Four Unique Flavors
Looking back on our meals of last week, yes this review is a smidge late, I fondly remember a lot of incredible flavors and the joy one feels when eating a favorite dish. We leaned into the healthy camp, indulged a little, and loved it all. Our dinners last week were unique and yummy. And I’d recommend every single one!
Let’s dig in…
Italian Chopped Salad
Recipe by Chris Morocco for Bon Appétit.
My favorite salads are ones that surprise me. Not a surprise in the traditional sense, I actually don’t love those (sorry, I’m jumpy), but a surprise in the flavor sense. I had an inkling that this dish would delicious, but I didn’t realize quite how well it would all go together. I guess I shouldn’t be that shocked; recipes from Bon Appétit rarely disappoint. And yet whenever we try a new salad (from any source), I’m always a bit tentative until my first bite.
This salad was excellent! I loved the blend of textures, salty, crunchy, and spicy flavors all twirled together; the salami and cheese really took it over the top. Crispy chickpeas are our forever-friend; they add protein and yum to everything. We threw a few pepperoncini peppers on top for a little extra zing. Feel free to leave those out, but I’d encourage including them. ;)
An Italian chopped salad that tasted as delicious as an Italian sub, but healthier, brighter, and honestly, more fun. I’m keeping this recipe close by; I know it will make another appearance on our dinner table soon.
Lemon Chicken with Garlic-Chile Oil and Roasted Cauliflower
Recipe by Melissa Clark for NY Times Cooking
My preference is to always be honest with all of you. And to be totally honest, my favorite part of this dinner was the roasted cauliflower. 😮 I didn’t completely dislike the chicken, but it wasn’t overly crave-worthy. Hey. I like to be honest.
The flavor of the chicken was really good! Lemon and capers and scrumptious garlic-Chile oil, it was all good, but I think I’d have liked the dish more if it had all been tossed with pasta. 😏 Lemon, capers, chicken, pasta… what a combo! But that wasn’t this dinner.
I drizzled the garlic-chile oil all over the cauliflower (yum) and did, in fact, eat some of the chicken. However, I fully admit to not finishing my plate. I gave the rest of it to Seth; he happily ate it all! To each their own…dinner.
Vietnamese-Style Pork Meatballs with Cauliflower
Recipe by Kay Chun for NY Times Cooking
Now, this, this was a dinner! Maybe it’s my major passion for meatballs, or this flavor profile in general, but this dinner was ridiculously delicious. And it was extremely quick. I loved every single element.
Instead of serving these superb morsels over rice, we opted for roasted cauliflower. A non-traditional pairing, but it worked beautifully. Sometimes you need to change it up and do something unexpected. And while this change from rice to roasted veggie wasn’t groundbreaking, it was a nice reminder that you don’t always have to follow the rules of a recipe.
We made a minor swap in the meatballs to make them gluten free, using GF panko instead of Ritz crackers, but otherwise this divine dinner was naturally gluten free. Meatballs, once again, proved to be an amazing dinner option that was healthy, filling, and and really delicious. I think this dish may go in my top-ten meatball recipe collection. ;)
Healthy Asian Chicken Chopped Salad
Recipe available at The Lemon Bowl.
Speaking of favorite foods and flavors, we closed the week with the re-appearance (!) of one of our favorite weeknight salads. Repeating a dish is very rare around here, which is fairly ridiculous I admit, but I love variety. So when you see a repeat, then you can be confident in how much we enjoyed the meal. And it’s time for you to make it. ;)
The spicy peanut dressing really made this dinner and it’s one dressing that I would pretty much use for any salad. Or protein. Or anything. It’s so good! And it’s so easy to make. Hands-down, homemade salad dressings are 100% better than store-bought.
It’s hard to articulate what made this salad so excellent, beyond my adoration for the dressing, but I think it’s how the ingredients really complemented one another. Cabbage, spinach (we added that), peppers, carrots, baked chicken, and peanuts; a bowl of joy. Oh, and that amazing dressing. :)
It’s not often the easiest to get excited about salad-as-dinner, but I guarantee your opinion on that may change once you make this one (or that chopped one, above). Yum!
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Enjoy!
