I knew I felt like having some kind of salad tonight for supper, with a piece of the rye bread I made the other day on the side. But I went back and forth about what kind of salad I wanted and what kind of dressing. Then I thought of the bean burgers I had in the freezer. We get them at Aldi and they are spicy-ish bean and veggie patties with a bread crumb coating. These burgers are not really hot, but the ones we get from Lidl are--we like both. I decided to cook those and make a taco salad. I had limes in the fridge, so opted for a lime vinaigrette dressing. This salad hit the spot, along with the warm bread and butter. Yum! 😋
For the salad, I used what I had around, but this lends itself to endless variation. Instead of the bean burgers, canned beans (drained), cooked leftover chicken, pork, or beef, tofu chunks, or meat analogues would work. Cooked breaded/battered fish or chicken or burgers--turkey, beef, or vegetarian, could be cut up and added, too. Same with the veggies--this is the kind of thing that would be different every time I make it. Fresh parsley or coriander (cilantro) would be great.
For this salad, I cooked the vegetarian bean burgers and while they were cooking, got all the veggies in the bowls. I used lettuce, cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, scallion, cucumber, carrot, and sweetcorn. When the burgers were cooked, I cut two of them into pieces and added one to each of our salads. Then I topped with shredded mature cheddar.
Lime Vinaigrette Dressing:
3 tablespoons lime juice
5 tablespoons olive oil
a wee bit of Dijon mustard (I probably used about 1/4 of a teaspoon)
sprinkles of granulated garlic, oregano, ground coriander, and a pinch of chilli powder
Whisk together with a fork. Any leftovers can be stored in a jar in the fridge. The olive oil may get a little solid in the cold, but it's no big deal--it 'melts' again at room temperature.
I hope you're safe and well!
6 comments:
It's be good with some roughly crushed tortilla chips on top for some extra crunch!
This looks a great salad Shari.
All the best Jan
I love your food posts. Creativity with food and use of things is so much fun. I hope you'll consider doing them more often.
I'm partial to 'taco flavor' on anything, it's 'a go to' for me because the spice / heat is great for pain/soreness relief and lowering of systemic inflammation. (The higher the scoville (SHU) the better lol.) I don't like 'crazy hot' because then it's sort of annoying but if it clears my sinus while reducing my pain I figure I'm using food to help these conditions which is a win-win. Sort of like that quote 'Let food be thy medicine.'
Cilantro etc is wonderful in making the flavors bright and is a great detoxifier.
That bit of tortilla crunch is nice too especially if it has more spice on it. (It could be pre-broiled with some seasoning sprinkled over it a min or so before it's done, to taste. The bit of toasting makes it that much more crunchy, especially the 'thin ones').
I often take a can or home-made portion of black or other spicy beans and add them as is (without the liquid) or mash them up as a kind of 'retried bean' which works amazingly well as a kind of dressing. Add some avocado to it and it's that much more creamy.
I can't eat soy so I have used some of the other alternative 'crumbles' in the frozen section and those work ok too. (Quorn products are pretty good.)
I hope it was ok to 'add some thoughts' to yours, your salad looked so inviting and I basically have this or something quite like it, every day for my main meal lol.
Are you able to grow your own veggies, herbs and things this year to add to your flavor profiles? I keep hoping to try it, maybe if I move I can put a small garden out on the balcony. =)
Take care, I hope you both are well and safe too!
The more thoughts the merrier :-)
No, we have no place here to grow veggies. There used to be a community garden, but I am not sure how that all worked and before we could find out, the pandemic was here. I have my usual scallions and rosemary on the windowsill and have a pot of parsley as well. I think I will get some coriander (cilantro) this week when we go to Aldi for the weekly shop. If the year had been different, I could have gotten a window box and planted some mixed greens in the bedroom--LOL. I might do that still, although I am not sure whether I could get the seeds. I could probably find an Irish place online. I grew that inside last year and it worked well--and I didn't even have to compete with the slugs! ;-)
Sounds delicious...I will try this with beans or veggie burgers...I make my own veggie burgers...yummmm...
Oh I am sorry you haven't got a place to grow veggies at the moment, perhaps things will pick-up soon since you're all doing so well at managing things there. Why not grow them in the bedroom, wherever it works is great! No way they have slugs there too? Old throw back to the PNW days!
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