Life’s been busy recently, taking care of paperwork for my upcoming relocation to Australia and finishing off university. The summer has totally snuck up on me; how are we already halfway through July?! But, progress has been made, and at least things are getting done.
At this moment in time, I’ve got my passport on its way for renewal, an Australian working holiday visa, one handful of things to do for school, and as of a few hours ago, an apartment waiting for us Down Under. Phew. We’ll be living in the Redfern suburb of Sydney, NSW, in a very convenient location and a lovely complex. I’m happily distracting myself by looking at design ideas on Design*Sponge Online, Ikea, and Benjamin Moore. The idea of being able to paint my own apartment is more exciting than it ought to be, in all honesty!
I took a break this afternoon from essay writing and apartment planning to have a delicious light summer dinner. I ordered a bunch of fresh beets from SPUD last week, and they came with a whole heap of fresh greens attached–almost a whole head of lettuce’s worth. While I grew up eating steamed beet greens, kale, and spinach, I’ve never been a big fan–they all taste good enough with enough butter and salt (and they are incredibly healthy for you), but it’s not the sort of dish I’d make for myself. After a bit of googling, I decided just to make a basic salad with beet greens, mixed vegetables, and a homemade creamy balsamic dressing. That with some homemade bruschetta on some cheese pizza bread was very filling and very satisfying.
I have to give a big shout-out to spud!, who made this meal possible. From the beets to the sour cream to the tomatoes and the pizza bread, they made it possible. Thanks, spud!
Read more for recipes!
Beet Greens Salad + Homemade Creamy Balsamic Dressing
Ingredients:
- fresh beet greens
- carrot, cucumber, avocado, tomato, other veggies to taste
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used Balkan-style from Olympic Dairy)
- 1/4 cup sour cream (also Olympic Dairy, theirs’ is undoubtedly the best)
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 clove minced garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
Thoroughly wash beet greens; I recommend soaking them and rinsing them repeatedly to get rid of all sand/dirt. Tear it into pieces as you would lettuce, add desired veggies in quantities enough for people eating. Thoroughly mix salad dressing ingredients and drizzle over salad. Enjoy!
(Thanks to 1700 Miles of Cooking for the creamy balsamic dressing recipe!)
Homemade Bruschetta
Ingredients:
- 8 plum tomatoes or 5 large tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, red or white, diced
- 10 black olives, sliced (or several tbsp pre-sliced)
- 3 sliced green onions, or equivalent in chives
- 3 minced cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup cottage cheese, drained slightly if possible
- 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar and olive oil
- 1 tbsp dry basil, or 3 tbsp chopped fresh
- salt, sugar, and pepper to taste
Mix ingredients well. Slice a whole-wheat baguette into 3/4″ slices, butter both sides lightly and toast in toaster oven to desired done-ness; then spoon bruschetta mixture onto pieces of toast and bake at 350 C for about 10 minutes. Don’t forget to grate some of your favourite cheese onto the top! Alternately, bake a frozen pizza shell (I used the basil pizza shell from Pzazz Fine Foods via spud!) with some grated cheese and let partially cool; spoon uncooked bruschetta mix onto bread and enjoy!
