Hearty and healthy: farro salad

I have been loving whole grain salads lately. One new favorite is farro. It is nutty and has a wonderful, firm texture. Load it up with finely chopped vegetables, some cheese and a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar and it's a beautiful, perfect salad. The specific ingredients are up to you. Lately, I've added diced ricotta salata, some micro greens, scallions (thinly sliced diagonally). I've also been known to add fresh fava beans and / or avocado. I like to add olive oil, vinegar (red wine or balsamic), juice from 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper while the farro is still warm so that it is soaked up by the grains, and then the other ingredients when the farro is at room temperature so they retain their crunch). Serve for lunch or as a side for dinner.

On another note, I still have a few sets of folded greeting cards remaining from my print run earlier this summer. There are 5x5 egg and feather cards as well as 5x7 fruit cards. Both sets are blank on the inside and come in sets of 12 for $24. They are professionally printed on thick card stock. Please email me if interested!

Burst of color and seasonal flavor: beet bruschetta

A completely lovely friend went to Israel to visit her family recently and came back with an Israeli cookbook for me. She selected the most perfect cookbook – it is beautifully laid out on large, glossy paper, the photography is colorful and gorgeous, and it is very modern and young. It is full of stories and history related to food. Israeli food is a cuisine I am largely unfamiliar with: this book is the perfect seduction into Israeli cooking.

Having coincidentally picked up both beets and pomegranate seeds at the market, I was intrigued to find the perfect use for my acquisitions: a beetroot and pomegranate salad. Strange coincidence to spot a recipe that makes use of both, no?

I have had bruschetta on the brain recently and decided to morph the salad into a bruschetta topping, and of course, make my own little adjustments, namely swapping out the cilantro and replacing it with chopped Italian flat leaf parsley and chives, and adding some crumbled ricotta salata to the top. Perfection. I love the contrast of the dark, dense beets with the translucent seeds, and the green of the herbs adds wonderful color and freshness.

Beet and pomegranate seed bruschetta (heavily adapted from Beetroot and Pomegranate Salad from The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey)

3-4 medium beetroots, stem ends trimmed to ~1 inch length, washed lightly
2 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate
2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2-3 dried chili peppers, crushed
2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
1 cup pomegranate seeds
¼ - ½ cup coarsely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
¼ cup delicate olive oil
Crumbled ricotta salata to top
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 fresh baguette, sliced diagonally into ~1/2 inch rounds

Sprinkle beets with olive oil, wrap individually in aluminum foil packets, and roast in a 375º degree oven for ~45 minutes or until tender. Let cool. Peel and chop into small dice.

Mix with pomegranate concentrate, lemon juice, peppers, sea salt and pepper. Set aside for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Spoon mixture onto bread rounds. Sprinkle with parsley and ricotta salata. Serve immediately.