Savory Greek Yogurt Salad

Sometimes I wonder when I’m gonna get my actual act together and cook dinner on a weeknight like a real live adult. I start off the week with the best of intentions. There’s always meat in the freezer that could be thawed. There’s typically no shortage of vegetables in the crisper due to my weekly market run. I don’t have single girl syndrome to fall back on, I’m pretty sure my boyfriend of many years wouldn’t complain if my cooking-for-two was together enough to extend past Saturday and Sunday nights.

But then I get home at 7pm and I’m all like, “yea this single fried egg with hot sauce is a perfectly acceptable meal.” This brings me to the savory greek yogurt salad that has become a staple in my weeknight meal rotation. I’m not going to pretend that other grownups would consider this a full fledged main entree, but for me on a Tuesday night, it does the trick. 

It’s tangy and savory and has protein, there’s salty feta and an herby cucumber tomato salad and lately I’ve taken to adding lots of toasty sesame seeds and for the tiniest sweet touch, some golden raisins. I feel like it’s a lot more well rounded than my standard egg for dinner. I will admit it’s a very summery salad --- cool, crisp and full of summer fare. I’ve had this salad in my back pocket for awhile now, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for all the tomatoes to disappear all at once! But since the market had no shortage this past weekend, I have no problem telling to you make this immediately, before it’s too late!

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Savory Greek Yogurt Salad

Ingredients:

½ cup chopped tomatoes

½ cup chopped cucumber

1 teaspoon dill, finely minced

1 teaspoon parsley, finely minced

1 teaspoon mint, finely minced

1 teaspoon shallot, finely minced

juice of ½ lemon

tablespoon or so of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

scant ¼ cup crumbled feta

1 cup greek yogurt

Optional, not pictured:

sprinkling of sesame seeds (or sunflower or pepitas...or all)

golden raisins

Directions:

In a bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, shallot, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Put yogurt into serving bowl, spoon salad over top, dress with a touch more olive oil and fresh ground pepper, feta, and any other optional toppings if desired.

Serves 1

Gluten-Free Blueberry Scones

As I sit here in a cafe's sidewalk seating section with the warm sun beaming at my back, birds happily chirping, people walking along in shorts and skirts, and my iced coffee dripping with condensation, I can’t help but ignore the fact that apparently it’s the first day of fall. I’m sorry, what?

Per usual the season has flown by too quickly. I spent my last few weeks of summer completely wrapped up in my amazing new job (filed directly under a-great-problem-to-have) and I let this space wander. Now all of a sudden it’s fall and I’ve got a pile of summer recipes that are just too summery to post.

However, this year more than ever I’ve realized that summer “ain’t over ‘til it’s over” (R.I.P Yogi <3) and that means I’ve been bringing home blueberries by the quartful  from the farmers' market and will continue to do so until I can’t anymore. That also translates to --- I have too many blueberries in my fridge to be useful right now. But it also means, I have absolutely ZERO qualms telling you to make these blueberry scones right this second while blueberries are still in their prime.

These scones are perfectly moist and crumbly at the same time a.k.a. perfect scone texture. They’re bursting with berries and are gluten free, but full of flavor. If I had turbinado sugar on hand, I would have sprinkled that on top for a crisp, shattering top, but instead I lightly drizzled them with a glaze that also did the job. Either way, you will get a perfect scone. Along with the perfect way to savor the very last drops of summer.

At the very least, you can take comfort in the fact it’s no longer too hot to turn on the oven, so you really have no excuse.

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Blueberry Scones

adapted from this Smitten Kitchen recipe and this Food52 recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, cold

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 cup blueberries

1 egg beaten or few tablespoons heavy cream for washing the tops of the scones

Optional topping:

Glaze

2 tablespoons of heavy cream

¼ cup organic powdered sugar

or

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In another large vessel mix together buttermilk, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla.

Next cut the cold butter into the flour mixture and using your fingers mush the butter into the flour. The mixture should become like wet sand. At most the butter should be about the size of peas. Quickly add the blueberries to this mixture and gently toss until they are evenly distributed.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and with a fork gently fold the wet into the dry. Mix until the batter just comes together.

Dump the dough onto a well floured surface and form gently into a disk and pat down until it’s about one inch thick.

Using a large knife or bench scraper cut the disk into eight equal sized wedges.

Transfer wedges to the prepared sheet pan and space at least 1 inch apart. Brush the tops with beaten egg or heavy cream.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are a golden brown.

For the optional glaze: whisk cream and powdered sugar together until a smooth glaze comes together. Let the scones cool just slightly before drizzling glaze over the tops. Or before baking, sprinkle tops with raw turbinado sugar.

Yield: 8 scones

Sour Cherry Oat Crumble Muffins

I spent the first three weeks of sour cherry season walking right on by them. Part of it was the $12 a box price tag. The other part was that I had no clue what I would do with them, so I couldn’t justify the $12 a box price tag.

But I finally succumbed and doled out a hefty portion of my market budget for a quart or two. Coming out on the other side of it, though, I can say it was worth it. Also as the season has lingered on the price did come down a bit.

After the cherries themselves convinced me to make some compote out of them, I tasted it and was like I’m eating exactly what I love about cherry pie. Okay, I get it. I get what the big deal is. Then it was only a matter of figuring out what to put it in that wasn’t cherry pie. Because, as I’ve already embarrassingly admitted, I don’t really like pie. 

I know...I know.

So first, these popsicles happened. But I was left with a good amount of compote still to use. Which was not really a problem. I could have left well enough alone and just had a half pint jar of it in my fridge for a few weeks to come -- to swipe on toast or swirl into yogurt or top ice cream with. What I did though, was swirl it into some muffin batter and then covered that with a crumble, because, it just made sense at the time.

Barely sweet gluten free batter, swirled with puckery sour cherry compote, topped with buttery sweet oat crumble was definitely a good decision. Let me know if you think so too...

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Sour Cherry Oat Muffins

Adapted from this Canelle et Vanille recipe

Ingredients:

Oat Crumble:

1 cup old fashioned oats (gluten free if needed)

¼ cup coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)

¼ cup coconut flour

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons butter

Muffins:

3 eggs

½ cup raw sugar

1 cup full fat greek or other yogurt

½ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

2 tablespoons tapioca starch

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cherry compote (recipe here)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl combine oats, coconut palm sugar, coconut flour, and salt. Cut the cold butter into the crumble mix and mush together with your fingers or a pastry cutter until butter is mixed into the oat mixture well. It should clump if you press it together in your hands. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, yogurt, melted butter,  and extract to combine well. Add flours, tapioca starch, baking powder, and salt and whisk well to combine.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Fill each wrapper about three quarters of the way with batter. Next dollop about 1 tablespoon of cherry compote onto the batter of each muffin. Take a tooth pick or other type of skewer and artfully drag the compote throughout each muffin to create swirls.

Lastly sprinkle a little bit of oat crumble on top of each muffin.

Bake in oven for about 20 to 25 minutes until they are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

Note: You might have oat crumble leftover if you don’t use it all on top of the muffins. Simply line a sheet pan with some parchment paper and spread the crumble out on it. Bake it in a 350 degree oven for about 10 to 15 minutes or until golden and toasty. Once cooled, place in an airtight container and use on yogurt or ice cream like you would a granola.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Sour Cherry Almond Yogurt Popsicles

I want to love pie. I really, truly, desperately do want to love pie.

I appreciate pie. I appreciate pie in the sense that I know how much blood, sweat, and tears usually go into making pie. That, and they are just so pretty. I love the aesthetics of pie. The crinkled edges, the handiwork of the lattice, the snappy looking sugary top. Give me a piece of pie and I will fawn over it like it just won the county prize at the fair.

Expect me to eat that prize winning slice and I will proceed to scoop out and only eat what’s inside the pie. So what I really love is the fruit. That warm, syrupy, drippy fruit.

So when faced with a quart or two of perfectly perfect bright red sour cherries and not even one inkling need to make pie, what’s a girl to do? Of course I only bought the cherries because what kind of seasonal blogger would I be if I didn’t. I had a stare down with my quart of cherries and eventually they convinced me to just throw them into a saucepan with some sugar and almond extract, because when in doubt, make compote.

Consequently I ended up with a bunch of warm, syrupy, drippy fruit which is exactly what I like. Those saucy cherries then talked me into swirling them into a couple things, including these yogurt popsicles, but none of them pie.

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Sour Cherry Almond Yogurt Popsicles

Ingredients:

Cherry compote:

1 quart sour cherries (approximately 2 pounds), pitted

⅓ cup raw sugar or other sweetener

juice of half a lemon

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon tapioca starch (or cornstarch)

Yogurt Base:

1 cup plain greek yogurt

½ cup whole milk

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon almond extract

Almond crust (optional):

½ cup roughly chopped sliced lightly toasted almonds

Directions:

In a 2-quart saucepan over medium to low heat, bring cherries, raw sugar, and lemon juice to a simmer. Cook for about 25 minutes until cherries have broken down and released their juices. When they’ve reached the correct consistency, stir in the almond extract. Lastly scoop about a ¼ cup of juice from pot into a small dish. Whisk the starch into this juice and once combined quickly add back to the cherry pot. Stir well to incorporate. Once the juice has thickened into a syrup, remove from heat and let cool.

Once cooled, blitz briefly in a food processor or blender until mostly but not fully pureed. A few chunks of cherry are welcomed.

While the compote is cooling, get the yogurt base ready. In a large bowl, whisk yogurt, milk, honey and almond extract until smooth. Keep chilled until compote is cooled.

To assemble pops: pour about an inch of yogurt base into each of six pop molds. Next layer in one heaping tablespoon of cherry compote into each. Finish each with another layer of yogurt base, leaving about ¼ inch at the top of each mold to accommodate for expansion. Next take a popsicle stick and artfully drag the cherry compote through the yogurt mix of each popsicle mold. You should be able to create some pretty swirl action for each pop.

Get your popsicle mold ready for the freezer by placing on covers, adding popsicle sticks, etc.
 

Freeze for 4 to 5 hours or until fully frozen. Run under warm water to loosen.

If desired, let the pops begin to melt just slightly, and then roll in chopped almond slices to coat. Enjoy right away or return to freezer to be enjoyed at a later time.

Note: You will have compote leftover. I promise that having left over cherry compote is not a problem. I’ve been swirling it into plain yogurt for a sweet snack. Swiped on some toast, waffles, or pancakes would be great. I have no doubt that spooning it over vanilla ice cream would be divine. This cake would welcome the addition.

Makes six 8-ounce popsicles.