We sometimes have made a post-holiday cold salad that combined fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes, and slivered almonds with a boxed long grain and wild rice blend, using italian dressing as a seasoning/blending agent. When we made it post-holiday we’d toss some chopped leftover turkey in it as a main dish, but assuming the turkey’s the main event, I see no reason it wouldn’t make a handy side dish–easy to make the day before and keep chilled.
Here’s an easy recipe for a yummy cold salad that my family loves:
1 (14oz) can French cut green beans,drained
1 (14oz) can shoe peg corn, drained
1 (14oz) can small green peas,drained
1 (4oz) jar pimento, chopped and drained
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
DRESSING:
3/4 cup vinegar)
1 cup sugar) HEAT
1/2 cup oil)
Directions
1.Drain all canned items in colander. Add chopped vegetables. Heat dressing ingredients to boiling. Beat dressing and pour over all. Salt and pepper to taste
Update: This really is a good tasting salad. I ended up using the whole cup of oil because the salad is HUGE! I don’t think it would work for a party, though, because it has a very strong green onion taste (which Jim and I love, but is not likely to be a crowd favourite since not everyone likes onions).
Another Update: I tried a cold pasta salad today; not nearly as tasty as the crunchy coleslaw salad, but more group friendly. I think my next experiment will be pesto salad - I love feta and pesto and stuff.
ETA: Not to be too indelicate, but holy moleys, the gas from the crunchy coleslaw salad was EPIC!
Goddammit - I’ve been told that I’m bringing a rice dish now. Okay, steamed rice in a rice cooker it is! Way to take all the fun out of this for me.
I make a medieval rice pudding; it’s cooked rice mixed with sugar, almond milk and spices - I use Chinese five spice, but you can use pumpkin pie spice or just cinnamon/nutmeg. I’ll try to find the proportions.
Another easy pasta salad.
Boil a pound of pasta. While pasta is boiling chop up fresh spinach and open a jar of canned red peppers. Mix a dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Chop a few red peppers.
Drain the pasta. Add in the chopped red peppers and spinach. Top with the dressing. Sprinkle good feta cheese on top. Mix everything together. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour and serve.
Add saffron, chicken stock and raisins while cooking. Saute some sliced almonds in butter and add when the rice is finished.
This dish was a big hit last night - 75% of it was eaten, and most people’s dishes had 25% eaten (there was way too much food!). I was asked for the recipe 3 times and complimented 6 times.
That’s a spicy noodle! Don’t bother using peanut oil, just use sesame oil. Use more or less sriracha as to your palate.
As for veggies, you wanna julienne baby carrots into matchsticks or buy matchstick carrots, add liberally along with sugar snap peas (I chop them into 2 or 3 bites per snap pea) and “big matchstick” bell pepper. Use as many veggies as you like.
Best served cold, chill for 30 minutes if possible.
Deeeeeelicious!
Actually elbows, the potluck I was at last night had another iteration of uncooked ramen: a cold bok choy salad that was basically bok choy, cukes, toasted slivered almonds, uncooked ramen and some sort of dressing. It was very good, but too oily for me.
ETA: For the That’s a Spicy Noodle recipe, I should add that I usually multiply the ingredients by 1.5 (so 3 tbsp of peanut butter, etc). YMMV.
That sounds really good (the pasta salads do, too, but since it’s got to be rice now…). Is this rice served hot? I’m pretty sure I could make this.
Hot is best. I’d also add butter while the rice is cooking and serve with same, but I’m a butter freak.
Well, I tried a 'saffron" rice recipe today (I substituted turmeric for the expensive saffron) and it was very yummy, and not too difficult. I think the recipe I used had a typo, though; for 2 cups of raw rice, it called for a whole cup of butter! I made it with almost all the butter (well, margarine), and it was tasty, but greasy. I think I’d cut that down to a couple of tablespoons of butter.
ETA: It’s a baked recipe, and the dish is holding the heat really well, so I think that will be fine.
Mmmm. I love turmeric.