Has there ever been a better time for a picnic? Celebrate the good weather and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Bring wine! These recipes are easy and fast enough to get you out the door and into the outdoors in record time.
The inspiration for the Carrot and Lentil Salad is Emily Nunn’s outstanding newsletter, "The Department of Salad." This particular recipe comes from Newsletter No. 19, in which she interviewed Rancho Gordo’s Steve Sando. Sando is the guru, grower and importer of heirloom beans, whose profile soared in the last year of eating from our pantries.
Nunn recommends making this lettuce-free salad with Rancho Gordo French-Style green lentils or Rancho Gordo caviar lentils, but I substituted brown Camellia brand lentils because that’s what I had in the pantry. Combine them with grated carrots (pre-grated from the supermarket is fine), lots of parsley and a Dijon vinaigrette. This is excellent. One caution: Do not overcook the lentils; they need to be tender but not mushy.
You can always take sandwiches on a picnic. Or fried chicken. Or burritos. But you can also make something a little bit more celebratory, like these easy puff pastry ham, cheese and broccoli hand pies.
Yes, they look fancy, and yes, you may want to cook them right before you leave for your picnic spot. But the key word here is “easy.” These are super versatile and supersized, too; vary the fillings at will. Smaller appetites may be satisfied with a half.
The recipe calls for soft cheese spread, the kind in a tub. I used Alouette reduced-fat garlic and herb; the 6.5-ounce package contained right around one cup of spread, which is what the recipe called for. Combine that with a cup each diced ham and cooked, diced broccoli (steamed in its bag is fine). These hand pies would be a great fast lunch or dinner.
The almond cake is gluten-free and, with only five ingredients, also very simple to make. No oil or butter is involved. Three whole eggs plus three egg whites provide the rising power. Any kind of berries are delicious to top this cake; I just dusted it with powdered sugar. Use vanilla or almond extract, your choice.
The lentil and carrot salad can be made a day or two ahead, and the cake a day ahead. The hand pies can be assembled, frozen and cooked from frozen in 30 minutes. It’s all easy. Add a bottle of wine and people you want to be with, and the day is yours.
Easy Puff Pastry Ham, Cheese and Broccoli Hand Pies
Author Yvonne Pratt suggests alternate fillings: chicken, Alfredo sauce and broccoli; pepperoni, marinara and mozzarella; ham, cauliflower and cheddar.
Makes 4 servings. Recipe is from stonegableblog.com.
1 cup soft cheese spread (about a 6.5-ounce tub)
1 cup fully cooked ham, cut in ½-inch dice
1 cup cooked broccoli florets, chopped in small pieces (steam-in-bag kind is fine)
1 (17.3-ounce) package puff pastry, thawed in refrigerator
1 egg
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Cover a sheet pan with parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, mix cheese, ham and broccoli. Flour a work surface well.
3. On the floured work surface, open puff pastry one sheet at a time, gently rolling each piece a little to get rid of the fold lines. Do not press hard. If slight lines still appear, that’s fine.
4. Fold each piece of puff pastry in half and open back up. Cut along the fold lines. Do this again with each cut piece, to make 8 squares.
5. Mound ¼ of the cheese mixture in the center of each square. Dip your finger in cold water and run it around the ½-inch edge on all the sides of one square. Put another square on top and align edges as best you can. Press together gently with your fingers, then more firmly with the tines of a fork, sealing the hand pies and making a nice border.
6. In a small bowl, whisk egg with a splash of water. Gently brush the top of each hand pie with egg wash. Cut vents in the top of the pie. Transfer to the prepared sheet pan.
7. Refrigerate 15 minutes, then bake 20-25 minutes, until puffy and uniformly golden brown. Serve hot or warm.
To freeze, prepare hand pies but do not bake. Freeze in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet; transfer to a freezer bag when frozen. Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, until golden brown and insides are hot.
Carrot and Lentil Salad
If you like lentils and carrots, Steve Sando’s salad may have you munching on this morning, noon and night. I used a whole 10-ounce package of shredded carrots for the 2 cups, shredded.
Makes 4-6 servings.
DRESSING:
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
SALAD:
4 carrots, peeled and then grated (about 2 cups)
1 cup cooked lentils
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1. In a small bowl, combine garlic, onion, mustard and vinegar. Slowly whisk in olive oil to make a vinaigrette. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Place carrots in a serving bowl. Spoon on desired amount of vinaigrette, including a lot of the onion and garlic at the bottom of the bowl, and toss to coat. (You may have leftover vinaigrette.)
3. Add lentils and parsley and toss gently. Taste and adjust seasonings before serving.
Five-Ingredient Almond Cake
Even if you can eat gluten, give this cake a try. Delicious with no oil or butter.
Makes 8-12 servings. Adapted by Dorie Greenspan from skinnytaste.com.
3 egg yolks, at room temperature
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or almond extract)
Pinch fine sea salt
6 egg whites, at room temperature
2 cups almond flour or almond meal
1 cup mixed berries (optional)
Powdered sugar for dusting
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick spray; line with parchment paper and dust with flour (or almond flour)
3. Separate the eggs. Set the whites aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the three egg yolks and all but 2 tablespoons sugar. Whisk until yolks are thick and pale, about 1 minute. Whisk in vanilla and salt.
4. In the bowl of a standard electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a bowl and a hand mixer) beat 6 egg whites on medium speed until opaque, about 1 minute. Sprinkle in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar; continue to beat egg whites until they hold medium peaks.
5. With a flexible rubber spatula, stir about one-fourth of the egg whites into the yolks mixture (no need to be gentle here). Scrape remaining egg whites over the yolks, and about half the almond flour. Gently fold them into the yolks, but only partially.
6. While the mixture still has a few streaks of white left, add remaining almond flour and fold in gently until you have a homogenous batter. Pour batter into prepared pan and shimmy until batter is level.
7. Bake about 35 minutes, until top is golden brown and springy to the touch. Let cake cool on a wire rack 5 minutes, then run a butter knife along the edges of the cake pan.
8. Invert the cake pan onto the rack, remove the sides and bottom, and peel away parchment. Turn cake right side up and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, cut into 8 to 12 slices and serve with fresh berries, if desired.
April 08, 2021 at 08:00AM
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Pack a picnic basket with ham and cheese hand pies, salad and almond cake to celebrate spring - NOLA.com
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