Following up on last week’s strawberry, pea, almond creation I bring you this delightful cucumber, tomato, onion, and herb extravaganza. The best part about both of these salads is that you can easily tailor it to your liking: pick and choose the amount of each veggie (more tomato, less onion) and add whatever protein on top to round out the meal. For herbs I used basil and thyme because that’s what I had on hand — but any fresh green from your garden or market would be delicious in this salad. I bet parsley and/or cilantro would be perfect here.

To my herbs and veggies I added a diced avocado, a bit of olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh lime juice — and voila! B loved it too. He raved about this meal long after the dishes were done, and he never used to be a salad guy. I still wouldn’t classify him as such, but he’s getting there. Amazing what a little fresh herb and citrus will do to a previously Serious Sweet Tooth. Nature’s candy!

But here we are, back home, ready to get cookin’ again. What better way to get back in the groove than with this salad, which is so simple and so healthy? Bon Appetit suggested a mustard vinaigrette (which I’m sure is divine) but since I was adding tilapia on top, it seemed like one too many flavors. Instead I went with good ‘ol olive oil and red wine vinegar. Feel free to try their dressing and/or add whatever protein you like on top. I’m sure avocado would be a perfect addition to this salad as well. Or keep it as is from my recipe below. Either way, hope you enjoy!

Then you get home, and you find dozens of ways on the interwebs to make them and you feel paralyzed by all the choices. Mark Bittman says raw, in a salad. Italians say with breadcrumbs, cheese, and white wine. Saveur says with lemon, and not to worry about boiling first. It’s confusing and overwhelming, to say the least. Which is why I don’t have an exact recipe in this post, cause I sort of combined all three of these (and a few more that I can’t even find the links to right now) and winged it. First though, the requisite “before” shot.

Then I cut the stems and tops off. (This part of the procedure all the chefs agreed on.) The stems so they would sit flat in a roasting pan, and the tops so I could eventually stuff them.

Then I put them top down in a pot of 4 cups of water and turned the heat up high. I boiled them for about 12 minutes, making them soft and easy to pry apart. This is crucial, once you see what comes next. But while these are boiling, you need to make your stuffing. I used about 2 cups of breadcrumbs, 2 TBSP of minced garlic, juice of 2 lemons, and a cup of white wine. Also, one egg and 4 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil.

Now comes the hard part. Or, if you’d rather get your arm workout from making artichokes then going to the gym, then this is the easiest, best part of the process. For me however, this was when I realized I should have had a more substantial snack, cause it was taking longer than I thought and I was getting hungry. (Read: worried, cranky.) You need to pry open the top of the artichoke and remove all the inner leaves. It’s easy once you get it going, but the first ones are a bit rough and require a bit of dexterity. Least they still look pretty, right?

Then comes the fun (and messy) part — stuffing them. There’s no way to describe this politely; you just have to stuff your breadcrumb mixture into every nook and cranny. And really get in there, between as many of the leaves as you can. Then, put ’em all in a roasting pan, pour some white wine over them to cover the bottom of the pan, squeeze some fresh lemon juice, and cover with foil. Roast for about 45 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10. And voila! Peel, scrape, shovel in and enjoy.

How should I make them next time? If there is a next time. Any suggestions?

These were a little spicy, a little sweet and only took about a half hour to make. Though next time I may put the sauce on the side, cause B didn’t love it. “This was delicious; I just prefer my corn plain. I’m a simple guy.” Yea, message received. But I liked it — nay, loved it — so maybe like those choose your own adventure novels, next time he can choose not to use so much, while I choose to drown mine in it. (Or I can make it the same way and have all the corn to myself.)

Either way it goes well with any main dish. I served it alongside a salad with veggie burger on top, which made me feel like I was poolside, at a summer barbecue. Soon enough, right?!

It was a New York Times recipe, fitting since one of the couples was B’s colleague Lexi and her husband Grant. She must have liked it, cause she instagrammed it afterwards — if ever there was a barometer of love, social media is it. [Though the photo at the bottom I actually stole from Lindsey, one of my other guests — thanks Linds! Guess she liked it too, obviously.]

Anyway the recipe called for avocado as well, but since I was serving some with my main course (recipe for that salmon tartare coming in a few days), I decided to opt out. Plus I had so much radish happening, I rolled with that instead. Aren’t the red ones below gorgeous? The last picture by the way, is me holding a daikon radish — in case you were wondering what one looks like.