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Orzo Pasta Salad with Pesto

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This orzo pasta salad with pesto is a staple at GTK!  It is the perfect side dish to serve or bring to a party and we get requests for this one all the time.  There is just something about pesto…and we are obsessed!!  This salad is so easy to make and the flavors are beyond complimentary…and it’s Healthy too!  You really cannot go wrong with combining the orzo with cherry tomatoes, spinach, feta cheese, kalamata olives and fresh pesto.  Then it’s topped off with a splash of red wine vinegar which really brightens up this dish.  We love to pack this one up for a picnic, trip to the beach or lake or bring to a BBQ to share with friends!  Add this recipe to your list of “I must make this” today!  You won’t regret it!

Stych Photography

Orzo Salad with Pesto
 
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Serves: Makes 12 cups
Ingredients
  • 1 lb orzo pasta
  • ¾ C prepared pesto (use store bought pesto or see pesto recipe below)
  • ¼ C red wine vinegar
  • 2 C spinach, chopped into thin strips, stems removed
  • 2 C cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ½ C cubed feta
  • ½ C pitted kalamata olives, quartered
  • cracked pepper
For the Pesto:
  • 2 C packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cloved garlic, chopped
  • ½ C grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Boil orzo according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
  2. In a large bowl add orzo, pesto and red wine vinegar and mix until incorporated. Add all ingredients except for pepper. Mix together and top with cracked pepper.
**If making homemade pesto (recommended)
In a food processor combine basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts and ¼ C olive oil. Slowly drizzle in the remaining ¼ C olive oil while the food processor is running. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Store remaining pesto in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Blood Orange, Fennel & Goat Cheese Salad

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Behold the holy grail of beautiful, light, fresh and delicious salads!!  This blood orange, fennel and goat cheese salad will not disappoint.  The star of this show is the ever amazing blood orange.  How can you not love these guys?  The gorgeous vibrant purplish color and the sweet citrus flavor pair perfectly with the fennel and creamy goat cheese.  Not only that, but the blood orange is also a nutritional powerhouse!  It’s loaded with antioxidants and is supercharged with vitamin C.  Boom!  Citrus is very much in season here in the desert and we are taking full advantage.  You just can’t go wrong with food that tastes amazing and is good for you.

This salad is super easy to make.  We used some beautiful organic mixed greens that we picked up at the farmers market.  You can use whatever greens you like.  Just combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and toss with a little quality olive oil and rice vinegar.  Sprinkle with a little salt and fresh cracked pepper and serve!  Bring this salad to your next dinner party as a side dish and everyone will be thanking you!


Blood Orange, Fennel & Goat Cheese Salad
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 3 handfuls organic mixed greens
  • ¼ C Fennel bulb sliced thin intro strips
  • 2 blood oranges, skin removed and cut into segments
  • 1 naval orange, skin removed and cut into segments
  • ¼ C crumbled goat cheese
  • drizzle of good quality olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp + rice vinegar
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. In a salad bowl or plate layer mixed greens, fennel, oranges and goat cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and rice vinegar. Sprinkle with S & P to taste.

Simple Garbanzo & Lemon Salad

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AS SEEN ON YOUR LIFE A TO Z!

There is nothing better than fresh produce from the local farmers market, like this Mexican green onion, you just can’t buy it like this in the grocery stores.  What’s a girl to do with a bunch of beautiful green onion bulbs??? Make one of her favorite garbanzo and lemon salads, that’s what!! This is such a simple salad and a GTK fav, it takes under 10 minutes to throw together and you can enjoy it all week long.  We usually double the batch just to make sure we don’t run out too quickly…that would be bad!

To assemble the salad drain and rinse garbanzo beans and add them to a bowl.  Add sliced bulb green onion, shaved parmesan cheese, chopped basil and a few tablespoons of our favorite lemon vinaigrette, season with S&P and just like that, you are done!!

You will have leftover lemon vinaigrette to enjoy the rest of the week as well.  Drizzle it over your favorite green salad or a piece of salmon. We like to add a few large spoonfuls of this bean salad to a bowl of arugula and top with additional lemon vinaigrette to make it into a green salad.  Adding a chopped avocado is also fab, because everything is better with avocado, right?


Simple Garbanzo & Lemon Salad
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 15oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • ½ bulb mexican green onion (bulb green onion), sliced thin
  • 2 Tbsp fresh basil, sliced into thin strips
  • 1 Tbsp shaved parmesan
  • 3 Tbsp lemon vinaigrette
  • S & P to taste
For the Lemon Vinaigrette:
  • 1 shallot chopped
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp dijon
  • juice of 1 large lemon
  • ¼ C olive oil
  • kosher salt to taste
Instructions
For the Salad:
  1. In a medium bowl add garbanzo beans, sliced onion, shaved parmesan and basil. Drizzle with vinaigrette and season with S & P to taste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
For the Lemon Vinaigrette:
  1. Add first 4 ingredients to a blender or use an immersion hand blender. Slowly pour in the olive oil. Season with salt to taste.

The Best Tomato Soup Ever

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Both Courtney and I have a massive LOVE of tomato soup.  Who doesn’t??  We have a favorite place in town that we regularly drive 40 minutes out of our way just to have a bowl of their tomato soup.  Well, our driving for tomato soup days are over now that we have our own version of tomato soup, and in our opinion it kicks the other soup to the curb.

So there are a few things that make this soup extra special.  We added sherry to this recipe which brings in a whole new dimension of awesomeness.  Don’t worry, you can still serve it to your kids, the alcohol in the sherry cooks off leaving you with an extra smooth and flavorful finish.  Instead of using chicken broth we substituted with tomato juice and a couple of tablespoons of roasted chicken base.  Of course a true creamy tomato soup just doesn’t exist without adding a bit of cream to finish it off at the end.  If you desperately want to stay away from cream you can leave it out, but our vote on this one is to throw it in there!

With about 30 minutes from start to finish you too can now have this soup.  If you were like us, driving all over town just to have that perfect bowl of tomato soup, try this!  We guarantee your driving days will be over too!


The Best Tomato Soup Ever
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 28 oz can san marzano whole peeled tomatoes
  • 40 oz tomato juice
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp chicken base - we use better than bouillon brand
  • 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • ¾ C sherry
  • ¾ C heavy cream
  • ¼ C chopped fresh basil - for garnish
Instructions
  1. Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter and olive oil, once butter is melted add diced onions. Cook onions until translucent, add garlic and cook for an additonal 2 minutes.
  2. Add tomatoes and tomato juice and stir. Add sugar - this is added to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes. Add chicken base, ground pepper and sherry and bring to a simmer.
  3. Remove from heat. Using a blender or immersion blender, blend soup until pureed. Return to pot and add cream, stir until incorporated. Garnish with chopped basil to serve.

Chopped Chicken Salad with Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette

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Our favorite classic chopped chicken salad…right here, right now. Loaded with all of the favorite things we love about a chopped salad and more.  This salad is so simple and impressive you will find yourself craving it constantly.  To add a different twist, you can serve it either deconstructed or all together in one big bowl.  We get requests from friends to bring this one as side dish to parties all the time.

chop1

Stephanie Heymann Photography

No need to make anything else for lunch or dinner when serving this salad.  It’s packed with tons of protein and vitamin rich veggies.  The Israeli couscous adds a nutty flavor that should not be skipped. The couscous can be made ahead of time so it’s ready to go when you construct this salad.  We love to throw the couscous in other meals throughout the week too, so it’s great to have it prepped and ready.

chop3

Stephanie Heymann Photography

Now you can have this salad too, but don’t come yelling at us when you find yourself craving it constantly like we do!

Chopped Chicken Salad with Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette
 
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Serves: 2 for full salad 4 for side salad
Ingredients
For the Salad:
  • 1 hardboiled egg, sliced
  • 1 roasted chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces
  • ½ red bell pepper, chopped
  • ½ C cooked israeli couscous (can substitue quinoa or wheat berries or another grain)
  • ¾ C chopped cucumbers
  • 1 ear corn steamed and kernels removed
  • ¼ C pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 4 C romain salad, chopped
For the Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette:
  • Juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
For the Salad:
  1. Either in a large serving bowl or on individual plates, align ingredients into strips (pictured). Drizzle with lemon pesto vinaigrette.
For the Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette:
  1. Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in blender until combined. Add S & P to taste.

Winter Vegetable Soup

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Winter Vegetable Soup please.  It’s a new year and it’s time to get back to healthy eating, starting with this vegetable soup.  This soup is a great way to clear out your vegetable drawer and provide a hearty and healthy meal at the same time.  I have to admit that my kids gave me some major eye rolls when I told them they were having vegetable soup for dinner, they were less than thrilled.  I was pleasantly surprised when we sat down and all 3 ate their entire bowls.  I actually heard one of them say…”wow, this soup is actually really, really good!” Score!  I know this sounds weird but I get a little giddy inside when I throw 10 different types of vegetables in a bowl and my kids eat everything….I’m always hopeful, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

Okay, so this soup is really easy, it just requires a lot of chopping.  You can either chop as you go or have you veggies already chopped before you start assembling the soup.

Once your veggies are chopped and thrown in your dutch oven or soup pan you can add the chicken broth and chopped tomatoes.  Bring the soup to a boil and reduce to simmer and cover for about 10 minutes until the veggies are cooked through.

Remove the bay leaves and add chopped spinach and S&P to taste and you are all set.  Serve it up with some chopped fresh parsley or grated romano cheese and you have a healthy meal that hopefully your kids will eat too! PS, I served this with a side of broiled Naan bread topped with a sprinkle of cheese because it’s somewhat of a soup rule, at least in our house anyways, that you always need to have a little bit of bread to dip into the soup!

 

 

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Winter Vegetable Soup
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 tsp good quality olive oil
  • ½ yellow onion, diced
  • 2 leeks, white parts only chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 Tbsp chopped thyme
  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped
  • 1 bell pepper (not green), diced
  • 2 medium carrots, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery with leafy tops, chopped
  • 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
  • 5 C organic chicken broth
  • 2 C spinach, stems removed and chopped
  • S&P to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and leaks and and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and saute for another minute.
  2. Add remaining ingredients except for spinach and S&P. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer, continue to simmer with lid on until vegetables are cooked through - approximately 10 minutes.
  3. Turn off heat and remove bay leaves and add chopped spinach. Season woth S&P to taste.
  4. Top with fresh chopped parsley or grated romano cheese.

Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad

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It’s zoodle time again! We just cannot get enough of these!  Not only are they fun to make, they are just so versatile and pair well with a variety of ingredients. (Note- If you’re not familiar with a spiralizer look up Spiralizer How-To under the video tab of our website)  We like to break out the spiralizer and curl up a bunch of zucchini to have on hand for a few days.  They actually keep very well in an airtight container.  How great is it to have something like this ready to go?  It’s really true that you will make better food decisions if you do a little preparation.  For this salad, we simply used zoodles in place of lettuce.  It’s a salad that we make all the time its  unbelievably good and easy.  The lemon basil dressing is bursting with flavor and a very critical part to this recipe!

spiralizer

Sauté spiralized zoodles in a teaspoon of olive oil until they begin to break down, about 5 minutes.  While the zoodles are cooking chop cherry tomatoes, avocado, basil and feta. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl with cooked noodles.  top with pine nuts, drizzle with the lemon basil dressing and season with S&P. Tada, done!!! Healthy and delish meal done and ready to eat in 15 minutes!

zoodleavocado2

Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
Zoodle Salad Ingredients:
  • 2 large zuchinnis, spiralized
  • 1 tsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 C cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 avocado cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 3 oz feta cheese, crumbled
  • ¼ C loosely packed fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
  • S & P to taste
Lemon Basil Vinaigrette Ingredients
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in large sautee pan over medium heat. Add fresh zuchinni noodles "zoodles" and sautee for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place in bowl. Add halved cherry tomatoes, avocado, feta, basil and toasted pine nuts.
For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in with blender on until combined. Add S & P to taste.
  1. Drizzle lemon basil vinaigrette over the zoodle salad. Season with S & P to taste.

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Pear Salad with Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette

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I know we say this every time we post a new salad recipe but this might be our blue ribbon salad right here.  It’s Bosc pear season and that basically mean that the time has come to roast pears because everything is better roasted. Once the pears are roasted it’s a whole new world…eat them plain, serve them with some vanilla bean ice cream….YUM, or top one on your next salad.

Roasting pears is about as simple as it gets.  Use a vegetable peeler to peel the pears, cut them in half and use a melon scooper to remove the core.  Heat brown sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and cinnamon in a saucepan until dissolved and pour over the pears.  Roast for 30 minutes, crank up the heat and broil for the last 1-2 minutes.  Your pears should look just like this.

pearcooked

Allow the pears to cool before serving over greens, otherwise the salad will wilt. We think arugula is the perfect green to pair with the pears (see what I did there??…pair with the pears! haha). The arugula has a peppery flavor which is the perfect  contrast to the sweetness of the pear.  Add some gorgonzola or blue cheese, toasted walnuts and dried cherries and you are almost all set.  Drizzle with our creamy balsamic vinaigrette and you’re in business.

pearplaed2

This is a great make-ahead salad because you can roast the pears and make the salad dressing in advanced.  It should take you less than 5 minutes to assemble the salad and have it on the table.  Once you’ve roasted these pears you will never look at Bosc pears the same way again!

pearplated1

 

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Pear Salad with Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette
 
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Serves: Pears serve 8 /salad serves 1
Ingredients
For the Maple Cinnamon Roasted Pears:
  • 4 Bosc pears
  • ½ lemon
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • ½ C pure maple syrup
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • small pinch kosher salt
For the Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette:
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 Tbsp 0% greek yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • 2 C arugula
  • ¼ C toasted walnuts
  • 2 Tbsp blue cheese or gorgonzola
  • 2 Tbsp dried cherries or cranberries
Instructions
For the Maple Cinnamon Roasted Pears:
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel the pears with a vegetable peeler and cut in half lengthwise. Use a melon scooper to scoop out the core. Rub all sides of the pear with the half lemon and place in a large casserole dish cored side up.
  2. In a small saucepan over medium heat melt coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Heat until melted and sugar is dissolved - about 3 minutes.
  3. Spoon the syrup over the pears and bake 30 minutes. Turn the oven to broil for the last 1-2 minutes, careful not to burn.
  4. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
  5. While the pears are roasting assemble the salad dressing.
For the Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette:
  1. Using a food processor, blender, or immersion blender - add all ingredients except olive oil and process until smooth, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and continue to process until incorporated. This makes ½ C dressing, use desired amount for the salad and store the remainong dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
  2. Assemble the salad with the pear on top of a bed of arugula sprinkled with the walnuts, blue cheese and dried cherries and drizzled with the creamy balsamic vinaigrette.

Autumn Salad

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I’m so happy we are bringing you this bomb Autumn salad because not only is it beautiful to look at, it tastes pretty darn amazing too.  It’s like a really ridiculously good looking person that is also super nice and smart and you kinda want to hate them because they have it all going on but you just have to love them because they are awesome….same situation with this salad.  It’s also a great excuse to use one of our favorite kitchen gadgets, an immersion blender, because what is salad dressing without an immersion blender?  If you don’t have one of these bad boys you need to go get yourself one STAT….total game changer!

immersionblender

Stephanie Heymann Photography

I’m also slightly obsessed with this perfect drizzle picture…pretty impressive, right? Let me just make you swoon for a second….roasted sweet potatoes, tangy granny smith apples, toasted walnuts, fresh pomegranate seeds and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better throw in some horseradish cheddar for the touchdown.  Oh, and drizzle this creamy balsamic over the top.  Holla!

saladdrizzle

Stephanie Heymann Photography

This can be all yours too, just follow the recipe below and you got yourself one gorgeous autumn salad, which by the way is totally acceptable to eat all year round…not just in the autumn. I bet you already knew that though!

saladtoss

Stephanie Heymann Photography

 

 

Autumn Salad
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 8 C arugula
  • ½ C sweet potatoes, chopped into ½ inch cubes
  • 1 tsp good quality olive oil
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • ⅓ C walnuts, toasted
  • ½ C horseradish cheddar, chopped into ½ inch cubes
  • ¼ C fresh pomegranate seeds
  • ½ granny smith (green) apple, sliced thin
For the Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 Tbsp 0% greek yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp good quality olive oil
Instructions
For the Salad:
  1. Preheat oven to 425. Toss sweet potatoes with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Place on a parchment lined pan and roast for 20-25 minutes, allow to cool.
  2. In a large salad bowl add arugula, walnuts, horseradish cheddar, pomegranate seeds and sliced apples. Toss with creamy balsamic dressing, see below.
For The Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
  1. Using a food processor, blender, or immersion blender - add all ingredients except olive oil and process until smooth, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and continue to process until incorporated. Store remaining dressing in airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Zoodle Salad with Purple Cauliflower, Kale and Avocado

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This purple cauliflower was almost too pretty to cut, but too bad…we cut her up anyways! Lucky for us because this zoodle bowl was epic, and thanks to the purple cauliflower it was extra gorgeous.  We used our standby (standby because it’s so awesome we love to put it on everything) lemon vinaigrette and our favorite spiralized zoodles.  If you are new to veggie noodles or zucchini noodles check out the Spiralizer How To video under our video section, we will show you everything you need to know about spiralizing veggies.  We kept this salad uncomplicated, but there was absolutely nothing else it needed.  Crispy kale, perfectly ripe avocado, caramelized roasted purple cauliflower tossed with sautéed zoodles and our insanely good lemon vinaigrette.

purplecauliflower

Obviously purple cauliflower isn’t a must, the taste is the same as regular white cauliflower.  The purple will just make everything prettier, so if you see the purple grab it so you can have a pretty bite just like this!

purplezoodle

Cold Zoodle Salad with Purple Cailiflower, Kale and Avocado with Lemon Vinagrette
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the Salad:
  • 2 medium zuchinnis, spiralized into "zoodles".
  • 1 purple cauliflower, cut into florets - can substitute white caulflower or brocolli
  • 2 C packed lacinato kale (dino kale) or other kale variety, can also substitute for spinach
  • 1 avocado cut into ½ inch pieces
  • 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp good quality olive oil
  • S & P
For the Lemon Vinaigrette:
  • 1 shallot chopped
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • juice of 1 large lemon
  • ¼ C olive oil
  • kosher salt to taste
Good Thyme Tip - If you want a creamier texture to the vinagrette, add 1 Tbsp of 0% plain Greek yogurt.
Instructions
For the Salad:
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a roasting pan with parchment paper. Place cauliflower florets on roasting pan, drizzle with 2 Tbsp olive oil and toss to coat. Spread florets evenly on roasting pan and roast for 20-25 minutes or until the florets begin to turn golden brown.
  2. While the cauliflower is roasting heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 tsp olive oil. Add spiralized zoodles and kale and sautee for 3-5 minutes until zoodles become tender and kale begins to break down and wilt. Remove from heat and place in a bowl to cool.
For Lemon Vinaigrette:
  1. Add first 4 ingredients of the vinagrette to a blender, or use an immersion hand blender. Slowly pour in the olive oil while continuing to blend. Season with salt to taste.
  2. Remove cauliflower from oven and let cool. Add cauliflower to bowl with the zoodles and kale. Toss with desired amount of lemon vinagrette and season with S & P to taste. Dish into bowls and top evenly with chopped avocado.
  3. Store excess lemon vinagrette in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Good Thyme Tip - This salad allows for a lot of substitutions. Feel free to add any of your favorite roasted vegetables or protien such as grilled chicken. Get creative and make it your own!