Poolside Goddess Nicoise, page 25substituting tofu in place of chickpeas
The Goddess Nicoise Salad has been one of my favorite AFR recipes, by far, so far. I decided to bring it back for Easter to share with the rest of the family, since they weren't around the first time I enjoyed it.
We chose to spend our Easter afternoon lounging poolside in this glorious Austin spring weather. As I whipped around the kitchen beforehand, steaming baby potatoes and green beans and buzzing up some goddess dressing in the blender, I suddenly realized that I had no chickpeas for the salad. Ack! Then, inspiration struck as I considered SweetPea's suggestion from earlier that day that we eat some egg-less (tofu) salad sandwiches (I guess veggie salads don't excite her like they do me): why not use some diced extra firm silken tofu in place of the chickpeas? I think the result was lovely; it was light yet still sophisticated.
This marks the third time I've made a batch of the Green Goddess Garlic Dressing. The first time was with my friend Anne, when we made it with young green garlic, and it was positively divine. The second time, I used the full amount of regular garlic; it was still delicious and pleasing, but it had a much stronger bite from the raw garlic that was too spicy for the girls. This time, I made a double batch of the dressing (to use throughout the rest of the week), and I only put in half the amount of garlic. It is again an excellent dressing, but the raw garlic still gives it a fairly spicy kick that makes it hard for the girls to enjoy as much as El Hombre and I do. I am thinking that the next time I make this dressing (because I will - I love it!), I'll try using lots of roasted garlic instead. I'm imagining that it will give the dressing a deep and rich, yet mellow and sweet garlicky taste, rather than the sharp zing of raw garlic.
I haven't been very diligent during the last week or so about sticking to my personal exercise and eating plan... tomorrow morning I will step on the scale to see what kind of damage I need to deal with. Sigh. I have no real excuses; I just need to realize that it's important to stick to the plan even when I'm feeling busy and overwhelmed with all the little details of life. Maybe even more important during those times. Anyway. Moving on...
3 comments:
I'm so glad the family finally had a chance to try it. Very satisfying dish and a lot heartier than you'd think being a salad.
Thanks for the great Easter feast!
I keep getting green garlic in my CSA box. Do you slice and use the entire thing or just the whitish bottom.
Hi I'Asha, you can use both the white and green parts of the green garlic. Sometimes the darker green leaves get a little tough; in that case, you would want to trim off the tough leaves and probably only use the lower, more tender parts of the green stalk. When Anne and I made the goddess dressing with the green garlic, we used only the green parts and reserved the white bulb for another use. Hope that helps!
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