I'm not a salad guy. That said however, in the last four months I've eaten what has to be a small farms worth of greens... Walden Farms has put their grand kids through college on the fact that I've tried every one of their mostly god awful dressings. I make my own now, olive oil and apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper, ftw!
Last night the wife was wanting something soupy, she's been sick, so this is what I did:
(Also this serves more than three people and requires a pressure cooker but can easy be done in a pot and it's contents moved over to a slow cooker for 3-5 hours or cooked in the pot on a low simmer for the same time... pressure cookers for the win... go get you one, now)
Two cans of low sodium chicken broth
One sliced medium yellow onion
Two sliced bell peppers
eight boneless skinless chicken thighs
One teaspoon coriander
A pinch of cinnamon, maybe two
half teaspoon black pepper
half teaspoon red pepper flake
one teaspoon Thai Green Chili paste (the brand escapes me)
One table spoon tomato paste
One table spoon of soy sauce
Half a table spoon of garlic
Olive oil
Oh and one head of lettuce (Korean style ssam)
Marinaded in a freezer bag the chicken in the coriander, black pepper, and soy sauce for two hours. In the pressure cooker: I seared the chicken in olive oil for eight minutes, four minutes on each side or until there was good color on the thighs. I removed the thighs into a separate dish to hang out.
I added the onions to the pan with the peppers. Once the onions softened I added all of the above spices, tomato paste, Thai green chili paste, and the garlic. After about two minutes to cook off the spices and the tomato paste, on med high heat I added back the chicken and it's juices and dumped in the two cans of chicken broth and added the Korean lettuce. I stirred it and cranked the heat to high. Like any leafy green the lettuce wilted down to nothing. Score for the sneak attack of leafy greens! I then put on the pressure cooker lid and cooked it on high pressure for about an hour.
Moral of the story: Lettuce is back on the menu... but now as an ingredient to soup. You can also add any number of vegetables to your soups to get you up to your daily allotment. Other types of greens like spinach can be added or in substitution to the lettuce. Time for some carrot dancing
Anyone else have any interesting ways to cook with lettuce?
Salad fatigue...
