Put a Little Crunch in Your Life

I have loved lettuce-less salads since spending a year in Israel in the late 1980's. The produce there is flawless, and we made these salads daily with whichever ingredients were the freshest. I haven't made one in years, but have really been craving one. I used the following veggies:

1/2 Pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 bag broccoli slaw, found in produce area of supermarket
1 red bell pepper, diced
6 spring onions, diced thinly
1 cucumber, diced

Toss together and add salt and pepper to taste. You can use any cheese you like- I used feta this time. I took a small block and made mini cubes out of half of it and put it on top of the veggies. Coat everything lightly with extra virgin olive oil and the juice of half a lemon and toss again. This salad has such great texture! It is much more hearty than a salad made with lettuce.

At the supermarket, I noticed they were selling rib eye steaks sliced to just under 1/2" and were charging $4 or $5 a pound more than the regular thicker rib eyes. I decided to buy the regular ones and slice them myself- it was getting late and there wasn't time to grill, but there was time to quick pan fry a couple of steaks. This was so easy and fast, and the meat was melt-in-your-mouth perfect. I sliced them, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and coated them in a tiny bit of olive oil. I threw them in a preheated pan (hot!) and seared them for a couple of minutes on each side. I took them off the heat and covered them loosely with aluminum foil for five minutes and they were ready to eat. This impromptu meal ended up being one of our favorites, and will become part of our repeat list.

The salad was also good left over! So take a walk down your produce aisle and grab the most beautiful, ripe veggies and give this a try. You'll be rewarded with the freshest of fresh tastes, and a very nice crunch to boot...and the eggs.