Picnicking in Baltimore City

This summer, Roland Park Place in Baltimore challenged me with the question: If you were to have a great vegetarian picnic in Baltimore city, what would you prepare and where would you go?

Chilled Peanut Butter Noodle Salad - "The Mental Salad"

Golden West Cafe in Baltimore has one of my all-time favorite dishes: the vegan Mental Salad. It is essentially a romaine salad topped with cold peanut butter sauce-covered noodles, carrots, scallions & sesame seeds. It is so delicious and I just had to replicate it! I needed a starting place, so I used a Table For Two recipe as a guide. My recipe was enough to feed two people dinner, plus a few days of leftovers (these noodles are perfect for leftovers, since they have to be chilled anyway). Enjoy!

Vegan Chik'n Salad

I recently went to Land of Kush (Baltimore's only Southern-inspired vegan restaurant) for the first time this past month and was completely blown away. They have an amazing chicken salad wrap (in addition to everything else on their menu!) that I absolutely needed to replicate. I came up with something that is a hybrid of Land of Kush's meal and a recipe on FatFree Vegan Kitchen's website. This recipe makes about three cups of chik'n salad.

Hearty Veggie and Brown Rice Salad Bowl

I love copycat recipes. I've made a couple before and google them often. One of my current favorite salads is Starbucks' veggies & rice salad bowl, but it costs about $8 each time I buy it (which is very often). I decided to make it for myself and spent about $15 on ingredients that made about five salads! The recipe is below and makes two salads.

Cranberry, Walnut & Goat Cheese Salad

This past month, I went to a family gathering and my aunt made this amazing salad. It was so good and truly is so easy to make. Toss it together for your next event!

Sauteed Mushroom, Pistachio & Feta Salad

I'm sure y'all remember that Simpsons episode in which Lisa becomes a vegetarian. The rest of the family berates her with a chant of, You don't win friends with salad!

I am here to tell you that, actually, you can win friends with salad, if that salad is full of hearty mushrooms, creamy cheese, and a spicy Indigo Frisee mix. So, drop on by your local farmers market & start making friends.

Buffalo Chickpea Salad

Between work, school, and my internship, I am constantly busy. This salad was perfect for me to make the night before, toss it into a Tupperware container and move on with my life. Not to mention that this recipe (originally from Betsy Life) makes two servings, so you can share or have leftovers all for yourself! Enjoy!

Four-Bean Salad

Okay, so you know three-bean salads. They're delicious, healthy, full of protein. Well, I upped the ante and added a fourth bean. I know; I take some pretty intense culinary risks. This healthy and filling salad is perfect with tortilla chips, on a green salad, on pasta, or on its own. Enjoy the protein and the hearty taste! This recipe is based off of a Real Simple recipe and makes a huge bowl.

Avocado Summer Salad

This is a delicious, protein-rich meal that is easy to pack up for lunch at work, a party side dish, or a snack in the middle of the day. Serve by itself, with tortilla chips, or roll up into a flour tortilla as a taco or burrito.  Feel free to add cayenne pepper, or homemade taco spice into the mixture as well to make it a bit spicier. This recipe is my own, but it does remind me of Sweet Potato & Spice's Cowboy Caviar. (Also, a quick disclaimer: the light in my kitchen went out so the lighting makes the photos look different than what I normally shoot.)

Balsamic Strawberry Spinach Salad

This is a lovely salad that will get you in the mood for warmer weather. Not to mention, it's really easy to throw together, this recipe makes enough to share, and it's healthy. Enjoy!

Chik'n & Mushroom Arugula Salad

This salad was a spur-of-the-moment, let's-clean-out-the-fridge salad. Sometimes that can go poorly, but this time it went wonderfully. The flavors worked really well together and we didn't waste any produce. This recipe makes two servings. Enjoy!

Mock-Tuna Chickpea Salad

I have heard this concoction called a variety of things (my favorite is coined by The Kitchn as "Chickpea of the Sea"), but whatever you call it, it is a delicious protein-packed meat alternative. This recipe is a modification of a few different recipes including one by The Apron Archives and The V Word. My recipe will make three to four servings.

Greek Spinach Pasta Salad

This was easy to make, delicious and very summery. It can be made for just a couple people or for a large group. There is no need for prepackaged dressing, as the lemon and EVOO provide a very light citrus taste.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Pair with: a light, summery beer (like a Witbeir), such as Dogfish Head's Namaste or Flying Dog's Woody Creek White.

Ingredients
Three (3) ounces of fresh baby spinach
Ten (10) ounces of Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
Two (2) ounces of crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup of cherry tomatoes, chopped 
Two (2) green onions, chopped
Two (2) cloves of garlic, minced
One (1) teaspoon of lemon peel
One (1) tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
One (1) tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
One (1) tablespoon of chopped oregano 
Eight (8) ounces of whole grain penne pasta


Directions
Cook pasta as directed on package.
While pasta is cooking, toss all other ingredients into a large mixing (or salad) bowl.
Drain pasta once it is done.
If you have time, allow the pasta to cool. If not, rinse pasta with cool water until pasta is cool.
Spoon pasta onto a plate and top with salad mixture.
Dig in!

Santa Fe Salad Sandwich

To those in the DC region, you know what I mean when I say that Chop't is probably the #1 thing I miss about living in the District. And if you've never tried Chop't before (or are a displaced Chop't lover like me), this recipe is for you.  The best part of that restaurant is that they take all of your salad ingredients, toss them together and then literally chop them up with a mezzaluna chopper until it is shredded. While I don't have a mezzaluna knife (yet!), I do always ensure that my homemade salad sandwiches are pretty finely chopped.

My favorite thing on the Chop't menu is the Santa Fe salad sandwich with the Tex-Mex ranch. The salad is not difficult to replicate, but I kept running into an issue with the dressing because it's not sold in the stores. I found a vague recipe online, tweaked it and now make the dressing myself. I think you'll enjoy it!

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cook Time: none

Ingredients
for salad sandwich
Two (2) cups of Romaine lettuce
1/2 cup of tomato, chopped -- I have had the most luck with cherry tomatoes
One (1) avocado, sliced into small cubes
1/4 cup of sweet corn kernels
1/4 cup of black beans
1/4 cup of crispy onions
1/4 cup of pepper jack cheese, cubed
Two fajita tortillas
for Tex-Mex ranch dressing
Two (2) tablespoons of ranch dressing
One (1) teaspoon of lime juice
Two (2) teaspoons of paprika
Two (2) teaspoons of cumin
Directions

Once you've prepped everything (pretty much just chopping all of the salad ingredients up), mix them gently.
Warm tortillas on stovetop.
While you are warming the tortillas, mix all of the ingredients for the dressing together in a separate bowl. Taste as you go, so you can get the flavor to exactly how you'd like it.
Lightly toss dressing into the salad mix.
Spoon salad into tortilla and wrap like a burrito.
Enjoy!