Sur La Table dinner at home
Nothing like a Tuesday night fancypants (yet easy!) dinner after a hot barre class.
(Hot barre! Not to be confused with the Whole Foods meal, but equally delicious and a rare form of workout torture/triumph.)
Ok, and wine too 🙂
Even though it was a little lonely preparing this meal by myself instead of with these shenanigan buddies…
(photo from Sarah)
During the Stitch Fix and LUNA cooking party at Sur La Table, we had the opportunity to make a fantastic and healthy summer meal: kale salad with feta and pickled watermelon, quinoa, citrus-marinated chicken skewers and chocolate lava cake. The cooking party was so much fun -surrounded by blogger friends and all the wine- and our instructor, chef Stephan, led us through each of the dishes along with accompanying chants. (“MASSAGE THAT KALE! MASSAGE THAT KALE!” It made perfect sense at the time haha.) They kindly gave us printables of the recipes to share on our blogs! I decided to whip up the meal here at home so Liv and the Pilot could enjoy it, and share the recipe love 🙂 This would be a perfect summer dinner party menu, especially because everything can be made in advance. I usually prep are dinners during naptime, so for this one in particular, all that was left to do was grill the chicken and serve.
Just a little naptime watermelon pickling:
made the marinade and chopped the chicken,
and I halved the recipe for the lava cakes, which made 2 regular-sized and a kiddo’s dessert.
(Didn’t get a pic of them after baking because they lasted about 12 seconds.)
When the Pilot got home, I quickly assembled the salad,
he grilled the chicken,
and dinner was served!
Here are the recipes if you’d like to give them a whirl at home:
Kale salad with pickled watermelon and feta
A sweet, savory and refreshing twist on the usual kale salad.
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 190
Ingredients
Pickled watermelon
- 1 cup champagne vinegar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 cups 1″ diced seedless watermelon
Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup reserved pickling liquid
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- Kosher salt
Salad
- 2 cups thinly sliced kale (curly green kale or Tuscan)
- 4 oz soft feta, crumbled
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- To pickle watermelon: Combine pickling ingredients and toss diced watermelon to thoroughly combine. Let marinate for at least 3 hours.
- To prepare salad: Combine reserved pickling liquid and olive oil. (During class, we used equal parts pickling liquid and olive oil.) Toss kale leaves with just enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. Gently massage the kale by hand to tenderize, about 1-2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- To assemble salad: Arrange dressed kale on salad plates. Garnish with pickled watermelon, feta and shredded mint. Grind fresh black pepper on top.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
Grilled citrus chicken skewers with quinoa
Chicken skewers with a bright citrus kick. These are fantastic for summer grilling parties!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 40
Ingredients
Citrus marinade
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Grilled chicken skewers
- 4 (4-oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Quinoa
- Olive oil
- 1/4 cup finely minced onion
- 2 cups quinoa
- 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- To marinate chicken: Combine marinade ingredients and toss with chicken to combine. Set aside to marinate at room temperate for 15 minutes before grilling.
- To prepare quinoa: Heat heavy sauce pot over medium high heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and sauté until tender and golden brown. Add quinoa to the pot to toast for about 30 seconds before adding the broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes.
- To cook chicken: Add the chicken cubes to skewers (soak the skewers in water to prevent burning). Grill at 375 until fully-cooked.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
Chocolate lava cake
A decadent and inherently gluten-free dessert
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20
Ingredients
- 4 oz unsalted butter
- 6 oz roughly chopped bittersweet chocolate
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 375 degrees and grease 4 ramekins with butter or nonstick spray.
- Prepare a double boiler over medium-low heat. Combine the chocolate with the butter in a medium bowl and melt, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
- While the chocolate is melting, whisk eggs and sugar together until pale yellow and thickened.
- Fold chocolate, egg mixture and salt together until just combine. Divide batter among buttered ramekins and bake until the edges are set but the center is underdone, about 10 minutes.
Notes
- Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
Hope you love them as much as we did!
Don’t forget to enter the Week 2 giveaway here.
Happy humpday <3
xoxo
Gina
40 Comments
Leave a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I’ve never heard of pickled watermelon. But I love watermelon and feta salads so I’m sure this would be delicious!
I can never say no to chocolate lava cake!
never deny the lava cake 🙂 the best!
Everything looks delicious! I love Sur La Table. What a fun experience!
Everything looks so yummy:). I think I’m going to try the chicken and quinoa recipe this weekend. It’s finally starting to feel like summer on the east coast so this would be perfect! Thanks for sharing:)
What a fun time! Everything looks delicious!
Love the recipes! Now we need kale here in Switzerland!!
yes you do!! spinach would work, too
That salad with the chicken looks amazing!
it was sooooo good
This looks so good! Sur La Table is seriously awesome. I’ve never actually re-created the recipes from my classes at home though. I guess that is a total fail!
haha! what have you made for your cooking classes? we have a sur la table here, so i want to go in and get some more cookbooks/recipes
I’ve always wanted to go to a cooking class like you did at Sur la Table.
My hubby brought me home a Whole Foods delight on Monday to celebrate my “halfy birthday” and it was cedar plank salmon, and the nearly the exact kale and feta salad you had. Great one!
that sounds amazing!
Yum! This dinner looks so fancy. I would never have thought it would be so simple to throw together.
That sounds delicious! I love anything grilled!
The recipe sounds amazing but, more importantly, where did you get that incredibly cute workout top in the first photo? 🙂
moving comfort! http://www.movingcomfort.com/en_us/flex-hoodie/300457.html 🙂
I’ve always wanted to take a cooking class!
Oh wow, I think I may need to try to make that cake. Yum. Haha that’s the wine we had at my house yesterday!
I love cooking classes, I feel like they are a necessity to keep cooking in the kitchen fresh and exciting! I am excited to try the chicken skewers, right up my alley! Lots of Love C
I love chicken skewers! I buy some at Sprouts that are prepared with lemon and garlic. Throw them on the grill for a simple dinner. They are so delicious! I love cooking. I really should look into taking a class.
Oooh pickled watermelon! I’ve never heard of such a thing but I bet it’s delicious! I do want to try that citrus marinade with tofu or tempeh. And chocolate lava cakes? Yup, sign me up!
I love pickling anything and everything; brings so much flavor to a dish! And I love that the lava cake is gf – will totes be making that very soon!
Yum! I have been waiting for this salad recipe ever since you shared your recap! I’m making this entire meal on Sunday for me and my husband!
Yum! So intrigued by the watermelon pickles!
Ah, I love watermelon in a salad! Looks so summery and refreshing. Will definitely be making that soon! 🙂
The pictures of all that food has me salivating!
Looks great! My friend and I were thinking of signing up for the Fit Foodie 5K Race Weekend in San Diego in November, just wondering if you’ve done one of these before or will be attending this one 🙂
Chocolate lava cake! Oh la la, say no more!! P.S. You look all glowing and beautiful after your workout and I just end up looking a hot mess ( even after I cleaned up lol :-D)
These recipes sound so good! Glad you were able to share them.
Good choice of red wine! I love that one for a well-priced, good tasting, everyday pick!
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing, I can’t wait to try out that kale salad.
The pickled watermelon looks amazing! I love watermelon- so I will definitely be giving that recipe a try!
Gina, you look gorgeous in the photo! I wanted to comment and say that I loooove your most recent posts. I can’t wait to try the no-bake blueberry jam bars, and the energizing stretching is wonderful. Like you, I wish I could get in more yoga time during the week, but these stretches are a pretty god substitute! 😀
thank you so much!! 🙂 it makes me so happy to hear you enjoy them. hope you love the blueberry bars!
Hi! I tried to make the lava cake tonight and wondered, when you made yours, did you get any separation in the finished product? Mine tasted great but maybe the egg/sugar mixture sunk under the chocolate and formed a layer at the bottom and I wondered what I could do to prevent that. Thanks!!
i did too. i think it’s because i hand-mixed the eggs instead of using the mixer. did you use a mixer?
Hey Gina! I’m dying to try this recipe, looks so yummy and refreshing. Question for you though, the recipe calls for 2 cups of kale for 4 servings but 1/2 cup of olive oil and pickling liquid. Did you add more kale or reduce the dressing? It seems like there would be a lot of dressing for just 2 cups of greens. Thank you!
i did a little bit of both. i found that at the dinner, the salad was very vinegar-y, so i just drizzled the kale with pickling liquid and olive oil and massaged to coat
Awesome, thank you!