Kerabu Timun Nanas (Cucumber Pineapple Salad)

There is an amazing Malaysian restaurant in Seattle called Kedai Makan. It’s a bit out of the way, but if you are ever in Seattle it’s worth seeking it out. One of the top 10 meals of my life! My favorite dish was their Kerabu Timun Nanas – a cucumber and pineapple salad with kerisik….

Thai-Inspired Salad

We’re in the midst of summer right now, and it’s just too hot to be cooking and eating a hot meal. I was craving a salad that was hearty enough to be my dinner, but cool and refreshing to eat in this heat. While not an exact match for any traditional Thai salad, I used…

Build Your Own Bowl

These “Build Your Own Bowl” restaurants have been popping up all over the place. We have an Asian-themed one near our local movie theater which we would occasionally patronize after seeing a movie… that is, until I decided it would be easy enough to re-create my favorite sauce flavors and build my own bowl at…

Hummus Honey Salad Dressing

I was at a friend’s for dinner and she made a salad with a really tasty dressing. When I asked her about the dressing, she said it was mostly hummus with a little honey, apple cider vinegar, and some other seasonings. I kept thinking about that dressing for weeks after the dinner, so decided I…

Ponzu Cucumbers

When you’ve put in your order at a Japanese restaurant and you’re so hungry you think you might pass out before the food arrives, and then they bring a little dish of complimentary cucumbers to your table… cucumbers have never tasted so good, and it’s just enough to hold you over. You can have this…

Garlic Cucumbers

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese restaurant chain renowned for its soup dumplings. But the dish that sticks in my memory most from the times I’ve eaten there is their Cucumber Salad. I’ve been craving those garlicky cucumbers, but since restaurants are still closed because of COVID, I decided to try to re-create the flavors…

Soy-Ginger Dinner Scramble

Cookbook Club – Virtual Potluck Well, COVID-19 happened, and that made dinner parties impossible… almost. But we can’t let anything stand in the way of Cookbook Club, so we figured out how to do a virtual potluck. We provided some recipe options from Bon Appetit for “when there’s nothing in the fridge”, and then we…

Crunch and Squash Salad

I like a hearty salad that really gives you something to chew on and fills you up. This is one such salad – with crisp and crunch from the cucumber and jicama, creamy avocado, and roasted squash that adds an almost meatiness. You can of course add in other veg that you like and change…

Cucumber Dill Blueberry Salad

The base of this recipe was inspired by a cucumber dill salad that my mom used to make when I was growing up. I freshened it up with the addition of red onion for a bit of bite and blueberries for a sweet pop. So good on a summer day! Guessipe 4 Persian cucumbers, sliced…

Quinoa Tabbouleh

This was inspired by the tabbouleh I’ve had at Middle Eastern restaurants, but with quinoa instead of bulgur. It’s got a clean, fresh feel with lots of crunch from the cucumbers and just a touch of sweetness coming through the acidity of the lemon juice and tomatoes, but it also feels hearty. Since it has…

Greek Salad

I like a Greek Salad because it’s got great crunch and body, but also feels hearty, probably because of the feta. It’s easy to throw together, and keeps well as it’s another one of those salads with no lettuce to get soggy in the dressing. You can use whatever kinds of cucumbers and tomatoes you…

Shortcut Kimchi Cucumbers

When I was little, I got on a kimchi-making kick with my mom. Kimchi takes days to ferment, and can be pretty stinky (we did it in the garage). I give credit to my mom for going along with this for several months – I think she thought of it as good mother-daughter bonding. But…