Meatless Monday Roundup: 4 Savory Strawberry Recipes
Strawberries are popping up in local markets, but there are many more ways to enjoy these sweet treats than using them in desserts or eating them plain. We love the idea of using fruit in savory dishes, so give it a try with strawberries. There are many tasty ways to integrate this sexy, vitamin-rich fruit into your daily menus… particularly when it comes to Meatless Monday!
Image: Georgeanne Brennan
Start with our very own fresh strawberry and spinach salad. Not only does this salad combine the beautiful, vibrant colors of the crimson berries and the dark green spinach, but it’s delicious to boot! The ingredients are tied together with a poppy seed vinaigrette, and pecans add a nutty note as well as some much-needed protein. One thing’s for sure: this salad will be a hit at your next barbecue!
Image: David Christian
Strawberries can play several roles when it comes to meal salads. In our meyer lemon and herbed goat cheese salad, for example, strawberry is puréed with one of its closest culinary cohorts — rhubarb — for a delicious vinaigrette. The secret to avoiding a dressing that’s too cloying is in the addition of mustard and shallots, which add a bit of zip that vinegar alone wouldn’t. Aside the fresh goat’s cheese, this dressing is sure to please.
But salad is far from the only savory role strawberries can play. Take this hot and smoky strawberry sauce, for example. It’s perfect atop grilled tofu, either as a condiment or as a marinade. The sweet and spicy flavors play off one another beautifully, to create an all-natural barbecue sauce that’s bursting with flavor… without the added preservatives.
Strawberries also work well alongside Mexican food, for example, as a salsa. This strawberry salsa is a sweeter play on pico de gallo, with avocado, cucumber, chilies and lime juice (all technically fruits as well, by the way!) to lend a hint of a more savory flavor. Use the salsa atop your favorite vegetarian tacos or enchiladas, and dinner is served!
