Dates All Day! A Special Edition

With Two Recipes Perfect for Thanksgiving

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I had the absolute pleasure to collaborate with my good friends over the Mariani Family to develop recipes that incorporated dried dates and that would be great additions to your holiday menus. 

Dates are one of my favorite pantry ingredients, as you can see from a recent installment, which included a recipe for preserved lemon and date relish for chicken I posted a few weeks back. When the Mariani’s asked me to create some sides for Thanksgiving I was thrilled. And, if I’m thrilled about the recipes, I want to share them with you too. 

For someone who is decidedly not a sweets person, I too find it unusual that I’m besotted with these dried fruits, but it’s the truth. It's also fun to play with an ingredient that is often relegated to desserts and incorporate it in savory ways.

I developed four recipes total (yes, one of which could be considered a dessert, but it's a cocktail!), all of which you can see me demoing over on IG should you follow me there. You should! 

The recipes in full are live over on the Mariani Family website, should you like to check them out. 

In the meantime, I’m sharing a side dish of wild rice with dates and gremolata as well as an insanely good chicory salad (I cannot get enough). Both of which I hope you make at some point very soon. If you do, please let me know!

I’d also love to know what you’re planning to serve for Thanksgiving. Are you going traditional? Veering away from the classic turkey? Using the holiday weekend for some other sort of project cooking? I’m still deciding myself, but I will be making one of the dishes below for sure. Please feel free to drop your menu ideas in the comments so people can get inspired. 

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Radicchio Salad with Dates and Citrus Dressing  

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS 

For the dressing:

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

4 Tablespoons fresh orange juice, plus 1 teaspoon zest

1 Tablespoon honey

½ cup olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

For the salad:

1 head of radicchio, torn

3 cups assorted other chicories, torn 

1 small fennel, bulb thinly sliced 

¼ cup Mariani Chopped Dates or ¼ cup Mariani Pitted Dates, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs, toasted 

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Flaky salt for serving 

METHOD

Make your dressing: In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, orange juice and zest, and honey. Slowly whisk in your olive oil until the mixture emulsifies. Season with salt and pepper. 

Dress your salad: In a large bowl, toss together the radicchio, chicories, fennel and the dates. Drizzle with some of the dressing and half the breadcrumbs. Toss and adjust with more dressing, salt and pepper as needed and top with remaining breadcrumbs and some flaky salt.

Wild Rice Salad with Dates and Almond Gremolata

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS 

1 ½ cups dried wild rice

1 lemon, both juiced and zested

1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings

¼ cup almonds

1 medium garlic clove, grated

⅓ cup finely chopped parsley leaves

½ cup roughly chopped Mariani Pitted Dates or ½ cup Mariani Chopped Dates

2 Tablespoons olive oil 

Shaved Parmesan or pecorino for serving 

METHOD

Make rice according to package directions. 

Zest and juice your lemon and pour the juice over the shallot and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes while you assemble the gremolata.

In a medium skillet over medium-low heat, toast the almonds, stirring frequently so they don’t burn, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and when cool enough finely chop them. In a medium bowl, combine the almonds, parsley leaves, lemon zest, garlic and a pinch of salt. 

While the rice is still warm, transfer to a large bowl and add in the shallot and lemon juice and stir in the dates and drizzle with the olive olive and season well with salt and pepper. Allow to sit for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Right before serving, top with the gremolata and some shavings of Parmesan or pecorino

Date Recipes

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Have a good rest of your week. 

Paid subscribers, I’ll see you Sunday!

With love,

Colu xx