Vegan Mofo #12: Bacon Salad with Farmhouse Cheese Dressing...

I don’t know how typical of an Irish Salad this is, but I found a recipe for bacon salad with cheese dressing in an Irish cook book and found my mouth watering at the thought. The original recipe says to use cooleeney cheese and apples from Tipperary, I’ve never had cooleeney cheese in my life and have no idea what it tastes like, but it seems to me that most farmhouse cheeses have a strong or distinct flavor. Unfortunately while the vegan cheese market is growing it has not yet grown so big as to incorporate ‘off beat’ or regional or specialty cheeses. So I chose to use a combination of vegan Provolone and cream cheese as that was all I had available outside of cheddar, jack, mozzarella or Jalapeno Havarti. Still, despite my recreation not being as accurate as possible I do think it turned out damn delicious, and I will definitely be making it again.

The key to this salad I think is to make sure you use quality products, because it’s so simple you want the best flavor you can find. Get the freshest fall apples, get the crispest lettuce, use your favorite vegan cheese and buy the good coconut flakes to make the coconut bacon. You do that, and you’re going to have a shining star of a side salad. A great accompaniment to any meal, or a nice light lunch, if serving as a lunch enjoy with some brown soda bread scones!

Bacon Salad with Farmhouse Cheese Dressing 

2 Heads Romaine lettuce chopped or torn
½ Cup Coconut Bacon (Recipe Follows)
1 Large tart Apple Chopped (I Used Pink Lady)
Dash of Sea Salt
Dash of Cracked Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Parsley

Cheese Dressing

1/3 Cup Vegan Sour Cream
1- 2 Tbsp Vegan Cream Cheese
2- 4 Slices Vegan Provolone (or favorite sharp vegan cheese)
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Cracked Black Pepper to taste
A Dash of Agave if a sweeter dressing is desired (Optional)

Coconut Bacon 

½ Cup Dried Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
½ Tbsp Liquid Smoke
Dash of Smoked Paprika
Dash of Garlic Powder
Dash of Smoked Sea Salt

Instructions - Coconut Bacon 

- Combine all liquid ingredients in a bowl, and pre-heat a small pan over medium heat. Once heated add the coconut flakes and pour the sauce over, mix with a spatula to combine. Fry for 3-5 minutes turning occasionally so the flakes don’t burn. Once browned and most of the liquid has been absorbed turn off the heat and remove the coconut to a plate to cool. Let cool 5 minutes. Leave any remaining liquid in the pan.

Instructions - Salad 

- Cook the chopped apple in the liquid remaining in the pan you used to cook the coconut bacon. Saute apple until golden and then remove from the heat.

- Place Romaine, Coconut Bacon, and Apple in a large bowl and garnish with salt, pepper and parsley.

Instructions - Dressing 

- Combine all dressing ingredients in a small pan over medium heat. Whisk together until cheese has melted and everything is smooth and heated through.

- Pour the warm dressing over the salad, toss to combine and serve!

Green Salad with Crumbled Chèvre, and Walnuts in a Sweet Dijon Vinaigrette

One thing I really wanted to do for Christmas was utilize some of the delicious sounding recipes from Miyoko Schinner’s book “Artisan Vegan Cheese.” For me, holiday celebrations are the best and most practical time for me to make recipes like this. Since these recipes always tend to make a lot, and since my husband was never a fan of dairy cheese - and thus not a fan of vegan cheese either - it’s far to much for me to make these recipes just for myself. I’d never be able to eat it all, and truth be told I wouldn’t want to eat an entire pound of cheese anyway, even if it is vegan cheese.

There are so many great sounding recipes in this book that I really wanted to try that it was really difficult to try and decide what ones I wanted to make first. I thought long and hard about what would make a great party cheese plate, and then thought about what kind of cheese I’d like to eat. Eventually I settled on three cheeses in particular but for now I’m only going to talk about the Chèvre. Back when I was still a dairy eater, I loved goat cheese, and so this recipe really intrigued me. Overall I think it turned out really well, although next time I think I’ll use a bit less lemon juice and age it a tad less as well because it came out tasting very tart, and overall it was very strong. At the party I served it on a platter with crackers along with the Aged Cheddar - also from the book - and a Raw Christmas Cheese Ball - More on this later - that I made and It went over really well, even with the omnivores who thought it was delicious, and couldn’t believe that I’d actually made it from scratch.

The problem came after Christmas was over and I realized I still had half a brick of Chèvre left in my fridge. I’m not the cheese and crackers type really, so I’m not about to sit around and eat it all up in that way, and it’s been so long since I’ve had any use for cheese of any kind that I wasn’t quite sure what else to do with it. Eventually I decided on giving half of what I had left to my dear twin brother E, because I knew he would enjoy it. As it turns out he did enjoy it, and he gave me a great idea for how to use up the rest of what I had left. Crumbled on top of salad with walnuts, and a Dijon Vinaigrette. Of course! And how simple, I can’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me.

So a couple of days ago I got thee to my kitchen and threw together this super tasty and ridiculously simple salad.

Green Salad with Crumbled Chèvre, and Walnuts in a Sweet Dijon Vinaigrette

1 C Baby Spinach
1 C Chopped Romaine Lettice
1 Ripe Anjou Pear sliced thin
½ C Dried Cranberries
1 Large Ripe Tomato Diced
½ C Raw Walnuts
1/4 C Sliced Green Onions
1/3 C Crumbled Vegan Chèvre (Preferably homemade using the Artisan Vegan Cheese Recipe!)

Dressing 

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 ½  Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp Hemp Seed Oil
1-2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tbsp Water
Sea salt and Black Pepper to taste

- Combine all salad ingredients - except Chèvre -  in a bowl and mix thoroughly to combine. Top with crumbled Chèvre.

- Combine all dressing ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Roughly 1 minute. Taste and adjust flavor as needed.

- Drizzle dressing over salad and enjoy!

Vegan Mofo #20 - Isa’s Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon and Caesar Chavez Dressing...

Vegan Mofo #20 - Isa’s Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon and Caesar Chavez Dressing

The Book - Appetite for Reduction
The Author - Isa Chandra Moskowitz
The Recipe - Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon and Caesar Chavez Dressing
Page # 42
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - 20 minutes of prep time, 30 minutes of bake time

Caesar Salad is one of those dishes that seems to be universally loved. Everyone and their grandmother loves a Caesar salad, and everyone’s got their own perfect recipe or way of preparing one. Every North American or Mediterranean style restaurant you walk into seems to have it listed under their salad section, and most restaurants offer it as a side in place of their ‘House Salad’ It’s probably the single easiest way to get a kid to eat something green. However at this point the people’s love of Caesar seems to go far beyond it’s use for salad. I see people dipping their fries and baked or broiled chicken in cups of Caesar dressing. I see people pour it over potatoes, smear it on burgers, drizzle it over pizza or simply dunk their pizza into it. I see people poke bread sticks into it and mix it into rice. People it seems have gone Caesar crazy.

Honestly I was no exception. I loved a good Caesar salad as much as the next girl. To me Caesar salad is summer in a bowl. It is the epitome of summer, always forcing its way onto the buffet table at parties, gatherings, Barbeque’s, and stowing itself away to picnic’s. And really, what better example of summer could you have then a full plate containing a burger, fries, grilled corn on the cob and a nice hearty pile of Caesar salad? It fits right in, and makes you feel at home. The dressing is rich and creamy. It’s tangy and almost sour but a little bit sweet, and gives you a wonderful mouth feel when combined with super crisp romaine. A person’s mouth could water just thinking about it.

My mom made a lot of Caesar salad during the summers when I was growing up. She made a wicked good Caesar too, and all of us would devour it. Eventually she started making huge almost industrial sized bowls of it to accommodate our insatiable appetite for it, and more often then not it still wasn’t enough. It was definitely one of my favorite things to eat growing up. Yet over the two years before I went Vegan, it wasn’t something I ate much of. I don’t really know why, I wasn’t going out of my way to avoid it or anything but I guess I had kind of lost my taste for it. As I got older Caesar became one of those things that I still loved, but could only handle in smaller quantities. Something about that dressing just made my mouth ache, and my stomach bloat, and if I consumed to much I often felt very lethargic and kind of ill afterwards. So when I went Vegan I didn’t worry myself about finding a vegan Caesar substitute, it had never crossed my mind. Then I got my hands on a copy of "Appetite for Reduction" and there in the salad section was a Vegan Caesar.

Now I hadn’t thought about Caesar salad in a long time, yet seeing that recipe just got my mouth watering and my memory bank flowing. I remembered all those great summer moments, all those barbeques, and picnics where Caesar was prominently featured and I wanted to enjoy that again. I wanted to have that traditional barbequed summer dinner again, and I wanted to take pleasure in an old comfort. Honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect. The list of ingredients sounded strange together and I just couldn’t imagine them being comparable to an omni Caesar salad, but I kid you not, this is the best vegan Caesar salad I’ve ever eaten, maybe the best Caesar salad period. It tasted exactly like what I remember Caesar salad to taste like. Rich, creamy, and tangy, and the best part? Not only does it not contain any dairy ingredients but there are also no anchovies! I don’t know if you know this but traditional Caesar salad dressing whether it’s store-bought or restaurant made contains either anchovies or anchovies paste. Ew! Right? Anchovies are not something I would have ever eaten as an omnivore, and growing up I had no idea they were the secret ingredient that gave Caesar salad it’s characteristic tang and flavor. I think a lot of people are ignorant of that fact, and it’s something I found very disturbing when it was eventually revealed to me. So no ground up fish in your dressing, yay! What Isa uses instead are capers, miso, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. Mixed together with her other dressing ingredients this combination makes the most Caesary Caesar ever. I also love the fact that she doesn’t include a vegan Parmesan substitute like so many other Vegan Caesar recipes. In this dressing it’s really not needed.

Now as if I haven’t gushed about this salad enough the recipe also includes a batch of eggplant bacon which is absolutely divine. She uses very few ingredients and the technique is super simple but the flavor is powerful and when tossed into the salad you can hardly tell the difference. Between it and those terrible little processed ‘bacon crumbles’ people always use.

So if you love or loved Caesar salad I strongly urge you to give this one a shot. Like I said it’s the best I’ve had, and I don’t say that lightly.

PS: I forgot to take a picture of the salad on it’s own, but you get the idea here I think. I’d paired it one lovely evening with a delicious veggie burger that I’d topped with homemade guacamole, romaine, tomato, onion, alfalfa and agave sweetened BBQ sauce. Delish!

Vegan Mofo #8 - Donna’s Romaine Salad with Lemon Date Dressing...

Vegan Mofo #8 - Donna’s Romaine Salad with Lemon Date Dressing

The Book - The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
The Author - Donna Klein
The Recipe - Romaine Salad with Lemon Date Dressing
Page # 80
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - 15 minutes

When it comes to salad I think there are two kinds of people. Those how love it, and those who see it as a means to an end. They begrudgingly eat it because it’s served in front of them, and they just want to get though it so they can get to the main course. The first kind of person loves salad based on it’s own merits and doesn’t drown it in dressing. The second person smothers and chokes their salad in heavy, rich, calorie overflowing, fat laden, sugary, oily, cheesy dressings. I’ve seen this so many times and it always amazes me that people can still think salad is healthy when it is literally swimming in Ranch dressing. It boggles the mind. I am definitely a member of the first category. I love a good salad, and though I like dressing I don’t smother my salads in it. There was a time growing up where I might have done but not anymore.

That’s what I love so much about this salad. Not only is it quick to prepare but it’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. There are so few ingredients and yet the flavor is immense. It’s also the perfect summer salad in my opinion. Perfect for serving as the first course to a hearty dinner of grilled vegetables and rice or potatoes. Or the perfect light side to a heavier bolder main dish. What I really love about this salad is it’s Moroccan influence. I really love Moroccan food, and find the paring of this salads cinnamon with coriander to be brilliant. Also the use of dates, genius! Dates are a fruit that I quite like, but don’t eat in abundance because I find them too sweet. It never would have occurred to me to pair them with lemon in a salad dressing. At first it seemed a bit strange to me to have all these chopped up bits of date floating around in my dressing, then sprinkled across my romaine, but it really is magical. The dressing really is fantastic, and brings out the natural flavor of the romaine. All those chewy bits of date were a nice change of pace also.

Though it should be noted that depending on your diet/lifestyle choices you may want to reduce the amount of olive oil or sugar that’s used. I didn’t bother but I did make another change. I ended up dicing up one large tomato and a handful of green onions to toss into the salad just for a little more color and that nice sweet mild onion flavor.

As for serving I ended up plating this salad alongside my Roasted Butternut Squash with Cilantro Garlic Miso Sauce, but you could really serve it with just about anything, like I mentioned. I think because of the salads natural cooling flavor it would go particularly well with spicier fare, particularly other Moroccan inspired dishes.