This warm, simple salad is so special thanks to the maitake mushrooms and the variety of textures and flavors. Made from expensive ingredients, this salad is meant for special occasions (or just the occasion of treating yourself), but I promise it’s worth it! #meandthemoose #salad #maitakemushrooms #warmsalad #saladrecipes #sidedishes

Maitake mushroom salad

December 20, 2021 by Rebecca Davis in Gluten-free, Holidays, Recipes, Vegetarian, Winter

This warm, simple salad is so special thanks to the maitake mushrooms and the variety of textures and flavors. Made from expensive ingredients, this salad is meant for special occasions (or just the occasion of treating yourself), but I promise it’s worth it!

Take me to the recipe!

This salad is based on my best memories from a tiny little restaurant in Brooklyn called Little Dishes that I used to frequent with my husband before it tragically closed. I remember running to this place in the thick snow when someone was having a craving for their Mac and cheese. Their food was so simple, but so thoughtfully prepared that the dishes ended up being much greater than the sum of their humble parts.

Maitake mushrooms, sometimes called Hen of the Woods, are my absolute favorite variety. They’re meaty and slightly herby with a wee bit of forest floor funk. I state from the outset that this is an expensive salad because maitakes definitely don’t come cheap and I wouldn’t substitute any other mushroom variety here. I mean, you CAN, but your salad with end up fine, instead of ethereal.

The original recipe used a local cheese that was somewhere between parmesan and gruyere. Use either in this recipe or any other favorite cheese that falls in the nutty, slightly dry realm.

A couple of notes:

Cooking the mushrooms: I like to leave the mushrooms in slightly large pieces. It will feel awkward to cook them at first because they’re pretty stiff until they heat up somewhat. Once you sear them on one side, the mushrooms will get much floppier and easier to cook.
Cooking the radicchio: I seared half of the bitter lettuce and left the other half raw for a bit of textural difference, but you don’t strictly need to do this step. I left the lettuce in pretty large pieces for the photos, but definitely slice them much thinner for the real salad.

Maitake mushroom salad

2-3 large maitake mushrooms, each cut into about 4 large pieces
1 small head of radicchio, sliced into very thin wedges
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
4-5 cups arugula (1 small bag of pre-washed lettuce is perfect)
Shallot vinaigrette (recipe below), to taste
Parmesan or gruyere cheese, to taste

Shallot vinaigrette
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp mayonnaise
1 large pinch of salt

Heat the butter in a large skillet over a medium high flame. When the butter has begun to bubble and brown slightly, add the mushrooms and cook, turning every 1-2 minutes, until well browned on all sides and very floppy, about 6-8 minutes. Remove the mushrooms to a plate and sprinkle with salt.

Add the olive oil to the pan and heat until very hot, but not smoking. Sear half of the radicchio on one side and then flip to the other side and sear again. If the pan is hot enough, this should take about 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with salt.

Add the mushrooms back to the pan with the radicchio to warm back up, but don’t turn the flame back on.

Add the arugula and the raw radicchio to a large plate or bowl. Add half of the dressing and toss well. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Top with the warm mushrooms and radicchio. Pour on more dressing to taste.

Add large flakes of the nutty, salty cheese on top to taste. Serve immediately.

This hearty fall salad is filling, healthy, and comforting. #meandthemoose #saladrecipe #noboringsalads #salad #fall #fallsalad #squash #kale #pear #fallcomfortfood

Roasted squash and pear salad with cider vinaigrette

October 27, 2020 by Rebecca Davis in Cooking, Fall, Gluten-free, Recipes, Toddler eats, Vegetarian, Vegan

This salad is complex enough for the foodies in your life, but filled with ingredients yummy enough for even discerning little ones (maybe paired down to its component parts, but it depends on your kid).

Take me to the salad!

So, I’ve mostly succumbed to my existential dread and begun inhaling the Halloween candy that I SWORE I wouldn’t open until October 31st. Since my snacking has taken a turn and I also feel like it’s not really fall until I post a kale salad with some sort of roasted squash, I’m coming in hot with this baby today.

Lacinto kale (Tuscan/Dinosaur kale) is the base. This is my favorite kale to use in salads because you can dress it way in advance and it’ll stay crisp for days (and no one can complain about soggy lettuce!). It also stands up well against the nuts, seeds, roasted veggies, and tangy dressing here.

I roasted some honeynut squash (above) which looks like a mini butternut, but is oh so much better. I find butternut squash a little too bland and watery and there are so many other varieties with more taste and body like kabocha and koginut. Plus, they’re so puuuurty.

You might be thinking— “What is this woman smoking if she thinks I’m going to roast squash, toast nuts, fry sage and shallots, AND make a dressing mid-day on a Wednesday.” But hear me out. My squash-roasting method is so easy: split the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and place it on a baking sheet cut side down and roast at 425 until fork tender (no peeling or stem trimming required!). Set it and forget it!

The nuts and seeds can be toasted alongside the squash in a separate small pan for like 4-5 minutes without any sort of prep at all (skins still on!).

Finally, the sautéed shallots and sage…well, there’s no way to make them easier. They’re not HARD by any stretch, but they require a little more work than your average salad, I’ll give you that. But they make this salad an EVENT, so if you CAN slow down and make yourself a nice lunch, I guarantee it’ll be worth it. Also, my kid loves fried shallots, so it’s a selling point in his book.

Roasted Squash and Pear Salad with Cider Vinaigrette

Time: 1 hour (about 40 minutes active)
Yield: 2 meal-sized salads or 3 side salads

2-4 small, firm fleshed squash like Delicata, Koginut, or Kabocha
1 bunch Lacinto kale (also called Tuscan or Dinosaur), washed, de-stemmed, and torn
1 Tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of salt
1/4 cup raw hazelnuts
2 Tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
1 Tbsp butter
1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
5-6 large sage leaves
1/4 cup feta, goat’s cheese, or any other cheese you like
1 large pear, cored and sliced
Large pinch of Allepo pepper (optional)
Cider vinaigrette (recipe below)

For the cider vinaigrette
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 425. Split the squash down the middle with a sharp knife, scoop out the seeds and stringy bits from the center, and place cut side down on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet. DO NOT trim the ends or the stem off of the squash. Bake until the outer skin and inner flesh is fork tender, about 35-40 minutes depending upon the size and amount of squash (I like to roast a lot at once so I can freeze the extra and use it for future dishes). Let cool. The skin will slip off of the flesh easily.

While the squash is cooking, prep the kale. Wash, tear the leaves off of the tough inner stems, and then rip the leaves into medium pieces. Top with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and massage and squeeze the kale with your hands to make it more tender. Sprinkle with a large pinch of salt.

In a separate pan, place the raw nuts and seeds. Toast in the oven with the squash for 4-5 minutes or until the nuts and seeds begin to toast and smell nutty. Keep a close eye to prevent burning.

In a small saute pan, melt the butter over a medium high flame. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the sage leaves and cook until they go dark and crispy.

Make the dressing: Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well combined. Or use a small jar with a lid and shake until combined.

Top the lettuce with enough of the dressing to coat well. Add the squash, nuts, seeds, fried shallots, fried sage, and cheese. Just before serving, core and slice the pear and add to the salad (to prevent browning). Top with a large pinch of Aleppo pepper or other little bit of heat and more salt if necessary. Top with the rest of the dressing.

Warm potato salad

September 22, 2020 by Rebecca Davis in Cooking, Fall, Gluten-free, Kid eats, Parenting, Quick meals, Recipes, Toddler eats, Vegetarian

Potato salad might be the perfect transitional food: It’s reminiscent of the BBQs and long summer days that we’re leaving behind, but as we head towards fall, what’s more comforting than a bowl of starchy goodness?

Bring me to the potatoes!

Phew. I am in the thick of this motherhood in a pandemic thing, y’all. (While also trying to be okay with what we have [in-person school half of the time; outdoor, distanced playdates], and what we don’t [travel, grandparents without preplanning, sports, activities]. I was about to actually start this blog post asking, “from where is our worth derived?” And then I said to myself: GET A GRIP BECCA, THIS IS JUST A FUCKING FOOD BLOG.

One thing I’m really missing, and I think we can all relate to this somewhat, is that sense of having discreet portions of the day. I blame the pandemic, the world being both literally and figuratively on fire, and being home all the time, but having a 5.5 month old baby who is, thus far, schedule resistant, also doesn’t help.

Whatever the cause, I miss those few downbeat moments every day where you could switch from one mode to the next. Now I feel like I’m never able to focus on one thing completely. I can’t just test a recipe or take some photos. Instead, I’m doing that while comforting a crying baby and finding a very specific episode of Paw Patrol on the DVR and getting some water and searching for a missing Lego and nursing and and and.

On the flip side, I find myself not tuning in to my kids entirely either, which makes me really upset with myself and this fucking situation we’re in. I think that fear, anger, resentment, and frustration makes it hard for me to find the bandwidth for a really involved pretend game or art project or science experiment. But that sucks for my kids because they aren’t responsible for the pandemic. But I’m also human and I can’t be the perfect mom all day, every day. * PRIMAL SCREEEEAAAAAMMMMM *

But anyway, time marches on and suddenly summer has turned into fall. I don’t know what we did with the warm months. Did they even happen? Who knows.

We did celebrate summer produce thanks to our prolific cucumber, zucchini, and basil plants AND our favorite farm stand. Now that fall is bearing down on us, there’s nothing like a meal to mark the changing of the seasons and this potato salad is the culinary equivalent of a light jacket: A nod to both warm and cold, casual and cozy.

While potato salad might seem relegated to side-dishery, I topped this with a runny egg for an unexpectedly fab breakfast. Try it!

Warm potato salad

Time: About 15-20 minutes, mostly active
Yield: about 3-3.5 cups of salad

1½ lbs small potatoes (new, fingerling, red, etc; cut any larger ones so that most pieces are about the same size)
¼ cup mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
¼ cup chopped red onion (about 1 thick slice from a medium or small onion)
2 Tbsp finely chopped chives
1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp smoked paprika
Dash of red wine vinegar or 1 tsp of chopped capers

Microwave the washed potatoes in a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap on high for 10 minutes. Or cover the potatoes with cold water until they’re just submerged. Heat over a high flame until boiling. Boil, lowering the flame slightly to avoid the water boiling over, until fork tender, about 12-14 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Once the potatoes are fork tender, add them to the mixture and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.