PINK! (beet carrot apple radish salad with orange dressing)

This is a perfect Valentine's salad. :) It's very simple, but sometimes in the winter you just need some color on your plate and some raw veggies. I grated 2 carrots, 1 beautiful chioggia beet (the candy-striped kind), 1 radish, and 1 apple. I added a simple dressing of the juice of 2 clementines plus some olive oil. 

This is great served on top of an open-faced sandwich, either with plain cream cheese, or some of the butternut squash spread I made earlier this week. 

quinoa kale salad with apricots and blood orange

This is based on a recipe from Pam Anderson for Runner's World magazine, advertising it as a high-protein recovery salad. It's a variation of another good kale-quinoa salad Jessica made last week that I had to remake soon after. Remembering the great citrus flavor, I added one blood orange to this salad as well. I thought it was maybe missing the crunch of some toasted nuts, but it was tasty and I felt like I got some much-needed vitamins.

kale + quinoa + fruit + bean + dressing

Variation #1: apricots, kidney beans, yogurt-Dijon dressing

Variation #2: blood orange, chickpeas, citrus dressing

Recipe here from edible perspectives

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa (red or white)

1 bunch kale

1 can kidney beans

shallot or 1/4 red onion

4 apricots, pitted and diced (could use dried)

cilantro, garnish

optional: slices of 1-2 blood oranges

dressing:

Olive oil (3T), Dijon mustard (1tsp), Honey (1tsp), Cumin (1tsp), Yogurt or kefir (1/3 c), salt and pepper

1. Quinoa: rinse and add to pot with 1:2 ratio quinoa to water. Bring to boil then simmer 20 mins. Transfer to a bowl, let come to room temp. (Tip: make extra to have on hand for other recipes, or just for morning breakfast.)

2. Prep other ingredients. Wash and cut kale in ribbons. Rinse and drain beans. Thinly slice onion or shallot. Dice apricot and cut blood orange. Mix dressing. 

3. Combine everything. Enjoy!

roasted beet salad with oranges, candied pecans and goat cheese

Ohh, this salad was sooo good. Best beet salad ever. The combination of roasted beets + citrus + pecans = delicious. It's another recipe using some of our CSA beets as well as winter greens (thanks, Sunseed!).  It was so beautiful to eat, as the beets colored the oranges bright pink - so pretty. I also got to keep practicing those knife skills, this time cutting an orange. (fun!)