Roasted Potato Salad
In support of the big veg outreach effort happening at SF Pride this year, Drew and Jeff hosted a Pride Veg Outreach Party at their home last month.
Chef Jeff made some fabulous food, including bruchettas, roasted potato salad, pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, quinoa artichoke salad, Moroccan couscous salad, cupcakes, cookies, and dips.
After eating, we all wanted his secret recipes. He modestly said there wasn’t any secret at all, that he just found them on the web. Ah, but that is the secret, isn’t it — finding a good recipe out of the gazillions that exist.
Drew and Chef Jeff
Chef Jeff was gracious enough to share a couple of these recipes with us. He also added that the roasted potato salad is just mixed potatoes roasted with onions and bell peppers with fresh herbs.
We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we did, and thanks again to Drew and Jeff and their co-hosts, canines Reggie, Mindy, and Theo, for hosting the fabulous party for Pride outreach volunteers.
Even if you missed the party, there’s still time to get involved with veg outreach at Pride. Remember, love and let live.
Quinoa Artichoke Salad
Quinoa Artichoke Salad
This recipe is very flexible and forgiving; feel free to add other ingredients you like or leave things out that you don’t care for.
1 cup quinoa
½ cup red quinoa
2 Tbsp. tahini
2 Tbsp. almond butter
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
4 large artichoke hearts in oil (chopped into small pieces)
1 small red onion
4 green onions, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¼” pieces
½ cup pitted kalmata or other olives, chopped finely
1 Fuji apple (seeded and core removed, and cut into ¼” chunks)
2 Roma tomatoes (seeded and cut into ¼” pieces)
handful of chopped cashew nuts
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook both types of quinoa in approx. 2 cups water. Allow to cool slightly. Mix tahini, almond butter, and balsamic vinegars. Dilute with a bit of warm water if very thick. Stir this mixture into the warm quinoa. Add artichoke hearts, onion, green onion, red bell pepper, olives, apple and tomato. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Sprinkle cashews over salad when ready to serve.
Adapted from recipe “Quinoa Artichoke “Special Mix” from vegweb.com.
Moroccan Couscous Salad
Moroccan Cous Cous Salad
3 cups cooked Couscous.
I medium yellow or white onion, chopped finely
4 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground coriander
Pinch of saffron (optional)
¾ cup white wine
¾ cup dried currants
4 chopped green onions
½ cup toasted blanched almond pieces
To make couscous: Bring 1 2/3 cup water to boil in wide pan with ½ tsp. salt. Add 1 1/3 cup dry couscous. Immediately turn off heat. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.
Heat olive oil in sauté pan over medium high heat. Add onion and cook approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Lower heat to medium if onions start to scorch. Add cinnamon and coriander; stir approximately one additional minute. Add white wine and saffron; cook over medium high heat until wine is reduced by half. Add currants and cook an additional minute. Add this mixture to the warm couscous. Add green onions and almonds. Serve at room temperature.
Oakland Veg Week is a week-long celebration (April 15-21, 2012) that invites meat-eaters to pledge to be vegetarian for one week. It’s a positive, upbeat event where everyone wins: Meat-eaters who want a little help with their veg experiment, local restaurants who want more customers, the City of Oakland (who, let’s face it, could use some happy press!), and most importantly, the animals who would really, really, really like to see more vegetarians!
