The Enthusiastic Foodie.: Bugs Bunny Salad

Over the past several weeks I have been on a missions project with Power to Change in Montreal and Quebec City.

Reading menus en francais!

Needless to say, I have been strapped for time, cash, internet and ingredients to have continued writing this blog during then...but I'm back :) But don't get too worried, while I've been away a number of things have occurred:

1. I have been reintroduced to cooking away from home and thus, been forced to stretch my culinary abilities to the territory of "there are 3 things in my fridge, what on earth can I make with this??"

2. I have had the privilege of being immersed in Quebecois and French culture where I made sure to take advantage of the culinary learning opportunities around me. Stay tuned for many many French inspired dishes!

3. Some of the students that I lived with on the project where amazing cooks and were happy, to my delight, to show me the ropes of their African/French/all-around-good cookin'. Again, stay tuned for those recipes! :)

The recipe that I am sharing today was created out of my first point listed above. One day I came home and was ready to make dinner. I excitedly opened the fridge to see what was inside and....nada. Nothing that appeared useful to make a traditional salad. No lettuce. No tomatoes. No greens really at all. In fact there was actually nothing in the fridge that belonged to me that I could use in a traditional salad except for dressing.

...Moving onto the cupboard. Opening the cupboard only revealed the few ingredients inside: uncooked quinoa, a sweet potato, a package of dried and pitted dates, and a can of chickpeas.

It's a good thing that I like a creative challenge!

In reality there are tons of things that I could make. But also in this same reality I wanted to make a cold salad. Cooking quinoa, cooling it and combining it with whatever else I could rummage up would take more time than I was willing to spend....HMMMM.

AHA. Carrots! Carrots! Sweet crunchy carrots!

There were lovely humungous carrots in the fridge calling out my name, waiting to be peeled and made into a delicious slaw. They were leftovers and technically belonged to 'no one'...Not anymore! Low and behold, sitting below them in the crisper draw was a pear that I had purchased at the farmers market before. Yum. Okay excellent start.

Carrots will add crunch and a light sweetness. They're famous for their bright orange colour, but there are other carrots as well. I was shocked last year when I was eating a purple root vegetable that tasted like carrot but was...purple. I was convinced it was something else but I was wrong! It was carrot! Crazy. :)

Pear adds a softer gentler texture and again, sweetness. Also, apparently back in the day, they were used to treat nausea! Who knew!

Dates are delicious. Period. They are also a great source if potassium soooo.....that's good. :) Be careful with these delicious fruits though because, well, they are very very high in sugar. In fact, they have a score of 30-49 on the glycemic index (depending on the type). AKA they're very high in sugar!

Mix with a dressing of your choice- not too sweet though, we need some acidity to balance the dish and add some brightness. I'd recommend something like my sweet citrus dressing.

Sweet Carrot Slaw

3 large whole carrots (orange, purple or whatever color you can find!)

5 dried, pitted dates

1 ripe pear (I used an Alexander Lucas Pear)

1. Wash and peel the carrots. Use a peeler or a hand held cheese slicer to slice carrots thinly into a bowl. I liked using the cheese slicer because it allowed for thicker slices than a peeler yet, they were still quite thin!