Appetizer

Tomato Avocado Orzo Summer Salad

I like walking through the grocery store and seeing a bounty of summer veggies to choose from. The mini tomatoes always seem to catch my husband’s eye and are a fun snack with cheese and crackers. I had some leftover orzo pasta in the pantry that needed to be used up so there’s my boring inspiration for a yummy summer salad. Enjoy!

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
  • 1 pint mixed mini tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 avocado, small cubes
  • 6-10 leaves of fresh basil (depending on size) – chiffonade
  • 1 tsp / 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 c fresh grated parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Heat oil and garlic on low-medium heat until fragrant (2-3 min) and then keep pan warm on simmer setting.
  2. Cook orzo pasta per package directions, drain excess water and transfer pasta to pan with oil/garlic and stir to coat.
  3. Add tomatoes and stir to combine and leave on gentle heat (simmer) for 5-6 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. When ready to serve – remove from heat and add avocado, basil and cheese and gently stir to combine.
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Fig and Citrus Salad

There are some things that I look forward to all year – one of those things is fig season. Whether they are the Black Mission, Brown Turkey, or Tiger Stripe variety, I always make it a point to head to Trader Joe’s the last few weeks of August to stock up on the deliciousness. My absolute favorite fig is the Tiger Stripe both in appearance and flavor and so I chose to use them this time but any fresh fig will do. Enjoy!

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Sweet and Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

This is a recipe that I created after seeing a bunch of posts about roasting cauliflower. I love Indian flavors that have a little sweetness with spice – Gujaratis are notorious for adding sugar to all of their savory dishes. This is a fun appetizer that has a slightly crispy texture. The sesame oil seems to blend the flavors a little bit better than olive oil but any vegetable oil will do. One head of cauliflower seems like a lot for just a few people but it shrinks down during cooking. My husband and I ate 1 cauliflower each when I first tried out this recipe.  (more…)