Hearts of Palm and Tomato Salad with Feta

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a recipe!

And Boding named it for me. Say thank you to him, won’t you?

So this recipe. It’s pretty! It’s Summery! It’s tasty. You will love it.

The tomatoes used for this recipe were the last of my Summer CSA with Gruber Farm. It was bittersweet. And by bittersweet I mean I am mildly depressed that the Summer season is over, but very excited knowing that the Fall season will start at the end of August.

Yes, I said August. August 28th to be exact. What is with South Carolina being so ahead of the times? Seasonally speaking…progressively, not so much. Thank goodness our people are so friendly.

Before I go off on another tangent, let me share with you some salad.

Hearts of Palm and Tomato Salad with Feta

Ingredients:

• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 14 oz. can of hearts of palm, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 3 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, toss together tomatoes, hearts of palm, and feta.
2. Add parsley, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Toss until evenly mixed.

I highly recommend using local tomatoes and fresh parsley for optimal flavor. It gets better as it sits, so for best results, make the night before you want to serve it. The salad is great as an appetizer or as a side; I’ve had it both as a snack and with grilled chicken and veggies.

On Saturday, I dropped my Shun Santoku knife off at Coastal Cupboard to be sharpened and got it back today. Aside from the above recipe, this was the most exciting part of my day. The knife slices through tomatoes so easily, it’s quite scary. The moment I took it out of the packaging,  I nicked my fingernail. I would.

You know you’re a foodie when…

Beets with Yogurt and Walnuts

Last Friday I mentioned that I had borrowed a few cookbooks from the library, one being Food From Many Greek Kitchens. This book had a couple of good recipes I wanted to try, but one in particular caught my eye.

Beets.

Greek yogurt.

Walnuts.

Uh, yeah. I needed that in my life.

Beets with Yogurt and Walnuts slightly adapted from Food From Many Greek Kitchens

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pounds beets, leaves trimmed
• 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp. coarsely chopped parsley
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 (6 oz.) contained of plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp. chopped walnuts, for topping

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Wash the beets well, being careful not to pierce their skins. Wrap each fresh beet individually in aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour or until tender.

In a small bowl, whip the oil with the lemon juice and garlic.

Once beets have finished cooking, peel them. Trim away the root and cut them into chunks. Put in a bowl. Add the lemon oil, parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Add the yogurt and mix gently. Scatter the walnuts on top and serve.

You know you’re intrigued by this color. Just wait until you see what it does to your pee! (If you’re a chosen one. Sorry, Holly, this doesn’t apply to you.)

In fitness news, I’d like to share a quick treadmill workout with you. It’s quick but will kick your behind! And your quads too. Maybe more!

Now listen up: For the main part of this workout, you will be doing intervals of running with 15 second breaks. During the 15 second breaks, you can hop to the sides of the treadmill, one foot on each side while gripping the handlebars. Be so careful not to fall or you will fly backwards and hurt yourself! And then you probably will never want to come back to your gym out of embarrassment.

Though you are only doing the intervals for 20 minutes total, you will have had enough by minute 25. Trust me. Each 15 second break is enough for your heart to think “Oh, cool, we’re done...oh wait…shoot…just kidding.” Bam, you’re sprinting again. Get sweaty people!

Are you a fan of beets? Favorite beet recipe? I have a slew of recipes that readers have sent me if anyone is interested!

Do you prefer interval workouts or long, steady runs? I get so bored on the treadmill that intervals are my preference.

Red Lentil Kofte / The Last Dinner in NYC

I promised a NYC recap but that would be pretty much impossible in one post. So, over the next week, month, year, or so, I’ll talk about it.

My last dinner was at Mundo, in Astoria, with Kaye and Justin. Owned by an Argentine man and his Turkish wife, Mundo’s menu is influenced by both South American and  Mediterranean cuisine.

After much recommendation by the owner and many reviews we read on Urbanspoon, we decided to order the Red Sonja appetizer: red lentil patties with bulgur, scallion, parsley, and spices served with lettuce and lemon slices. We all really liked these a lot and the lemon juice really intensifies the herbs – you must squeeze some on! We ended up ordering a bunch of small plates to share instead of individual entrees as there were so many things we wanted to try. Next up were falafel. BEST falafel of my life. They were so incredibly soft and moist. The ones I’ve had at home are too dry. Excuse the quality in the next three photos – totally bedroom lighting in this restaurant. We also order two empanadas: one beef and one cheese & feta. The beef grossed me out but the spinach & feta was awesome. The last dish we had was octopus carpaccio with baby arugula, Peruvian black olive sauce, red caviar, and warm pita triangles. Kaye insisted on this. I was completely disturbed by it and threw it on Justin’s plate. I did, however, swipe about 10 pita triangles in through the black olive sauce.

This place was really good and they pride themselves on having a very diverse healthy menu. The Red Sonja was my favorite part, so as soon as I got home, my mission was to remake them. After some research, I discovered the Red Sonja is actually the Turkish recipe for Red Lentil Kofte, or Mercimek Köftesi. I found this recipe on a Turkish woman’s blog and made it last night. Great news for my roomie, Lucy – this recipe is Vegan!

My kofte weren’t as red as Mundo’s (less tomato paste?), but they were just as delicious. Use the lettuce as wraps and again, make sure you squeeze lemon juice on them. The recipe makes 6 x what you see above, so either cut it in half or have a Turkish party. Why not?