When friends gave me some leftover cooked salmon to take home after a picnic get-together, I couldn’t wait to see what I could come up with to serve the following evening. I could have made Salmon Cakes or Salmon, Bacon, and Corn Chowder, both on this site, and mighty delicious I might add, but I decided to go on line for inspiration. (Plus I was really in the mood for pasta!)

There were an amazing amount of pasta with salmon recipes on the internet. So I took a suggestion or two from other recipes, then settled on this modified version of a recipe on The Cooking Jar site. Farah’s original recipe somehow resonated with me immediately. The first thing that caught my eye was the short number of ingredients. Good grief! I hadn’t made anything for dinner as simple and quick to prepare as this dish appeared to be in a very long time. Plus, I had all the ingredients on hand. Always a plus. And no cream, tons of butter, or other ingredients that would have laid their typical guilt trip on me. (OK, I felt slightly remorseful about the pasta part, but not enough to make me change my mind.) So the changes I made were simply amounts, the addition of peas, and the assembly of the dish.

And the result? Really, really tasty. I didn’t miss a creamy sauce in the least. Neither did Mr. C. We both just loved the heck out of it.

And yesterday for lunch, we enjoyed the dish right out of the refrigerator. It made a killer pasta salad. Still lots of flavor without the fuss of gently warming it in the microwave. Of course you can warm your leftovers (if there are any), but that’s strictly a personal decision.

So if you ever find yourself with leftover salmon, let me recommend this recipe. It’s truly delightful.

• 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• zest of one good sized lemon
• 2-3 T. fresh lemon juice
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 T. drained capers
• 1/3-½ c. chopped fresh basil
• 8 oz. hollow pasta such as cavatappi, rigatoni, or penne – cooked al dente and drained
• ½ c. room temperature frozen petite peas (don’t cook the peas, just bring them to room temp.)
• ½ lb. cooked* salmon, cut or flaked into bite sized pieces and gently warmed
• ½ c. finely grated Parmesan cheese

Whisk the olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice together in a serving bowl. Add the salt, pepper, capers, and basil. Toss in the freshly cooked and drained pasta, room temperature, un-cooked peas, and warmed leftover salmon pieces. Adjust seasoning. Serve warm, room temperature, or cold. Your choice. Pass the Parmesan at table. 

*If you don’t happen to have any leftover salmon, you can always bake some prior to making this dish. The following recipe for Oven-Roasted Salmon would work perfectly.

OVEN ROASTED SALMON (from American Test Kitchen)

• ½ lb. thickest possible salmon fillet, skin on one side
• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Cut off any whitish, fatty portion along the edges of the salmon. Pull out any bones. (I use a pair of tweezers for this purpose.) Cut the salmon fillet into two pieces of equal size.

Make four or five shallow slashes along the skin side of each piece of fish, being careful not to cut into the flesh.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place a small rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Rub the top of each fillet evenly with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove baking sheet. Carefully and quickly place salmon skin-side down on the baking sheet. Place in oven and roast until centers of thickest part of fillets register 125 degrees when inserted with an instant-read thermometer, about 9 to 13 minutes. (Check after 7 minutes if the salmon pieces are thin.)

Ok, I’ll say it again, I love good coleslaw. I may even make it my new mission in life to go around the area and hand out a couple decent coleslaw recipes to restaurant chefs/cooks who apparently haven’t a clue how to prepare coleslaw as a culinary delight rather than a raw cabbage fright!

What the heck is preventing these otherwise excellent cooks from lifting the common green cabbage to the lofty position it so richly deserves? My guess. They don’t like coleslaw themselves. And who can truly blame them. So much of the coleslaw served commercially is merely grated cruciferous veggies tossed with a bit of mayonnaise and nary another ingredient. It seems to be served on every fish and chips platter merely to add a little color to an otherwise boring looking serving of brown fried fish and brown French fried potatoes. (BTW – I love fish and chips, so no offense to that beloved twosome!)

So my challenge to restaurant cooks in my area is going to be – dare to be different! Make your coleslaw delicious. Raise the bar for the other restaurants in the area. Rejoice when customers tell you that the coleslaw they just ate was the best they ever tasted and that they can hardly wait to come back for more! Make coleslaw worthy of being served with fabulous fish and dreamy fries.

Ok, I’ll get down off my high horse now, and get on with this recipe. (Sometimes I just can’t help myself. But good grief – how hard is it to make a decent coleslaw?)

Anyway – this is another recipe for great coleslaw. (Several already on this site.) Hope you enjoy it. (Based on a recipe from Epicurious.) I’m off to ask Mr. C. to make me a martini! Its’ got to be 5:00 somewhere………   

• 2/3 c. mayonnaise
• 2 T. distilled white vinegar
• 2-3 tsp. prepared white horseradish (start with 2 teaspoons)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp. celery seeds
• 3 T. minced dill pickle
• 2 T. pickle brine
• ¼ c. minced red onion
• ½ small green cabbage, finely shredded
• ½ red cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 lg. carrots, grated (I pat the grated carrots as dry as possible with paper towels before combining with the other ingredients.)

Whisk together the mayonnaise, vinegar, horseradish, sugar, salt, pepper, celery seeds, minced dill pickle, pickle brine, and red onion. Taste and adjust seasoning. (Can be made ahead. If making ahead, don’t add the red onion until you add the dressing to the cabbage, etc.)

Combine the green cabbage, red cabbage, and grated carrots. Toss with enough dressing to moisten all the veggies. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Can be held in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving.)  

Now, not just everyone loves radishes. But we do, so I thought I would try this salad that I found on the Genius Kitchen site. And I am so glad I did. I tweaked the amounts a little, but didn’t add or delete a single ingredient. And oh what a refreshing change from the typical salad I serve. No lettuce, no fancy dressing; just a perfect blend of vinegar, oil, herbs, and spices. And easy to build? Absolutely.

According to Wikipedia, “The radish (Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus) is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae  family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, being mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable.”

Dr. Mercola on the Food Facts website states that “Radishes are a favorite vegetable all over the planet. They contain significant amounts of vitamin C and several other vitamins and minerals, and a few not-so-familiar phytochemicals such as indoles, which detoxify, and the powerful antioxidant flavonoids zeaxanthin, lutein, and beta carotene.

Radishes also contain an important isothiocyanate antioxidant compound called sulforaphane, a proven cancer fighter. They remove bilirubin from the liver, preventing jaundice, and perform other healthful tasks like purifying kidney and urinary systems, regulating blood pressure, relieving congestion, and preventing respiratory problems such as asthma or bronchitis.”

So the next time you need a crunchy addition to your menu (and when don’t we need as much crunch as we can get), give this healthy, easy to prepare, economical, and delicious salad a try. We love it and hope you will too.

• 1 T. white wine vinegar 
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. caraway seed
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano 
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¼ tsp. sugar 
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt 
• freshly ground black pepper 
• 2 bunches radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced

In a salad bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, caraway seed, oregano, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper. Toss in the radishes. Adjust seasoning. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

For our last home pre-concert meal, I decided that roasted veggies would be a lovely addition. But after the whole menu was set I realized that there wasn’t one ounce of crisp in the entire meal. Wrong. Just wrong. On several levels. So I thought about the roasted veggies and what I could do to give them some crunch. So I looked up roasted veggie salad recipes on the internet. And I found all kinds of recipes for salads with roasted vegetables. Lovely! So I perused a few and came up with this assortment of ingredients based on Tori Avey’s recipe for Grilled Vegetable Salad. (Thank you Tori.)

Now I realize romaine isn’t all that crisp, but it is better than no crisp, so in it went. I didn’t know how roasted and raw veggies would work together, but this combination seemed to be meant for each other. (And yes I know, cooked beets are frequently used in fresh salads. But you have to remember, I’m getting older. Sometimes it takes me awhile to put 2 and 2 together!)

But whatever, this salad was very well received, and I plan to try more combinations of cooked and raw ingredients.

And speaking of cooked beets in a salad, give my Beets in a Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette or Remolacha a try. Both are a delicious way to feature the amazing Beta vulgaris. Happy munching.

Dressing:

• 2 T. fresh lemon juice
• 1 T. mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. honey
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ c. extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl or container. Whisk or shake until smooth, creamy, and emulsified. Set aside or refrigerate, if making ahead.

Salad:

• 1 medium zucchini, cut into bite sized chunks
• 1 medium yellow squash, cut into bite sized chunks
• 1 bunch asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch lengths on the diagonal
• 1 orange pepper, cut into bite sized chunks
• ½ red onion, cut in half and then into thin quarter slices
• 2-3 c. frozen corn, defrosted and laid out on paper towels to dry
• extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 4 c. chopped romaine lettuce
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• ½ c. chopped fresh basil leaves

Place the zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus on a large rimmed baking sheet.  Drizzle the veggies with just enough olive oil to moisten; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in a pre-heated 425 degree oven (convection if you have the option) for about 15 minutes or until fork tender. Remove the veggies from pan and allow to cool in a salad bowl.

Place the orange bell pepper and onion on the same pan, drizzle with just enough olive oil to moisten; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 10 minutes or until fork tender. Remove the veggies from pan and allow to cool with the other veggies.

Place the corn on the same pan, drizzle with just enough olive oil to moisten; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 8 minutes or until some of the kernels are turning light brown. Remove the corn from pan and allow to cool with the other veggies.

When all the veggies are room temperature, add the romaine, cherry tomato halves, and cut basil leaves to the salad bowl. Toss the salad with just enough dressing to thoroughly coat all the ingredients. Serve immediately.

Please note: You can make the dressing and roast the veggies ahead of time and store in the refrigerator. Before you plan to serve the salad, remove the dressing and roasted veggies from the fridge. Allow enough time for both the dressing and veggies to come to room temperature.