This Ultimate Chopped Salad became a staple in my diet when I moved part-time to Italy. I was trying to figure out a way to mix in a salad with my daily mealplan.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pasta and treats but too much of a good thing can be unhealthy. Most Italians don’t serve salad as a meal. It’s typically a side dish and served after the meal. In the U.S. we have plenty of salad-centric restaurants and a soup and salad or a sandwich and salad is considered a healthy and delicious meal. I don’t expect to find any salad bars around here! A U.S. supermarket will typically carry lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, and cucumbers but that’s not enough to sustain most of us as a primary meal. I decided to come up with something on my own.

For anyone who enjoys variety, I know that eating the exact same thing every day for lunch sounds awful. But women in the cast of the sitcom Friends did exactly this for a decade with one very special dish, which they nicknamed the “Jennifer Salad”.  We ate the same food: a “Jennifer Salad,” Courtney Cox explained as their daily lunch ritual for 10 years. Jennifer Aniston may not be eating salads with her castmates anymore, but the American actress changed her beloved salad recipe just a little bit. She calls it “My perfect salad – Bulgur, cucumbers, parsley, red onion, garbanzo beans, feta cheese, & pistachios,” she wrote in the accompanying caption.

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The Ultimate Chopped Salad

Course Entree

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 diced cucumbers.
• 1 15oz. can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained.
• half red onion thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley.
• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh mint.
• 1/2 cup cubed feta cheese.
• 1/2 cup quartered strawberries
• DRESSING
• 1/4 cup apricot balsamic vinegar or white balsamic
• 2 tbsp juice lemon or half juiced lemon
• 1/2 tbsp honey mustard
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

• Bring 1 ¾ cup of water to a boil. Add 1 cup of quinoa. Bring to a rolling boil, stir, turn the heat down to low and cover. Cook for 15 minutes covered. Turn off heat and let sit for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, open lid and fluff with a fork. Your quinoa should have absorbed all the water, if not, return to heat for a few more minutes. Uncover the pot. Stir the quinoa. Let the quinoa cool for at least 20 minutes until it’s room temperature. Separate what you need. Refrigerate the rest.
• Make the salad dressing. In a small glass container, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, the lemon juice, mustard, sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the extra virgin olive oil and whisk until the olive oil is emulsified into the dressing. Set aside.
• Peel and slice the cucumbers, peel and thin slice the red onions, chop the parsley and the mint.
• Cut the feta cheese into cubes and cut the strawberries into quarters.
• Mix all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Separate the amount of salad you are going to serve and pour some salad dressing over it until incorporated. Taste it. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like more dressing, add more. Otherwise reserve leftover dressing for the next salad.

The post The Ultimate Chopped Salad appeared first on My Global Cuisine.

I love salads. They are perfect when I’m in the mood for something a little lighter, or when I’m not in the mood to prepare an elaborate meal. I love the fact that you can just start adding ingredients and turn it into something unique. Add the right ingredients and you can transform your salad from a side dish into a complete meal.

The recipe for this Mixed Green Salad with Pear, Walnuts, and Feta came about in precisely this way. One night, I just didn’t feel like cooking so I started to rummage through the fridge to see if I could put together a healthy meal. I started taking everything out that looked interesting, and the next thing I knew, I was eating this beautiful salad.

After making the salad, it was just a matter of creating an accompanying salad dressing which also came together by mixing some ingredients in my pantry. The rest, as they say, is history.

I make this Mixed Green Salad with Pear, Walnuts, and Feta quite often. Sometimes I add grilled chicken or steak left over from the night before. It always delivers dinner in a flash.

If you are not a fan of feta cheese you could substitute with Blue or Gorgonzola cheese. If you don’t like pomegranate seeds or cannot find some at your local grocery store, you could substitute them with dried cranberries or raisins.

I hope this Mixed Green Salad with Pear, Walnuts, and Feta satisfies your palate and your hunger as much as it does mine. Enjoy!

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Pear Salad with Walnuts and Feta

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 -4 servings

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• Dressing:
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Salad:
• 6 cups loosely packed mixed greens
• 2 pears washed, cored and sliced into eighths
• 1/2 cup candied walnuts halves
• 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup cubed feta cheese

Instructions

• SALAD DRESSING:
• In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, orange juice, honey, and sugar.
• While whisking, slowly add the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified.
• TO ASSEMBLE THE SALAD:
• Add the greens to a salad bowl and toss to coat with the dressing. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Divide the salad among 2 or 4 plates. Top with pear slices. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries and top with feta and walnut halves. Enjoy!

The post Mixed Green Salad with Pear, Walnuts, and Feta appeared first on My Global Cuisine.

This wonderful cookbook is written by my friend, chef and restaurant owner Ilson Goncalves. It contains traditional Brazilian recipes that are simple and full of flavor. If you are a fan of Brazilian cooking, I’m sure you will love his book. The book contains traditional Brazilian recipes showcasing Chef’s Ilson’s amazing creativity and perspective. Growing up in Brazil I sampled many of the dishes featured in this cookbook. My favorites are beef and chicken stroganoff, fried yuca, and codfish croquettes.

Today I am featuring his Baby Arugula, Mango and Caramelized Pistachio Salad. This salad is delicious and the colors will light up any table. It’s a great salad to serve as a side or you can add grilled shrimp and make it a complete wholesome meal.

Brazil is a tropical country and sweet mangos are readily available most of the year. Due to a strong global import/export market for mangos, most of you can also enjoy this Baby Arugula, Mango and Caramelized Pistachio salad at most times of the year. I love to make my own caramelized pistachios to use in this salad. I then use the leftovers as a topper on ice cream or to serve at a dinner party with dessert wine. You could also substitute the pistachios for caramelized walnuts or pecans. It will taste just as wonderful.

The version of the Baby Arugula, Mango and Caramelized Pistachio Salad posted here uses a different salad dressing than the one in Chef Ilson’s book. I wanted to pay tribute to this great salad and introduce my Apricot Vinaigrette which I find goes really well with this salad.

You can find Chef’s Ilson original Orange Vinaigrette recipe in his cookbook, which is available on Amazon.com or at his restaurant Samba Montclair in New Jersey. Enjoy!

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Baby Arugula, Mango and Caramelized Pistachio Salad

Course Salad

Cuisine Brazilian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 to 8 servings

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• 8 cups baby arugula washed and dried
• 2 ripe mangos peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 cup homemade caramelized pistachios or store bought
• APRICOT SALAD DRESSING
• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp apricot jam
• 1 Tsp honey mustard
• 1/2 cup extra virgen olive oil
• 1 Tsp superfine sugar
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 1/4 Tsp freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• If you wish to make the CARAMELIZED PISTACHIOS you will need a (nonstick vegetable oil spray), (1/2 cup sugar), (2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar), (1 1/2 cups whole pistachios) already included in the salad recipe.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a heavy rimmed baking sheet with foil. Spray foil with nonstick spray. Combine sugar and vinegar in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Add nuts; toss to coat. Transfer mixture to baking sheet.
• Bake until nuts are deep brown and syrup thickens and coats nuts, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheet. Break nuts apart. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)
• You could also substitute the pistachios for walnuts. This recipe was adapted from Bon Appetit.
• ********************************************************************************
• In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, apricot jam, honey mustard, sugar, and salt. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil until the salad dressing is emulsified.
• Place the arugula in a salad bowl and pour enough dressing on the salad to moisten. Plate the salads, add the mango and top with caramelized pistachios. Enjoy!
• This is Chef Ilson Goncalves salad recipe with Carla's original dressing.

Your comments mean a lot to me. If you like what you see, please leave a comment below. Thank you!

The post Baby Arugula, Mango and Caramelized Pistachio Salad appeared first on My Global Cuisine.

Having just completed my post on stuffed grape leaves, and craving for all things Middle Eastern, I thought it would be nice to do a post on Fattoush Salad. There is nothing more delicious or appetizing than a good Middle Eastern mezze. Seeing those bowls of hummus, babaganoush, tabouleh, kafta, spread out on a table while surrounded by family and friends is heartwarming. Fattoush Salad is a perfect addition sure to round out a great mezze.

I grew up in Sao Paulo surrounded by Lebanese people. The number of people living in Brazil of either full or partial Lebanese descent is estimated by the Brazilian and Lebanese governments to be around 7 million. Sao Paulo is host to the largest portion of these immigrants. Growing up, many of my friends of my friends were Lebanese and from the time I was young, I was exposed to this wonderful cuisine. During my travels, when I am in the mood for something other than the native cooking, I often seek out Middle Eastern food. For me, it reminds me of family and firends, and has become one of of my favorite cuisines.

Fattoush Salad is very easy to make, and is the perfect companion to your mezze or grilled meats. Since much of the Middle Eastern table contains flavorful meat and vegetable dishes, Fattoush Salad offers a welcome and lighter side to compliment those dishes.

I hope you enjoy making this Fattoush Salad. In the Middle Eastern tradition, be sure to make extra so that you can share it with your family and friends!

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Fattoush Salad

Course Salad

Cuisine Middle Eastern

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• 3 pieces toasted pita bread broken into 1 inch pieces
• 1 head romaine lettuce or purslane chopped or broke into pieces
• 3 medium size tomatoes cut into quarters
• 3 radishes stems removed, thinly sliced
• 1 small persian or english cucumber cut in half and sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped curly or flat leaf parsley
• 1 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup chopped scallion
• For the dressing:
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon of sumac - *available at Middle Eastern markets
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

Instructions

• Start by toasting the pita bread in a toaster oven until crisp and golden brown in color. Break the bread into 1 inch pieces. Seat aside.
• Make the salad dressing. Whisk together the lemon juice, the pomegranate molasses, the garlic, sugar, sumac, allspice, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and whisk until the olive oil is emulsified into the dressing. Set aside.
• In a large salad bowl, combine the lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, cucumber, parsley, mint and scallion.
• Just before serving, give dressing another quick whisk and start to pour over the salad slowly. Taste your salad and add more dressing and salt if necessary. Add the toasted pita bread and serve immediately. Enjoy!

The post Fattoush Salad appeared first on My Global Cuisine.

Mixed Green Salads are served in the US as a side dish, appetizer or main course. With everyone watching their waistlines these days, mixed green salads are often offered as a substitution for a starchy side. In Brasil, where I come from, they serve this salad along side your entree, but instead of offering you a dressing, the provide olive oil and vinegar and leave you are in charge of dressing your salad. There are many restaurants in the United States serving ONLY salad with a choice toppings. The choices are virtually unlimited and these establishments are typically packed with patrons.

For this recipe I chose to a variety of greens and arugula with boston lettuce, cucumbers, dried cranberries and grilled goat cheese as a protein. You could also add instead crumbled blue cheese, caramelized walnuts or pistachios. You could serve this delicious Mixed Green Salad on its own or as a meal on itself. If you make it a meal, you may wish to add grilled chicken, beef or shrimp. This salad is also great to serve at dinner parties, barbecues or other gatherings.

Now, lets talk about the salad dressing. What takes a Mixed Green Salad from good to great is the dressing. I would recommend you use a high quality extra virgin olive oil and a good balsamic vinegar. Compromising on the quality of these ingredients will definitely affect the flavor of your dressing. As you will see I also add a clove of garlic to help infuse the oil with flavor.

I hope you enjoy making this Mixed Green Salad for your family and friends. Bon Appetite!

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Mixed Green Salad

Course Salad

Cuisine Nouveau American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes minutes

Total Time 18 minutes minutes

Servings 6 to 8 servings

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• Mixed salad greens to serve 6 to 8 people
• 1 head of boston lettuce broken into pieces
• 3 small persian cucumbers peeled in stripes and sliced
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• Optional: Goat cheese
• For the salad dressing:
• 1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 2 TSP of good quality mustard
• 1 TSP of sugar
• 1/2 TSP of salt
• 1 large garlic clove cut in half
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• In a small glass container, whisk together the balsamic vinegar with the mustard, the sugar, the salt and the garlic clove.
• Add the extra virgin olive oil and whisk until the olive oil is emulsified into the dressing.
• Mix the salad greens and toppings. Dress lightly being sure to discard the garlic cloves from the mixture. Add the dressing slowly. It is better to add more if needed than to leave your salad swimming in dressing. You should add just enough dress to moisten the salad. Taste your salad. Add more dressing if necessary. You may also offer your guests fresh ground pepper.
• Serve on individual plates topped with broiled goat cheese. Before broiling your cheese. Freeze it for one hour and then cut into 1.5 inch slices. Broil until the top becomes golden brown. Watch carefully to ensure your goat cheese does not burn.

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This Authentic Tom Yum Goong Soup, also known in America as Tom Yam Kung, is a popular hot and sour shrimp soup in Thailand made with a blend of spicy and savory flavors, also made popular at many Thai restaurants around the world.

If you like spicy healthy soups this dish typically prepared with shrimp or chicken will have you at hello! The first time I tried Tom Yum Goong Soup, I am not sure I was even able to taste what I was eating! I was dining at a Thai restaurant in Amsterdam and I had a bad cold at the time. I was so congested that I hadn’t really tasted anything for days. I was seated at the bar, and I watched as the chef, a Thai woman in her 50’s working at an open kitchen, prepared the soup. She was brought over to the Nederland’s by the owner of the restaurant, who fell in love with her cooking while on vacation in Thailand.

The chef asked how spicy I wanted the soup and I told her, I don’t know, you decide. Well, she must have added a lot of chillies because my mouth was on fire afterwords and I was sweating like crazy. Surprisingly the next day the most amazing thing happened… I got up in the morning and my cold was gone! I don’t know if it was the chillies or all of the amazing antioxidants in the soup, but my cold was cured.

The next night, I went back to the restaurant and I told the chef that I was feeling great and that my cold had vanished. That evening I ordered two servings of the soup, and a curry dish to go along with it as an Entree. Ever since that first evening, this soup has had a special place in my heart. I could go on and on about how much I love this dish but I will let you be the judge. This recipe for Tom Yum Goong Soup recipe is an authentic recipe that I learned while at cooking school in Thailand. If you love Thai food as much as I do you will certainly appreciate the authenticity of this dish. Enjoy!

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Authentic Tom Yum Goong Soup

Course Soup

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• 2 cups of water or fish stock
• 1 lemongrass stalk - with the outermost leaf removed - sliced diagonally into 1 inch pieces
• 5 slices of galangal ginger about half inch each
• 5 kaffir lime leaves sliced in half
• 2 TSP Thai Chili Paste
• 10 medium sized prawns heads removed, peeled and deveined
• 1- 2 TBSP of fish sauce
• 2 TSP of sugar
• 3 TBSP of lime juice
• 1 cup straw mushrooms or any type of mushrooms- trim the stem off and cut into quarters
• 1 small tomato cut into quarters
• 2 TBSP of coconut milk
• 2 to 3 bird's eye chilies or more if you like it hot
• 1 TBSP of coriander leaves- cilantro leaves chopped
• 1 green onion cut into quarters

Instructions

• - Pour stock into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.
• - Add the lemongrass, the galangal ginger, the kaffir lime leaves and the chilli paste, and allow to simmer between 1 and 2 minutes
• - Add the prawns, the fish sauce, the sugar, the lime juice, and simmer for two minutes.
• - Add the mushrooms, the tomato, the coconut milk, the bird's eye chilies and simmer for another minute
• - Add the coriander leaves or cilantro leaves, the green onions and turn off the heat.
• - Taste the soup and adjust the flavors. You may add more lime juice, fish sauce or chilies if needed. Taste and serve.

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To say that Split Soup originated from The Netherlands would not be accurate of my part, since this soup is a part of the cuisine of many cultures, but for this post I would like to focus on my favorite one, Split Pea Soup (Erwtensoep) from the Nederlands. When I lived in Holland, and I was on a student budget, I used to rely on this wonderful soup all the time. They sell it everywhere there, at the food markets, food trucks, and at the restaurants. It was feeling, comforting and cheap. I still love it, up until today, but now chosing to make mostly in the winter months. There are many versions of Split Pea Soup out there, but this is by far my favorite one. It consists of using different cuts of pork, celery stalk, onions, and leeks.

This soup which is traditionally eaten during the winter, is emblematic of Dutch cuisine. This soup is a meal in itself and needs no further accompaniment other than slices of your prefered bread. I hope you are willing to give this wonderful Dutch Split Soup a try, and that it becomes a staple at your kitchen as well.

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Split Pea Soup

Cuisine Dutch

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author My Global Cuisine

Ingredients

• 2 Lt 8 cups of water
• 500 g - 1 pound dried split green peas
• 500 g - 1 1/2 pound piece of pork shoulder including bone
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 cloves
• 1 cup medium- diced carrots
• 1 1/4 cups diced onions
• 1 cup medium-diced celery
• 1 cup sliced leeks
• 250 g- 1/2 pound smoked sausage
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Put the water, split peas, pork shoulder, bay leave, thyme and cloves into a large pan and bring to boil.
• Remove any scum which rises to the surface.
• Cover the pan and stirring occasionally, simmer for 45 minutes or until peas have cooked to a puree.
• Peel and chop the carrots, onions, celery, slice and wash the leeks.
• Lift the pork shoulder out of the soup, cut the meat into small pieces, discard the bone and return the meat to the soup with the smoked sausage (in one piece) and all the vegetables. Cook gently for about 30 minutes. Remove the pork shoulder and slice the sausage. Set aside.
• Return to the soup. With an immersion hand blender, blend the soup to a smooth cream consistency.
• Add the sausage and the pork shoulder back to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Cook soup for another 5 minutes on a low fire.
• Serve soup accompanied by your favorite bread.

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