Category Archives: Salads

by Rachael | July 25, 2012

Simple Smoked Chicken Salad Recipe

I love it when Bill makes his mouthwatering smoked chicken because that means I get to make my awesome smoked chicken salad!

We started making this a few years ago and it turns out uh-mazing every time.

There are so many chicken salad recipes out there, and it’s really a matter of how you like it and what you prefer.

I keep mine pretty simple because I really want the smoky flavor to stand out. If you don’t have smoked chicken you could try adding a couple drops of liquid smoke or some smoked paprika.

Bill doesn’t like celery, but he likes the flavor of it… so I always put the celery in the food processor
first to get rid of any big chunks for him. I’m cool like that!

So… Bill’s got his celery thing, and I personally don’t want an extremely chunky chicken salad, and I always process the meat a little finer than Bill would like it so I can spread the leftovers on Triscuits. It’s how we compromise.

If you happen to try this with Triscuits, it makes a really great light lunch or a healthy snack.

I like to take the yum factor over the edge and chop up some green and/or black olives and make it a topping. You’ll definitely love me forever once you pop that first Triscuit in your mouth!

Mmmm hmmm.

You can make this your own and try some of these additions in your batch of chicken salad:

Hard boiled eggs
Grapes
Apples
Chopped almonds or walnuts
Raisins
Cucumber
Pickle Relish

Rachael xoxo

5.0 from 1 reviews

Simple Smoked Chicken Salad Recipe

Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

This recipe calls for “smoked” chicken, but if you don’t have that you can use any kind of chicken and add some liquid smoke or smoked paprika… Or it works great as a base recipe to follow for regular chicken salad.

Author: Rachael www.simplyfreshcooking.com

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1 cup celery, finely chopped
4 cups smoked chicken, cold
½ medium onion, finely chopped or minced, depending on preference
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
1-1/4 cups canola oil mayonnaise

Instructions

*In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, add celery and pulse until it turns into a minced consistency. Remove from food processor and place in a large mixing bowl.
Add 2 cups of chicken to food processor and pulse until desired consistency is reached; transfer to the mixing bowl with the celery and pulse the remaining chicken in the food processor. (It’s best to process the chicken in 2 separate batches so you’re able to get the texture you want without over-processing the chicken)
Add onion, salt, pepper, and 1 cup mayonnaise to the celery and chicken; stir until blended. Add more mayonnaise if necessary.
Serve on whole grain bread or on top of Triscuits for a healthy snack or light lunch.

Notes

-Nutrition Facts do not include whole grain bread, lettuce, tomato. *If you like bigger chunks of celery, you can skip the first step and place chopped celery right into the mixing bowl. Try some additions if you’d like: Hard boiled eggs Grapes Apples Chopped almonds or walnuts Raisins Cucumber Pickle Relish

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Calories: 270.3 Fat: 16.9 g Saturated fat: 3.0 g Carbohydrates: 11.0 g Sugar: 3.4 g Fiber: 0.5 g Protein: 18.1 g Cholesterol: 62.0 mg

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Tomato Basil Cucumber Salad with Feta Cheese and Brown Rice

This deliciously light and healthy salad makes a great dinner for the hot summer months. It’s also an easy make-ahead lunch for the work week!

My husband was the one who invented this salad, and I’m pretty sure he’d have something to say about it if he didn’t get a shout out.

It was a couple of months ago, and we were out of romaine lettuce, so I wasn’t able to eat my “normal” salad for lunch. So I called him and was like, okay… what the heck do you think I should eat for lunch today?? And he came up with this idea for me. We had these ingredients on hand and ready to go. The reason he suggested brown rice is because he looooooooves putting rice right into his lettuce salads.

That’s a super great way to add whole grains to your meal. I think a lot of people are scared to eat whole grains because there are so many myths about carbs and weight gain… but in reality, they can actually help you lose weight!!

Pay attention:

Whole grains make you stay fuller longer, eliminating your desire to eat more than you should.

It’s true, really.

You just have to watch the amount you eat. About 1/2 cup of brown rice or pasta is an appropriate serving size.

Besides that, whole grains are so amazing for your heart health…

So EAT UP!

Rachael xoxo

Tomato Basil Cucumber Salad with Feta Cheese and Brown Rice

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

45 mins

This salad makes a delicious light dinner, and the basil is what really makes the dish great!

Author: Rachael www.simplyfreshcooking.com

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1½ cups long grain brown rice
1 cucumber, de-seeded and cut into bite-size pieces (peel the skin if desired)
2 large tomatoes, cubed
8 ounces feta cheese, cubed
¼ cup basil, chopped
¼ cup parsley, chopped
1 lemon
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or white vinegar
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon cracked black pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil (about 4 quarts). Add rice and boil for 30-40 minutes, or until rice is tender. Drain and rinse rice under cold water.
In a large bowl add cooked rice, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, basil, and parsley; set aside.
In a small mixing bowl add the juice of the lemon (discarding any seeds), vinegar, salt, and pepper. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking to make the dressing.
Pour dressing mixture over rice bowl and combine. Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1½ cups Calories: 379.3 Fat: 19.1 g Saturated fat: 7.5 g Carbohydrates: 42.6 g Sugar: 4.7 g Fiber: 2.9 g Protein: 10.4 g Cholesterol: 35.7 mg

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Mom’s “Healthier” Italian Pasta Salad

What makes this pasta salad “healthier” is the homemade Italian dressing. I used to loooove making my mom’s pasta salad recipe, but since we started eating healthier I just had to change it up a little. There were only 3 things I had to adapt in this recipe; I used whole wheat pasta instead of white, I made my own Italian dressing instead of store-bought, and I omitted the salami. I chose to keep the provolone cheese, which is the healthier choice of the two proteins that mom uses. Very easy fixes to make this a healthy pasta salad!

I was a little nervous about making my own dressing, but I got the help of Bill, who is the master dressing maker in our house. He experiments with his salad dressings more than I do for our lunches, so he helped out a lot with the vinegar to oil ratios.

I hope you enjoy this as much as Bill and I did. While he was eating it, he kept shaking his head and saying, “Man, this is really good”… maybe that’ll help in your decision to make this!

Rachael xoxo

Mom’s “Healthier” Italian Pasta Salad

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

27 mins

Author: Rachael www.simplyfreshcooking.com

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 12-14

Ingredients

1 pound whole wheat fusilli, cooked according to package directions, then rinsed under cold water
¼ cup white wine vinegar
3 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ clove garlic, grated
½ teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon cracked black pepper
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound provolone cheese, cubed into bite-sized pieces
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
1-2 cups green onions, depending on preference, thinly sliced
1 14.5 ounce can black olives, halved
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

In a medium bowl add vinegar, Italian seasoning, garlic, honey, salt, and pepper. Add olive oil slowly to the bowl while whisking.
Place cooked, drained, and rinsed pasta in a large bowl and add only half of the vinegar and oil dressing. Cover and refrigerate the remaining half until later. Then, to the bowl add the cheese, tomatoes, green onions, olives, lemon juice, and basil; stir gently until combined. Cover and chill completely. Just before serving, add the remaining dressing mixture.*

Notes

*If you’re planning to have leftovers, save back some of the dressing mixture to add again before each time you serve again.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Calories: 392.4 Fat: 23.3 g Saturated fat: 8.3 g Carbohydrates: 33.2 g Sugar: 1.3 g Fiber: 4.7 g Protein: 15.9 g Cholesterol: 26.2 mg

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Potato and Crabmeat Salad with Fresh Tarragon

What a fresh and light dinner for this time of year. The tarragon dressing is really creamy and divine. I was so happy to come across this recipe at Oldways.

So yummy!

I’m crazy in love with their mission and everything they are trying to do for the way the world eats. If I remember correctly, I found almost 40 recipes to print off last year, and I want to make each one of them, like now!

If you haven’t noticed, Bill loves making homemade canola oil mayonnaise, so I had him whip up a small batch for me the night before I made this salad. If you’re just not into making it yourself, you can buy canola oil mayo in a jar. We used to purchase it, but found it’s much more cost-effective to make it at home. Besides the cost, we think it’s waaay yummier.

In general, I used to feel awful about eating mayo, but why would I when I know exactly what’s in it? There are just 4 ingredients… an egg, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and canola oil… all healthy. The only thing you have to be careful of is that you don’t eat too much of it at once (all things in moderation). Healthy fats are excellent for not only your heart but your waistline too, because they’re filling and can help curb overeating. Bonus!

Best mayo ever… let me know if you decide to try making it yourself!

Rachael xoxo

Potato and Crabmeat Salad with Fresh Tarragon

Makes a wonderful light dinner, or serve as a side dish.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds new potatoes, rinsed and scrubbed
½ cup canola oil mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 scallions, minced
2 tablespoons fresh chopped tarragon
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for potato water
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
6-8 ounces cooked crabmeat, fresh or canned

Instructions

Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut each half into quarters. Place potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Generously salt the water, bring to a boil and boil gently for 7-15 minutes (depending on size of potatoes), or until fork tender. Drain. Spread potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet and set aside to cool.
Whisk together the mayonnaise or yogurt, vinegar, scallions, tarragon, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the cooled potatoes, tomatoes, and crabmeat and stir gently to combine. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Notes

Canned tuna can easily be used in place of crab, if desired.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Calories: 250 Fat: 8 g Carbohydrates: 29 g Protein: 13 g

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Filed under Main Dishes, Salads, Side Dishes

Tagged as potato salad with fresh tarragon

by Rachael | March 12, 2012

Asian Tuna Salad with Mixed Greens and Black Sesame Seeds

We eat a lot of salads for lunch during the week, and it can get a little monotonous if we don’t change it up every now and then. A couple of months ago I invented this salad for Bill. I had been asking him for a long time to try some canned tuna in his salads, and he said he didn’t think he’d like it at all. I told him, you like tuna and you like salads, so what’s not to like? Well, he never did end up agreeing to add that darn tuna to his salad… so being the good wife I am, I took matters into my own hands and whipped this up for lunch one Saturday afternoon. And guess what?? He LOVED it (we both did, actually)! Wives just know best sometimes.

Although you can’t really tell from the pictures… for the salad I used a mix of dark leafy greens which include things like arugula, spinach, radicchio, green chard, and romaine hearts, etc…

You can buy pre-washed bags of mixed greens at the supermarket. I purchase mine in bulk from Costco, which saves me a ton of money. Another good reason to get them in bulk is you get more… the keyword here is more because dark leafy greens probably have the most concentrated source of nutrition of any other food. So your body will thank you kindly if you eat at least a serving of these daily. The USDA recommends a minimum of 3 cups per week, but why not get as many of these nutrients as you can because you can count this as a “freebie”. The reason is because it takes longer to digest. By the way, broccoli falls under this category as well, so eat up!

Here’s a tip: If you want to save a few bucks on black sesame seeds and sesame oil, look for an Asian market in your area. They usually have way better prices than your regular supermarket. Who knows what else you might find that will inspire you, too!

Asian Tuna Salad with Mixed Greens and Black Sesame Seeds

1 Serving

For the Salad:

1 cup mixed greens
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
3 oz albacore tuna (packed in water), drained
1/4 of a whole avocado
3 tbsp green onion, cut on the bias
1 tsp black sesame seeds

Sesame Vinaigrette Dressing:

1 tsp rice vinegar
1/8 tsp fresh garlic, shredded or made into a paste
1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 tsp honey
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp canola oil

Directions:

Place greens in a salad bowl. Top with broccoli, tomato, tuna, avocado, green onion, and sesame seeds.

In a small mixing bowl combine vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil. Drizzle in the canola oil while stirring. Then pour the vinaigrette mixture over the salad and toss.

This is the first recipe I’ve written so far. If you try it, please let me know how you like it!