Lemon Poppyseed Soda Bread (& a salad)

So a while back I was at a bulk natural foods store, the kind where they just have the products in nondescript 1/2 pound and 1 pound clear plastic bags.  In the odds & ends section, where you never really know what they are gonna have bagged up, I found a whole big bag of chia seeds (one of my favorites!) for super cheap!  I couldn't believe my luck!  I hurried up and purchased them before the store could decide they had been priced so low by mistake-- those litter buggers are pricey!

 Then I got home I realized I'd just bought a pound of poppyseeds.

(sigh)

In the spirit of my Irishness and because today was a snow and I'm just looking for anything to celebrate at this point in the dreariness of winter, I decided to put a twist on good old Irish Soda Bread.  Secretly, this was all inspired by the lonely 3/4 cup of buttermilk I had in my fridge, just begging to be used.  I made pancakes for Sunday breakfast, and I hate to see good buttermilk (or anything, for that matter --poppyseeds included-- go to waste).

I based my clear-the-cupboards creation (very) loosely on Ina Garten's Soda Bread recipe--

Ingredients
 
~2 cups white whole wheat flour  (in retrospect, it would have tasted better if I used 1/2 regular white pastry dough.  Unfortunately, white flour is just not my style outside of my own birthday cake.)
~1/2 teaspoon baking soda  --> I've always thought something called "Soda Bread" really ought to have more baking soda than that!
~3/4 teaspoons kosher salt

 ~2 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced into tiny pieces

~3/4 cups cold buttermilk, well-shaken
~1 egg white, lightly beaten
~Juice & grated orange zest from 2 lemons
~3 tablespoons honey

 
Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil & rub down the center with coconut oil.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in the bowl and whisk together. Add the butter and mix with a fork, pastry cutter, and/or your fingers until the butter is mixed into the flour in little split pea-sized pieces.

With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup.  Slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture with a spatula. 

 My consistency was normal enough that I skipped the whole usual "roll out on floured board" situation.  I just plopped it right onto the prepared sheet.  You can gently make score marks on the top if you're feeling fancy.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. According to Ina, when you tap the loaf, it should have a hollow sound.  But I go for golden brownness myself to determine when to pull the plug.

Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature-- mine was good in a bowl drizzled with kefir and honey.
~~~~

Continuing with my impossible task of using a pound of poppy seeds before I die, I also made this nice little salad...

INGREDIENTS

-2 Granny Smith apples, cut into long, thin slices
-2 heads of radicchio,  roughly chopped
-2 T crumbled fat free feta cheese

-1 lemon, zested & juiced
-1 leftover jar of marinated artichoke hearts (all the hearts were gone, I was just using the jar for mixing and the residual marinade as a dressing base.  You can also just use from water, oil, and vinegar + mild spices of your choice)
-Splash of extra apple cider vinegar
-1-2 T Splenda making mix
-1-2 T poppy seeds
-Salt & pepper


DIRECTIONS 

The main ingredients--green apples, radicchio, lemon-- are all bitter.  So I made a nice sweet dressing to go over the top and temper it.  Shake together all the dressing ingredients in a jar, to taste.  It should be sweet.  Drizzle just enough on the salad and gently mix together.

I brought mine to work for lunch in a tupperware lined with parchment.  Even though it was pre-dressed, it held up very well.  Not wilty at all.  Yum!