Recently I cooked dinner for me and my dad as my mom had other plans. I decided it was the perfect time to experiment... and cook a whole dinner, as my mom said I could cook anything I wanted. So my dad was the guinea pig. He is simple when it comes to food, so not particularly a difficult person to cook for.
I have been planning to make a vegan Caesar salad for some time now. I even had the Romaine lettuce sitting in the fridge neglected. So Caesar salad it was! I gathered up the ingredients I needed - cashews, lemon, mustard powder and nutritional yeast.
I made the dressing in the blender. It tasted legit! I couldn't tell the difference between that and a traditional Caesar salad dressing! Just that the dressing was a bit thick. My mistake - should have added more water. I chopped up the Romaine, mixed it with the dressing and added toasted bread squares on top. I think the next time, I will toast the bread coated with olive oil. Makes it crunchier I believe.
Then I knew I had to make a main course and I felt like cooking some chicken either in a sandwich or as a chicken main dish like Chicken Picata. I made Chicken Picata before. Basically it is like flat chicken breast as you slice the chicken breast into 2 pieces along the horizontal so you end up with 2 flat slices. I really like it. Hope I will share it here soon if I make it. Anyway, I ended up making the chicken sandwich.
Chicken sandwiches are yum! I chopped up the chicken and fried it in oil for a really long time as I wanted it to be cooked through. Then I made it into a grilled cheese sandwich by adding sliced cheese. I got the idea from Pinterest to add pesto so I did that. I added it and mayonnaise and grilled both sides. The result was really yum! We ate it with the salad on the side, and miso soup too on the side. Below are the recipes.
Caesar Salad
Ingredients
- a few leaves of romaine lettuce
- half a cup of cashews
- juice of half a lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp mustard powder or mustard (optional)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 slice of toast, cubed
Method
- Blend all ingredients for the dressing in a blender. Add water to reach desired consistency.
- Chop up romaine and mix with the dressing
- Top with toast cubes
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
(serves 2)
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast, deboned
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tsp pesto
- 4 slices of cheese
- 4 slices of bread
- salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- Chop up the chicken breast, add salt and pepper and fry in a pan until cooked. Remove and set aside.
- Spread a slice of bread with mayonnaise and pesto. Add chicken and 2 slices of cheese. Cover with another bread slice. Repeat for the other sandwich.
- Fry sandwich on one side until browned. Then flip over and fry on the other side. Cheese should be melted.
- Serve immediately
Labels: dinner, home cooking, meals, salads
