Cranberry-Apple Salad with Walnuts

Winter Green Salad with Apples, Cranberries & Walnuts With French Vinaigrette

Fresh Autumn-Winter Salad with seasonal fruit, walnuts and feta cheese.

Serves: 4-6

Vinaigrette
¼ cup pomegranate vinegar, any vinegar can be
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 small shallot, minced
1 sprig Italian parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
¾ cup vegetable, olive or canola oil, approximately
salt and pepper, to taste
Salad
6 cups mixed greens
2 organic apples*
1 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
⅓ cup dried cranberries

In a medium bowl make the vinaigrette by whisking together all the ingredients except the oil. While constantly whisking, drizzle in some of the oil, stopping to taste occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

Bring to room temperature before serving.

For a creamier dressing add 1 Tb. mayonnaise

Core and chop apples (thin slices or 1 inch chunks). Toss lettuce, apples, walnuts, feta, and cranberries together in a large bowl. Add a little dressing and toss, taste for seasoning and adjust.

*If conventional apples are used, peel first.

Chicken and Barley Soup

1 / 5 / 18

Chicken & Barley Soup

Poached Chicken
1 qt. chicken stock
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
½ small onion
2 medium chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on
Sea salt and ground pepper
Soup
2 stalks celery
2 carrots, peeled
½ small onion
Olive oil
Sea salt and ground pepper
6 cups chicken stock
2 medium chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on
1 cup cooked barley*
1 small can diced tomatoes
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup snow peas, cut diagonally into bite sized pieces
1 cup baby spinach
zest of 1 lemon plus 1 Tb. or more of juice

Poach chicken or purchase 2 cups cooked chicken.

To poach the chicken, bring chicken stock to a boil, turn heat down so the stock is just barely simmering. Roughly chop the celery, carrot and onion and add to the stock along with the chicken, season with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and simmer for 20 min. to ½ hour or until chicken is cooked through but not dry. Remove the skin from the chicken and pull the meat from the bone, discard skin and bone. Shred or chop the chicken into pieces and strain the stock through cheesecloth and reserve.

For the soup:

Cut celery, carrots and onion into bite sized pieces. Heat a Dutch oven or lg. saucepan over medium high heat, add just enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan, add the vegetables and sprinkle with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and sauté until lightly translucent and soft. Add enough chicken stock to the reserved stock to measure 6 – 8 cups and add to the vegetables. Add remaining ingredients except the lemon juice and simmer until the spinach is barely wilted, adjust seasonings and serve with a little squeeze of lemon juice.

*See How to Cook Barley, Debskitchen.com

Apple Harvest

10 / 23 / 13

As summer begins to fade away and the feel of fall comes creeping in so does some wonderful fruit, pomegranates, all kinds of citrus, apples and eventually pears. Have you ever been apple picking? With the smell of apples lightly scenting the air, it’s intoxicating. So too is the smell of apples being prepared in a myriad of recipes for the fall. Do you know which apples are best for cooking, how to choose and store them?

Here are a few guidelines and some recipe suggestions. An apple a day keeps the doctor away may be just another saying but there is some truth behind that. Apples are the ultimate fruit, low in calories with no fat, sodium or cholesterol. The pectin in apples actually helps to dissolve the cholesterol in ones blood stream. High in fiber, anti-oxidants, potassium, niacin and a variety of vitamins, apples are a near perfect fruit.

Choose organic apples as apples have topped the Environmental Working Groups ‘Dirty Dozen’ list, which identifies the most pest laden fruit and vegetables. You’ll want to eat the skin of the apple as disease-fighting pectin (fiber) lies directly under the skin.

Select firm fruit with no bruises or scars and treat them gently.
Don’t wash your apples until you’re ready to use them.
Keep them in a cool place, your fruit drawer of the refrigerator is fine but don’t store with other fruit. Apples give off a gas, which will ripen you’re other fruit faster. Some apples will keep weeks in the refrigerator. They will keep a few days on the counter.

Apple Variety Guide

Cooking Apples

Ambrosia
Braeburn
Cameo
Golden Delicious
Honeycrisp
Jazz
Jonagold
Jonalicious
Jonathon
McIntosh
Pink Lady
Red Delicious

For more information on apples or to order some types not available in your regular market check Melissa’s Produce here (click).