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salad

Cucumber Salad with Greek Yogurt

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Adapted from the recipe by Taste of Home, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Serves: 8

Ingredients

*Ingredients

  • ½ cup plain Greek yogurt*
  • 3 Tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • pepper to taste
  • 4 medium cucumbers*, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 small sweet onion*, thinly sliced and separated into rings.

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk the yogurt, vinegar, sugar, and pepper until blended. Add cucumbers and onion. Toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered for at least 4 hours.

 

Notes: The original recipe calls for sour cream in place of yogurt.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

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Adapted from the recipe by Lisa Longley, featured in Simple Joy

Makes 6 servings

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

For Strawberry Spinach Salad

  • 10 ounces fresh baby spinach*
  • 1 quart strawberries*, quartered
  • 1/2 red onion*, sliced thin
  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 4 ounces goat cheese

For Balsamic Poppyseed Dressing

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup honey*
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
  • 1 tablespoon red onion*, minced

Instructions

To make the salad dressing

  • Combine all of the ingredients for the dressing in a mason jar.  Shake well until the honey is dissolved and the dressing is combined.

To Make the Salad

  • Combine all the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl.  Very lightly dress the salad right before serving, reserving the rest of the dressing on the side for people to add more.

Simple salads for spring

By

By Julia Howard 

 

Who’s ready for strawberries? How about the season’s first cool, fresh cucumbers? Crisp greens? Flavorful fennel? Every day, local farms harvest the freshest flavors of spring. So stroll through the pavilions of High Rock Park and fill your market basket because the culinary possibilities are endless!

 

The crisp sweetness of spring fruit and vegetables can be enjoyed as a main course or as a side dish, along with grass-fed beef, pork chops, farm-raised chicken, or a hearty mushroom main. And the best part of spring cooking is the simplicity. Minimal effort is required to make flavors sing; the bulk is prepping the fruit and vegetables and putting them into a bowl.

Lovin’ Mama Farm (fennel), photo provided

In creating a balanced spring salad, tasting is required to ensure the flavors are balanced with an acid, like tangy citrus or vinegar, and then seasoned with salt and pepper taste. Sweetness is optional; if desired, honey and maple syrup are excellent options. However, dressings can be as simple as local Greek yogurt or olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

 

Fresh herbs are ideal in uncooked foods; their flavors brighten and elevate fruits and vegetable combinations in spring salads. Parsley, chives, basil, and dill can often be used interchangeably. Mint lends a distinctive flavor depending on the salad.

Now let’s talk about spring’s fruit and vegetable stars available at the Wednesday and Saturday markets – winning combinations for salads. Strawberries, greens (from spinach to bok choy to lettuce mix), beets, radishes, fennel, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, and even the last of spring’s asparagus.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open on Wednesdays from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at High Rock Park in downtown Saratoga. Find us online at www.saratogafarmersmarket.org, where you can sign up for our weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @SaratogaFarmersMarket.

Farmers’ Market Green Salad

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Adapted from the recipe featured in Cook’s Illustrated and shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Ingredients

*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

For the Salad’s Base:

  • A handful of mesclun leaves*
  • A handful of arugula*
  • A handful of mustard greens*
  • Add herbs such as parsley*, basil*, dill*, or other favorites*

For the Croutons:

  • 5 cups of ¾ inch bread cubes from ciabatta or crusty rustic loaf*
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ teaspoon table salt
  • ¼ cup olive oil

For the Vinaigrette:

  • 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1½ teaspoons very finely minced shallot*
  • ½ teaspoon mayonnaise
  • ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ⅛ teaspoon table salt
  • 3 Tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

  1. For the salad: Toss greens together in a large bowl.
  2. For the croutons: Place bread cubes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with water and salt. Toss, squeezing gently so the bread absorbs water. Heat olive oil and soaked bread cubes in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until browned and crisp, 7 to 10 minutes
  3. For the vinaigrette: Combine vinegar, shallot, mayonnaise, mustard, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk until mixture looks milky and no lumps of mayonnaise remain. Whisking constantly, very slowly drizzle oil into vinegar mixture. If pools of oil are gathering on the surface as you whisk, stop the addition of oil and whisk the mixture well to combine, then resume whisking in oil in a slow stream. The mixture should be glossy and slightly thickened with no pools of oil on the surface.

Notes

  • Season croutons with favorite dried herbs and spices.
  • Top with microgreens, veggies, fruit, crumbly cheese, seeds, or nuts.

Pizza That’s All About Spring

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By Himanee Gupta

 

A few weeks ago, an e-mail from The New York Times’ Cooking newsletter was headlined, “The best pizza topping is salad.” It featured a recipe for a simple green and white pizza made with either homemade or store-bought dough, mozzarella cheese, and that early spring favorite – pea shoots.

It looked delicious, and it affirmed the fact that a little imagination and a trip to the Wednesday or Saturday Saratoga Farmers’ Markets could produce a pizza topped with salads even better than that.

Burger’s Market Garden, photo by Graciela Colston (herbs)

I spent the winter baking bread made from a sourdough starter I had procured from a farm in the Adirondacks last fall. At this time of year, I start hungering for homemade pizza, so I decided to turn some of my starter into pizza dough and to top the pizza with the early greens and dainty fresh vegetables that are starting to show up at the market in farmers’ stalls.

For that pizza, I began by pre-heating a cast-iron skillet in my oven to 500F degrees. A pizza stone will work just as well. While the oven heated, I stretched the dough I had prepared earlier onto a piece of parchment paper, and then let my imagination go.

Leaning Birch, photo by Graciela Colston

I started with a brushing of olive oil, and then a layer of chopped green garlic from my farm Squash Villa. Over that came a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese and then a salad mix from the Gomez Veggie Ville that included baby kale and spinach leaves. I had a jar of pickled vegetables from Puckers Gourmet Pickles that included some bell pepper slices so I fished those out and added them on along with some sautéed oyster mushrooms from The Mushroom Shop, LLC and sliced radishes from Lovin’ Mama Farm. I added another layer of mozzarella cheese, and then some topped arugula, and a bit of parmesan cheese on top. I then slid the pizza, parchment, and all, into the hot pan and let it bake for about 12 minutes.

The Mushroom Shop, photo by Graciela Colston

The result was a pizza that tasted like spring: crisp, nutty, mildly spicy, fresh, good, and green.

Spring in Saratoga is about those words – fresh, good, and green. At farmers’ markets, we bask in that freshness with an abundance of small seasonal wonders. If you’re looking for peppers, tomatoes, sweet onions, or zucchini, wait a bit longer. But now is the perfect time to create your own salad-topped pizzas with the types of produce that are in season from now through late May such as ramps, green garlic, and chives. Blend these aromatic alliums with roasted carrots, beets, radishes, and Hakurei turnips and spread them over a simple store-bought or homemade pizza dough. For an added boost of flavor, roll the dough through a mix of perennial herbs like sage, thyme, oregano, and rosemary whose first sprigs are now being clipped and brought to market from overwintered plants. And try a sprinkling of lemony sorrel or nutty arugula on top. 

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. at High Rock Park in downtown Saratoga Springs. Find us online at saratogafarmersmarket.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

Chicken Spinach Salad with Butternut Squash

By

Recipe by The Roasted Root, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the Vinaigrette:

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 3 Tablespoons cider vinegar*
  • 1 Tablespoon honey*
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the chicken and butternut squash:

  • 1 pound boneless chicken tenders or breasts*
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 2 cups butternut squash*, peeled and chopped
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the Salad:

  • 5 ounces of fresh baby spinach*
  • ½ cup raw pecan halves
  • ¼ cup golden raisins
  • 1 large green apple*, cored and sliced

Instructions

  1. For the vinaigrette: Whisk all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a small bowl until smooth.
  2. For the chicken and butternut squash: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Place chicken in a casserole dish. Drizzle with 1 Tablespoon olive oil, and sprinkle with oregano, and paprika. Place the squash on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Roast the squash and chicken in the oven for 25 minutes or until the squash is tender and golden brown. Continue to cook the chicken until cooked through.
  3. For the Salad: Place spinach in a bowl or on individual plates. Top with pecans, raisins, squash, chicken, and apples. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad.

 

*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market