Recipe: Sesame Citrus Kale Salad
I have something to admit: I LOVE salads. No lie, I can eat salads all day, erryday (just ask my coworkers). And I’m not talking iceberg lettuce with a single, sad cucumber slice… I mean hefty salads with some serious weight to them. To me, a salad is just leaves unless it has more ingredients than I can count one one hand. This particular dish is one of my top 3 salads of all time. We marry orange vinegar with sesame oil to find blissful matrimony in the dressing, while the rest of the fixin’s support with varied texture and flavor.
Ingredients: baby kale, slivered almonds, green onion, mandarin orange slices, Persian cucumber, avocado, cilantro, furikake seasoning
Some people may call this an “Asian” salad, which is quite an ambiguous name considering the hundreds of different cultures on the world’s biggest continent. If anything, I like to think of this as a quintessential LA salad: we’ve got kale, LA’s most ubiquitous ingredient; Persian cucumbers to represent the huge population of Iranians in Tehrangeles; avocado, our region’s most prized native fruit; cilantro, which was transplanted to North America from Europe (like many LA residents!); and furikake, the miracle seasoning that you can get from Japanese markets all over the city.
Recipe: Dal Adas,A�Lentil Stew from the South of Iran
This red lentil stew a�� Dal Adas a�� is insanely delicious and holds a special place in my heart. It’s something I make almost weekly and it’s one of the few Persian dishes I can whip together quickly with the utmost confidence a�� most other Persian recipes require more calculated, concentrated technique. It’s a simple lentil “khoresht” (the standard word for “stew” in Farsi) from the south of Iran. The dish is noticeably inspired by Indian dal; it made its way to Iran thanks the many Indian merchants who’ve done trade at the southern port cities.
Ingredients: basmati rice, tomatoes, white onions, potatoes, garlic, red lentils, mushrooms, tomato sauce (Not pictured: salt, pepper, broth/water, and optional lime & turmeric)
My mom taught me this recipe and my grandmother taught it to her. From her adolescence until today, my mom’s been the perennial feminist, rebel, and artist. Before I was ever so much as a glimmer in her eye, she was off getting multiple college degrees in Iran, traveling through Europe, perfecting her disco hustle, and working in the office of The Queen. Throughout it all, she’s always made this recipe as an easy go-to that satisfies.