Tofu can be so….controversial. Some people love it, some hate it, and some don’t understand it. Some people just aren’t sure what to do with it, and those are the ones I am here to help today.

I came home from Allandale Farm with dinosaur kale, which is a bit different from the curly variety I usually buy. The leaves are darker and softer as well.

With the sun brightly shining this week, I couldn’t resist trying this recipe for Spring Tabbouleh from 101 Cookbooks. Instead of traditional tabbouleh which relies heavily on parsley, this version uses fresh chives. I modified things further and used quinoa instead of bulgur. So you might argue that this isn’t tabbouleh at all, and you’re right, but I can’t think of a better name at the moment.

I even shelled my own peas for this recipe, which actually turned out to be kind of fun. The peas and asparagus are lightly steamed, and then added to the cooked grain along with chopped walnuts, chives, and a bright dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. I skipped the hard boiled eggs here, only because I had used all the eggs last week baked in sweet potatoes. The walnuts give the salad a nice crunch, and the dish is easily portable, which makes it a winner. Does this look just a little familiar? Yes, I thought so too while I was eating it, and dug through the blog archives. I found this Spring Green Quinoa recipe from two years ago, which is indeed similar. But they’re both good recipes which use quinoa, a very fun whole grain!

Did you ever think that you could enjoy a salad with locally grown lettuce while there was still snow on the ground in New England? I bought a large bag of greens from NorthStar farm, located in Westport, MA at the Somerville Winter Market this weekend. The farmer told me the organic lettuce is grown in an unheated greenhouse during the winter. Each leaf is crisp, clean, and just about perfect. I gave it a quick rinse, and tossed it with some shredded carrot for a simple side salad. I have no idea how these greenhouses really work, but they certainly produce some great tasting lettuce! I was initially worried that the lettuce might go bad before I had time to finish the bag, but the remaining unwashed leaves are keeping very well in the refrigerator. Here’s to local salads for the week….

Ahh, 3 days of cooking. I had some hits, a couple misses, and am still working on my entry for the recipe contest. You guys gave me some good ideas in the comments, but I am keeping things hush hush for now. You know, I need to watch out for those Internet spies….

This original recipe had over 20 ingredients, and 5 paragraphs of directions. Now some final dishes warrant this kind of effort, but I think beets and lentils should be much lower maintenance. So I modified this recipe significantly, and it’s much more of the ‘peasant’ dish now. In fact, you should not even bother to roast vegetables specifically for this dish, but take advantage of some that you might have leftover.

I served the lentil salad over some torn Romaine lettuce, and it was a very nice lunch. The flavor was earthy, but in a good way. Note that the lentils I used here are not the standard grocery store kind, but the French variety I bought at Whole Foods. I used them before to make a different lentil salad. They hold their shape much better in salads such as these. If all of this seems too daunting, just remember the simplest formula: roasted veggies + beans + oil + vinegar = good.

4-5 beets, any dark spots removed
6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1″ pieces
1 t sugar
1 T olive oil
3/4 c. black lentils
3 c. water
1 bay leaf
1 t minced garlic
1 small onion
2 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T lemon juice

Set beets in a baking dish. Mix carrots, sugar, and olive oil in another baking dish. Roast vegetables at 400F. The carrots will take about 30 minutes, and the beets should be fork tender in 60-90 minutes. Allow beets to cool, and then remove skin and slice into 1″ pieces.

Meanwhile, place lentils, water, bay leaf, garlic, and onion in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30 minutes, or until lentils are softened. Drain, and remove onion and bay leaf.

Mix lentils, beets, and carrots in a large bowl. Add oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. Toss to coat, and season with salt and pepper.

I really hate to bring up a sore subject, but I was invited to a party to watch the Patriot’s game on Sunday. I know, we won’t talk about the game. Let’s stay focused on the food. All over Twitter, Boston area foodies were whipping up their best chili, wings, and potato skins. I decided to go against these trends and bring a spinach salad to the event. Not exactly “football food” but a good complement to the pizza which was being served. To make the salad a bit more exciting, I added orange sections and slivered almonds, and then tossed it in my quick and easy Honey Mustard dressing. And you know what, people liked it. In fact, there was another salad there that was also well received. The mood may have been somber, but the crowd was well fed.

In this wonderful salad recipe posted on Smitten Kitchen, Deb offers plenty of options. You can make the salad simple or fancy, you can mix up the ingredients based on season, and you can serve it as a first course or a main dish.

There are a lot of components to this salad, and I needed about 10 hands when trying to pull it together one night. In the end, I enjoyed it, but I would still suggest some shortcuts. The best part to me was the warm seasoned mushrooms on fresh greens.

Think of this like a salad bar, and you can take what you like, and leave the rest. We’ll all end up with salads that are creative and suit our personal tastes.

Greens
Salad greens were suggested in the original recipe, with the addition of fresh herbs if they were on hand. I used just fresh spinach, which I liked, and this helped to keep things simple.

Mushrooms
There are so many different types of mushrooms, and I chose to use cremini for this recipe. In my mind, they’re one step fancier than white mushrooms without being too much more expensive. But plain button mushrooms would really be just fine. The mushrooms are sauteed in olive oil with shallots, and seasoned with thyme, salt, and pepper.

Roasted Hazelnuts
I roasted the hazelnuts, managed not to burn them, and then rubbed the skins off with a towel. Then I proceeded to clean up all the hazelnut skins around my kitchen. Next time, I’ll just use whatever nuts I already have around rather than making a special purchase.

Egg
To make this a main dish, I added an egg. This was a good addition, but it did require another pan on the stove top and a watchful eye. It might be easier to add some cooked chicken, or perhaps some beans.

Cheese
There were several fine cheeses suggested in the original recipe. I used the Parmesan I had on hand, and would do that again. But if I were serving this at a dinner party, I might try something different, because well, I do like to try new cheeses.

Dressing
The dressing called for shallots soaked in vinegar, then whisked with oil, and then simmered briefly and seasoned to taste. The end result really wasn’t worth all that effort in my opinion. Next time, I’ll whip up a quick vinaigrette with whatever oil and vinegar happens to be my favorite at that time.

So hit the salad bar, and make your own creation!

I’ve tried a few fun squash recipes this year, like this Sweet and Sour Kabocha. But there are still plenty of squash varieties I haven’t tried, and recently I picked up a delicata squash for the first time. It’s a fairly small squash, and the skin is edible which means no peeling.