Guest Post : JJ from Food Jaunts featuring Hearty Tuscan Salad

White beans, eggs, cheese, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and romaine lettuce is what makes this delicious Hearty Tuscan Salad prepared by JJ from Food Jaunts.

It’s that time of the year again where we feature exceptional bloggers here at Ang Sarap, so every Fridays in the months of June, July and August you will get to know them as they will be sharing something about themselves and featuring some of their special recipes. These are exceptional bloggers so visit and follow their blogs, you would not be disappointed.

Today’s Guest is JJ from Food Jaunts another fellow Filipino who is passionate about cooking. A blogger, wife, student and a worker I am not sure how she manages her time and post delicious recipes in a regular basis. I share a lot of things in common like her we usually cook 4-5 times of dinner a week leaving one day for leftovers, within those dinners we usually try to cook 1 fish meal, 1 vegetable, 1 chicken, 1 beef, 1 pork of which any can be a rice, pasta, noodle or bread dish. We don’t usually cook the same meal again and the first reason why started blogging is to keep the recipes we used in our dishes.

Hi all! I blog over at FoodJaunts and I’ve been following Raymund at Ang Sarap for a while now, in fact he was one of the first blogs that I really enjoyed and started following! His photography is amazing and I can also vouch that the recipes are delicious since I’ve made a few.

I like to say that FoodJaunts reflects my somewhat spastic adventures in food. I love cooking and eating, quite possibly a little too much, and to counteract that the dishes I make are focused on the healthier side. But I, and I suspect most other people out there, are way more concerned with how it tastes! It may be good for me, but if it isn’t tasty I’m not eating it. On my site you’ll see dishes with a range of cultural influences, from Asian to African to Mexican to the Caribbean, I love exploring new tastes.

Alright, I’ll admit it – considering I write a healthy eating blog for the longest time I had a weird psychological resistance against eating salads for dinner. I think it was some combo of disbelief that a salad would be enough combined with feeling like I was missing out on some meaty main. While I do love a good piece of chicken or pork, there’s definitely something to be said about eating a hearty vegetarian main and this salad definitely qualifies.

Here I infused the salad with a Mediterranean flair by combing white beans with sweet cherry tomatoes, a few sliced mushrooms, bell peppers, some shredded garlic and sundried tomato cheese and a hard-boiled egg all tied together with a quick sundried tomato vinaigrette – no missing out here! As a quick tip, always, always toss the lettuce with half of the dressing you intend to use first and then drizzle the rest on after you’ve topped it with the ingredients. This way you ensure you get a bite of dressing with every forkful.

On the side I did have some nice crusty bread with a bit of herbed olive oil for an indulgent note. This makes a great light and quick dinner, that’s also perfect to make ahead, just pack the lettuce and dressing separately from the other ingredients and toss right before serving.

Hearty Tuscan Salad

★★★★★ 5 from 6 reviews

• Author: JJ from Food Jaunts
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins

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Ingredients

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Dressing

• 6 oil packed sundried tomatoes
• 1.5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1.5 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ tsp salt-free Greek seasoning
• ¼ – ½ tsp sugar
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Salad

• 14 oz can white beans, drained and rinsed (about 1.5 cups)
• 4 hardboiled eggs, sliced
• ½ cup cheese (I used a sun dried tomato garlic yogurt cheese, but sub in your fav shredded or crumbled herbed feta would be nice)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 4 oz baby bella or crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow or orange bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 8 – 10 cups of torn romaine lettuce (about 8 – 10 oz)

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Instructions

1. Hardboil eggs, cool, peel then slice.
2. To make the dressing combine all dressing ingredients (except for salt and pepper) in a mini chop or blender and process until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste and up to another ¼ tsp sugar if necessary.
3. Toss half of dressing with lettuce, until the lettuce is well coated. Divide lettuce evenly between four plates.
4. Top each plate with 1 sliced hardboiled egg, 2 Tbsp cheese, ¼ cup cherry tomatoes, 1 oz mushrooms, ¼ of the bell pepper and ¼ of the white beans.
5. Drizzle remaining dressing over the salads, splitting evenly between the four. Serve immediately and enjoy!

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Notes

Approximate nutritional info: 220 calories, 17.2 g of fat (reflect 8 oz of lettuce and ¼ tsp sugar).

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Nutrition

• Calories: 220
• Fat: 17.2 g