Wild rice salads

I've been exploring wild rice salads recently. For Easter, I really wanted to do something savory and springy, but it seemed like every recipe I could find on the internets had a sweet component, often dried cranberries. Now that strawberries are in season, I'm willing to give in for a while. I found this recipe, and mostly followed it:

I made about twice as much salad as I wanted by cooking 1 1/2 dry cups of wild rice, and mixing in about a 1 1/2 quarts of strawberries, 2 containers of goat cheese feta, and a bunch of chopped scallions (keeping the whitest parts for something else). We dressed it with a simple combination of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We've also tried turning it into a whole meal by adding some vegetables (in the form of chopped peppers) and some protein (in the form of fake chicken).

It seems to be popular (and tasty) to include some zest and juice from an organic orange in the dressing.

In anticipation of CSA cauliflower

The Amateur Gourmet has pointed out this recipe for creamy cauliflower soup.

Hopefully posting the recipe here will help me remember it when the time comes, and I have no other ideas for how to cope with a lot of cauliflower.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
• 1 head cauliflower (1 1/2 pounds) cut into florets (you don’t have to be fanatical about size since it all blends up later)
• Salt, to taste
• 5 1/2 cups water, divided
• Finishing olive oil (if you have a nicer one to drizzle on top)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Add the onions, a pinch of salt, and lower the heat to the lowest setting you can. Cook slowly, stirring the onions every so often, making sure they don’t turn brown. If you’re worried about that, you could add a tiny splash of water. They should cook for 15 minutes (or until translucent).
2. Add the cauliflower, salt again, and 1/2 cup water. Raise the heat slightly, cover the pot and stew the cauliflower for 15 to 18 minutes, stirring every so often. This step is done when you can pierce the cauliflower easily with a knife.
3. At that point, add 4 1/2 cups hot water (make sure it’s hot so you don’t stop the cooking process; consider warming it in a tea kettle), another pinch of salt, and bring to a low simmer, cooking for 20 more minutes.
4. Pour the mixture in batches into a blender and blend. When the soup is fully blended, return it to the pot.
5. Taste, adjust for salt, then let stand for 20 minutes. It will thicken. At that point, you can thin it out with 1/2 cup of hot water. You can either serve it now, drizzled with good olive oil and sprinkled with black pepper, or chill it and serve it cold. It’s great either way.

Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 6

Multigrain Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup teff flour
• 1/2 cup ground almond meal/flour (packed)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 4 medium overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. 
2. Oil a standard 12-place muffin tin.
3. Thoroughly mix together flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, pecans, and chocolate chips. 
4. In a separate bowl, blend eggs and bananas. 
5. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, and distribute into the muffin tin. 
6. Bake 20 minutes at 400F, rotating the pan 180 degrees halfway through.