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Showing posts with label yogurt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yogurt. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Spoon Salad, Chickpeas and Wild Rice with Yogurt Sesame Sauce


A few years ago, I landed on Heidi Swanson's blog (101 Cookbooks) when I was looking for instruction on how to make yogurt and have found inspiration there, and in reading her cookbooks (Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Every Day) ever since. Her focus, is on "...natural, whole foods and ingredients - vegetarian recipes that are good for you, with the occasional sweet treat".

At the time I stumbled across her blog I knew I wanted to maintain my membership in the "I eat meat" club, but wanted to cut back and focus on produce and whole grains as the majority of what I eat. I was inspired by not so much the main part of the dish (which looks delicious), but the dressing in her post: Sesame Yogurt Pasta Salad. In turn, Ms. Swanson was inspired by one of Peter Berley's recipes in his book.

I've written on Spoon Salad previously - a combination of raw vegetables cut up so that you can eat it with a spoon - with a good 'refrigerator life' that I make on a weekly basis and mix with a variety of other vegetables, herbs, grains, nuts, beans, dairy, meat, fish and/or tofu. The creativity is in the dressings and 'mix-ins'. The base vegetables change somewhat by season. Every once in a while, I'll use it as a base for a speedy saute or stir fry. I just don't get tired of it.

I had Spoon Salad in the refrigerator along with cooked chickpeas and wild rice and enough 'mix-ins' (avocado and cilantro) to make a great lunch, and enough leftover dressing to take to my friend Lynn's house the next day as a dip for sesame crackers.

RECIPE: SPOON SALAD, CHICKPEAS, WILD RICE & SESAME YOGURT TAHINI SAUCE