresh mozzarella, lettuce, romaine lettuce, tomato, vegetarian

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Salad

Asian Salad

25 May

What makes this salad Asian?? The vinegar…

Ume Plum Vinegar is something I learned to use in a cooking class I took with Diane Carlson, from the Conscious Gourmet. This vinegar is made from umeboshi plums, which are fermented and therefore salty and sour all at the same time. The vinegar made from these plums is also salty and sour.

When in a rush, I dress salads using this vinegar and I do not need to add nothing else but olive oil for a delicious, exotic salad dressing.

ASIAN SALAD

Your favorite mix of salad greens – lettuces, baby spinach, sprouts

Chopped tomatoes

Sliced cucumbers

Drizzle of ume plum vinegar

Drizzle of olive oil

In a salad bowl or even in your own dinner plate, mix together the salad components.
Drizzle a bit of olive oil and ume plum vinegar over the salad. Toss to combine and dress well.

That’s it… enjoy.

Tags: cucumber, food, lettuce, tomato, ume plum vinegar, vegetarian

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Categories Salad

Cielito Lindo

14 Dec

After my trip to Guadalajara recently, I was in a very Mexican vibe… I wanted to eat over and over again the flavors of Mexico I had just experienced.

Now during the Holidays, if you want to enjoy a “dip” or appetizer with a Mexican influence, you can prepare a Cielito Lindo. I’ve heard people called this a 7-layer dip. But in Puerto Rico we call it a Cielito Lindo… maybe because we’re not tied to a specific amount of layers of ingredients. And what’s cool about this, you can construct the layers as you prefer, including everything you love or deleting anything you don’t. I personally do not like refried beans, so I never include them, but if they’re your “thing”, go ahead and add a layer of them.

I made this version in a large ramekin, but you can adjust the quantities to fit the larger plate or tray you want to use.

CIELITO LINDO

4 oz of cream cheese, room temperature

2 tbs of your favorite Mexican salsa

½ cup of shredded cheddar – mixture of white and orange works great

¼ cup of shredded lettuce

¼ cup of tomatoes, chopped finely

1 tbs sour cream

Whole grain corn tortilla chips to accompany

This is more an assembly dish than a recipe…