Smashed Cucumber Dumpling Salad with Peanut Kimchi Dip

Smashed Cucumber Dumpling Salad with Peanut Kimchi Dip
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Even when you cook for a living, you need the occasional easy win. Cooking is the love of my life; my true passion. But that doesn’t mean I’m above a convenience meal or two. Particularly when it is as delicious as this Smashed Cucumber Dumpling Salad with Peanut Kimchi Dip. This dead-simple salad features veggie dumplings seared to golden perfection and tossed with smashed cucumber, kimchi, shaved red onion, and jalapeño rings dressed in a simple soy vinaigrette. To add to the low-key luxury, I invited peanut butter and kimchi juice to the party. Sound good? Good! Let’s make it!

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Céleri-rave Rémoulade

Céleri-Rave Rémoulade
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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is Parisian Bistro, and it will feature five courses inspired by these historic restaurants. You can find the first recipe here. The rest will follow later this week. 🙂

It’s pretty safe to say that if you grew up in France, you know this dish. This ubiquitous salad is often referred to as “French Coleslaw” because it fulfills a similar purpose on the plate, and it is as widespread as the chip shop and Southern BBQ mainstay. But before we get to the history, let’s talk about what this dish is. Céleri-Rave Rémoulade is a salad comprised of julienned celeriac root dressed in the French form of rémoulade. Chopped capers, cornichons, and herbs, like parsley and tarragon, are sometimes added for extra flavour and colour.

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Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad

Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad with Apple Cider Poppy Seed Dressing.
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This past weekend, it was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I will be the first to admit that I’m not a “turkey with all the trimmings” sort of girl. My partner and I slow-cooked chorizo sausages and made tacos to mark the occasion. It’s not that I find any one holiday dish to be particularly offensive. I just find traditional holiday fare to be a little, well, overwhelming. It’s a lot at once. For example, I could practically live off of mashed potatoes, but on a plate with stuffing, turkey, ham (sometimes), and every other root vegetable known to man, it’s easy to lose track of those heavenly taters. When it comes to heavy holiday meals, sometimes your palette just needs a break, and today’s Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad is that break. 

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Seared Tuna Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing

Seared Tuna Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing
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Spring has been, um, lacklustre up to this point. Cold rain is the dominant theme and my least favorite form of precipitation. So, yeah, I’m far from impressed. But even this slow and painful spring can’t keep me from daydreaming about the summer fare that will soon be on the menu. The weather may scream soup, but my heart wants this Seared Tuna Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing. I particularly love this dish because it features my current obsession: An ahi tuna saku block. Although when I refer to it as an “ahi tuna saku block”, I’m being redundant because saku means “block” in Japanese, and ahi means yellowfin and bigeye tuna in Hawaiian. So in reality, I just called this piece of fish a “tuna tuna block block”. Sometimes you just have to laugh. 

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