Steemit Culinary Challenge #31 - Mixed Fruit and Veggie Salad with tiger kitty

in food •  8 years ago  (edited)

Another week, another challenge! Hey there, Steemians!


So thanks to our dear @amy-goodrich all of us are cooking vegan for once! Nice!
I wasn't really sure what to prepare for the challenge because I am not very familiar with vegan dishes, but I did have a bunch of greens and veggies in my fridge! So this time I am going to make a fruit/veggie salad, I don't think I've ever put a salad entry for the challenge before too.

Originally I thought about steaming some quinoa to add to my dish, but I changed my mind. I really need to see what I can eat it with other than rice or by itself, recommendations would be nice!

Okay, let us get to this salad without a name yet!


Ingredients:

  • 1 apricot;
  • 1 roma tomato;
  • 2 radishes;
  • a half of avocado;
  • 2 handfuls mixed greens;
  • salt and pepper to taste;
  • a quarter of red bell pepper;
  • a pinch of flax seeds (optional)
  • a teaspoon of almond slices (optional)
  • lime juice and extra virgin olive oil for dressing.


Preparation:

Slice and dice and chop all of the ingredients into your favorite geometric shapes, add the olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper, toss and serve.

I am a big fan of salads, especially during the summer time because I feel like it's the season to get loaded with vitamins and there's nothing better than the way fruits and veggies smell and taste during this time.

Enjoy this last minute recipe, you guys, as always feel free to modify it according to your taste. And don't forget to sprinkle some nuts and seeds over it :)



Overall I was pretty happy with the way this salad turned out, both @matt-a and @robrigo ate it, and I think they liked it haha (based on empty plates)! I hope @amy-goodrich likes it too, gonna keep my fingers crossed!

I assume a lot of you guys are wondering where that alien fork came from?! Me and my husband @matt-a got it from a Second Hand store in Vienna, Austria a few years ago.
It was pretty cold for October there when we visited so we were happy to at least check out some shops instead of roaming the streets, which we did plenty too haha.

And as always I would like to thank everyone who makes this fun challenge possible, our fantastic host @woman-onthe-wing, our awesome and generous sponsors @smooth and @sirwinchester and everyone who keeps taking part and sharing their cooking secrets :) I hope all of you guys have a great week ahead!

And as promised here is a picture of my cat Artax


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SALAD WAS GOOD. Like A+. WANT MORE!!!

And all this time I thought you were allergic to healthy food....

Huhhh?! I'm one of the biggest health food freaks you will ever meet! Always been like that. Extremely picky as to what I eat! You must have me confused with someone else!

Lol. You can't deny your love for unhealthy foods

About the unhealthiest thing I eat is pizza and even then I like it to be of the "healthy," variety. I only eat poultry and fish when it comes to meats and am really weird about additives and stuff like that.

You ate the eku food man. It's too late for you I'm afraid. The poison is already in you

Only when I had to! And when I could buy meals off of you hahaha

I really love salads and this one looks just great ! Good lucky in the challenge :)

Thanks a lot! You should post something too! I haven't seen you take part in the challenge recently!

Very busy this days ...... i will join in first chance :)

Hope to see your recipes soon, your food is always great!

Nice presentation. You STAY killin it girl.
That fork is out of this world! You guys should build a forge, make a mold, and send me one. haha

Thanks Jesse!! Maybe we should start anew alien utensils company? Haha

Now that's an idea!!

Exactly! Something to think about haha

yes kickstarter for forks!! the salad looks really good too of course!

Thank you @drpuffnstuff, always super nice :)

Wow what a super salad ^.^ I want to try this !

Make it and post pics! I'll definitely upvote.

Thanks! You should try it!

Wow nice share:)
I'm following you and upvoted
I'm introducing korea food and culture.
If you interested in this topic, you visit my steemit :) have a good day

Thank you! I will gladly check out your blog!

Wow...fresh salad ! I need some for my lunch :) nice pictures and unique fork 😃

We got that fork at a second hand store in Austria by Freud's house! 50 euro cents!

Haha,who found the bargain?

I think that @kotturinn spotted it, and I sealed the deal with the 50 Euro cents haha.

Great team work , good on you two!:)@kotturinn

This post received a 4.8% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @drpuffnstuff! For more information, click here!

I wanted to give you and @matt-a a randowhale vote too! But all his posts are already randowhale voted on damnit!! So I just gave you 2, buy matt a beer for me, and buy yourself whatever you like!! Thank you two for being so awesome you guys are appreciated!

It's look really taste good.
I will also update some food and health information, could you have a look and follow me? Thanks so much.

Thanks! I'll check you out :)

Thank you so much. I will follow you too.

It looks fresh. Fork of course cool. But the cat is the best))) It looks very tasty. Good luck

Thank you @shady! Aren't cats just the best, do you have any pets?

Oh wow great post upvoted and followed!

Thank you :) glad that you liked!!!

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That's one yummy looking salad @kotturinn! A lovely combination of ingredients and flavours there. You could have added quinoa to this salad and it would have worked wonderfully just mixed in. My husband likes grains in salads as they add bulk and a bit of 'something' amongst all the plant stuff! Also I have to say I love your cat photo at the end there... it's like she's looking up towards the salad and so makes a great finish to the presentation! Good luck :-)

Thank you @woman-onthe-wing! Also, I am going to follow your recommendation and try adding the quinoa into my salads. I got it about half a year ago! That's a long time haha, and I only used it one time with my rice...

It's such a versatile grain, I really like it. Perfect in salads, stuffed vegetables, scrambled eggs, burgers (veggie or meat), etc. Remember to use a fine sieve to drain it as it's so small - I lost half of it down the sink the first time I even cooked it and I was so annoyed with myself haha! It's great hot or cold, savoury and sweet. My favourite is mixing some cooked & cold quinoa in with smoothies or a bowl of fruit & yoghurt... it's like those cereal yoghurts you can buy only nicer and fresher :-) Great in baking too - cookies, cereal bars, anything with a base like cheesecake, truffles, etc etc. Or you can grind it up and use as a flour too. And if ever you have children remember it's the perfect grain to mix in with their sloppy 'first foods' :-) Lotsa ideas there for you Ann - and now you have made me want to cook some quinoa dishes too!!!

Hm.. now that you mentioned eggs! I think I am going to try it next time I'm frying some! So awesome to have you around and teach me about so many different foods! My personal food-coach haha! I am considering making some pistachio bars soon, maybe I will add it in them too, I wonder how it would turn out.
I saw a lot of recipes and heard from people that they put chia seeds in the smoothies, have you had those?

I reckon quinoa would be perfect for your pistachio bars, I can just imagine! Not much of a taste but the tiny grains give a wonderful texture. You'll see it's quite 'gloopy' when cooked, a bit like when you overcook pasta and it end up looking more like wallpaper paste haha. But just sieve it to get rid of the 'gloop' :-)

I haven't experimented that much yet with chia seeds, but I would recommend you ask @rebeccaryan or have a nosey down her page as she uses them often and very successfully! You can use them in their raw grain form sprinkled over salads etc, or mix with something liquid as chia thickens it eg this cheesecake by @rebeccaryan. I have only made one thing with chia seeds and I ground them up and used to make the fruit topping for this tart. Hope that helps! :-)

Thank you for the recommendation, I'm definitely gonna go stalk her blog a tiny bit :D when I was working in a grocery store there was one old man that would come to get chia seeds all the time, he said he lets them sit in a cup of milk overnight and then drinks that in the mornings because apparently they have some medicinal properties, I need to research it, because I'm not sure if it's true or not. People tend to believe that blueberries are good for your sight, but I watched a documentary and it turned out they actually don't do anything to your ability to see anyways and it was spinach that improved an old couple's vision . . . don't know why I just said that haha

:-) Yes, chia seeds are very nutritional and very versatile (in the hands of a creative cook!) Soaking brings out more of their nutritional benefits and also as they're super absorbant they can actually dehydrate you if you eat too much raw!!! This is a pretty informative article about how & why to soak them if you want: https://organicvegansuperfoods.com/how-and-why-you-should-soak-chia-seeds-before-eating-them/. I can't wait to see one of your recipes featuring these great little seeds when you've had chance to create!!!

Wow these photos are gorgeous 😮😮😮 inspiration for my next entry, my current one is feeling rather basic 😂 Good luck!

Thank you @harrietbradley! No worries, you will get there, gotta start somewhere! Everyone is always trying to make their recipes and presentation look as good as possible, it's called a challenge for a reason hahaha it's still fun to take part though.

Your salad look just yum! I am a big fan of salads too! And love the alien fork and of course the kitty cat! Because of the cat (and me being a crazy cat lady), I would say you win, but that would not be fair for the catless people! Let's take a look at the other dishes first! But a great entry that's for sure! All the superfoods I love!

If you don't pick the kitty entry all kitties in the world will be depressed for a day :( you don't want them to be sad, do you?! I'm only playing! I've seen so many beautiful meals submitted this week, I wouldn't pick my entry if I were a judge, a lot of new creative people joined and they need all the support we can provide!

You are absolutely right! Though I love your entry and the cat too ;) And it no all about being in the first 4... I just love the challenge! And I love how everybody was pleasantly surprised by cooking plant-based ingredients only!

For sure! You and @woman-onthe-wing inspired me to try to eat more plant based foods, although I did love salads before, I think I will include them into my diet more often!

Aww! that's so cool! I'm happy to hear that I'm one of the people that inspired you to eat more plant-based foods! There is no need to go 100% vegan, but if we all would stick to at least meatless monday our world would be such a better place! Thanks for being you and the ongoing support!

I had no idea how awesome vegan diet can be until I started taking part in the challenge, not only it is fun, but also educating! I've never heard of meatless Monday, but it's something I'm gonna do from now on, at least I will try to, and if I fail I'll skip meat the next day haha.
It makes me sad though that meats are so low prices compared to vegetables in the states, it should be the other way around.

Looks yummy
wanna go through the screen and catch it lol

Hahaha! Thank you! I tried to make it look nice!

grats
It really looks awesome

Awesome salad recipe! Good luck with the challenge!!

Thank you, lady!!! :)

looks really nice ! well done once more @kotturinn ! we need a review from @matt-a ^^ good luck to the SCC

Thank you @rouketas! He actually liked it! Are you taking part in this one too?

yep! preparing my post now :)

Sounds like I got a competition! :)