Arugula Salad with Proscuitto

Leftover proscuitto makes a lovely alternative to bacon in your salad. Behold!

• Arugula, torn into smaller pieces
• Prosciutto, cut into little cubes
• Orange bell peppers, chopped
• fresh ground back pepper
• dried basil leaves
• olive oil
• red wine vinegar
  

All you need to do is mix the arugula, prosciutto & bell peppers together with your hands. Then make a vinaigrette by whisking the pepper, basil, oil & vinegar together.

When you're ready to eat, pour the vinaigrette over the salad. Lovely.

This is what was left of my salad by the time I decided to take the picture :)

Fennel Serrano Salad w/ Pomegranate & Deconstructed Vinaigrette

Made this up and I must say it turned out lovely, no?

Here's what I did:

• arugula
• shaved fennel
• serrano or proscuitto, cut into ribbons
• pomegranate seeds
• balsamic vinegar reduction (on another page, you basically simmer it for a long time with butter)
• orange oil (all i did was put a bunch of orange rinds (cut in small pieces) into a small container of olive oil and let it sit over night. By morning, I had a very lovely orange oil. Ok, moving on.
• Compose arugula & fennel in the center of the plate, and arrage it with the proscuitto ribbons.
• Sprinkle pomegranate seeds around and make it pretty
• Balsamic reduction goes along one side of the plate, and I drizzled the other rim of the plate with the orange oil. This way, you have a vinaigrette that you can create and play around with the flavors. It's fun, pretty, and really not that bad for you.
  

I am so fancy!!!

Micro Green Salad w/ Fig Vinaigrette

I wanted to make use of the Microgreens I had leftover from last weekend but I wanted to do something simple that wouldn't overwhelm their flavor. Micro greens are lovely but can be a little on the bitter side, so my goal was to create a salad with a sweet vinaigrette. I LOVE fig and it's natural sweetness. Hence, my salad:

• fresh micro greens (or any salad, really)
• red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• fig spread (any kind works, I used the kind that you typically find in the cheese section of the grocery store)

I'm not including any amounts here - it's up to you. Just add a bit of each and keep wisking until you get the flavor and consistency you like.

If the fig spread is thick, microwave it for about 30 seconds before adding the oil and vinegar.

Then just pour it over your greens and mix with your hands (that was the fun part).

This turned out absolutely lovely. The sweetness of the fig really complimented the bitterness of the greens. And micro greens always just look so gorgeous!

Fennel Grapefruit Salad with Shaved Parmesan & Micro Greens

I am on a real fennel kick lately. I know it goes well with grapefruit. That's all I know. But I made this salad tonight and it was a real hit with my best friend. But then, it's a best friends job to say they like your food. Well, let me know.

• 1 bulb fennel
• 2 grapefruits
• micro greens (they have these at Trader Joes and most other places. Or just use arugula)
• olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• raw sugar
• fresh shaved parmesan cheese
• fresh ground black pepper

There's no amounts on here - it's up to you. Basically shave the fennel (if you have a mandoline that will be perfect, otherwise just cut it as thin as possible). Then cut the grapefuit into slices (with the rind and white stuff gone).

Whisk the oil, vinegar and a teaspoon or so of the sugar in a bowl.

Place the fennel and grapefruit on the plate, micro greens in the middle. Sprinkle the parmesan on top. Drizzle viaigrette on top and grind pepper over the salad before serving.

Look, I actually took a picture for once: