Farm Fresh Friday: Fajita Salad

What's better for Farm-Fresh Friday than a salad? Homegrown salad greens are thriving this time of year, and some of you are finally getting tomatoes and other tasty garden treats. This is why summers are meant for salads.

Y'all know I love salad, and this is an old standby. (Apologies for no picture, because this really is gorgeous - I'm just traveling and hence a bit photographically impaired.) Like all salads, this one is super-flexible, and it makes a really great dinner in the summer. Sit outside and have it with a nice cold beverage!

FAIJTA SALAD

1/4 cup olive oil, plus some for cooking
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lb. steak, chicken, and/or portobello mushrooms
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup corn kernels (canned, frozen, or fresh)
Tortilla chips (I recommend blue corn)
Freshly-grated cheese (cheddar and/or Monterey Jack)

You'll also need a big bowl of salad greens and all your favorite toppings: sliced carrots, chopped tomato, cucumber, green onions, raw turnips, avocado, whatever you're into. The more, the merrier!

Whisk up the 1/4 c olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lime juice, cumin, garlic, and salt. Set aside.

Slice the meat and/or mushrooms into strips, fajita style. Pour a little oil into your skillet and fire it up! Saute the meat/mushrooms with the onion until it's all cooked up. Alternatively, you can leave the meat/'shrooms whole and slice the onion in half, grill them, and then slice them afterward. Either way, you'll wind up with cooked fajita strips and onions...

...which you should toss with the dressing mix you just made. Stir in the beans and corn (gently, so as not to smoosh the beans) and stick it all in the fridge to chill for awhile. I like to do all this after lunch or in the morning so it's nice and chilled for dinner.

When you're ready to eat, assemble your salad. Big bowl of greens, all the toppings scattered around, and then the chilled fajita mixture, drizzling the dressing over the rest of the salad. Toss it up a little, and then top it with the grated cheese and a couple handfuls of tortilla chips crushed in your hand.

If you have any leftovers, they're great the next day wrapped in a tortilla for lunch, or spooned over a baked potato, or served atop some quinoa.

Happy summer!

Grilled Fig Salad

Every week, for some reason, I get given figs. Maybe I'm lucky, but it's a sad sight when four figs rot away in your fridge, so I decided to find something to do with them that was tasty and healthy if not the tiniest bit sugary. It combines sugar, bitterness, savoury and a little in the middle. Delicious.

4 large figs
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/8tsp cinnamon
1/4c extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh sqeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Sea salt, to taste
Ground pepper, to taste
8 cups salads - I used tomato, lettuces of various sorts, cucumber and spring onions all from my veggie box!

Snip the stems off each fig and cut in half lengthwise. Mix vinegar, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add figs and gently toss to coat. Let marinade while you heat the grill.

Coat your grill with just a touch of oil. Grill the figs, reserving the marinade in the bowl, for about 2-3 minutes per side or until grill marks appear. Do not overcook or they'll become mushy. Set aside.

To reserved marinade, add all ingredients up until salad and whisk well, making a nice dressing. Place greens in large bowl, toss with dressing and then serve four people with two fig halves on each plate.

Or do what I did and only use two cups of salad and keep all the figs for yourself!

Tasted amazing when I put some crumbled feta on it, as well.