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Avocado, cranberry, and cashew salad with raspberry dressing

I decided to enter another recipe in the Gourmet Garden blog off/cook off. Couldn’t help myself… I didn’t have time to film me making this one. Well, I would have had time to film it, but not enough to edit it the way I would like. Oh well, maybe my other video bored you anyway.

This sounds really weird, but it is super tasty. It looks pretty weird too because of the dressing, but that is what makes it super tasty! Seriously, give it a try.

I came up with the dressing because there is no raspberry vinaigrette here. I googled how to make some, but that required raspberry vinegar, and I didn’t have, nor know where to find that either. So I made up my own dressing. And I think it tastes better anyway. I have only ever tried the dressing on this particular salad, and it works quite well together.

Avocado, cranberry, and cashew salad with raspberry dressing

-1 cup shredded washed lettuce. Not iceberg, and nothing peppery, other than that, pretty much any will do. I use either cos (romaine) or hydroponic.

-1 large tomato, cut into 1-2cm peices

-1/4 cup shredded cheese (tasty, cheddar, or monterey jack)

-1 avocado, cut into 2 cm pieces

-1/4 cup craisins

-1/4 cup cashews

-1/4 – 1/2 cup garlic bagel chips (that’s what I use. I don’t make them, I buy them. The garlic ones are best for this dish!)

-1/8tsp dried dill

splash of olive oil

METHOD

Put everything in a bowl and toss. Except for the bagel chips, put those on top at the very end.

Raspberry dressing

-1/4 cup frozen raspberries, thawed or defrosted in the microwave (but NOT hot or warm)

-1 TBSP dijon mustard

-1 TBSP olive oil

1 tsp Gourmet Garden basil

1/8+ tsp Gourmet Garden hot chilli (amount depends on how hot you like stuff)

Salt and pepper to taste

If dressing tastes like it needs a bit more acidity, add a bit of lemon juice. The need really depends on the sweetness of the raspberries and therefore varies.

METHOD

Add all ingredients to a mug or cup and stir. Taste and add more salt/pepper/lemon juice/chilli as desired. The raspberries will break up and become most of the dressing. This is quite a thick dressing.

Pour dressing on salad and toss/stir to coat and distribute evenly. Yeah, your salad will look reddish-pink and funky. Embrace it! Eat straight away so the avocado doesn’t go brown and the bagel chips soggy.

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Tags: avocado, cranberry and cashew salad, gourmet garden, gourmet garden blog off/cook off, home made raspberry dressing, life, raspberry salad dressing, recipe, salad

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Categories Recipes

Easy smoked salmon and feta quiche

18 May

I’ve decided to participate in the Gourmet Garden Blog off/cook off challenge. What’s that you say? Well, Gourmet Garden sent bloggers who signed up a kit full of different herbs and spices to use in an original recipe. And then of course there are finalists, a cook off, and eventually, a winner. Obviously, I want to be the winner. But I’m sure everyone else who entered does too. Sigh.

Anyway, my recipe is smoked salmon and feta quiche. It has sun-dried tomatoes too, but I forgot to say that when I said the recipe name in the video, so I can’t really call it that in writing either. Yes, I’m awesome like that. Sigh. Even my sister in law who doesn’t like quiche likes this quiche. And she’s super picky. Don’t tell her I said that.

This is a good one for making ahead of time too as you can throw it in the oven to warm it up the next day and you’d never know it wasn’t freshly baked just then.

Ok, here is my very first cooking video. It’s a bit dark, but the lighting in our house (ahem, apartment) sucks, and the only time I can make a video without 2 rambunctious kids screaming for my attention is after they go to bed. At night. In the dark. And cold. Sigh.

SMOKED SALMON AND FETA QUICHE

-6 large eggs
-100ml milk (full cream or lite)
-1 cup grated cheese (tasty, cheddar, monterey jack or similar)
-200g feta cut in cubes (greek or danish, not the kind that smells like sheep. Yes, some does smell like sheep. Smell some, you’ll know what I mean…)
-100-200g smoked salmon, cut up (amount depends on how salmon-ey you want it to taste. I used about 130 grams)
-8 sun-dried tomatoes, cut in quarters and drained on a paper towel (you can use semi-dried too as they are super delicious)
-Zest/rind of ½ a lemon
-Salt and pepper to taste
-1/2 to 1 tsp Gourmet Garden chunky garlic
-1 TBSP Gourmet Garden basil
-1 sheet puff pastry (if you are in the U.S. you can get puff pastry. It was hard to find when I was there, but I eventually found some at Walmart. Here is one you can get in the U.S.)

Method

1. Take puff pastry sheet out of freezer and put it on a baking paper lined pan (quiche pan, deep dish pie pan, or similar, this recipe is very forgiving!) to defrost while you prepare the quiche. Do not take the dividing sheet off, leave it on top of the pastry so it doesn’t dry out while you prepare the quiche. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. That probably should have been it’s own step. Oh well.

2. Crack the 6 eggs into a large mixing bowl and stir with a fork until whites and yolks are incorporated together.

3. Add salt and pepper. Or not. Up to you. You know how you like stuff.

4. Add grated cheese and stir.

5. Add feta and stir. Cube size can vary, depending on how big you want it. I.E. if you really like feta, maybe you want big chunks. Maybe you prefer really small chunks, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s not one giant block.

6. Add salmon and stir.

7. Add garlic, basil, and lemon rind and stir.

8. Take dividing sheet off pastry. Press pastry sheet into dish. Fold corners towards the middle of the pie so they are not sticking up all weird. If you don’t they will burn. You’ve been warned.

9. Pour quiche mixture on top of pastry. If all the chunky bits are in the same area, distribute them as evenly as you can.

10. Put quiche pan on top of a cookie sheet (to make it easier to get in and out of the oven) and put into oven for 45 minutes to an hour until set. Cooking time depends on pan size and your particular oven. Check it after 45 minutes and if it’s still wobbly in the middle, put it back in for another 15.