Summer Thai Mango Salad w/ Asian Grilled Chicken

Summer Thai Mango Salad

This is a nice summer salad that I first had at a Thai restaurant on Yonge Street. Since then it's one of our "go-to" summer salads. We like to have it with asian marinated or spice-rubbed grilled chicken but it goes equally well with grilled shrimp, steak or pork chops.

You can't lose... it's a nice combo of sweet, tart and spice!

Ingredients

• 2 limes

• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 1 red Thai peppers (seeded and minced)

• 2 tablespoons peanut (or canola) oil

• 2 ripe but firm mangoes

• 1 red bell pepper

• 2 green onions (thinly sliced)

• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro (chopped)

• 1/4 cup fresh mint (chopped)

• 1/3 cup chopped peanuts (toasted)

• salt

Prep

Zest peel from 1 lime and place in a measuring cup along with 1/4 cup of lime juice.

Whisk in fish sauce, sugar, honey and thai pepper until sugar is dissolved.

Gradually whisk in peanut oil until blended.

Set dressing aside.

Peel mangoes, then cut away chunks of fruit from pits then, cut into thin strips (julienne, or use grater) and place in a large bowl.

Seed sweet pepper, cut into very thin strips and add to mangoes.

Add half of green onions, and cilantro. Toss gently until combined.

Add dressing and a pinch of salt, toss until mixed. Let sit for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Serve and sprinkle with nuts and remaining green onions.

Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad

If you're looking for something to do with that leftover BBQ chicken, why not make a Cobb Salad? It's a good excuse to use those perfect summer avocados and tomatoes, and it is low in fat and carbo's.

Cobb salad was created at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood. As with many "how this began stories" we don't know how much is actual fact, but here is the official story from the Brown Derby themselves:

"One night in 1937, Bob Cobb, then owner of The Brown Derby, prowled hungrily in his restaurant's kitchen for a snack. Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out this and that: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing. He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon -- swiped from a busy chef.

I use chopped smoked ham instead of bacon, and remove one or both of the egg yolks from the hard-boiled eggs to reduce the fat and calories.

Cobb Salad

Ingredients

• 3 slices smoked ham, diced

• 1 ripe avocado, split, pitted, and diced

• 2 ripe tomatoes, diced

• 2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped after yolk(s) removed

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 4 cups mesclun greens

• 2 cups cooked chicken

• 1/2 cup blue cheese

Directions

Dice the smoked ham, chicken, egg, tomatoes and avocado, seasoning them with salt and pepper, to taste, as you go. Mix the greens with your favorite balsamic vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing and layer them on the bottom of a plate. Top the mesclun greens with rows of smoked ham, chicken, egg, tomatoes and avocado, then scatter crumbled blue cheese on top. (Optional: you can also top the salad with crumbled bacon bits.)

Serve with some grilled french stick if you want some carbs.

Panzanella (Tuscan Bread Salad)

Tonight we made a delicious Tuscan Bread Salad. There are many variations of this salad, but mine sticks to the Italian cooking philosophy of "less is more" and using fresh, in-season quality ingredients. The bread for this salad is important... you need something with some chew (like a nice ciabatta) so the bread doesn't go soggy. We used a day-old crusty French stick, cubed it and put in in the oven to simulate the "3-day-old-bread" dryness.

My version of Panzanella contains seeded vine ripened tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil along with red wine vinegar, kalamata olives, capers and roasted red peppers. You can add sardines or anchovies to it if you're in a Sicilian mood. Click on the picture above to get a better idea of what it looks like.

Tuscan Bread Salad

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon drained capers

• 3 or 4 slices of ciabatta or other country-style white bread, 2 to3 days old

• 4 ripe tomatoes, cored and scored on the bottom

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 or 3 thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

• 1/2 cup drained roasted red bell pepper strips

• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved lengthwise

• Fresh basil sprigs, for garnish

Directions

Cut the bread into 2-inch slices and grill or broil, drizzling about 2 tablespoons of olive oil on both sides of the bread. Once grilled, cut or tear bread into 1 inch cubes and set aside.

Cut the tomatoes in quarters and scoop out the seeds. Cut the tomatoes into 1-inch cubes and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, vinegar, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the bread, tomatoes, capers and basil; toss to combine. Plate bread mixture, and arrange the roasted peppers and olives over the bread mixture. Let stand at room temperature for flavors to blend, at least 1 hour.

Garnish with the basil sprigs.

Sweet & Sour Striploin Kebabs and Mixed Greens with a Tangerine Lime Vinaigrette, Toasted Walnuts, Dried Cherries and Crumbled Blue Cheese

Here's a healthy low fat/low carb dinner for a weeknight that doesn't take a lot of effort to prepare. We baste the kebabs on the grill with a sweet and sour BBQ sauce to get them nice and sticky. The salad can be put together and plated prior to putting the kebabs on the grill - they'll only take 7 or 8 minutes.

Kebabs-

NY Striploin steaks trimmed of all fat and cut into thin 1" pieces

red onion

red, yellow and green pepper

your favorite steak seasoning

sweet BBQ sauce

Salad- toss together:

mixed greens

tangerine lime vinaigrette

toasted walnuts

crumbled blue cheese

sourdough croutons

dried cherries

The Oakville Salad

Asian Pear, Smoked Almond & Walnuts, Crumbled Blue Cheese in a Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette ... a.k.a. The Oakville Salad

I know the title is a mouthful, but I don't know what to call this salad. How about the "Oakville Salad"? Okay, sounds good.

We make variations of this salad all summer long. To us it's like having dessert with your dinner. Essentially, it's a mixed green salad with any fruit and nut combination, some savory cheese and a sweet/tangy vinaigrette.

For the Oakville Salad, I used almond and walnut that I had hickory smoked (I stash them in the freezer for safe-keeping), some diced Asian Pear, crumbled blue cheese and a vinaigrette made from raspberry balsamic vinegar. It's served here with a Cajun Rubbed Center-cut Chop. The heat of the Cajun rub is perfectly balanced by the creamy blue cheese and juicy crunch of the asian pear. Give it a try!