Cooking
We have soup for dinner once every week or two. Soup is comforting and easy because you can make it in advance if you like. Healthy too. Now that the weather is warming up, salads also seem like a good choice for dinner, yet I'm always afraid they won't be hearty enough. I love a Cobb salad or a chicken salad, but they can be a bit too hearty, if you know what I mean. A green salad just needs that extra something to make it feel like a meal.
Last week I had a salad at an Italian restaurant that had included a few toasted ravioli. A very American thing to do, but it really worked. Usually when I make ravioli I like to mix it with some kind of vegetable or serve a salad on the side but this was a great amalgamation. I don't remember all the things in the salad so I set about to make my own version with the chicken herb ravioli I had on hand. I added some vegetables, cheese and a vinaigrette and voila! a salad supper if there ever was one. Just the thing when you're not too hungry and you want something healthy to eat.
I think you could make endless variations on this salad, it really depends what you have available and what strikes your fancy. Consider using a combination of herbs, greens, vegetables and cheese that compliment the ravioli and you're on your way.
Ravioli Dinner Salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
10 ravioli (I've used chicken herb and arugula ricotta, but any filling is fine)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
Butter leaf or red leaf lettuce
Optional
Artichoke hearts, cut in quarters
Small tomato sliced in wedges
Avocado, sliced
Radishes, sliced
Snow peas or sugar snap peas
Boil the ravioli according to instructions, then drain and saute in butter and oil over medium heat until lightly brown on each side and slightly crispy. Toss the greens, vegetables and herbs with the vinaigrette. Plate up the salad and top each serving with the warm ravioli and a sprinkling of cheese.
Enjoy!
- Bok Choy Salad Recipe
Recently I learned that bok choy is the number one vegetable in China. It seems to be the number one vegetable in my CSA box lately. It's a very healthy vegetable with a ton of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K plus and is even a good source of calcium...
- Endive Salad With Prosciutto Recipe
Growing up I ate a green salad pretty much every night with dinner. In Italy, we did the same, though it was served at the end of the meal. These days, I find it hard to convince my other half to eat salad. My solution is to make main dish salads. This...
- Pomegranate Avocado Salad With Miso Dressing Recipe
Happy New Year! It's hard after the holidays not to want to take a break from all the indulgence and make sweeping resolutions. My diet resolutions this year are simply to eat more soups and salads. Sure, I'd love to eat healthy, exercise more...
- Arugula Shrimp Salad: Recipe
You may have noticed that there haven't been very many new recipes around here lately. But it's not because I haven't been cooking. I've actually been cooking quite a bit. The recipes I've been working on have been for a wine retailer...
- Spinach Fig Salad Recipe
Summer is the season for salads. Some days it just gets too hot to turn on the stove. And you never get quite as hungry on those days anyway. A salad for dinner makes perfect sense. Still I am always challenged to figure out how to make salad feel like...
Cooking
Ravioli Salad Recipe
Last week I had a salad at an Italian restaurant that had included a few toasted ravioli. A very American thing to do, but it really worked. Usually when I make ravioli I like to mix it with some kind of vegetable or serve a salad on the side but this was a great amalgamation. I don't remember all the things in the salad so I set about to make my own version with the chicken herb ravioli I had on hand. I added some vegetables, cheese and a vinaigrette and voila! a salad supper if there ever was one. Just the thing when you're not too hungry and you want something healthy to eat.
I think you could make endless variations on this salad, it really depends what you have available and what strikes your fancy. Consider using a combination of herbs, greens, vegetables and cheese that compliment the ravioli and you're on your way.
Ravioli Dinner Salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
10 ravioli (I've used chicken herb and arugula ricotta, but any filling is fine)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
Butter leaf or red leaf lettuce
Handful of herbs such as parsley, cilantro or chives or a combination
3 Tablespoons crumbly cheese such as feta or cotija
Optional
Artichoke hearts, cut in quarters
Small tomato sliced in wedges
Avocado, sliced
Radishes, sliced
Snow peas or sugar snap peas
Vinaigrette (simple olive oil and vinegar or lemon, or pesto vinaigrette)
InstructionsBoil the ravioli according to instructions, then drain and saute in butter and oil over medium heat until lightly brown on each side and slightly crispy. Toss the greens, vegetables and herbs with the vinaigrette. Plate up the salad and top each serving with the warm ravioli and a sprinkling of cheese.
Enjoy!
- Bok Choy Salad Recipe
Recently I learned that bok choy is the number one vegetable in China. It seems to be the number one vegetable in my CSA box lately. It's a very healthy vegetable with a ton of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K plus and is even a good source of calcium...
- Endive Salad With Prosciutto Recipe
Growing up I ate a green salad pretty much every night with dinner. In Italy, we did the same, though it was served at the end of the meal. These days, I find it hard to convince my other half to eat salad. My solution is to make main dish salads. This...
- Pomegranate Avocado Salad With Miso Dressing Recipe
Happy New Year! It's hard after the holidays not to want to take a break from all the indulgence and make sweeping resolutions. My diet resolutions this year are simply to eat more soups and salads. Sure, I'd love to eat healthy, exercise more...
- Arugula Shrimp Salad: Recipe
You may have noticed that there haven't been very many new recipes around here lately. But it's not because I haven't been cooking. I've actually been cooking quite a bit. The recipes I've been working on have been for a wine retailer...
- Spinach Fig Salad Recipe
Summer is the season for salads. Some days it just gets too hot to turn on the stove. And you never get quite as hungry on those days anyway. A salad for dinner makes perfect sense. Still I am always challenged to figure out how to make salad feel like...