Recipe: Cumin-roasted Carrots with Yogurt Sauce

Once a meat‪-‬centric household‪,‬ since Jake has became Produce Manager at The Coop we’ve really learned to enjoy experimenting with the ever-expanding selection of local fruits and vegetables. The growers themselves have been a source of seemingly infinite inspiration, which we’ve bolstered by devouring the writings of our favorite veg-centric chefs.

One chef and writer who has particularly shaped our understanding of produce is Deborah Madison. In her tome, Vegetable Literacy, she provides an outline for unexpected yet harmonious flavor combinations and it has completely changed the way we think about cooking.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s books, Plenty and Plenty More have been another favorite source of inspiration. As we slowly work our way through the recipes – they all look so good, how do you choose?! – we’ve learned to embrace the power of spices thanks to his bold, Middle Eastern-inspired flavors.

For our most recent effort, we reached for one of the few remaining, not-brown, late-late-late winter vegetables. With a multi-colored medley of carrots from Winter Moon Roots as our base, and Madison as our guide, we added depth by sprinkling cumin and coriander over top. For brightness we looked to citrus, which has a long track record of pairing well with carrots, and to bring out some sweetness, we threw everything in a roasting pan with a little local honey. Finally, taking a page from Ottolenghi’s book, we topped it off with a tangy goat yogurt sauce flavored with cumin and lemon.

Not revolutionary flavor combinations, but tried and true… and hard to beat. Served over a bed of greens like arugula or parsley, or on top of a hearty grain like faro or couscous, this is a dish that could easily take center stage in a vegetarian meal. But it would be just as happy as a complementary side dish to a flavorful leg of lamb.

Cumin Roasted Carrots with Yogurt Sauce

1½ pounds carrots, peeled and cut approximately 5 inches long and 1/2 inch wide

Blood-orange dressing:
+ 1 cup blood orange juice (1-2 blood oranges)
+ 1 tablespoon soy sauce
+ 1 tablespoon honey
+ 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
+ 1/2 tsp ground cumin
+ 1/2 tsp ground coriander

Cumin yogurt sauce:
+ 1 cup goat yogurt
+ 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice
+ 2 teaspoons ground cumin
+ pinch kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place carrots in a baking dish. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over carrots, tossing to make sure the carrots are completely coated.
3. Roast for 30-45 minutes, until carrots are tender and caramelized.
4. While the carrots are cooking, whisk together the yogurt sauce ingredients.
5. Once cooked, plate the carrots – on their own, with greens or a hearty grain – and drizzle yogurt sauce over top. Enjoy!

Note: This recipe originally appeared on RuralIntelligence.com on March 15, 2015. It's been back-dated here on our blog so that it falls, seasonally, in the right place.   

Recipe: Citrus Curd Layer Cake

There is nothing that captures the essence of a season quite like ripe fruit. Sweet berries in the spring, juicy stone-fruit in the summer, crisp apples in the fall, and tangy citrus in the winter. We always have an overflowing bowl of seasonal fruit sitting on our kitchen table, lest we waste one single moment of the limited-time-only bounty.

This is a bit of a new revelation for us, though. When we were living in New York City, doing the bulk of our shopping at the Union Square Farmers Market, we never bought much citrus – as you know it doesn't exactly thrive in the Hudson Valley or Northern Pennsylvania. But now, with Jake working at the Berkshire Co-op, we have fully embraced winter citrus, and all of the refreshing flavors and vibrant colors that come with it. Just because it's not in season here in the Berkshires doesn't mean it's not in season, and grown organically, somewhere else!

Along with our new love affair with winter citrus, we've taking up a healthy obsessed with making citrus curds. After much experimentation, and with a rainbow of curds sitting in our fridge, we realized we had to do something to show them, and our hard work, off. So off we went to make a open-sided, citrus curd layer cake. Using Smitten Kitchen's 1-2-3-4 Cake as a base, we stacked up stripes of Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange curds, and whipped cream. Finished off with a Pomello-Lime glaze and a sprig of mint, we created a show-stopper of a cake. If we do say so ourselves.

Citrus Curd

+ 3 to 4 Meyer lemons or 1 to 2 blood oranges

+ ½ cup sugar

+ 2 large eggs

+ 1 stick unsalted butter

1. Finely grate 2 teaspoons of zest and squeeze ½ cup of your chosen citrus juice.

2. Melt the butter, and let cool.

3. Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, butter, and eggs in a metal bowl and set bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened and smooth.

4. Force curd through a fine sieve into another bowl. Cool, covered, in the refrigerator.

Citrus Glaze

+ 1 cup of confectioner's sugar

+ ½ cup citrus juice (we used Pomelo and Lime)

+ 1 tsp citrus zest

1. Whisk ingredients together until smooth

1-2-3-4 Yellow Cake 

Adapted From Smitten Kitchen

+ 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

+ 2 cups sugar

+ 4 eggs

+ 3 cups sifted self-rising flour

+ 1 cup milk

+ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy.

3. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes.

4. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour.

6. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed.

7. Divide batter equally between two 10-inch greased round pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and to get a more level top.

8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Constructing the Cake

1. Allow all elements to cool to room temperature. Cut both cakes in half horizontally with a long knife. A bread knife works well here!

2. Here's where it gets fun! Over a cooling rack, or right on top of a serving plate, place the first layer of cake. Cover generously with a layer of curd, then place another cake on top. Cover with whipped cream, another cake, the remaining curd, then the last cake. Pour the glaze over top and allow to drip over the edges. Top with a few mint sprigs and you're done!

Recipe: Puerco Pibil

This can be a hard time of year to get excited about local, seasonal, sustainably-sourced food in New England. You can only eat so many grains and root veggies before you start thinking about bending your food rules. But then, just in the nick of time, winter's saving grace pours into the grocer's case.

That's right, we're talking about citrus! American citrus is at it's peak right about now, and while oranges and lemons aren't exactly local, they can can easily be sourced from responsible organic farmers throughout the country. And man oh man, does it add some zing and zest to our browning plates and greying days.

On our honeymoon this fall, we visited Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Along with azure Caribbean waters and spring breakers, the Yucatan has a vibrant farming community with a rich agricultural history. In every market we visited (and trust us, we sought out quite a few) we were stunned by the towering piles of limes, sweet and sour oranges, grapefruits and lemons. And in every restaurant we visited, we found ourselves coming back to the classic Yucatan dish: Puerco Pibil.

Peurco Pibil is pork shoulder which is marinated in sour orange and ground achiote then slow roasted in banana leaves, over an open fire. A prime example of Yucatan flavor and technique, the pork becomes soft and velvety, with a deep orange hue and a unique tang. If that wasn't enough, it's then served with fresh corn tortillas and bright red onions, pickled in sour orange and salt.

We've been reminiscing about this dish and decided to try our best to recreate the experience, taking advantage of all the great available citrus. Of course, we made a few substitutions to keep the meal as local as possible. Rather than buy tortillas we served the pork over polenta, and we used a mix of US organic Hamlin oranges and limes instead of the traditional Mexican sour orange. The pork came from Great Barrington's North Plain Farm, and the spices from El Punto De Encuentro Latin Market. And because it's winter and we don't have banana leaves, we tried to emulate the effect by doing a slow-and-low roast in a covered enamel pot.

Puerco Pibil

Serves 12

Ingredients

Pork

+ 5 tbs Achiote seed

+ 1 ½ tbs of dried Mexican oregano

+ 1 ½ black peppercorns

+ 1 ¼ tsp cumin seeds

+ ½ tsp whole cloves

+ 6 inches of roughly ½ inch thick Mexican cinnamon (canela) or 1 1.2 tbs of ground cinnamon

+ 1 tbs spoon of Salt

+ 14 garlic cloves, peeled

+ 1/2 cup of fresh oranges- 3 Hamlin oranges

+ 1 cup of fresh lime juice- 10 limes

+ 12 pounds of bone in pork butt (cam be split into two or three pieces)

Pickled Red Onion

+ 3 large red onions

+ 1 1/3 cups fresh lime juice- 12 limes

+ 2/3 fresh orange juice- 4 Hamlin oranges

1. Grind the spices together. You can use a spice grinder, a coffee grinder or a good old mortar and pestle – or just use pre-ground spices and herbs.

2. In a blender mix the spices, garlic and juice until the marinade has a slightly chalky texture between your fingers.

3. Place the meat in an enamel or cast iron pot and pour marinade over it. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

4. Heat the over to 200. Cook the pork, with marinate still on it, in the pot for at least 6 hours, or until it pulls apart easily.

5. While meat is cooking slice onion thinly, and place in a bowl. Bring a pot of water to boil and pour over onions for 10 seconds then drain. Place onions in a small bowl with juice and salt.

6. Take the meat out of the oven and shred. Serve with pickled onion and corn tortillas or polenta.

This recipe can also be found on Rural Intelligence.

Recipe: Candy Cane Ice Cream

If you're as obsessed with cooking, eating and entertaining as we are, the post-holiday weeks can be a bit of a food letdown. Some use this time to cleanse and purify, eating sprouts and celery sticks and carefully avoiding all the fatty, sweet and salty foods they've stuffed themselves with for the last two months. But not us! We say “pshaw!” to that. Carpe diem! Look around – we're deep into winter here in New England. It's dark, it's cold and the only way to stay in high spirits is to spend our short days in front of a hot oven and the long nights by the fire, nibbling on rich treats. Summer is the time for raw veggies and grilled fish - let's indulge while we can!

In the spirit of extending the festive food period, we present one of our favorite post holiday desserts: Peppermint Stick Ice Cream. Though ice cream may seem counter intuitive given the recent sub-zero temperatures, trust us: nothing beats this yummy dessert, covered with some home-made hot chocolate sauce or accompanied by a steaming cup of cocoa. If you need even more justification, this recipe is a great way to get rid of all the candy-canes you've accumulated from the holidays. And peppermint is one of those flavors, just like citrus, that cuts through fat. How could you resist?

Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

Adapted from The Joy Of Cooking

Note: We like to use a simple “Philadelphia” style vanilla base for our Peppermint-Stick Ice Cream. You should feel free to make a french, custard base instead, though we find the Philly style to be a bit brighter to match the flavor of the candy-canes.

Ingredients

+ 3/4 cup sugar

+ 1/8 teaspoon salt

+ 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise in half

+ 3 cups heavy cream

+ 1 cup whole milk

+ 10-12 candy canes, crushed

Special Equipment

+ Ice Cream Maker

1. Combine 1 cup of the heavy cream, the sugar, and the salt into a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the cream mixture, then drop the bean shell in as well.

2. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. 

3. Pour the cream mixture into a bowl and stir in the remaining 2 cups of heavy cream and milk. Refrigerate until cold, overnight if possible. 

4. Remove the vanilla bean and seeds and discard. Pour the mixture into your chilled ice cream maker then let'er rip. While it's working it's magic, crush your candy canes into small chunks. We like to put them into a plastic baggie wrapped up in a dishtowel. Then we go over it a couple times with a rolling pin.

5. Once your ice cream mixture is almost at the desired texture, throw the crushed candy into the mixture, letting the machine incorporate the chunks.

6. Serve immediately or put in the freezer for another hour or so. Philadelphia style ice cream – well, any homemade ice cream, really - is best when served within a few hours.

This recipe can also be found on Rural Intelligence.

Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings with Leeks and Tarragon

The holidays are far gone, but we're still getting plenty of use out of this year's stove-centric loot. By now, anyone out there reading knows that we love hearty one pot meals: lamb stew, pork butt, brisket, the list goes on. And while our trusty royal blue Le Creuset was plenty big for small gatherings, it couldn't accommodate the larger parties that we love to have. Luckily, Jake's parents gifted us another dutch oven with a whopping 7.25 quart capacity, and in aqua blue this time! We're so in love with it that we've used it at least once a week since, regardless of our party size. (Good thing we have a big freezer!)

Also under the tree/menorah this year: the new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook! We so often go to the Smitten Kitchen blog for inspiration and had been waiting anxiously to pour over the beautiful book as soon as it was released. It did not disappoint and after binging on Perelman's recipes and luscious photography we were left with a hankering for one of our favorite SK recipes – Chicken and Dumplings! The recipe isn't in the book (it's ok Deb, we forgive you!) but since we practically have it memorized, we dove right in. And, of course, our brand new Le Creuset was ready and waiting to be broken in. 

Chicken and Dumplings with Leeks and Tarragon 

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Cooks Illustrated 

For the Stew: 

+ 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 peices

+ salt and ground black pepper

+ 4 teaspoons vegetable oil

+ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

+ 2 medium leeks cut in half lengthwise and then into 1-inch pieces

+ 1 large onion, minced

+ 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

+ 1/4 cup dry sherry

+ 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

+ 1/4 cup whole milk

+ 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

+ 2 bay leaves

+ 1 cup frozen green peas

+ 3 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon leaves 

For the Dumplings: 

+ 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

+ 1 tablespoon baking powder

+ 1 teaspoon table salt

+ 1 cup whole milk

+ 3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat (or unsalted butter)

1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and remove the browned skin. Pour off the chicken fat and reserve. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil and the remaining chicken. Pour off and reserve any chicken fat.

2. Add the butter to the Dutch oven and melt over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, milk, thyme, and bay leaves. Nestle the chicken, with any accumulated juices, into the pot. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 1 hour.

3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board. Discard the bay leaves. Allow the sauce to settle for a few minutes, then skim the fat from the surface using a wide spoon. Shred the chicken, discarding the bones,then return it to the stew.

4. On to the dumplings... stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Microwave the milk and fat in a microwave-safe bowl on high until just warm (do not over-heat), about 1 minute. Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth. Return the stew to a simmer, stir in the peas and tarragon, and season with salt and pepper.

5. To make the dumplings, gather a golf-ball-sized portion of the dumpling batter onto a soup spoon, then push the dumpling onto the stew using a second spoon. The dumplings should be about 1/4 inch apart and you should have about 18 dumplings. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the dumplings have doubled in size, 15 to 18 minutes. Serve!

Recipe: Brisket Chili

We have been toying around with the idea of the perfect chili for a while now. Of course, depending on your location and heritage, there are a thousand different variations on a classic. Beans or no beans? Pork or beef? Do you use a whole muscle or ground meat? What cut? And then, what kind of chiles do you use? Researching a "classic" chili doesn't answer many questions as much as it just asks more. And so we stewed (get it!?) on these questions happily, experimenting and tasting along the way. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it.

At long last, we decided: beans on the side; beef; whole muscle; brisket, ancho and chipotle chilies. And since the only thing more American than apple pie is chili, we debuted our well-tested recipe on election day for a group of hungry and anxious friends.

 
As he was closing up shop Monday night, Jake grabbed a gorgeous and fatty Whippoorwill brisket, along with some Cayuga black turtle beans, Wild Hive cornmeal, two quarts of beef stock, and a few ancho and chipotle chili peppers. On Tuesday afternoon, he put the brisket in the oven, the beans on the stove top, and let everything simmer away. Meanwhile, Silka made some skillet cornbread to soak up the smokey, spicy sauce.

In the end we couldn't have been happier with the results... ALL of them.
 

Brisket Chili

+ 4 tablespoons of lard or bacon drippings
+ 1 whole beef brisket, with lots of fat (roughly 6 lbs)
+ Sea salt
+ 2 medium onions, chopped
+ 4 cloves garlic, crushed
+ 3 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
+ 3 teaspoons cumin
+ 4 dried chipotle chillies
+ 4 dried ancho chillies
+ ¼ cup brown sugar
+ 2 tablespoons tomato paste
+ 2 cans of plum tomatoes
+ 2 quarts beef stock
 

To prepare:
Bring the brisket out of the fridge at least one hour prior to cooking so it comes to room temperature. At the same time, soak the dried chilies in hot water for about ½ hour.

1. Pat the brisket dry and coat with salt. (We used smoked salt - if you can find it, we recommend it!). Preheat the oven to 250.
2. Heat the lard in a large dutch oven over high heat.
3. When the lard starts to smoke, brown the brisket for 3 minutes on each side. Set brisket aside.
4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, cooking until softened.
5. Add the paprika, cumin, sugar, tomato paste and chillies, cooking for an additional minute.
5. Return the brisket to the pan along with tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and cover.
6. Place in the oven for 6 hours, removing the lid for the final 1 ½ hours of cooking.
7. After you have removed the the brisket from the oven, take the brisket out of its sauce, place in a deep dish and let rest.

8. With an immersion blender, or in a food processor or blender, puree the sauce remaining in the dutch over and reduce for about ½ hour. 

9. Serve brisket with the chili sauce poured on top, beans and cornbread on the side. 

Serves 8-12.

Recipe: Cauliflower Soup

We just love Brassica oleracea, there is no way around it. For some reason though, this fall we have been really, really into cauliflower. The intensity of our new-ish obsession is fed by the vegetable's consistent presence on the counter at The Meat Market; each week a cornucopia of white, orange, lavender and romanesco cauliflowers come in from Indian Line Farm and The Berry Patch, begging us to take them home.

Unfortunately for our camera, when Jake decided to bring a few heads home from the shop, all that were left were the white ones. On a standard night we'd roast them alone or with a collection of fall veggies - there's nothing better than a nutty, crisp-on-the-edges bite of roasted cauliflower. But, this time we thought we should branch out a little. Looking around on Food52, one of our go-to food blogs, we came across this recipe a favorite cookbooks - Cooking By Hand by Paul Bertolli.

As Paul so often does, he took amazing ingredients in their purest form, graced them with an incredibly simple preparation and created a perfect seasonal dish. Eating this soup is like eating a cloud - it is mind-blowingly light and fluffy. The delicate sweetness of the cauliflower stands out, highlighted by the earthiness of an extra virgin olive oil drizzle. And while managing to be extremely light, it still satisfied our cold weather craving for hot and hearty food. We would definitely recommend this dish with equal enthusiasm for an easy weeknight meal and a formal dinner party - it will definitely make it's way into our cauliflower rotation.

Cauliflower Soup 

From Cooking By Hand by Paul Bertolli

+ 3 tablespoons olive oil
+ 1 medium onion, sliced thin
+ 1 head very fresh cauliflower (any color), broken into florets
+ 5 1/2 cups water
+ Salt, to taste
+ Good extra virgin olive oil, to taste
+ Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. On a medium heat warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Put in the onion letting it brown, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the cauliflower, salt, and 1/2 cup water. Raise the heat slightly, cover the pot tightly and stew the cauliflower until tender, about 15 min. Then add another 4 1/2 cups hot water, bring to a low simmer and cook an additional 20 minutes uncovered.
3. Purée the soup with an immersion blender to a very smooth, creamy consistency. Let the soup stand for 20 minutes. In this time it will thicken slightly.
4. Thin the soup with 1/2 cup hot water. Reheat the soup. Serve hot, drizzled with a thin stream of extra-virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.

Recipe: Chicken in 40 Cloves

As much as we love a good BBQ and summer produce, we’re excited to watch the leaves turn yellow and red and feel the days shorten because that means our meals are starting to change as well. Fall is really our favorite season for cooking. Braises, roasts, Brussels sprouts and squashes... we just can’t get enough. The thing is, most of those autumnal foods require a fair amount of time to prepare. And while there is nothing better than slowly braising a lam neck for 8 hours as you read by the fire, right now we just don't have the time for that.



Luckily, we have access to plenty of chicken! With just a few simple ingredients, chicken lends itself to a quick braise - all that deep, warming flavor we crave within a reasonable weeknight's cook time. For one of our first fall stews Jake brought home a chicken, a quart of stock and 4 heads of garlic while Silka picked up a bottle of dry white wine and some cookies. (Obviously, the cookies were not used in the preparation of the chicken.) In under an hour we were sitting down to a gorgeous meal, in front of a roaring fire and in a warm house filled with the scent of slowly roasted, caramelized garlic.


Chicken in 40 Cloves

+ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
+ 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
+ 1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
+ Salt
+ about 40 large garlic cloves, or heads or garlic, peeled
+ 1/2 cup dry white wine
+ 1/2 cup chicken stock

1. Pat the chicken pieces dry and season liberally with salt.
2. Add oil and butter to a dutch oven over a high flame.
3. When the fats are hot but not smoking add chicken pieces, skin side down, and cook until skin turns an even, golden brown - about 3 minutes. Turn over to brown other side and when done, set pieces aside. Work in batches to cook all the meat.
4. Reduce heat to medium. Place the garlic cloves at the bottom of the skillet and sauté until garlic is lightly browned on all sides - about 10 minutes.
5. Add the chicken on top of the garlic then pour in the wine and stock.
6. Cover and continue cooking until juices run clear when a thigh is pricked - 10 to 15 minutes more.
7. Take cover off and place under the broiler for 5 minutes to re-crisp skin of the chicken. Serve over rice or potatoes.

Recipe: Spinach Salad with Apples & Cheddar

Warmer weather is creeping in, but spring produce has yet to sprout. This leaves us with a pretty constant hankering for lighter fare. Enough with the roasts and braises, give us greens! ...That is, until the next time this crazy weather ricochets back to colder temperatures.

Recently, Silka has become obsessed with hearty spinach and apple salad. It's a classic combination - greens, apples, some cheese and a handful of nuts - and a perfect way to give a little lift to these late winter/early spring meals. We've probably made the salad 5 times in the last month, each time with a few improvements. First, we made the genius decision (if we do say so ourselves) to fry almonds, our nut of choice, in bacon fat. Next, thanks to the helpful people at Race Farms, we concluded that Fuji's were the best apple for the job. And finally we discovered THE cheese to bring it all together: the Cabot Clothbound Cheddar from The Cellars at Jasper Hill. We suggest you run out and get some...NOW!

Spinach Salad with Apples and Cheddar

Salad:

1 generous handful of raw almonds

1 tsp bacon fat (or a little butter, if you'd like to keep it vegetarian)

1 1/2 lbs spinach - we like regular, but baby would work fine as well

2/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese, cut or broken into chunks

1 medium apple, cored and thinly sliced - Fujis are great for this!

Dressing:

+ 1/2 cup olive oil

+ 1 tbsp soy sauce

+ 2 tbsp vinegar - we like apple cider vinegar

+ 2 tsp dijon mustard

+ 2 cloves of garlic, minced

1. Heat the bacon fat (or butter) in a small pan on medium heat. Once melted, add the almonds. Shake the pan to coat the almonds with the fat. Cook for 5 minutes, shaking the pan every minute or so.

2. While the almonds are cooking, assemble the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Mix the dressing ingredients together and set aside.

3. When the almonds are done, spread them on a cutting board. Let them sit for a couple minutes then chop coarsely and add to the salad.

4. Toss with enough dressing to coat, and serve!

Serves 4 as a side or appetizer salad.