Roommate Kristin is a big fan of meat: bacon, sausage, steak… really anything that comes from an animal. So when I make salads with no meat involved, she calls it “Rabbit Food.” So when I made this salad a few days ago, sure enough it earned the title “Rabbit Food.” But I don’t care; it was delicious and really fast.
Things in this salad:
Spinach Salad Mix (the spinach leaves are a little more meaty than some other forms of lettuce and have some great vitamins in them. Vitamins A, B, C, E, and K… not to mention a LOT of Beta Carotene)
Cherry Tomatoes
Olives (I can’t help it; I’m addicted to the olive bar at Shaws. My favorites are the Katamala Olives with pits–they last longer)
Avocado (how to slice an avocado)
Chevre Cheese (a soft goat cheese)
Toasted Almonds
Reduced Balsamic Vinegar
To toast the almonds, put them in a skillet over medium heat and flip them every once in a while until they darken a bit.
It seems like the ingredient of the week is balsamic vinegar! I’ve used it twice already (here and for the balsamic butter sauce over my tortellini) and will probably use it once more before the week is through. For this salad, I like to reduce it. I’ve found that if you just use it straight from the bottle, it dissolves the chevre cheese and you end up with a lot of extra cheese-y vinegar at the end. The reduction is thicker and doesn’t run off the spinach leaves.
To reduce balsamic vinegar, put about 1 cup of regular balsamic vinegar in a skillet. If you like it sweeter, you can add some brown sugar or honey. Put it over medium heat until it boils. Then adjust the heat down and let it simmer until it’s syrup-y. Remember that it will continue to thicken as it cools, so you should let it simmer until it is just a little more viscous than you want it.
I find that it is easier to reduce balsamic vinegar in bulk (and by that I mean about a cup at a time). You can save what you don’t use for future salads, sauces, or fruits and cheeses. It goes with just about anything really. You can drizzle it over salmon for dinner or fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil for a caprese salad. It’s always a nice thing to have around. Keep it in a tupperware container (I keep mine in the fridge).
To assemble a salad, rinse the spinach and put it in the bottom of the bowl. Add the olives, tomatoes and almonds. Open one side of the chevre cheese and scrape a fork over the cheese. It’s a soft cheese so you can’t really cut it and it has a tendency to stick to itself. As you scrape the fork over the cheese, it will fall out of the package and into your salad in little clumps. Arrange the avocado slices around the outside, and drizzle balsamic reduction over the whole thing.
Currently Cooking To:
It’s not really a song I’d download and put on my iPod, but since we’re talking about rabbit food, I figured what’d be better than this youtube clip from Parry Gripp with small animals eating food. It’s one of those videos that makes me smile every time I watch it. Check out their youtube channel. There’s a lot of fun videos that are basically clips from other youtube videos set to songs about them. For example: “Young Girl Talking About Herself” is a song that makes fun of all the girls that just talk about their lives and post it to youtube. It’s set over videos of girls doing exactly that. I’m also a fan of Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute. Obnoxious song, but SO MANY cute animals. Especially the bunny at the end.
On a more serious rabbit based music level:
Frightened Rabbit – Keep Yourself Warm
It’s a little sad but also kind of epic song from Frightened Rabbit. Enjoy!
Tags: balsamic reduction, Balsamic Vinegar, chevre cheese, cute animals, frightened rabbit, parry gripp, spinach
April 2, 2010 at 7:26 am |
I really love goat cheese it is really delicous. Most of the time I eat it as a dessert or use it to make a salsa.
April 5, 2010 at 4:42 pm |
Ooh, salsa!? How do you do that??
August 8, 2011 at 5:53 pm |
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