How to Pick a Perfect Watermelon {+ 101 Amazing Watermelon Ideas}

Knowing how to pick a perfect watermelon isn’t a magic trick. Just remember: Girls are sweeter, size matters, and your Mama was probably right.

The picture above is one of my all time favorites. It was taken on a sweltering July night in the summer of 1995, in my Uncle Russel’s backyard in Maryville, Missouri. The little girl on the left looking straight into the camera grew up to be a dedicated, compassionate teacher, and her sister is now a talented photographer with a gift for capturing light. This image recalls one of my fondest memories from their childhood, and the second best watermelon I’ve ever eaten in my life.

For the record, the best watermelon I’ve ever eaten was on the shores of Spirit Lake in the shadow of Mount St. Helens, a few years before she blew her top. It was the first of my “coming-of-age” summers, and I still remember the boy I was sitting with. (His name was Shawn, and he was beautiful.)

Coincidentally, the third best watermelon I’ve ever eaten was, like the second, grown and eaten in Missouri… and even as I type that, it occurs to me that my summer memories are as entwined with the feels and flavors of ripe watermelon as a field of vines in the late summer sun.

How to Pick a Perfect Watermelon

Hey, remember that summer we had that mealy, grainy, flavorless watermelon? How ’bout we go find one just like it and relive the moment!
~ No One Ever

If you’re like me, eating watermelon isn’t always just about eating watermelon. Sometimes, one cool, juicy bite can take you back to times and places and loved ones long gone, and bring them into clear focus for a sweet moment. No one wants to a mealy, grainy, flavorless melon – it cheats you out of both the moment and the memory.

Here are a few easy tips to help you pick a perfect watermelon:

Check the “Field Spot.”

The yellow spot, known as the field spot, is the place where the watermelon rested on the ground as it was growing. The yellower the spot, the riper the melon. A ripe watermelon will have a creamy yellow or orange-yellow spot. If the field spot is white or very pale yellow, choose another melon.

Look for “Webbing.”

When you see weblike brown spots on the watermelon, it means that bees touched the pollinating parts of the flower many times. The more pollination, the sweeter the fruit.

Avoid bumps & blemishes.

Other than webbing, note any lumps, dents, soft spots, or other irregularities. If the melon you’re considering is covered with blemishes or bumps, choose another.

Girls are sweeter.

Did you know that there are male and female watermelons? Male watermelons are more elongated, usually bigger, and can have a flat, watery flavor. Female watermelons are usually rounder and sweeter.

Size matters.

Don’t go for the biggest or smallest melon in a group: try to choose an average sized melon that feels heavy for its size. A ripe watermelon will feel heavier than one that is less ripe. (I use this trick for choosing oranges, too.)

Check the tail.

If your melon still has its tail, check to be sure it has dried up. If it’s still green, it means the watermelon was picked too early. Similarly, the surface of the melon will turn from shiny to dull when the melon is ripe.

Thump it!

Your Mama knew what she was doing! Go ahead and give it a good knuckle-thump, and then take note of how it sounds. You want to hear a deep, hollow sound. If the sound is dull, the fruit likely isn’t quite ripe.

Now that you’ve picked out your perfect watermelon, here are 101 things you can do with it!

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Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad {Applebee’s Copycat}

July 23 By Renée ♥ 10 Comments

Inspired by an Applebee’s menu favorite, this Thai Shrimp Salad combines grilled shrimp, fresh edamame, crunchy almonds, and crispy wonton strips under a dressing of spicy-sweet Thai peanut sauce and a bright chili-lime vinaigrette for a light summer feast.

When Mr B and I were on the road last month, we stopped in at Applebee’s for lunch, and I ordered their Thai Shrimp Salad – which immediately became my newest favorite thing to eat. It’s absolutely delicious – and a great pick if you happen to be trying to eat light and healthy, too. So of course I had to run home and figure out how to make it!

My Thai Shrimp Salad Applebee’s copycat recipe makes a wonderfully satisfying meal that can be ready to serve in less than 30 minutes!

There are four basic components to this salad: The Salad Base, the Shrimp, the Chili-Lime Dressing, and the Peanut Sauce – and each one is super-easy to throw together.

5 from 2 votes

Thai Shrimp Salad {Applebee's Copycat}

Course Main Dish, Salad

Servings 4

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Pan-fried Shrimp

1 teaspoon minced garlic
8 ounces raw shrimp peeled & deveined
1/2 teaspoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder [**See Note]
1/4 teaspoon cayenne [**See Note]

Salad

1/2 head Napa or Savory cabbage chopped
2 cups fresh spinach coarsely chopped
1 cup shredded red cabbage
2 medium carrots peeled and shredded
1/2 cup shelled edamame
3 green onions thinly sliced
1/4 cup sliced almonds toasted
Wonton Strips
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (reserve some uncut for garnish)
1 batch Chili Lime Vinaigrette (Recipe Below)
1 batch Sweet & Spicy Peanut Sauce (Recipe Below)

Instructions

Prepare Pan-fried Shrimp

In a large self-sealing plastic bag, combine shrimp, minced garlic, chili powder, and cayenne. Toss until shrimp are evenly coated with the spice mix.
Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Melt olive oil and butter and swirl to coat the bottom the the skillet. Add shrimp in a single layer. (Do not crowd in pan.) Pan-fry about 2 minutes, then turn and fry until shrimp become pink all the way through and slightly firm, about 2-3 minutes. Do not over cook! Carefully remove from skillet and set aside.

Assemble Salad

Layer or toss cabbages, spinach, carrots, edamame, green onions, and sliced almonds, wonton strips, and cilantro in bowl. Serve with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette and Sweet & Spicy Peanut Sauce. Garnish with additional cilantro and wonton strips.

Recipe Notes

** I substitute in 1 teaspoon of my Spicy Skillet Dry Rub for the chili powder and cayenne.

1 serving {with 2 T Chili-Lime Vinaigrette & 2 T Sweet & Spicy Peanut Sauce} = 8 WW SmartPoints [2018]

5 from 2 votes

Chili-Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Juice of 2 limes
Zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Gochujang paste Depending on how spicy you like things)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake to combine. (Remember to put the lid on first 😉)

5 from 2 votes

Sweet & Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup canned coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce (I prefer "Red Boat" fish sauce)
1 - 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon honey or coconut or agave nectar
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 - 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 - 1 teaspoon gochujang paste Totally optional. You can also use your favorite heat: Sriracha, red pepper flakes, etc.

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and whisk or blend until smooth.

Roasted Ratatouille {with Pan-fried Onions}

May 31 By Renée ♥ 12 Comments

Fragrant layers of bright zucchini, tender Japanese eggplant, and juicy romas – all roasted to perfection in a nest of herby, garlicky tomatoes and pan-fried onions.

No one makes ratatouille like I do. In fact, it seems like E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E puts their own flare on this simple summer vegetable medley. My personal spin? Pan-fried onions for extra sweetness and depth of flavor. SO GOOD!

Originally from the South of France, ratatouille is an amazingly versatile dish, both for the cook and as a meal. Traditionally made with a base of tomatoes, zucchini, onions, eggplant, garlic, and herbs, home chefs around the world add everything from potatoes to porcinis to the mix. Some cook it in a pot on the stove, others roast it in the oven. You can even make it in a slow cooker, or an Instant Pot! The whole idea is, once you have the basic recipe down, feel free to make it your own.

And here’s a little secret… (shhhhh….)

When it comes to making ratatouille, it really doesn’t matter how you put it together.

It’s true! Whether you choose to “fussy up” and camera-ready your ratatouille, or just throw everything in the dish and let the chips fall where they may, the fragrant flavors of all those fresh summer veggies and herbs will magically combine to create something your tastebuds will love.

Ratatouille can be enjoyed hot, cold, or somewhere in between. Serving suggestions are just as flexible, too: as is, over rice, on toast, in pasta, on a sandwich, and with eggs are just a few ideas. (One of our favorite breakfasts is leftover ratatouille with poached eggs.) Enjoy!

5 from 5 votes

Ratatouille with Pan-Fried Onions

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 4

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1 large sweet or red onion sliced 3/8" thick
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil divided
14 ounces crushed or diced tomatoes (1 can, drained)
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 cloves minced garlic about 1 1/2 teaspoons
1 Tablespoon fresh basil chiffonade
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary or a small spring fresh, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 lb medium zucchini sliced 1/4" thick
1-2 Japanese eggplant sliced 1/4" thick
3 fresh Roma tomatoes sliced 1/4" thick

Garnish:

Fresh basil
Finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a deep-dish pie plate with cooking spray. Set aside.
Heat a cast iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil and swirl to coat skillet. When a water droplet sizzles on the surface, carefully place whole onion slices on the skillet. Allow onion slices to brown and crisp on one side for a few minutes, and then carefully turn them over using a spatula and brown the other side. Allow onion slices to cool, and then separate onion rings from one another and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine dried oregano, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and chili powder.
In a medium bowl, combine crushed or diced tomatoes, remaining olive oil (2 teaspoons), vinegar, garlic, fresh basil, and all but 1 teaspoon of the herb mixture.
Pour tomato mixture evenly into the bottom of a deep dish pie plate. (I use my cast iron pie dish.)
Arrange sliced veggies around the edge of the plate in a pattern that makes you happy. (I did tomato-zucchini-eggplant-zucchini-eggplant-repeat.)
Put the pan-fried onion mixture in the middle of the veggie-ring. Arrange more veggies in the middle, until you are either out of veggies or space, whichever comes first.
OPTIONAL: At this point, you can spray the whole thing with a little cooking spray or brush it with just a bit of olive oil to encourage browning if you would like. Doing so also seems to make the whole thing look better after it is done roasting.
Sprinkle remaining dried herb mixture over the top of the prepared ratatouille.
Bake in preheated oven for an hour, or until the sauce is bubbly and the veggies are tender (but not mushy!!)
Garnish with fresh basil and freshly grated Parmesan or Romano.

Recipe Notes

Weight Watchers: 1 serving (1/4 recipe) = 1 SmartPoint [2018]

Alternate (aka "non-fussy") Prep: Put the crushed tomato mixture in your baking dish. Top with pan-fried onions. Throw the veggies on top. Bake as directed.

Recipe Notes:

This dish is best when made with the freshest veggies possible.
Be sure to slice your vegetables uniformly to all be approximately the same size and thickness so that everything cooks evenly.
Japanese Eggplant is more tender than Italian eggplant, and works better for this dish. However, if you cannot find it, you can definitely use Italian eggplant as a substitute. The important thing is to cut it in approximately the same size as the other veggies you will be using so everything cooks evenly.
Ratatouille and similar foods (i.e., spaghetti sauce, lasagna, and eggplant parm) usually taste better “the next day,” after flavors have had a chance to marry and mellow. I’m sure that there is a scientific explanation for this phenomena, but whatever the reason, keep this in mind if you plan to serve this dish to company. I often make meals like this a day ahead of time, refrigerate overnight and reheat to serve.

Pan-Seared Sturgeon with Chanterelles & Baby Yukons

May 7 By Renée ♥ 13 Comments

In which Mr B and I attend a cooking demonstration class with Chef Andrew Garrison, get to be “beta-diners,” and learn how to make dinner-party-worthy Pan-seared Sturgeon.

Many thanks to the Headlands Coastal Lodge & Spa for hosting our stay and for providing our cooking class with Chef Andrew. This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

One of the unique features of the new Headlands Coastal Lodge in Pacific City, Oregon is the culture of adventure they seek to offer guests. Erstwhile concierges, known as “Adventure Coaches,” organize and guide Lodge guests in a large number of activities, including dory boat tours, crabbing, kayaking, and cooking. The day Mr B and I spent with the Headlands Adventures Coaches was wet and blustery, so we chose a cooking class over kayaking. Our instructor for the day was none other than Meridian’s Executive Chef Andrew Garrison.

[Meridian is the Headlands Coastal Lodge in-house restaurant. Read our profile of Meridian here.]

Chef Andrew, until recently the executive chef of Salishan Lodge & Golf Resort, is a Minnesota native and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts of Minneapolis/St. Paul. He specializes in wine and food pairings, foraging, whole-beast butchery, charcuterie and gluten-free cooking, and developing seasonal menus; the latter a skill already clearly reflected in Meridian’s constantly changing seasonally-focused menu.

When we arrived for our class, held in one of the condos-cottages adjacent to Headland’s, Chef Andrew informed our group that he would be preparing a dish he was planning to add to the menu – “Pan-Seared Sturgeon with Sautéed Chanterelles and Baby Yukons” – and we were to be his guinea pigs. (Or, as one of our group quipped, “beta-diners.”)

Before he started the cooking demonstration, Chef Andrew shared with us a little about his cooking philosophy and approach.

“We don’t really work off any recipes [in our kitchen]. We try to do what we call “intuitive cooking,” where you understand the process and the method behind the recipes, and then expand them to other dishes. It teaches you how to actually cook instead of just following a recipe.”

It is in this spirit that this post is written.

🐟 Cook a man a fish: feed him for a day. Teach a man to cook a fish: he can cook himself fish any time he wants. 🐟 #cookingdemo #sturgeon #recipeby @plays_w_knives Click To Tweet

NOTE: What follows is not a traditional recipe, with weights and measures and exact cooking times. However, if you are a relatively experienced cook, the completed dish should be fairly easy to execute. The following instructions are transcribed almost verbatim from Chef Andrews remarks, and are presented as such.

Pan-Seared Sturgeon with Chanterelles and Baby Yukons

Sautéed Chanterelles

Add oil to pan and heat pan on stove to the smoke point. Add mushrooms and sear them. Once they are seared, finish by sautéing in a little butter with fresh garlic, thyme sprigs, and rosemary sprigs [GTR] thrown in. Set aside.

Always use a neutral oil like canola oil. It has a higher smoke point than olive oil and imparts less flavor.
You want the mushrooms to be dry, and you don’t want to move them much once they’re in the pan. You want them to sear.
Don’t add salt to the mushrooms until you are done cooking, or you will end up with a pan of soggy mushrooms.

Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes

Put the precooked baby potatoes in a pan and make a little hole in the middle. Throw in a couple knobs* of butter and few cloves of garlic. Bring the butter to a foaming point and then add some GTR. Glaze the potatoes with the garlic-herb-infused butter, then season with a little kosher salt. Set aside.

The potatoes were precooked: poached in duck fat. (If you are short on duck fat at home, you can simply parboil them.)
When you add the herbs to the foaming butter, you’ll hear the herbs frying and popping, and that’s the sound you want. Then you’re shallow frying, and the aromatic compounds in the herbs infuse into the butter a little better.

* A “knob” of butter is about 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons – about the size of a knob on a kitchen drawer.

Pan-Seared Sturgeon

Optional step: Brine the sturgeon for ½ hour before cooking.

Just as you did with the mushrooms, add oil to an oven-safe frying pan and heat on stove to the smoke point. Lay the fish in the hot pan, presentation side down. Sear the fish on one side, and then put it in a preheated oven (425° F) until it is done medium well. [An internal temperature of 140°F in fish is medium well.] It will continue to cook after you remove it from the heat, and will be well done by the time you plate it up.

“Proteins, with the exception of steak, I always just cook it on one side. The idea is to keep as much of the flesh as tender as possible.”

Once the fish is done, take it out of the oven, flip it over, add some butter and GTR to the pan and baste it. You want the butter to be frothing when you do this to really get all those aromatics going well. If it’s just [non-frothing] melted butter, you’re just going to make the fish soggy. You want the basting to be a fairly quick process. You don’t want to cook the fish more; you just want to glaze it.

For this demonstration, Chef Andrew used cold-smoked white sturgeon, farmed out of Idaho.
Brining seasons the fish all the way through and actually firms the flesh a little bit. It also gets rid of that white albumen that often comes out when you cook it.
If you are using fish that has been brined and/or smoked for this dish, don’t salt it before you pan-fry it.
Each piece of fish has two sides: the presentation side and the other, non presentation, side. The bloodline side is always the side you want facing down on the plate. In a fillet, the “inside” is always the presentation side. The skin side always goes down. (Unless you are doing skin-on fish.)
Chef Andrew likes to cook sturgeon to about medium well and then let it carry over to well. It’s not really a fish you want to eat rare.

“Kosher salt is my primary seasoning. I don’t put pepper on proteins before I cook them. Especially fish, because at high heat, you end up burning the pepper. I’d rather just have a crack of pepper at the end.”

“My approach to cooking is based on magnifying natural flavors. I use vinegar or citrus in just about everything. Salt… seasoning is really important, but acidity is another thing that really opens up and magnifies the natural flavors.”

Green Garlic Soup [Sauce]

Pureed soups make good sauces, and the soup used for this dish is basically a variation on vichyssoise, or potato leek soup: Yukon Golds, yellow onion, garlic, leeks, and a bunch of green garlic. (Green garlic looks like a small leek, and appears in the spring, about the same time as garlic scapes.) Then finish the soup with some cream, a whole bunch of kosher salt, and a little bit of cider vinegar to adjust the acidity.

Always try to use Yukon Gold when you make a smooth pureed soup. Avoid using russet potatoes for smooth, pureed soups: the starch in them is far too grainy.

Pan Sauce

Warm up the potatoes up in the pan with a little chicken stock. Once the stock is warm and potatoes are warm, reduce the stock a bit and throw a couple of nobs of butter in the pan, along with some aromatics [GTR]. As the stock reduces, keep the pan moving; swirl it around for a bit to keep things emulsified and make a pan sauce. Baste the potatoes in the pan sauce just before plating.

Rewarm the sautéed chanterelles at this time, too.

Foraged greens

For this dish, Chef Andrew used miner’s lettuce, which is plentiful all over the Pacific Northwest throughout the spring. (If foraging isn’t your thing, you can usually find it at farmers’ markets this time of year as well.) Alternatively, a handful of any fresh, tender greens will work.

Before I wrap this up, let me just say, Chef Andrew is personable, dedicated to his craft, and he made our cooking class “adventure” a pleasure to attend. Oh, and he is also adorable – I mean, how cute is this:

Which all goes to show that even the pros get excited when they get it right – and that’s a lesson for us all: Take pride when you put something wonderful on the table!

Disclosure: Our thanks to the Headlands Coastal Lodge & Spa for hosting our stay and for providing our complimentary cooking class with Chef Andrew. This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running. As always, all opinions and images are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Armenian Lentil Stew {with Eggplant & Golden Raisins}

April 16 By Renée ♥ 19 Comments

Armenian Lentil Stew is a thick, rich medley of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onions, golden raisins, and lentils, all flavored with a savory-sweet blend of traditional herbs and spices. Naturally vegan and gluten-free, it is wonderful alone, or served over a bowl of rice or bulgar.

Ten years ago, my daughter married a young Armenian named Vahe. When I first met Vahe, I could barely locate Armenia on a map; moreover, I knew virtually nothing about its rich culture and even less about the tumultuous history of its proud and faithful people. All I knew was this earnest, poetic young man loved my daughter, which is all I really needed to know back then.

And I knew he could cook, because whenever he visited us, that is what he did – COOK! Using nearly every pan in my kitchen, he would make us a bountiful feast of Armenian-inspired fare. Everything from delicious garlicky green beans with eggs to delectable eggplant rolls stuffed with carrots and raisins to amazing fire-roasted shish kabobs. (Like many Armenians, Vahe is a master of fire and skewer.)

Over the last decade, I’ve learn a lot. I’ve developed a great appreciation and genuine respect for my son-in-law and the hard-fought struggle he has endured to become an American citizen. I’ve gained four amazing Armenian-American grandchildren and a wonderful extended family. I’ve read a number of books and countless articles on Armenian history (of which I was taught virtually nothing about in school) and learned a great deal about traditional Armenian cooking as well.

Did you know that Armenia is one of the oldest countries in the world? With a recorded history of about 3500 years, the small, landlocked country has a cuisine as old as the nation itself, where it occupies a unique place in Asiatic cuisine. Relying on a rich medley of diverse tastes and fragrances, Armenian cooking often employs savory flavors like lemon, garlic, onion, paprika, and sumac, and warm spices like cinnamon, vanilla, and cloves.

I’ve known for some time that I wanted to celebrate this milestone in our family’s history here on GHW with a traditional Armenian recipe, so when I saw “Armenian Lentil Stew” on a restaurant menu awhile back, I knew that I had to give it a go. In the end, I don’t know how “traditional” this recipe is; in fact, my culinary instincts are telling me that, even with my exhaustive research, it may be a bit Americanize. All I know is, it’s delicious.

When it comes to ethnic recipes, I’m usually a stickler for authenticity, but under the circumstances, I think it’s perfect. My son-in-law – who coaches his daughters’ soccer team and reads Kant (in Russian) to his three-year old son, who would move heaven and earth for my daughter, and who stood almost five years ago in a courthouse and pledged his allegiance to the United States of America… well, he’s a little Americanize now, too.

Happy Anniversary, kids. May you have many more to come. 💚

5 from 8 votes

Armenian Lentil Stew

Course Main Dish, Soup

Cuisine Armenian

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 8

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Stew

1 cup dried red or brown lentils or combination
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup golden raisins chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion diced
1 pound eggplant peeled and diced 1/4-3/8"
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes undrained
1 bell pepper red, green or yellow, diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons hot paprika or regular paprika
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt or to taste
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 heaping teaspoon crushed dried mint leaves
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Garnish (Optional)

fresh mint or cilantro chopped
sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

Instructions

Rinse lentils and place in large sauce pan. Add broth and chopped apricots and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or other heavy pan over medium heat until it begins to glisten, and then add chopped onions. Saute onions 5-7 minutes, until translucent.
Add eggplant, tomatoes, bell pepper, and garlic to onions. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add lentil mixture and remaining Stew ingredients to vegetable mixture. Simmer until lentils are tender; about 30 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Garnish with fresh mint or cilantro and a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt. Serve as is, or over cooked bulgar or basmati rice.

Recipe Notes

WW Smartpoints [2018] - 16 Smartpoints total for one whole batch, or 2 Smartpoints per serving
If stew becomes too thick while cooking, just add some additional broth or water.
Like most stews, this is always better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to play together.

I used a number of recipes for inspiration and guidance in the development of this Armenian Lentil Stew recipe; most notably, Armenian Lentil Soup with Eggplant and Apricots [Peanut Butter Runner], and Armenian Lentil Soup [Epicurious].

Do you love beautiful pottery? The stunning bowl in the back left of many of these stew images is from Muddy Pants Pottery. Check them out!

Cast Iron “Shrimp & Grits” Pizza {with GF Polenta Crust}

February 26 By Renée ♥ 11 Comments

This Shrimp & Grits Pizza honors the flavors and essence of its classic Southern roots, while presenting the components of this time-honored favorite in a deliciously unique way.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

If you’ve ever wondered how bloggers and recipe developers come up with new ideas, here’s a little window into how I came up with this one. For the past few weeks, I have been a little obsessed with the idea of making a polenta pizza. First, I thought about making a Tex-Mex style pizza, but that seemed too obvious. Then an Italian-themed pizza, or maybe a roasted veggie pizza. (Actually, I’m still considering the latter.)

But none of those ideas were making me all that excited. So I changed tacks and started to focus more on the polenta as an ingredient and what it goes best with, which led me to thinking about grits, because polenta is basically just grits that have set up. Which of course led me to Shrimp & Grits, which has rapidly become one of my favorite things in life, food-wise. At that point, I circled back to pizza, and here we are.

Shrimp & Grits is a Southern classic. A dish once served almost exclusively below the Mason-Dixon line, Shrimp & Grits (cheesy or otherwise) has become wildly popular across the US in recent years, and now appears on menus from New York to Oregon. This deconstructed Shrimp & Grits Pizza honors the flavors and essence of this archetype of Southern cooking, while presenting something deliciously unique.

The biggest hurdle to this recipe was creating a crust that could stand up to toppings. I didn’t want to make a pizza you have to eat with a fork, which is essentially what you get if you use traditional polenta. In order to make a crust that can be sliced, held in your hand, and eaten like a proper pizza, I had to include a few extra ingredients. So technically, this isn’t a “polenta” crust so much as it is a Polenta-Meets-a-Giant-Johnny-Cake, but that is simply too long to put in a recipe title, so I’m calling it Polenta and calling it good. You are welcome to call it whatever you want. 😉 (There is a whole post devoted to my Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust recipe, if you’d like more tips on making the crust.)

TIP: Shrimp & Grits Pizza is one of those recipes that looks long and involved, but in reality, is very easy to execute. You can make it in any large, oven-safe skillet, but cast iron will give your crust a nice crispy texture.

5 from 6 votes

Cast Iron "Shrimp & Grits" Pizza {with GF Polenta Crust!}

This Shrimp & Grits Pizza honors the flavors and essence of its classic Southern roots, while presenting the components of this time-honored favorite in a deliciously unique way.

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 6

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Prepare Pizza Toppings

1 lb medium shrimp deveined and shelled
1 tablespoon Spicy Skillet Dry Rub (RECIPE below)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons olive oil divided
1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
2-3 slices thick bacon cut into 1/2" pieces
1/2 large sweet onion sliced into thin strips, root to tip
1/2 red bell pepper cut into thin strips

Polenta Pizza Crust

1 cup medium-grind cornmeal I use Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Organic Cornmeal
½ cup flour I use Bob's Red Mill GF Flour
1 tablespoon Spicy Skillet Dry Rub (RECIPE Below)
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil

Final Steps

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
2-3 green onions sliced

Instructions

Prepare Pizza Toppings

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Marinate Shrimp: In medium bowl, combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, Spicy Skillet Dry Rub, and minced garlic to make a thick paste. Add shrimp and toss to coat thoroughly. Allow to marinate while you roast the tomatoes.
Roast Tomatoes: While shrimp is marinating, roast the cherry tomatoes. To do this, toss the tomatoes lightly in a little olive oil and spread on a heavy sheet pan. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. Remove from oven and set aside.
Prepare Shrimp & Veggies: In a cast iron skillet or heavy pan over medium heat, fry bacon pieces until crispy. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove bacon from skillet and set aside.
Add chopped onion and red bell pepper to hot skillet and sauté in bacon drippings until soft and translucent.
Push all the vegetables to one side of the pan. Stir in shrimp and and cook 3-4 minutes, or until just barely pink. (DO NOT overcook!)
Set shrimp mixture aside while you make pizza crust. If you are using the same skillet for the pizza, just put the shrimp mixture in a bowl and wipe your cast iron skillet clean before beginning the next step.

Polenta Pizza Crust

Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and Spicy Skillet Dry Rub.
In a medium saucepan, heat milk and butter over medium heat until tiny bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the pan. Remove from stove and stir until butter is completely melted.
Add the hot milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Whisk in the beaten egg and thoroughly combine. Let set briefly while you prepare skillet.
Heat a 10-inch cast iron skillet or round griddle over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on the surface. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and swirl oil to thoroughly cover pan. Give the cornmeal mixture one more good whisking, then carefully pour prepared cornmeal batter into hot griddle and spread evenly with spatula.
Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until the top is set and the bottom is beginning to brown.

Final Steps

Remove prepared crust from oven, and switch oven to broil.
Optional: If you wish, you can flip the crust over at this time. I do this because I like the browned part facing up, plus it gives the other side a chance to brown a bit too.
Sprinkle prepared pizza crust with a generous cup of shredded cheddar cheese, then place under broiler for 1-2 minutes to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven and distribute shrimp mixture and roasted tomatoes evenly across pizza crust.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup shredded cheddar over top. Place under broiler for 1-2 minutes - just long enough to melt the cheese on top. Remove from oven.
Garnish with sliced green onions. Cut into slices and serve warm.

TIP: This recipe makes one 10-inch pizza. If your skillet is larger or smaller, adjust amounts accordingly.

Click here for more details about how to make Polenta Pizza Crust

The Spicy Skillet Dry Rub recipe below was originally created for Spicy Pan-fried Rockfish; however, I’ve used it on everything from roasted vegetables to barbecued steak, and it is amazing every single time. It’s especially great on shrimp, and really makes this Shrimp & Grits Pizza pop!

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of cast iron cooking, and my 10.5-inch griddle is one of the pieces I use nearly every day. If cast iron is something you’re thinking about investing in, I suggest starting with a 10-inch chef’s skillet and following it up with a 10.5-inch round griddle. These are the two cast iron items I use most often, followed closely by my beautiful cast iron pie plate!

Spicy Skillet Dry Rub

Course Condiment

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Author Skillet, Seattle, WA [IFBC 2015]

Ingredients

5 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoons garlic salt
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoons ground pasilla pepper
2 teaspoons ground chipotle pepper
1 tablespoons ground New Mexico chili pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground mustard powder
5 teaspoons white granulated sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt

Instructions

Mix all ingredients. Store in an air-tight container.

Recipe Notes

Ingredient Substitution: If you don't have all the dried peppers on hand, just substitute 3 tablespoons of regular chili powder for the ground pasilla, chipotle, and New Mexico chili peppers.

Tip: You can find the ground pasilla pepper and ground New Mexico chili pepper used in this dry rub in the Mexican/Hispanic foods aisle of most grocery stores (in my area, Winco, Freddy’s, and Safeway all stock them) or in your local Hispanic Mercado (i.e., Su Casa Imports, El Mercado, etc). I found the ground chipotle pepper in the bulk section at Winco. All of the dried ground peppers are very inexpensive and the recipe makes a lot of dry rub, so it will go a long way.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running, and at the same time allow us to keep traditional advertising to a minimum. As always, all opinions and images are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

♥︎ Did you love this Cast Iron “Shrimp & Grits” Pizza recipe? If so, I would appreciate it so much if you would give it a star review in the comment section below! Also, be sure to snap a picture of your finished pizza and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #thegoodheartedwoman.

Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust {Gluten-Free}

February 20 By Renée ♥ 14 Comments

Not just another “gluten-free option,” this Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust is full of flavor, easy-to-make, and holds up under a load of pizza toppings!

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

For the past few weeks, I have been kicking around the idea of making a polenta-based pizza. I have all kinds of ideas about what to put on top of the corn-base crust (I’ll be sharing one of my favorites next week!) but first I had to come up with a tasty, dependable, easy-to-make crust. A pizza crust that isn’t just a “gluten-free alternative” (and to be clear, I’m not GF). I wanted a crust that could stand up flavor-wise to traditional crust, and hold up to a pile of toppings without crumbling. I’m super happy with how it turned out on all counts.

(Technical Point: Before any “Polenta Purists” start calling me out, let me clarify: I know this crust isn’t technically “polenta.” It’s actually more of a Polenta-Meets-a-Giant-Johnny-Cake, but that is simply too long to put in a recipe title, so let’s just go with “polenta” and call it good, ok?)

As you can see by the pictures, I made this pizza crust in a cast iron griddle, which I believe is the best tool for the job. Cast iron is basically nonstick – as long as you keep it well-seasoned, which is a non-issue if you cook with it regularly. Plus, you can avoid all those all those mysterious lab-created non-stick chemicals that can become toxic and break down at high temperatures. Cast iron is generally relatively inexpensive, by cookware standards. Moreover, cast iron will last you a lifetime: I’ve even heard of people handing their down to children or grandchildren at the end of life.

If cast iron is something you’re thinking about investing in, I suggest starting with a 10-inch chef’s skillet and following it up with a 10-inch round griddle. These are the two cast iron items I use most often, followed closely by my beautiful cast iron pie plate!

One final word about cast iron. If you find a cheap second-hand pan that looks rusted and lost, grab it, hold it close, and run home fast! With a little elbow grease and some patience, you will have beautiful, shiny new pan in no time. (Here’s a great tutorial on “Reviving Old Cast Iron.“)

Sneak peek! Look what’s up next week!

TIP: This recipe makes exactly enough pizza crust “batter” to make one 10-inch pizza. If your skillet is larger or smaller, adjust amounts accordingly.

5 from 6 votes

Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust

Not just another "gluten-free option," this Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust is full of flavor, easy-to-make, and holds up to a load of pizza toppings!

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Gluten-free

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1 cup medium-grind cornmeal I use Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Organic Cornmeal
½ cup flour I use Bob's Red Mill GF Flour
2-3 teaspoons Spicy Skillet Dry Rub RECIPE Below (or use your own spice blend)
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil or a little more
1 cups shredded cheese Your choice!

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and Spicy Skillet Dry Rub.
In a medium saucepan, heat milk and butter over medium heat until tiny bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the pan. Remove from stove and stir until butter is completely melted.
Add the hot milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Whisk in the beaten egg and thoroughly combine. Let set briefly while you prepare skillet.
Heat a 10-inch cast iron skillet or round griddle over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on the surface. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and swirl oil to thoroughly cover pan. Give the cornmeal mixture one more good whisking, then carefully pour prepared cornmeal batter into hot griddle and spread evenly with spatula.
Remove prepared crust from oven, and switch oven to broil.
Optional: If you wish, you can flip the crust over at this time. I do this because I like the browned part facing up, plus it gives the other side a chance to brown a bit too.
Sprinkle prepared pizza crust evenly with a generous cup of shredded cheddar cheese, then place under broiler for 1-2 minutes to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven and distribute toppings of your choice over pizza. Return to broiler just long enough to warm toppings and melt any topping cheese; about 2-3 minutes.

Recipe Notes

This recipe makes one 10-inch pizza. If your skillet is larger or smaller, adjust amounts accordingly. This is meant to be a basic crust recipe. If you want to change things up to go with your pizza toppings, go for it! Simply substitute in your favorite spice blend for the Spicy Skillet Dry Rub, and you're good to go!

Step 6: Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until the top is set and the bottom is beginning to brown.

Step 8: (Totally optional) If you wish, you can carefully flip the crust over at this time. I do this because I like the browned part facing up, plus it gives the other side a chance to brown a bit too.

Tip: You can find the ground pasilla pepper and ground New Mexico chili pepper used in the following dry rub in the Mexican/Hispanic foods aisle of most grocery stores (in my area, Winco, Freddy’s, and Safeway all stock them) or in your local Hispanic Mercado (i.e., Su Casa Imports, El Mercado, etc). I found the ground chipotle pepper in the bulk section at Winco. All of the dried ground peppers are very inexpensive and the recipe makes a lot of dry rub, so it will go a long way.

Spicy Skillet Dry Rub

Course Condiment

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Author Skillet, Seattle, WA [IFBC 2015]

Ingredients

5 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoons garlic salt
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoons ground pasilla pepper
2 teaspoons ground chipotle pepper
1 tablespoons ground New Mexico chili pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground mustard powder
5 teaspoons white granulated sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt

Instructions

Mix all ingredients. Store in an air-tight container.

Recipe Notes

Ingredient Substitution: If you don't have all the dried peppers on hand, just substitute 3 tablespoons of regular chili powder for the ground pasilla, chipotle, and New Mexico chili peppers.

♥︎ Did you love this Cast Iron Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust recipe? If so, I would appreciate it so much if you would give it a star review in the comment section below! Also, be sure to snap a picture of your finished pizza and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #thegoodheartedwoman.

Garden Fresh Gazpacho

September 11 By Renée ♥ 31 Comments

Classic Spanish Gazpacho is the perfect summer soup – chilled, savory, and full of rich, robust, garden-fresh goodness.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

I remember the first time I ever ate gazpacho: I have to admit, I was dubious. Cold tomato soup? Really? I was twenty and I’d never eaten cold soup of any kind before. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to either, but I was at a luncheon hosted by a friend’s mom, and you remember what your mama always told you when you went to eat at other peoples’ houses, right? Anyway, when I tasted it, I found it to be surprisingly rich and savory, with slightly sweet overtones and more body than I expected from a purely vegetable-based soup.

Since then, I’ve worked to perfect my own gazpacho recipe, one little batch at a time. At this point, I think it’s pretty darn awesome.

Garden Fresh Gazpacho Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman

Gazpacho Starter Kit 😉 For reference, the big tomato on the right side (at 3 ‘o clock) is about five inches across.

As far as I’m concerned, there is only one good time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere) to make traditional tomato-based gazpacho: in the waning months of summer and through September, when the gardens and farmers markets are overflowing with warm, fat, vine-ripened tomatoes and shiny sweet peppers.

The picture above shows a single day’s harvest from our garden last week. Thanks almost entirely to Mr B’s dedicated gardening skills, we are flush with a wide variety of tomatoes, cukes, and peppers! In an effort to use everything at its peak of freshness, I decided to make a big batch of gazpacho to get us through a busy week. (Gazpacho will keep about a week in the fridge.)

Garden Tip: We plant marigolds in our garden as part of our organic pest control plan. You probably already know that they repel a number of creepy-crawlies, but did you know that they are edible? Marigolds have a slight citrus flavor, and can range from spicy to bitter, tangy to peppery, making them great for salads or as a pretty garnish on any savory dish.

Garden Fresh Gazpacho

Course Soup

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 2 hours

Total Time 3 hours

Servings 12 Servings (1 cup each)

Calories 120 kcal

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Tomato Mix 1

4 lbs. vine-ripened tomatoes peeled & diced 1/4"
1 lb. cucumbers peeled, seeded & diced 1/4"
1/2 lb red orange, yellow or green bell peppers, seeded & diced
1-2 jalapeno peppers seeded and diced 1/8"
1/2 lb. onion diced 1/4"
15-20 large fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1-3 teaspoons Sriracha or other hot sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder optional **
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Tomato Mix 2

1 lb tomatoes roughly chopped (or cherry tomatoes)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lime - juice & zest
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine Tomato Mix 1 ingredients: diced tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno, onion, basil, garlic, salt, cumin, oregano, Sriracha, and pepper. Toss thoroughly to combine.
In a blender jar, combine Tomato Mix 2 ingredients: Rough chopped tomatoes, olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, balsamic, and Worcestershire sauce. Puree mixture until smooth.
Pour Mix 2 into bowl with Mix 1 and stir to combine.
Using a hand-blender, puree the two mixtures together until it reaches the desired consistency. If you like your gazpacho very chunky, you don't need to do this step. (See Blender Note below)
Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight to allow flavors to blend.
Garnish with additional diced veggies, avocado, and/or sour cream. Serve cold.

Recipe Notes

This recipes lends itself easily to halving or doubling.

Serve with hearty, rustic bread on the side.

** In my most recent batch of gazpacho, I subbed in a teaspoon of my Spicy Rockfish Dry Rub for the chili powder. Totally awesome – I highly recommend it!!

Blender Note: Some people like their gazpacho very chunky, while others prefer it completely pureed: the choice is yours. If you don’t have a hand-blender, you can definitely do the last step in your regular blender jar: just puree about half the total mixture in the blender and then remix everything together. That said, I prefer the hand-blender method because I think it allows for better control of the final product.

Final Thoughts: Like biting into the perfect BLT, for most of us there is only a narrow window of opportunity each year to enjoy truly great gazpacho. Certainly you can make it year round, but don’t try making gazpacho in February with my recipe. (How often do you read about bloggers expressly advising you not to use their recipe?) If you want great garden-fresh gazpacho, and you have a bunch of ripe, sweet tomatoes, then this is your gazpacho recipe. However, if all you have are those hard little red balls they sell in the grocery stores in the winter months, then look for a recipe that uses canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, or tomato juice. Hot house tomatoes and the like simply do not have the depth of flavor or sugar content to make it worthwhile. (Nor do they taste like actual tomatoes.)

Some things are worth the wait.

^{Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running – and (relatively) ad-free!! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!}

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27 Quick Pickle Recipes for Your Garden Bounty

September 1 By Renée ♥ 26 Comments

Quick pickles are delicious, small-batch friendly, and super easy to make. Plus, they require no special equipment and are usually ready to eat within a day or two of preparation.

Quick Refrigerator Pickle Recipes | The Good Hearted Woman

In my fridge: Mexican Carrots, Pickled Red Onions, Swedish Cucumbers, and Cucumber Salad

Our garden is bursting at the seams right now, and we are hustling to preserve all that fresh garden bounty, and one of our favorite ways to do that is pickling. (Yeah, I know, Portland. We can pickle that.) Our fridge is crammed with tart, tangy quick pickles that will last us through the next couple of months until our traditionally canned,”real” pickles have had time to percolate in their jars out on the pantry shelves.

Quick pickles, also known as refrigerator pickles, are simply vegetables that are pickled in a vinegar, water, and salt solution and stored in the refrigerator. (Depending on the recipe, the solution may also include sugar and other spices.) Quick pickles are usually ready in just a day or two, as opposed to traditional pickles, which can take many weeks before they are ready to open.

Cucumber Quick Pickles

Clockwise from top left: Lower Sugar Bread & Butter Refrigerator Pickles, Easy Sweet & Spicy Bread & Butter Pickles, Homemade Dill Chips, Homemade Cinnamon Spice Pickles

Easy Sweet and Spicy Bread and Butter Pickles {Pinch & Swirl}
Homemade Cinnamon Spice Pickles {The Spice Train}
Swedish Cucumbers {Me! ♥}
Pickled Cucumber Salad {The Fit Blog}
Spicy Quick Pickled Cucumbers {Sidewalk Shoes}
Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles {The Seasoned Mom}
Homemade Dill Chips {Culinary Ginger}
Easy Homemade Refrigerator Dills {Certified Pastry Aficionado}
Easy Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles {Melanie Cooks}

Onion Quick Pickles

Clockwise from top left: Quick Pickled Vidalia Onions, Pickled Red Onions, The Prettiest Pickled Onions

Pickled Red Onions {Umami Girl}
Quick Pickled Vidalia Onions {The View From Great Island}
The Prettiest Pickled Onions {A Side of Sweet}
Quick Pickled Onions {Sidewalk Shoes}

Garden Medley Quick Pickles

Clockwise from top left: Spicy Vietnamese Pickled Vegetables, Quick Pickled Jalapeños, Small Batch Pickled Beets, Pickled Watermelon Radish

Spicy Vietnamese Pickled Vegetables {Three Olives Branch}
Pickled Vegetables Using Leftovers {Healing Tomato}
Small Batch Pickled Beets {Simple Seasonal}
Caraway Chili Crunchy Balsamic Beet Pickle {The Flavor Bender}
Pickled Watermelon Radish {Omnivore’s Cookbook}
Refrigerator Pickled Radish & Turnips {Girl in the Little Red Kitchen}
Quick Pickled Jalapeños {The View From Great Island}
Pink Peppercorn Pickled Swiss Chard Stems {Abra’s Kitchen}
Mexican Pickled Carrots {Kevin is Cooking}
Russian Grandma’s Pickled Tomatoes {Happy Kitchen. Rocks}
Grilled Zucchini Pickles {The BBQ Bastard}

Fruit Quick Pickles

Clockwise from top left: Pickled Green Strawberries, Pickled Pineapple, Pickled Blueberries

Pickled Green Strawberries {Bacon is Magic}
Pickled Pineapple {Savory Bites Recipes}
Pickled Blueberries {Bacon is Magic}

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California Quinoa Salad {with Piña Colada Dressing}

April 18 By Renée ♥ 32 Comments

A bright, light, amazingly healthy quinoa salad served with a delicious tropical dressing – inspired by Chef Marcel Gutierrez of the Arugula Deli, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Finding a lunch spot that sources locally grown products and serves up fresh, healthy (and affordable) plates in Portland is usually no harder than walking around the next corner. In fact, when it comes to finding a great place to eat in our town, we are downright spoiled. Idaho Falls, Idaho, on the other hand, is a town heavy with steak houses, chain restaurants (Chuck-o-rama, anyone?), and fast food drive-thrus. Finding something locally sourced, unique, and delicious there takes a little more work, and going vegetarian takes a whole ‘nother level of dedication.

So imagine our delight (yes, delight!) when, while on a recent trip to the Potato State to see one of our daughters graduate from college, we Yelped our way into the bright, airy Arugula Deli, tucked modestly into the side of what looks to be an old brick school building on the north side of town.

The food was, in a word, Fresh. Wonderfully, deliciously fresh, in every sense of the word. We sipped on our lemon and cucumber infused waters while we perused the globally-inspired menu, which has options for all eating styles, from vegan to steak lover. My lunch choice – the California Quinoa Salad – turned out to be our table favorite; a clean, light, grain-based salad full of interesting textures and bright flavors that filled me up and kept me going all day. (And it was a very long day, let me tell you.)

DID YOU KNOW? Quinoa is an ancient grain related to spinach, beets, and chard. Not only is quinoa considered a super-food, but it is also a complete protein: it contains all nine of the essential amino acids (the ones the body cannot produce on its own).

Chef Marcel's California Quinoa Salad with Piña Colada Dressing at the Arugula Deli | The Good Hearted Woman

My inspiration: Chef Marcel’s California Quinoa Salad with Piña Colada Dressing at the Arugula Deli

The element that put this salad over the top for me – and inspired me to practically run home to recreate it – was the amazing “secret recipe” piña colada dressing that was served along side. I loved it so much that I asked if I could get the recipe, to which our waitress laughed and told me that the chef was so cagey about its composition that he made it behind closed doors. The staff didn’t even know what was in it.

Aha! A challenge!

Our waitress did offer to sell us a bottle of the dressing, which of course I accepted. I also took a few minutes to chat with the enigmatic chef himself. Marcel Gutierrez, who owns the Arugula Deli with his wife Mindy, is responsible for the deli’s amazing menu. I found Chef Marcel to be affable and engaging, and passionate about his work. Were it not that we had places to go and things to do, I would have loved to have had time to visit with him more. As it was, we had commencement exercises to attend, and then the long drive back home.

Once home, the salad itself was easy to make: I just had to take all the ingredients listed on the menu and throw them together in the right proportions. For my recipe, I chose to go with tri-colored quinoa instead of single-grain, mostly because I like the extra color, but also because I personally think it has a little more crunch. The trade-off is that the other ingredients don’t visually stand out quite as much in the finished salad. If you make it at home, the choice is yours – any kind of quinoa will one will work.

California Quinoa Salad

A bright, light, amazingly healthy quinoa salad served with a delicious tropical dressing.

Course Main Dish, Salad

Prep Time 15 minutes

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

4 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup chopped mango
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup Craisins
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of two limes
1/2 cup sweetened coconut toasted

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except toasted coconut. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Garnish with toasted coconut. Serve cold with Piña Colada Dressing on the side.

Recipe Notes

Inspired by the Arugula Cafe, Idaho Falls, Idaho

The real challenge came in creating the dressing. I took a couple of wrong turns before I finally got it, and I want to send out a big thank you to our son-in-law Mason for his invaluable input. I honestly have no idea if my ingredient list for the dressing below is remotely in line with Chef Marcel’s recipe, but the end result tastes spot on.

TIP: Hollowed out lime halves are the perfect vessel for serving salad dressing!

Piña Coloda Salad Dressing

Course Condiment, Salad

Prep Time 15 minutes

Servings 3 /4 cup

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons pina colada mix
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 tablespoons lime juice
Dash salt to taste

Instructions

Whisk together all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

Inspired by Arugula Cafe, Idaho Falls, ID

As you may have noticed, I totally copied Chef Marcel’s presentation, too: it makes for a far more interesting plate than just throwing the salad on top of a bed of greens. While you can buy all sorts of cool kitchen forms to create this effect, a clean tin can with both ends cut out works just as well. (Just be careful with the sharp can edges though!)

The next time you are in Idaho Falls, I encourage you to stop by the Arugula Deli for a meal – and be sure to say hello to Chef Marcel for me!

Knowing how to pick a perfect watermelon isn’t a magic trick. Just remember: Girls are sweeter, size matters, and your Mama was probably right.

How to Pick a Perfect Watermelon

Here are a few easy tips to help you pick a perfect watermelon:

Check the “Field Spot.”

Look for “Webbing.”

Avoid bumps & blemishes.

Girls are sweeter.

Size matters.

Check the tail.

Thump it!

Now that you’ve picked out your perfect watermelon, here are 101 things you can do with it!

Beverages [Kid-Friendly]

Beverages [Adults only]

Frozen Treats

Salads

Salsas

Soups, Skewers & Savory Dishes

Watermelon Mix [Sweets, Party Food & Misc]

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Inspired by an Applebee’s menu favorite, this Thai Shrimp Salad combines grilled shrimp, fresh edamame, crunchy almonds, and crispy wonton strips under a dressing of spicy-sweet Thai peanut sauce and a bright chili-lime vinaigrette for a light summer feast.

Thai Shrimp Salad {Applebee's Copycat}

Ingredients

Pan-fried Shrimp

Salad

Instructions

Prepare Pan-fried Shrimp

Assemble Salad

Recipe Notes

Chili-Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Instructions

Sweet & Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

Fragrant layers of bright zucchini, tender Japanese eggplant, and juicy romas – all roasted to perfection in a nest of herby, garlicky tomatoes and pan-fried onions.

Ratatouille with Pan-Fried Onions

Ingredients

Garnish:

Instructions

Recipe Notes

In which Mr B and I attend a cooking demonstration class with Chef Andrew Garrison, get to be “beta-diners,” and learn how to make dinner-party-worthy Pan-seared Sturgeon.

Pan-Seared Sturgeon with Chanterelles and Baby Yukons

Sautéed Chanterelles

Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes

Pan-Seared Sturgeon

Green Garlic Soup [Sauce]

Pan Sauce

Foraged greens

Armenian Lentil Stew is a thick, rich medley of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onions, golden raisins, and lentils, all flavored with a savory-sweet blend of traditional herbs and spices. Naturally vegan and gluten-free, it is wonderful alone, or served over a bowl of rice or bulgar.

Armenian Lentil Stew

Ingredients

Stew

Garnish (Optional)

Instructions

Recipe Notes

This Shrimp & Grits Pizza honors the flavors and essence of its classic Southern roots, while presenting the components of this time-honored favorite in a deliciously unique way.

Cast Iron "Shrimp & Grits" Pizza {with GF Polenta Crust!}

Ingredients

Prepare Pizza Toppings

Polenta Pizza Crust

Final Steps

Instructions

Prepare Pizza Toppings

Polenta Pizza Crust

Final Steps

Spicy Skillet Dry Rub

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

Not just another “gluten-free option,” this Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust is full of flavor, easy-to-make, and holds up under a load of pizza toppings!

Spicy Polenta Pizza Crust

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

Spicy Skillet Dry Rub

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

Classic Spanish Gazpacho is the perfect summer soup – chilled, savory, and full of rich, robust, garden-fresh goodness.

Garden Fresh Gazpacho