Weekday Vegetarian: 5 Vegetarian Dishes and Vegetable Salad with Sausage

Here are 5 weekday vegetarian meal suggestions for the upcoming week:

1. Grilled Oregano tofu with Tomato Salsa

2. Lentil Patties with Creamy Lime Dressing

3. Eggplant Artichoke, Red Pepper and Black Olive Pizza

4. Israeli Couscous with Asparagus, Peas and Sugar Snap Peas

5. Sun-dried Tomato Spread

I wrote today in TreeHugger about a potato salad made with cilantro. We had a friend over for dinner and I hadn't realized that she really disliked cilantro. Cilantro is one of those controversial ingredients and I should know better after years of entertaining, that you err on the side of caution. If I'm making a big buffet, I don't care because people have enough to choose from but a small dinner with a few items is a different thing.

This dinner was during one of the hottest days of the heat wave, so I wanted to make a cold dish. I had some sausage, and lots of vegetables so I decided to make a salad out of it. I didn't add pasta to the salad because I was serving the potato salad. Then the potato salad was a no go with my guest. Ah well, at least the grilled watermelon was a hit.

This is a very flexible kind of dish. Add pasta or not, but use up different vegetables you might have on hand. You can use my list as a guide. One of the things I like about this is you can add less meat to meal without feeling you are missing anything. I grilled the sausages, but you can cook them in a skillet if you like.

Vegetable Salad with Sausage

2-3 good quality sausages

1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

12 green beans, cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 English cucumber, cut into hunks

1/2 red pepper, diced

1 garlic scape, cut finely

10 pitted olives, sliced in half

1 tbsp capers

1 sprig fresh basil, chopped finely

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Grill sausages over medium high heat or cook in a skillet over medium high heat until cooked through. Slice into bite sized pieces. Set aside.

2. In a large pot of boiling water cook cauliflower until just tender, about 5 or 6 minutes. Remove cauliflower to a drainer with a slotted spoon and rinse with cold water. Add green beans to the boiling water and cook until just tender, about 5 or 6 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

3. In a large bowl mix together the sausage and all of the vegetables and the basil.

4. Whisk together the oil, vinegar and mustard and pour over the salad. Add salt and pepper to taste.