Garbanzo Bean "tuna" Salad

I'm back to my whatever I can smear on a cracker phase. For years I was a huge tuna salad eater. It was one of the first things my mom taught me to make and it was a quick and easy meal on my shoe string college budget. Then I learned about mercury poisoning, over fishing, dolphins in nets, you know the list and sought to drastically reduce my seafood consumption (or at least save it for really special sushi restaurant occasions, see Sushi Taro). While learning more about vegan and vegetarian alternatives, I stumbled across the approach of using macerated garbanzo beans (or chick peas as I've learned to call them on the East Coast) in lieu of tuna for a great "tuna" salad. The inspiration for this particular recipe came from Sticky Fingers former menu item the "tuna" melt. I don't know that I've fully recreated their amazing dish, but it's pretty close. As you can see above I usually pile the salad on a cracker along with some sliced up cherry tomatoes for a really delicious and filling lunch.

Garbanzo Bean "tuna" Salad
1 can garbanzo beans
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 tablespoons onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper
2 tablespoons mayonaise or veganaise

Combine garbanzo beans and carrots into a food processor and mash on high until it's a nice thoroughly mashed substance. Scoop mixture into a bowl and add diced celery and onion, mayo/vego, garlic powder, paprika, celery seed, salt and pepper. Mix with a fork until all the mayo/vego chunks have been thoroughly spread out. Serve with crackers, tortilla, chips, or make into a sandwich. Essentially do anything you'd do with tuna salad, enjoy!

Summer Salad with Potatoes and Avocado Dill Dressing

Adapted from Marie Simmons Fresh & Fast Vegetarian

Going with the creamy, but not-too-rich theme of the month, I want to share my new most favorite salad dressing in the world. Behold the wonder of Marie Simmons Avocado Dill dressing. It's in the same vein as tatziki, in that it's not overly heavy and would be a great dip for vegetables or a side sauce or drizzled on any protein. I discovered it as the dressing in her recipe for this beautiful summer salad that has enough potatoes to be a full meal by itself. It's not a quick throw together at the last minute type of deal, but look at how pretty it is! It's just as elegant an experience to eat it and peel through the layers with that amazing creamy dill dressing in every bite.

Summer Salad with Potatoes and Avocado Dill Dressing
Dressing:
1/2 avocado
3 tablespoons cup greek yogurt
1.5 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup dill, chopped
1/4 cup cucumbers, roughly chopped, seeds removed
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salad:
The rest of that cucumber, sliced
2 tomatoes sliced
1/2 pound potatoes (I used a combination of gold and purple yukons, which added some nice color)
1/4 cup onions sliced thin with a mandolin if available
1/4 cup radishes, sliced thin with a mandolin, again, if available
1/2 pound greens of your choice

Boil a pot of water and toss the potatoes in there to start cooking and then start making the dressing. Toss avocado, greek yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, and 1/4 cup of rough chopped cucumbers, and salt into food processor and blend until very creamy. Scoop it into a bowl and cover before setting in the fridge to chill. After the potatoes have softened (probably about 20 minutes of boiling depending on size), set them aside to cool as you prepare additional vegetables. Slice tomatoes and cucumbers into 1/2 slices and sprinkle with a hit of salt. Mandolin the onions and radishes, but make sure to leave the onions separate. The pretty presentation depends on the onions resting daintily on top.

After potatoes have cooled, slice them into 1/4 inch slices and set aside. Grab plates and you can start layering. Start spooning the dressing onto the plate and swirl in circles until it's about a inch away from the edges. Place the potatoes down directly in the dressing arranged in a circle before layering the tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes on top. Drizzle with a little more dressing before topping with the greens and thinly sliced onions and yet another drizzle of dressing. Serve immediately.

Mama L's Shrimp Avocado Dip

My boyfriend's mother is one of my favorite people in the world. She is my hero of home entertaining and manages to feed huge gatherings of people delicious food with little prep time and rarely, if ever, lets a sign of stress show through. Most importantly, she genuinely enjoys every minute of it. One of her signature

appetizers is this fail-safe crowd pleasing shrimp avocado dip. The ingredients are strikingly simple, but the creamy avocado blends with the cocktail sauce to make a truly interesting flavor that always surprises. I had a few people over to watch the World Cup final and no one could believe it cocktail sauce was such a prominent ingredient. Best of all it's super easy to prepare. I know the brownish shade is not the most of appetizing images, but it is so tasty, trust me!

Mama L's Shrimp Avocado Dip 

(serves about 8 as an appetizer)

4 medium to large size avocados, diced

1/2 pound of medium shrimp, cooked and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 small onion, diced

5 oz (1/2 a bottle) cocktail sauce

Mix all ingredients in a bowl mindful not to over stir and completely crush all of the avocado. Ideally a chip will pick up nice size bites of shrimp and avocado together. Chill for an hour before serving to help the flavors mix together. Serve with tortilla chips.

Clearly I'm really into shrimp and avocado combinations this summer. 

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Crostini

Adventures in to re-create the delicious things consumed in Spain and Portugal continues! This comes from an amazing Tapas Bar in Sevilla called Dos de Mayo. It is ranked as Trip Advisor's 31st of the 1400 restaurants in Sevilla, and I think it should be higher. The staff is incredibly friendly, it is HOPPIN at all hours of the night, and I couldn't stop staring at this adorable pair of sisters in their 80's making dirty jokes with the bartender. Needless to say I loved my experience there immensely, and, if you are ever in the area, you must go. In the interim, make their best tapa at home and enjoy a little slice of tapas españolas at home.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Crostini
2-3 slices of a large rustico loaf cut into 2 inch long pieces. I like mine on the thin side, but feel free to adjust.
1 small sweet yellow onion sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1.5 inch pieces of goat cheese to top the bread - I love cherry glen's monocacy ash and it was a dead ringer for whatever lovely goat cheese they used at Dos de Mayo.

Add butter to frying pan with onions and let simmer a minute or two before drizzling with olive oil. The trick to caramelizing is starting with a nice sizzling heat and then once they've started releasing some liquid, turning the heat down and letting them sit low and slow. Spread the onions out along the pan so they are all cooking nice and flat pressed against. Only stir as they start to brown to prevent any burning. I tend to turn them every 6 minutes or so. Once they are all a nice golden brown, turn off heat. Toast the crostinis and pull them out nice and hot. Add the cheese while the toast is still warm and top with still hot onions to get the cheese just a little melty before serving. Remember that even slightly imperfect caramelized onions are delicious, so don't stress too much about getting that perfect brown. I've still yet to achieve it, but have enjoyed every batch in my learning curve. 

Mango Shrimp Salad with Avocado

I'm eating the leftovers as we speak and it is so delicious, you guys! This blog hasn't been updated in a while since I was on vacation in Portugal and southern Spain. Every thing I ate was insane and I am so in tapas mode. I will probably spend the next several weeks, if not months, copying all of the things I loved there and the first up is this wonderful salad. I something very similar at a tapas bar in Cordoba and let me tell you that the better quality shrimps there make a huge difference. This was made with whole foods wild caught pink frozen shrimp and it just wasn't the same. That being said, it's still a refreshing summer salad and the perfect thing to eat on a hot day.

Mango Shrimp Salad with Avocado
12 - 15 shrimp depending on size (the fresher the better!), cooked and sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 mango, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 scallion, diced (white and green parts)
1/2 of one small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste, I used a pinch of pepper and a generous 3 tablespoons of salt
slices of 1/4 of an avocado, as garnish

Cook the shrimp and leave in the fridge to chill. Combine all ingredients except avocado in a bowl and mix. Add avocado to the top and sprinkle with a touch more salt. Enjoy!