Spring Salad with Herb-Roasted Almonds

Sometimes the gods of weather smile upon us, despondent and weary from a seemingly endless cold, miserable winter. Sometimes in the middle of February they give us a few days of glorious sunshine and balmy temperatures that melt the dirty snow banks, wake up the sleeping earth and allow us to take deep breaths of spring-scented air. Oh, we know the rest of February and March await us with cold rain and snow, but for a few days we leave the boots and the heavy jackets at home, we crank open the windows to air out the house and we dream of fresh produce and the bounty to come.

Eating locally can be (sadly) a hard task no matter what the season, but this time of year it's especially grim. You can only eat so many root vegetables before you start craving greens and berries and fresh tomatoes. The berries and tomatoes are still a long way from Philadelphia's local table, but sometimes it's possible to find ambitious farmers who are growing salad greens in February. Combine these with a tangy vinaigrette, some herb-roasted nuts and some local goat cheese and you have a simple, elegant and local dish that gets your palate ready for spring's offerings.

I've been taking a salad to work every day, so I designed this recipe for a week's worth of individual salads. Store dressing, nuts, cheese and greens in separate containers in the fridge and when you're ready for a salad, give the greens a quick toss in a few tablespoons of the dressing and garnish with nuts and cheese.


Bain taitneamh as do bheil!


PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 40 minutes
MAKES: 2 1/2-3 cups of dressing, enough for many salads!


INGREDIENTS:
for the roasted almonds:

• 1 1/2 cups raw almonds, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 4-5 twists of the pepper mill
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

for the vinaigrette:

• 1 cup white wine or champagne vinegar
• 4-5 sprigs fresh tarragon
  
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 5 tablespoons Grade A maple syrup
• 1 1/2-2 cups extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

the salad:

• local salad greens of your choice (I used a "baby greens mix")
• local goat or bleu cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the roasted almonds: preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix 2 tablespoons olive oil with salt, pepper and minced rosemary & thyme. Toss chopped almonds with oil mixture and spread out on a sheet pan. Roast almonds for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven, or until just golden brown. Immediately remove from oven and sprinkle with more sea salt, if desired. Set aside.
2. To prepare the vinaigrette: cut the top off of the head of garlic and drizzle with a little olive oil. Loosely wrap the head of garlic in foil and place in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until very soft. Squeeze the roasted cloves out of the head and set aside.
3. While garlic is roasting, place vinegar and tarragon sprigs in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a low heat and immediately reduce to a slow simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and set aside, discarding tarragon sprigs.
4. In a stand blender, combine tarragon-infused vinegar, roasted garlic cloves, herbs, dijon and maple syrup. Blend on a medium speed, slowly streaming olive oil into the top of the blender, until the vinaigrette is creamy and has a smooth taste. Season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.
5. To assemble a salad: toss a handful of washed salad greens with a few drizzles of the vinaigrette, just enough so that the leaves are coated but not soggy. Sprinkle with roasted almonds and crumbled goat cheese. Eat by a sunny window and think of the warmer days to come.
   

Creamy Celeriac and Mushroom Soup

During yesterday's Salads II class, our chef was waxing rhapsodic about the noble celeriac. This knobby root is not perhaps as glamorous as the all-stars of winter root vegetable cooking like potatoes, carrots and parsnips, but to overlook it's mild and nutty celery flavor would be a big mistake, he intoned. He demoed cutting off the rough skin and thinly slicing it for a delicious composed salad (later prepared by my classmate Angela) that featured this funny-looking root, marinated and sauteed and then beautifully laid out on a bed of bibb lettuce. I got stuck preparing the blanched-vegetable-with-tahini-dressing-salad (snore), but my eyes kept wandering over to Angela's celeriac creation.

How perfect, I thought on the bus ride home, I have a celeriac rolling around in my vegetable drawer this very moment. I walked into my apartment, unrolled my knife kit and got cracking on a soup starring the under-appreciated celeriac. We are trying to cut down on dairy in my house these days, so I decided to make the soup creamy without actual milk or cream. My new method for attaining creaminess without dairy? Roasted garlic. I'm obsessed. This very moment, as I am typing away, there is a head of garlic roasting in my oven, filling the house with the most delicious smell. I can't get enough of the stuff!

The mushrooms and the thyme add a nice woodiness to the soup that compliment the celeriac and roasted garlic. This soup keeps very well in the fridge and tastes even better the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to marry. When peeling the celeriac, be careful to remove all pieces of the rough brown skin-- because they're so craggy they tend to have a lot of dirt hidden in all of their little crevices. Pen & Fork has a great blog post here about peeling celeriac, with lots of purdy pictures.


Bain taitneamh as do bheil!


PREP TIME: 30-40 minutes
COOKING TIME: 10 minutes (most cooking can be done while prepping other ingredients)
SERVES: about three 1 cup servings


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large head garlic
• 1 celeriac, rough outer skin removed, chopped evenly into 1" squares (about 2-2 1/2 cups)
• 1 onion, cut into 1/2" dice (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 1/2-3 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus more for cooking
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme, woody stems removed and discarded (about 1 tablespoon)
  
• sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the top off of the head of garlic and drizzle with a little olive oil. Loosely wrap the head of garlic in foil and place in the preheated oven. for 30-35 minutes or until very soft. Squeeze the roasted cloves out of the head and set aside.
   
2. While the garlic roasts, place chopped celeriac in a heavy-bottomed stock pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer celeriac until very soft. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.
3. While the garlic is roasting and the celeriac is simmering, heat up a little olive oil and sweat onions until very soft and translucent. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Toss sliced mushrooms, garlic powder and 1 teaspoon olive oil together in a bowl. Saute mushrooms until they are slightly browned. Remove from heat, allow to cool and roughly chop mushrooms into small pieces. Set aside 1-2 tablespoons of chopped mushrooms to garnish soup.
5. When garlic is roasted, celeriac is tender and onions are sauteed, combine in a blender. Add 1/2 cup of the celeriac cooking water, fresh thyme and salt & pepper to taste and carefully blend. (Keep a towel pressed to the top of your blender whenever you are blending hot items. And for those of you in love with your immersion blenders, sorry-- I find this soup works better in a stand blender) Add more cooking water as needed to reach desired soup consistency.
   
6. Stir in chopped mushrooms (you can also blend them in with the other ingredients, but I like a little texture in this soup). Pour into bowls and garnish with some of the reserved mushrooms.