Thursday, February 25, 2016

Vegan Steak & Tater Salad

Who else is super excited about Terry Hope Romero's new book, Protein Ninja? I know I am! I don't own it yet though. But the recent buzz about her new vegan protein book inspired me to pull Protein Ninja's prequel — Salad Samurai — down from the cookbook shelf this week. One of my post-January cleanse goals was to work more salad into my life.

And I have to admit that, since the cleanse has ended, I've been doing a lot of junk food-binging and not a lot of salad-eating. It's time to fix that! Salad Samurai is loaded with hearty dinner salads, and it's organized by season. We're still in the throes of stupid winter, and the one thing that gets me through these cold, cold nights is seasonal produce. As much as I hate the cold, I do admit that I love the cold weather foods — sweet potatoes, hard squash, turnips, kale, etc. Terry's winter salad section has plenty of salads using those hearty veggies.

I picked the Seitan Steak Salad with Green Peppercorn Dressing for three reasons — seitan, sweet potatoes, and cashew ranch.


Homemade steamed seitan is sliced, marinated, and grilled (I used my indoor grill). The sweet potatoes are boiled until just tender and then they're grilled as well. There are tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, and romaine. 

But the thing that really tied it together (to steal a phrase from The Dude) was the green peppercorn dressing. Soaked cashews (okay, I didn't actually soak them because I have a Vitamix) are blended with spices, herbs, and green peppercorns in brine. This my first exposure to brine-packed peppercorns, and I was blown away. They're a bit like capers but spicier. And they add a twangy-spicy punch to this creamy nut-based ranch. 

I'm definitely gonna try to make many more salads from Salad Samurai soon! And I hope to get Protein Ninja soon too!

6 comments:

Babette said...

I really enjoy Salad Samurai, even though I've only made 5 or 6 recipes. I want to try them all, and I've made at least 5 times the Sesame Noodle in the Dojo recipe. I've never had green peppercorns in brine, I want to try that one next. I like spicy food and capers, so I should like them too.

vegan.in.brighton said...

Oooh, that looks like my kinda salad. I'll be looking up the recipe when I'm reunited with my cookbooks.

Hillary said...

That salad is absolutely drool inducing! I checked Salad Samurai out from the library awhile ago, and I loved every recipe I tried. I've never had green peppercorns in brine. Did you find yours with the olives and pickles? I don't know if I've ever seen them. But they sound delicious!
Love the Dude!!

Rachel R. said...

I LOVE Salad Samurai! I just made a recipe from it last night - the Gingery Beets and Lentils with Tahini and Agave Nectar. It was my first time cooking beets, and I was a little skeptical (had not had good experiences with beets previously), but it was DELICIOUS.

Susan said...

I love Salad Samurai! It will be my next Recipe Round-Up when I get around to it.
I am curious about Protein Ninja, but some of the recipes I have heard about seem to involve certain types of protein powders, which I am not that interested in. I am curious to find out more about it.

foodfeud said...

I love Salad Samurai too! but like some other ppl, i haven't made as many recipes as i'd like. I'll probably not pick up Protein Ninja - looked through it at work and everything looks and sounds good but I don't really want to go out of my way and buy so many different protein powders.