Tuna, White Bean and Fennel Salad

Last Year's Post:  Curried Chicken Salad
Two Years Ago:    Chicken with Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice

Tuna and white beans are a time-honored Italian combination for a salad that usually also includes red onion and a lemony dressing.  I recently came across this recipe from the New York Times that includes the fresh flavor and crunch of fennel, which really appealed to me. I decided to adapt it by using canned tuna rather than fresh, and adding some kale to the fennel to make it even healthier.  You could certainly grill some fresh tuna in place of the canned tuna, but I love a good canned tuna salad on occasion and it makes things much simpler and faster.  My personal preference is a high-quality tuna canned in oil because I think tuna packed in water is bland.  I've also heard the tuna packed in pouches tastes fresh, but whichever way you go make sure it's the best tuna you can find.

The key to any great salad is to have a variety of flavors and textures.  This one has creamy beans, meaty tuna, crunchy fennel, tart red onion and bright lemon.  And it's extremely healthy as well, with high-quality protein from the tuna and beans, omega-3s, and all that dark green leafy goodness from the kale.  It's very easy to prepare - can you say no cooking?  (Perfect for a hot summer day...)  All you have to do is make the vinaigrette, chop a few things, and assemble. The recipe recommends serving the salad at room temperature, but the leftovers were just as good cold the next day and the salad keeps extremely well.  Leftovers would be great in a pita at work for lunch.

Have the salad for a light dinner on one of the first warm spring days with a glass of rose wine and imagine you're sitting on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean.  Ahhhhhh

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Tuna, White Bean and Fennel Salad

Serves 4

½ small red onion, diced

4 cups cooked cannellini or other white beans (or 2 cans of beans, rinsed and drained)

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 garlic cloves, pressed or grated

1 large fennel bulb

3-4 large leaves of Tuscan kale, washed, stripped from the stems and thinly cut crosswise

1 (5-6 oz) can tuna (preferably packed in oil), drained and flaked into chunks

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds

1 lemon, quartered, for garnish

Soak the diced onion in ice water for 10 minutes (this will tame its bite), then drain.  Drain the beans and put in a bowl.  Add a generous sprinkling of salt, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and the onions and stir.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss to coat.  Set aside.

To make the dressing, in a small bowl whisk together 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the lemon zest, garlic, a pinch of salt, and 3 tablespoons olive oil.  Set aside.

Cut the fennel tops off and reserve some fronds for garnish.  Cut the bulb in half and cut out the core, then cut crosswise into thin slices.  Add the fennel slices and kale to a bowl, then lightly salt and toss with just enough dressing to barely coat.

To assemble the salad, divide the fennel/kale mixture among 4 plates.  Top with the bean mixture and tuna flakes.  Drizzle a small amount of dressing over each salad, then garnish with parsley, fennel fronds, and lemon quarters.  Serve at room temperature.

Rosemary Chicken with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Last Year's Post:  Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Two Years Ago:    Benedictine Sandwiches

I paid a visit to a new international market in town today just to see what was there, since they tend to carry interesting and unusual foods.  In particular, I've found that international markets carry all sorts of produce that you can't find in normal grocery stores.  Case in point, I found some very cute little white beech mushrooms that I decided to add to this recipe.  Of course you can use any kind of wild mushrooms you want but I thought they added visual interest as well as taste and texture, and they're a cute garnish.

Having said that, the primary star of the show is the deep rich red wine mushroom sauce. Tremendous depth of flavor is added by soaking dried porcini mushrooms in hot broth, then adding both the reconstituted porcinis and their soaking liquid to the sauce.  Of course the bacon doesn't hurt, either.  The dish tastes like it came from France or Italy and was simmered for hours.

The original recipe called for grilling boneless skinless chicken thighs.  If it's cold outside and you don't want to grill, just grill the chicken on an indoor grill pan or saute in a regular fry pan.  You could also substitute boneless skinless chicken breasts or cutlets for the thighs, whichever you prefer.

Be sure to serve the chicken with mashed potatoes or pappardelle pasta to soak up all the delicious sauce.

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Rosemary Chicken with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Serves 4

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breast cutlets

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for for drizzling

Salt and pepper

3 stems fresh rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped

1 cup chicken stock

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

8 ounces cremini mushrooms (can also use other wild mushrooms or a mix), cleaned, stemmed and sliced

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup dry red wine

Heat an outdoor grill, grill pan or sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Drizzle chicken with oil, season with salt, pepper and rosemary.  Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through.  Remove from heat and let rest 5 minutes.

Place stock in a small saucepan and heat on high until hot but not boiling.  Add dried porcinis, stirring to make sure the mushrooms are submerged.  Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes to reconstitute the mushrooms.  Remove the mushrooms from the broth and chop.  Strain the broth through a paper towel over a sieve to remove any grit, then set the broth aside.

In a medium skillet, add 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  Add the bacon, garlic and shallot and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.  Add the cremini mushrooms to the pan and season with salt and pepper.  Sauté mushrooms for 10 minutes until browned.  Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Add red wine to the pan and stir for 1 minute to reduce and thicken the sauce.  Add reserved mushroom stock and porcinis to the pan and simmer 1-2 minutes longer to combine.

Add the cooked chicken back to the pan and spoon sauce over to re-warm the chicken pieces for a minute or two.  Serve chicken with sauce over the top.

Oat Nut Bars

Last Year's Post: Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken and Brown Rice Bowls
Two Years Ago:   Brazilian Burrito Bowls

The inspiration for this post started with golf, believe it or not.  I don't golf - I would actually pay money NOT to golf - but The Lawyer does.  He bought a giant box of Kirkland trail mix at Costco quite a while back to use as snacks while golfing, and he recently ran out.  Problem is, summer is coming up quickly and in Phoenix that means hot.  The trail mix contains M&Ms.  Can you say melted chocolate in the golf bag?  I had just watched a PBS show where Ellie Krieger, a noted nutritionist, made these power bars and said they were great for after a workout at the gym because you just throw a frozen one in your gym bag and it'll thaw by the time you're done.  That seemed perfect for golf in the summer.

This is a very healthy recipe with fiber, high-quality protein and natural sweeteners, but it's also delicious.  I made two tweaks to her recipe - I added some coconut, and I used a parchment cradle in the baking dish to make it easier to remove the bars.  All you do is put a piece of parchment in the bottom of the dish, with enough coming up two opposite sides that you can grasp it after baking to lift the bars out as one piece.  That makes it easier to cut them, but you could also cut them in the baking pan and take them out with a spatula if you don't want to do the parchment trick.

The bars are great for an after-school snack, a mid-morning or mid-afternoon boost at work, or after a workout.  And of course, golf.

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Oat Nut Bars

Makes 12 bars

Note: wrap individual bars in foil or cling wrap, put them all in a gallon bag in the freezer, and take one out as needed.  They thaw in about two hours at room temperature.

1 cup rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking oats)

¾ cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup maple syrup

1/3 cup plain, unsweetened applesauce

¼ cup canola or safflower oil

1 large egg

½ cup chopped dried cranberries

½ cup finely chopped walnuts

½ cup finely chopped skin-on almonds

½ cup unsalted sunflower seeds (or finely chopped other nuts)

1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut, optional

Preheat oven to 350d.  Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking oil spray.  (Tip: cut a piece of parchment paper the width of the bottom of the pan and long enough that the ends go up and over the sides of the pan, forming a cradle.  Place the parchment in the baking pan and spray lightly with cooking spray.  This will help you get the bars out of the pan later.)

Whisk together the oats, whole wheat flour, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.

In a larger bowl, lightly beat the egg, then add the maple syrup, applesauce, and oil and whisk until combined.   Stir in the oat mixture, then add the dried cranberries, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and coconut (optional) until evenly incorporated.

Spread the mixture in the pan; bake for about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely.  If you used a parchment cradle, grasp the sides of the parchment and gently lift the bars out whole before cutting.  If not, cut into 12 equal-sized bars before removing from the pan.

Per bar (without coconut):  250 cal, 15g total fat (2g saturated fat), 15mg chol, 60mg sodium, 26g carb, 3g fiber, 6g protein

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

Last Year's Post: Salmon Orzo Salad with Lemon and Pea Pods
Two Years Ago:  Manchego Cheese Quesadilla with Pepper Jam

Just because there aren't enough controversies going on in the world at the moment, allow me to add another: how to roast chickpeas.  I recently realized that there are a bunch of recipes out there with the goal of producing a nice, crisp snack, but they all vary - add olive oil before or after roasting?  how long to roast?  add spices before or after roasting?  etc. etc.

For my initial attempt which was to be a garnish on a middle eastern salad, I used the compromise approach of putting the olive oil and spices on the chickpeas midway through roasting, and I roasted them for 50 minutes as specified in the recipe.  The result was hard, crunchy chickpeas with burnt spices.  Yum.

So, I decided to get scientific and compared roasting with and without oil and for various time periods (both without spices, I learned that lesson already).  I also wanted to check on how crisp they were the next day, because one recipe suggested they lose crispness within hours.  I divided one can of chickpeas (which contained 240 chickpeas, by the way) into two camps:  add oil before roasting, and add oil after.

 For each of those two groups, I roasted equal amounts for 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes respectively.  The results are shown below - the chickpeas roasted with oil are on the bottom, and the ones roasted without are on the top.  From left to right, you can see the results after 20, 30 40 and 50 minutes.

Surprisingly, the addition of oil or not before roasting made no discernible difference in taste or texture.  The chickpeas roasted for 20 minutes changed texture slightly, but I wouldn't call them crisp.  And the ones roasted for 50 minutes were too dark and had a slightly burnt taste.  Both groups roasted for 30 and 40 minutes were crisp, although my personal preference leaned more toward the 30 minute batch.

So, then I added olive and salt to the 30 and 40 minute batches even if they had olive oil before roasting, because it's necessary to make spices stick.  All four tasted great.  And finally, I left them out overnight to test their texture in the morning, and all four remained crisp.  Success!

Having said all that, these crispy chickpeas are a great and healthy snack, and a wonderful garnish for all sorts of other dishes - salads and soups in particular.  You can change the flavor profile by changing the spices to suit any type of cuisine.  Have fun!

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Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

Makes about 1 cup

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

1-2 teaspoons spices or finely chopped herbs such as chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, rosemary, thyme, curry powder, etc.

Preheat oven to 400d.

Thoroughly rinse and drain the chickpeas, then spread out on a clean dishtowel and pat dry.  Remove any loose chickpea skins.  Spread the chickpeas in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes until light golden, stirring the chickpeas or shaking the pan every 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and drizzle with the olive oil, then add salt, pepper and your desired seasonings to taste.  Stir with a spoon to coat evenly, then let cool in a single layer.  When completely cool, store in an airtight container.