Meditteranean Archives - domenica dreams of calamari

This is another kitchen-sink kind of salad. Salads don’t have to be boring as long as you have some good ole pantry staples. Avocado doesn’t hurt either. Or a healthy dose of red pepper flakes. You could even throw a fried egg on top for some serious salad snazz.

{this recipe is for 1 salad with a lot of leftover garbanzos}

for the garbanzo-sardine mash:

1 can garbanzos
1 tin sardines in harrissa olive oil (if you can’t find them, you can sub sardines in olive oil and add a bit of harissa*)
1/2 cup pine nuts
a few generous shakes of red pepper flakes
salt to taste
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon

for the salad:

2 handfuls spinach
1/2 avocado

heat a medium sized skillet and toss in the pine nuts, shaking the pan a few times until the nuts start getting a little brown and smell good, then remove from pan
drain some of the olive oil from the sardines off into the pan
mince garlic and add to the pan
drain the garbanzos and rinse then add to the pan
break sardines into pieces and add to the pan and start mashing garbanzos with a fork, turn down heat, salt to taste
add the pine nuts back in and take the pan off heat, squeeze lemon juice into the pan
serve over spinach and under avocado

*trader joes sells these little suckers for the low price of $1.29, a steal of a tasty protein deal for a college student, or anyone trying to conserve beer/travel money

We get a lot of chard in our CSA and I always tend to steam or saute it with some garlic and vinegar or citrus. And that’s always good but this time I wanted to try something different. Chard is full of vitamins and it’s actually better wilted so it is a great vehicle for warm sauces, unlike other daintier leafy greens. Anchovies and capers give this a salty-umami Mediterranean taste and the warm yellow tomatoes balance it with a little sweetness.

1 bunch chard
4 anchovies in olive oil
15 yellow cherry tomatoes
1 lg garlic clove
splash red wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp capers
red chili flakes
pepper

slice chard off of ribs then julienne the leaves (long skinny slices), I like to roll together a few pieces then slice them to save time and make them more uniform, put chard in a mixing bowl
drain olive oil from the anchovies and heat it (the oil) over medium heat in a sauce pan
mince the garlic and add it to the pan, once garlic is opaque add anchovies and mash with the back of a fork, add red chili flakes
add capers, tomatoes and red wine vinegar then cover the pan for a minute
uncover the pan once the tomatoes appear to be deflating a bit then carefully squash them with the back of a fork (angle them away so that you don’t squirt yourself or your kitchen with hot tomato juices)
pour the sauce over the chard and cover for a couple minutes until chard is just starting to wilt, then mix it all together, finish with pepper

Tag: Meditteranean

Spinach Salad w/ Mashed Sardine Garbanzos

Chard with Anchovy and Crushed Tomato Dressing