Spring Into Action Menu

It’s a little hard to get back in the swing of things after such an amazing weekend but I had a little somethin’ somethin’ planned for Monday evening so it wasn’t so bad…

After work I headed over to Whole Foods for this month’s cooking demo, which just so happens to now be called Jesse’s Magical Mystery Cooking Class.

Doesn’t the sign make you want to sign up?

Jesse’s cooking classes are ALWAYS wonderful but the menus vary and some classes feature a menu that is more aligned with my eating style than others. Last night, the menu was right up my alley – Spring Into Action: Fresh, light fare for spring.

We started the class with a glass of Opala Vinho Verde, a crisp white wine perfect for warm weather with hints of citrus, apples, and pears.

I was impressed!

The first edible of the evening was an arugula and strawberry salad with walnut balsamic vinaigrette.

The salad would be a great summer dinner party dish as it was super easy to put together – basically you just toss your greens with chopped berries, walnuts and feta cheese and dress them with a homemade balsamic. The dressing was 2 parts walnut oil and 1 part balsamic with salt and pepper- easy peasy.

With the salad we had a Spanish gazpacho soup.

For those of you who might be thinking why soup would make it on a spring menu. Let me explain. Gazpacho is a raw soup made with tomatoes that is served cold, which makes it the perfect soup for warm weather. This recipe called for lots of tomatoes and fresh veggies including some carrots, which added a nice little crunch factor. It kind of reminded me of the pumpkin pie in a bowl soup I was obsessed with a while back.

More tomatoes came into play for the next item, heirloom tomato bruschetta with fresh mozzarella.

It’s a tiny bit early for this dish in Virginia because it’s not quite tomato season yet but once we have tomatoes rolling in I’ll definitely be making this recipe again. Bruschetta is so simple but tastes so fresh and delicious when tomatoes are ripe and juicy- especially when topped with a good quality balsamic vinegar.

So after all that food, you’d think the class would be wrapping up but in reality we had yet to have the main course – mustard and dill roasted salmon with horseradish red potatoes and lemon garlic asparagus.

For the salmon Jesse coated one side of the fish with a pre-made mustard dill sauce (available at WF) and roasted it on 350° for 10-15 minutes!

Check out Stephanie‘s sweet photography skills.

The sides:

Asparagus is one of my favorite spring veggies. I love it roasted or grilled. One good tip that Jesse mentioned is that you can make cream of asparagus soup with the tough woody ends of the asparagus that most people just toss. If you’re interested, check out Roni’s quick asparagus soup recipe.

The salmon was cooked to perfection. I LOVED the flavor of the dill mustard sauce and I also love how easy the fish was to prepare. Of course the roasted veggies were amazing as well – but that goes without saying because roasted veggies are always fab.

So after having attended too many cooking demos for me to count, Stephanie and I finally got a photo with the mastermind behind it all- Chef Jesse. Special thanks to Steph’s mom for being the photography. She’s awesome!

As you can tell, these cooking demos are a fun way to spend a Monday night. You really can’t beat good friends and good food. I’m already pumped about next month – Jesse said he might be hosting an outdoor grilling class. Isaac’s usually in charge of the grill at our house so I’m excited to learn more. Who knows maybe I’ll become the grill master and challenge Isaac to a throw down.

Tagged as: arugula and strawberry salad with walnut balsamic vinaigrette, heirloom tomato bruschetta with fresh mozzarella, Spanish gazpacho soup