When I first made this salad, I followed a recipe, but since then have adapted it based on what is available at my local grocery store’s olive bar. The ingredients here are a great guideline, but feel free to change it up — use different olives, different kinds of peppers, or even add some feta cheese if that’s your thing. Just don’t change the dressing ingredients; it’s what brings this salad all together and rounds out the flavors perfectly!
Ingredients:
1 6-ounce can or jar of tuna, flaked 1/2 cup artichoke hearts 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes 1/4 cup roasted red peppers 3-4 roasted garlic cloves 1 small bunch parsley 1 small bunch mint leaves 5-6 basil leaves 1/4 cup extra-virgin avocado oil 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice Aztec Sea Salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper
Directions:
Put the tuna in a bowl and set aside.
Put the artichoke hearts, olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic cloves, parsley, mint, and basil leaves in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped (alternatively, if you want a chunkier salad, simply chop the ingredients by hand.)
Add the vegetables to the bowl with the tuna and mix well. Put the avocado oil and lemon juice in a small
jar and shake until emulsified. Pour it over the tuna salad and season liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper.
Serve this wrapped in lettuce leaves, with whole grain crackers, celery sticks, or on a crusty baguette. Or remove the pit from half an avocado and scoop it inside. One bite and you’ll never look at lunch the same way again!
These buttery, soft & chewy cookies are XXL-sized and packed with plenty of brown sugary & vanilla flavor, gooey semi-sweet chocolate chips, and toasted walnuts for a cookie experience you won't forget! One of my favorite cookie recipes yet!
Ingredients
¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I recommend cutting the salt amount in half. The cookies were pretty salty.)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup Diamond of California Shelled Walnut Pieces, toasted* (Leave the walnut halves whole. Do not chop them up.)
Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Lastly, beat in the cornstarch, baking soda, salt and flour until a soft dough has formed. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnut pieces gently.
Refrigerate the cookie dough for AT LEAST one hour, up to overnight. This is MANDATORY and chilling the dough is necessary to produce thick, fat, chewy cookies that do not spread. Don't skimp on this step! (I would recommend putting the dough on plastic wrap and covering it over, then putting it in the refrigerator. When I refrigerated it overnight in a bowl, I had a very hard time getting the dough out of the bowl. It would be so much easier if it was seperate.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with silicone liners or mist the sheets lightly with cooking spray. Portion ¼ cup sized balls of dough (or two Tablespoon-sized cookie dough scoop's worth of dough) into huge balls of dough and place them onto the baking sheet. (I measured the dough into a 1/4 cup measuring cup. I got 18 cookies.) Bake for approx. 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time. Cookies will be lightly golden on top and may appear slightly undone; this is normal as they will continue to set up as they cool. Do NOT over-bake them! Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for about 5-10 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve cookies warm or room temperature, if desired. For the full Levain Bakery effect, serve them warm!
**TO TOAST WALNUTS: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the walnut pieces on the baking sheet in an even layer. Toast for about 5-10 minutes, turning walnuts every so often, until fragrant and nutty. Keep a close eye on them as they can burn quickly. Allow to cool before stirring into dough.**
