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Weekend Suppers With Friends: Fresh Market Tabbouleh Salad, Seared Lamb Chops With Olive Chimichurri & A Warm Mushroom Salad

Tabbouleh Salad

During fall and the holidays, it’s all about cozying up and having with friends around our table. We make a fire, text a few friends and start cooking, gathering, and setting up a feast. We take special care in making sure no one goes to a cold house and a lonely dinner. Weekend suppers with friends make the moment during the holidays creating long lasting memories of their own.

Everyone is relaxed and ready to extend the weekend by a few hours nestled around a table filled with good food and conversation. Meals vary depending on the mood but a few sure ingredients remain the same, by heritage or taste. Charcuterie, good crusty breads, nibbles of cheese and olives, fish or grilled meats and plenty of fresh and colorful sides. And if you are invited to our house, you know there will be olives involved.

Lamb Chops With Olive Chimichurri

One recent Sunday afternoon, we decided to gather new friends and have an olive themed dinner. Sundays are definitely meant for cozy dinners. A last hooray before the week starts all over again. 

Any gathering we host start with an antipasto tray revolving around a few good cured meats, some burrata or other cheese, pickles, seasonal fruits, green and black olives of sort. My favorites remaining kalamata, tiny shriveled oil cured or plump marinated black olives and pickled garlic stuffed green olives. I am the one eating olives like they are M&Ms. That’s where my heritage shows through. Provence is never far away from any dish I cook.

We followed with pan seared lamb chops with kalamata chimichurri sauce, a colorful market fresh tabbouleh salad with black olives, heirloom tomatoes, persimons, cucumber, radishes and thinly sliced red onions. All dressed in a creamy parsley vinaigrette. My favorite of the evening was a warm mushroom salad with olives and thyme filled with lobster mushrooms, chanterelles and portobello mushrooms. So so good. I want to make it again with a poached egg on top for a simple weeknight dinner or brunch.

Antipasto

Laughs. Good food and wine. Plenty of stories to go around is how I love spending a weekend evening. It doesn’t matter whether our friends are good cooks and want to participate. We just like to get together and share stories and memories around a good meal. If you have an anecdote at the ready, there is definitely a plate awaiting you at our table!

How do you enjoy some down time with friends and foods during the busy holiday season? Curious minds (mine!) want to know! Enjoy the recipes below and please share with me and Lindsay Olives what makes your holiday moments special and enter their holiday sweepstakes (link here). 

Disclosure- yes, this post is in partnership with Lindsay Olives, but opinions are my own. Mushroom Salad

Market Fresh Tabbouleh Salad:

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup large pearl couscous

3 cups water

1 teaspon olive oil

2-3 heirloom tomatoes, thinly slices

1 persimon, thinly sliced

4-5 radishes, thinly sliced

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

1 Persian cucumber, thinly sliced

micro basil or micro greens to garnish

Bring the water to boil in a medium saucepan with the oil and a touch of salt. Add in the couscous and cook for 8 to 10 minutes  over a low boil. Remove from the heat, drain and rinse under cold water. Add the tabbouleh to a large bowl and gently add in the remaining ingredients (minus the garnishes). Drizzle with the vinaigrette (recipe below), garnish if desired and serve.

Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon  juice

1 garlic clove grated (use a microplane) or minced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1 small handful fresh parsley

1/4 cup olive oil In a food processor, whisk together the lemon juice, garlic clove, vinegar and salt and pepper and parsley. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until creamy. Toss with the salad.

                                                                              ~~~~~~~

Pan Seared Lamb Chops With Olive Chimichurri

Serves 4 to 6

2 pounds lamb chops (lamb rib chops)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Place the lamb chops on a baking sheet and rub with the salt, pepper and garlic clove. Place the breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and dip the lamb chops in the crumbs, evenly coating each chop.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with 2 tablespoons olive oil, sear the chops for two minutes on each side. Remove them from the skillet, cover them with foil and let stand for 5-10 minutes (they will be medium rare at this point).

Serve with the olive chimichurri sauce (recipe follows).

Olive Chimichurri:

1 cup kalamata olives, pitted

1 cup parsley

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1/3 cup chopped red onion

juice of one lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

Combine all the ingredients but the oil in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the oil and stir by hand. Adjust salt and pepper if needed. Set aside until ready to use with the lamb chops.

                                                                     ~~~~~~~~

Warm Mushroom Salad:

Serves 4-6

3 pounds mushrooms (we used a combinatio of portobello, lobster mushrooms, chanterelles)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 sprigs of thyme

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1/2 cup mixed green and black olives

salt and pepper to taste

Clean the mushroom of any dirt with a kitchen towel. Slice them in half or bite size pieces for the larger ones.

In a large skillet set over medium high heat, melt the butter and olive oil. Toss in the mushrooms with the thyme and cook, covered, until they release their liquid, about 3 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook for about 8 minutes or until their liquid has almost evaporated. Remove from the heat and  ass in the vinegar, olives and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

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Comments


myriam / rhubarb! rhubarb! rhubarb! November 17, 2014 um 9:32 pm

This is simply stunning. I've never had a warm mushroom salad before, but being a mushroom lover, that sounds like the perfect side. What a wonderful menu this is!


Simones Kitchen November 18, 2014 um 6:35 am

It all looks delicious! I love spending time with friends and good food too. And this is the perfect season for that. We have a lot of friends who like to cook but also a lot who don't like to cook at all. I like nothing better than spending a day in the kitchen with friends, cooking up a storm and than eating it all later…:)


Unknown November 18, 2014 um 12:11 pm

Goodness…I wouldn't know where to begin! Lovely meal!


Melanie November 18, 2014 um 2:33 pm

Exquisite. Simple and elegant dining at its best!


Rachael | Spache the Spatula November 18, 2014 um 8:11 pm

Everything you make always looks so totally lovely and dreamy. I am totally smitten with each and everyone of these recipes!


Matea November 18, 2014 um 11:42 pm

Everything looks so good! Our Lebanese friends once made us Tabbouleh; such a delicious salad!


Christy November 19, 2014 um 3:41 am

This is simply gorgeous! Love these recipes and can't wait to try these out for a dinner party 🙂


Lauren November 19, 2014 um 3:08 pm

Once again these photos are so gorgeous I just want to click my heels and be at your table! Especially because there are OLIVES! I also snack on them like they are candy, some of my favorite foods 🙂


Rocky Mountain Woman November 19, 2014 um 9:36 pm

Cooking for family and friends is the highlight of my holidays…

lovely recipes, as always!


GlutenFreeHappyTummy November 26, 2014 um 2:43 am

what a gorgeous gorgeous salad!


Mister Fitness Brussels November 28, 2014 um 11:28 am

Sooo Delicious and perfect recipe for my diet ! Thank you for this!


amanda waugh December 10, 2014 um 9:39 pm

I love the mushroom salad and will add it to my repertoire! Like you, my favorite way to spend time on the holidays is in smaller groups around the table.

One (minor) note – reread the directions to the warm mushroom salad, where you add the vinegar. I think autocorrect did you wrong…LOL.


Rosie @ Notes of Bacon December 11, 2014 um 2:45 pm

I'm going to tell it to you straight – your photos make me drool. I want to make each one of those dishes, right now. My body is craving the gorgeous colours of the salad! I must!

You are so inspirational with your photography – I am learning (still) and in winter as I work during the day, if I photograph in the evening I find it difficult to produce lovely photos with artificial light. Do you have a trick to help me?

Thank you!

Rosie x


Phillip December 12, 2014 um 4:05 am

What a great blog you have and I love the use of your food photography. The Tabbouleh salad looks too pretty to eat. Love the recipe for the warm mushroom salad. Thanks for sharing so creatively.


Kubełek Smakowy December 13, 2014 um 10:38 pm

Oh, they look so gorgeous and delicious. I'm totally in love with your Market Fresh Tabbouleh Salad! It is so pretty and I am sure it gives some super powers in the middle of December!


Jean | DelightfulRepast.com December 19, 2014 um 12:21 am

I should've been there! Darn! I would be satisfied to eat just one of the dishes, let alone the entire menu.


VelezDelights December 22, 2014 um 10:40 pm

Wow, looks delicious! Happy Holidays & Merry *early* Christmas!


Unknown December 30, 2014 um 9:38 pm

Wonderful pictures and recepies! Its always a pleasure att visit you:) Thank you


shartran January 2, 2015 um 10:38 pm

Which one first…the tabbouleh or the mushroom salad…delicious for both!


The Spoon and Whisk January 11, 2015 um 12:49 pm

Looks scrummy! Will be trying this


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