Bean and Shrimp Salad with Curried Yogurt

Here's a tasty dish on the lighter side for a fresh start to the new year.  I still have holiday leftovers so I'm not quite ready to start eating clean, but soon you should see plenty of lighter dishes here.  

This recipe uses crisp beans, which I love.  I used a mix of purple and yellow beans.  They look great raw, but the purple ones turn dark green when cooked.

I really should get back to cooking with shrimp more often.  They are satisfying but very healthy, and it's easy to always have some waiting in the freezer to quickly defrost.  

This recipe comes from Cooking Light.  Here's what you need:

Sushi Salad

Here's a very tasty main course salad that needs minimal cooking and has amazing flavour. The recipe comes from the wonderful Clean Eating magazine, which I love.

Here's what you need:

Rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, wasabi paste, carrot, avocado, cucumber, crab or fake crab sticks and nori sheets. 

Plus short-grain brown rice. I got the rice, wasabi, rice vinegar and nori in the supermarket at the sushi bar but they should be available in the Asian food section of any decent sized grocery store. 

Cook the rice according to package directions, then spread it out on a plate or tray to cool down.

Meanwhile prepare the nori. This is what the package looks like:

Take two large sheets of nori and cut them in quarters.

Then slice the nori into strips.

Next, chop your vegetables.

I cut the cucumber and carrots but held back on the avocado until just before serving so it wouldn't discolour.

This is the fake crab sticks. You can also use real crab if you want but I thought this was more "authentic" for this salad, and much more convenient. 

Chop the crab sticks into chunks.

Mix together the crab sticks, vegetables, nori and rice.

Next make the dressing by mixing the wasabi with rice vinegar...

Add soy sauce and honey. Notice there's no oil in this dressing. Healthy!

Pour the dressing over the rice, crab and vegetables and mix together.

Then chop and add the avocado and gently mix. 

You can serve this salad over baby spinach or field greens or just on its own for a hearty, healthy, colourful meal that really tastes like deconstructed California rolls.

Calamari Salad

Here's another light summer salad that keeps the house cool but is super tasty.

If you've never bought fresh squid you should try it! You can usually get it cleaned and ready to cook, but if you buy it whole you'll need to follow these instructions to clean it first.

These were cleaned. Instead of cutting it into rings I cut the bodies almost all the way through but left them intact on one side so they'd be easier to grill.

Just before grilling I tossed them with a tablespoon of Asian chili garlic sauce and a little oil.  Grill the tentacles too!

These take almost no time at all to grill, about a minute per side, so get your salad ready ahead of time.

I made a lemon vinaigrette for the salad.  Just fresh lemon juice, dijon mustard and olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper.

I dressed the salad and topped it with the grilled calamari after chopping through to separate the rings.

I also added some shallots I'd crisped in some oil on the stovetop, but that's optional.


A delicious, light salad. Something simple and different for a nice lunch or summer evening.  

Curried Pork Medallions on Watercress

This is a lovely, light, summery salad.  I made it several times last summer and pulled it out to enjoy along with the warm spring weather we've been having lately. 

Here are the ingredients: pork tenderloin, watercress, radishes, tangerines...

And for the marinade/dressing: maple syrup, sesame oil, curry paste, soy sauce and rice vinegar.

Mix the marinade ingredients together and marinate the pork tenderloin for at least 30 minutes and up to a few hours.

Grill the tenderloin and reserve the marinade.

Boil the marinade for about 5 minutes.  This will be the dressing for the salad.  

Slice some radishes.

Peel the tangerine, halve it and slice it into segments.  This is much easier than cutting supremes and just as tasty.  

Wash and spin dry your watercress.  You can also use other greens or a combination of cress and greens, which I did here.

Top the greens with sliced radishes and oranges.

Then top that with thinly sliced pork tenderloin. 

Drizzle with the warm curry dressing for a delicious, light spring or summer meal.  

Chipotle Mac & Cheese

I try not to cook with cheese too often because it can be so bad for you, but it is SO delicious.  This is based on a recipe from Cooking Light magazine and doesn't use too much cheese but gets a creamy texture from a surprising ingredient - sweet potatoes.

First, roast two large sweet potatoes until soft, about an hour.

Scrape the flesh of the sweet potatoes into a bowl and mash.

Take a few chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  I used one too many for my tastes - this was super spicy - but it was perfect for my spice-loving husband.  

These can be kind of a mess to chop, they tend to stain the board, so I put them in a measuring cup with the milk for the sweet potato mash and used an immersion blender to chop them.  It worked perfectly!

I poured the milk and chipotles into the mashed sweet potatoes and mashed it all together until mostly smooth.  

Then add a few ounces of shredded monterey jack cheese. Not too much at all.  

Next, add the cooked (whole wheat) macaroni and mix together.

And spread it in a 9 by 13 casserole dish.  You can go ahead and serve this as a vegetarian entree, or...

... cook up some spicy sausage to top the macaroni.  You can use Mexican chorizo, or use spicy Italian sausage. 

Crumble and brown the sausage in a pan and then spread it over the top of the macaroni casserole.

Now broil it in the oven until the sausage is sizzling.  

Top with sliced scallions before serving.

The sweet potatoes make it so creamy and the chipotles really pack a punch. Next time I'd add less spice and probably skip the sausage for a lighter, milder meal.  But this was a big hit with the spice and meat loving contingent!