Over the Valentine's Day weekend, Matt and I ate at Doolittle's Woodfire Grill and had an amazing Asian Salad. I was determined to duplicate it. I mean, how complex can a salad be?

I didn't really measure stuff, but here goes:

-shredded napa cabbage

-shredded carrot (julienne if you have the means)

-sliced cucumber (again julienne if you can)

-green onions sliced (I might do them the long way next time)

-fresh cilantro leaves

-canned mandarin oranges

-wasabi peas

-homemade wonton croutons (slice up wonton wrappers and lightly fry them)

I tossed the cabbage and carrot in an Asian sesame dressing. Then dressed it up with the onions, cucumber, cilantro and oranges. Sprinkle with peas and croutons. Enjoy.

Not the most photogenic of foods, but one of the tastier things I ever ate was Palak Dal. I ate it for the first time on the recommendation of the cooks at Kabob's restaurant in Bloomington. I searched and searched for a good recipe: one where the photo looked something like what Kabob's serves up.

I finally found one and tried it on Sunday. Not as good as guys who grew up in the country of origin for this dish, but it's still very tasty. Some of the ingredients may require you to shop at an ethnic foods store or hit your local co-op and ask for help. Here's my slightly modified version of the recipe I used.

1 cup yellow lentils (I actually used yellow split peas)
5 cups water

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 tomato chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 chopped Serrano chili (seeded)

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (start with this and add more if you like a lot of spicy)

Cook the lentils in the 5 cups of water for about 30 minutes on a low boil, stirring often because they get all clumped up. Add the spinach and cook another 40-50 minutes. At this point, the lentils will begin to break down and the spinach will get very tender and mix into the lentils some. Continue to let this mixture cook while you do the next step.

In a separate pan, heat the oil and add the cumin and onion. Brown the onion over medium heat.

Add the garlic, tomato, Serrano pepper, coriander, garam masala and cayenne pepper. Cook until everything starts to break down and blend together a little bit, but don't allow it to become mush.

Scrape the onion mixture into the cooking lentils and mix well. Add lemon juice. Taste for saltiness and spiciness now and modify as needed. Let the mixture simmer another 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend a little.

Serve with basmati rice and some flat bread. We had it with garlicky pitas cut into triangles.

Generally, this is a vegetarian dish with plenty of filling power and protein for even the most voracious meat-eater. Matt wanted to have some meat in his the other night, so he cut up a leftover chicken breast and added that.