Tag: simple salad

Warm Quinoa and Feta Salad

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saladsLeave a comment

There’s something special about salads made with spring's first herbs and greens from plants that bravely withstand 50°-plus temperature swings. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
We’ve had our usual cyclic spring weather in Montana, with a high of 76°F on Sunday followed by nights in the 20s. It makes me appreciate even more the first spring greens and herbs that eagerly pop through the sun-warmed soil and then tough out the crisp nights and frosty mornings. As I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, my first spring salads mainly consist of store-bought ingredients and sneak in handfuls of whatever garden treats appear first for fresh pops of green.

I make variations on these spring salads throughout the growing season, transitioning to homegrown summer vegetables and herbs as the weeks pass. But there’s something special about the ones made with those first perennial and self-seeded herbs and greens, the plants that bravely leaf out through 50°-plus temperature swings.
Learn to make Warm Quinoa and Feta Salad

Fresh Feta

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Fermenting, Ingredient, UsingLeave a comment

I have a long list of reasons for making feta, starting with delicious and easy. Get homemade feta and salad recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
I can give you a long list of reasons for making feta. It’s delicious. It’s relatively easy. It lets you become comfortable with many ingredients, tools, and techniques that are important in more finicky cheeses, including slow heating, powdered starter, held temperatures, curd cutting and stirring, hang draining, molding, and salting. It will impress all of your friends, if you decide to share. And did I mention how tasty it is?

In Greece and other Mediterranean countries, feta is as common as cheddar is in the United States. During my travels, I ate feta made from backyard goats and sheep, feta flavored with herbs just snipped in the garden, and feta in lots of salads. Feta is traditionally made from sheep or goat milk; if you can get your hands on either, you’ll get the best flavor. But even homemade cow’s milk feta tastes better than many of the most readily available commercial types.
Learn to make Dry-Salted Feta and Warm Quinoa and Feta Salad