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For part 3 of our unofficial heat wave dinner series, we bring you Southwestern Quinoa Salad, from food52.com. I loved this dish and will make it again and again, if I remember.

The heatwave dinners have all required minimal cooking, and consist of dishes that are served cold, cool, or barely warm. To appease my carnivorous daughter and husband, each meal been accompanied by a plate of prosciutto.

Evidently, prosciutto is not enough meat. Shane sat down to dinner tonight and immediately started fantasizing about being able to drive again, so he could get himself to the Empire Market for some (other types of) pork products.

The quinoa was really great, despite it’s meatlesness. It’s made with a lot of my favorite ingredients, black beans, roasted corn, toasted cumin seeds, smoked paprika, tomatoes & lime juice. And it most certainly qualifies as a one-dish meal, always a plus.

Because my peeps over here don’t like feta, I used grated cheddar, which we put on top instead of mixing in. I figured if we mixed it in, the cheese would be soggy and undesireable when we had the leftovers for lunch.

I used roasted jalapenos instead of poblanos, because I couldn’t get my knocked-up self farther than the corner store in this heat. The hot peppers were on the side as well, to keep the dish kid-friendly.

Because it’s Friday, I let loose and drank half a beer. Happy weekend!

• Southwestern Quinoa Salad •
from food52.com original recipe here
reproduced with our notes below, for your convenience

1 1/2 cups quinoa
1 cup corn (or two ears of corn, with the kernels sliced off)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 1/2 cups black beans, cooked
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup feta, crumbled (or grated cheddar, if you use cheddar, top with the cheese at the table rather than mixing it in)
3 green onions, sliced (the whites and the greens – optional, we didn’t use them)
1/2  teaspoon smoked paprika
2 poblano chiles (or jalapenos, keep on the side to make the dish kid-friendly)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice

Bring three cups of salted water to boil in a large saucepan. While it warms, rinse the quinoa well under cold water. When the water boils, add the quinoa and stir. Cover the pot, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 15 minutes — the quinoa should still have a slight bite. (You want it well before mushy.) Then drain it well and add to a large salad bowl.

While the quinoa cooks, heat a cast-iron skillet or wok on high, without adding oil. When the pan is hot, toss in the corn, stirring occasionally, until the kernels are singed. It should take at least five minutes, possibly as much as ten. When they are almost done, add the cumin seeds to the skillet and toast briefly. Then add both to the large salad bowl.

To the same salad bowl, add the halved cherry tomatoes, the cooked beans (drained and rinsed, if using canned), the feta, the sliced green onions, and the smoked paprika.
Roast the poblano peppers until blackened. (I use the open flame on the stove.) Let cool, then peel, seed, and chop roughly. Add these to the bowl too.

Toss the salad together and add salt to taste. Then whisk together the oil, lime juice, and orange juice. Toss the salad with the dressing. Taste. You may want more oil or more lime juice. Adjust as desired. Taste again. Serve.

Last night, when I was changing the sheets, I stacked the pillows up against an exterior wall. When I picked them up to put them back on the bed, they were hot. That’s how hot it was yesterday. It’s hotter today.

We had cool stuff for dinner. Mozzarella, prosciutto, bread, tomato salad, egg salad, and swiss chard. I realized that I love any leafy green when it is cooked in olive oil with a cipollini onion, and topped with gorgonzola, as I did with the swiss chard tonight.

My sister still does not have an air conditioner. This fact has nothing to do with dinner, but it’s on my mind, so there you have it.

We love Fish Cooked the Adriatic Way around here. And if you really must cook on a night as hot as this, it’s a good one since it only takes a few minutes in the broiler.

We had it with rice and a CSA romaine salad with Decadent Pale Green Dressing. Stay cool!

As I was cooking Radicchio with Penne Pasta, I thought: my family’s going to hate this meal. And then I tasted it.

I don’t ever want to prepare radicchio another way again. This is my radicchio dish, forever. It was so good that I think next time I’m going to skip the pasta and make it as a vegetable side dish.

I think this dish could make a convert of you if you don’t consider yourself to be a radicchio person. I don’t mind the bitterness, but if you do, the cooking, cream and other stuff removes it.

There are three main reasons that the dish is so good. 1. pork fat, 2. heavy cream, 3. salt. Add to that other things that I love, namely: radicchio, parsley, butter, cipollini onions, and pecorino cheese, and you really can’t go wrong.

We also had a raw zucchini and chick pea salad that would have been good if it hadn’t been totally eclipsed by the pasta.

• Radicchio Pasta •
adapted from The Educated Palate, original recipe here

2 small cipollini onions
3 tablespoons butter
A 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick round of pancetta, chopped into approx 1/4″ pieces
1 head radicchio
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped, fresh, flat leaf parsley
1 pound penne
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated freshly grated pecorino plus more for sprinkling.

Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Finely chop the onion.  Put the butter inn a 12” skillet and place over medium high heat.  When the butter begins to melt, add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

While the onion is sautéing, cut the pancetta into narrow strips about 1/4″ by 1” long. Cut  the radicchio in half lengthwise and remove the root and core. Chop into 1/2″ strips.

When the onion is done, add the pancetta and cook for about 1-2 minutes.  Add the radicchio and season with salt and pepper.  Add about 1/2 cup water, lower the heat to medium, and cover the pan.  Cook until the radicchio is very tender, about 15 minutes.  Check it periodically and add more water if the liquid evaporates before the radicchio is tender.

While the radicchio is cooking, chop the parsley.

When the radicchio has been cooking for about 10 minutes, salt the boiling pasta water, add the penne, and stir well.  Cook until done.

When the radicchio is tender, uncover the pan, raise the heat and let any remaining moisture evaporate, there will be some sauce remaining at the bottom of the pan, don’t worry about that, just make sure it’s not watery.  Add the cream and parsley and cook until the cream has thickened and reduced by about one third.

When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce and the grated pecorino. Serve immediately with additional cheese for sprinkling.

Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Shrimp sounded like the best thing in the world to me, but I couldn’t justify buying the veggies it called for when I already had a fridge full of CSA veggies. I decided to make it using the vegetables on hand, most of which were from my CSA box.

Carrots, zucchini, purple-ish romaine & cilantro replaced the usual suspects. It came out great! Just goes to show you how wonderfully versatile the recipe is. The leftovers are going to be great during this heat wave too.

I usually leave the steak-making to Shane, but he’s been coming home late, after physical therapy 3x a week, so I decided to tackle it myself. We had a nice, local, humanely raised, shell steak in the fridge which Shane requested I marinate.

The Weber Grill site had a good-sounding recipe for Rosemary-Marinated Rib Eye. I figured the Weber folks should know their steak, and went with it.

While the steak marinated I made kohlrabi slaw with roasted corn, lime juice, mayo and cilantro. The steak recipe calls for a lemon-pepper butter which sounded so good that I decided to put it on the potatoes. After doing so it occurred to me that  this might make the meal altogether way too citrusy & herby.

In the end we left the butter off the steak. Shane and Rose agreed it was a great steak, and I was happy to be able to enjoy the lemon butter on my potatoes.

This morning, I called my mom to ask how to make pasta with fresh tomato sauce and tzatziki. She said “Hah! I just made that last night, I’m making it again tonight.” It’s an unexpectedly refreshing dish, and perfect for  a swampy-hot evening.

The recipe originally came to our family when, years ago, someone named Gooshloo (I’m sure that’s not how you spell it), visited the Cape for a weekend. I don’t remember much about him, I’m not sure where he came from, or to whom he belonged, but the recipe he brought with him had staying power. We’ve been making it for at least 15 years.

• Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Tzatziki •

For the Tzatziki
2 cups plain greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic minced or halved*
1 english cucumber, seeded, quartered lengthwise and chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
a handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped

For the Tomato Sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small to medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
5 ripe tomatoes, the kind that come on the vine work well, and are the right size
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
a pinch of red pepper flakes

For Finishing
1 lb pasta
olive oil

To make the tzatziki, combine all ingredients and set aside for at least an hour. The tzatziki will be salty. When mixed with the pasta and sauce, I think it’s just perfect, but if you prefer less, reduce the amount of salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta, salt the water generously. Sautee the onions in olive oil until soft and translucent (about 5 min), then add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat until they are soft (about 10 min). Season with the salt and red pepper flakes and turn off heat.

While the tomato sauce is cooking, put the pasta on to cook. When the pasta is almost done, scoop out an approximate 1/3 cup of the cooking water and add it to the tomato sauce. Stir the water into the sauce, and bring to a lively simmer for a minute or two. The starch from the pasta water will thicken the tomato sauce slightly.

Drain the pasta and toss with olive oil. To serve, either put pasta in a large shallow bowl, or plate individually. Top the pasta with the tomato sauce and then the tzatziki, drizzle with more olive oil and serve.

*If you are sensitive to raw garlic, just halve the cloves and mix them in to the tzatziki to add  flavor while it marinatess. Remove the garlic halves before serving.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since The Steady Table was born. A whole year of posting about dinner (almost) every night, that’s 351 posts!

What will year 2 bring? If you’ve got ideas and suggestions you’d like to share, please send them our way. You can comment below or use the contact link at the top of the page.

Lots of love and thanks for your support,
Nina Max @ The Steady Table