|
Inspired by Paul, who said that he can never sort out a nice salad, and they always come out boring. I know it's not everyone's thing, but I really do enjoy salad. I will rarely order one in a restaurant, because when I'm eating outside of the home, I want to eat stuff that I can't make at home easily. Salad doesn't fit that bill, because I am quite adept at it. So. Let me post a few pictures, and let's get this show on the road, shall we?     Here's how I tend to build a salad. - What kind of protein do I want? - What kind of crunchy do I want? - Do I want things tossed together, or do I want them neatly arranged? - Leaves or no leaves? - Herbs? - Gourds? - Do I want to use a fork and knife, or am I happy shovelling it into my face with a spoon? - Do I have any leftovers that I want to use up? - What kind of acid am I in the mood for? - What kind of fat does this need? PROTEIN Since I'm vegan, the protein is going to be beans of some sort. I'm sure those of you who aren't vegan can substitute something else for beans, but I love beans for a few reasons: - They're easy, especially if you have tinned beans. You open the thing up, rinse off the liquid from the surface, and throw it in. Life is good. - They're relatively cheap. If I find it on sale, I can get beans as low as 2/$1. If it's not on sale, and I can get to Aldi's, I can get them for about $0.80 a a can. If it's not on sale, and I'm stuck at the local grocery store, I'm paying around $1 per can, and I'm not thrilled, but it's still pretty cheap. Worst comes to it, I'll grab a can from 7-11 or something, and spend like $2. I'll grumble, but sometimes you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and are hungry and want salad. - They're filling. If I get enough beans into something, I can count on it keeping me full for a long time. - They're pretty healthy. Very rarely do they have much fat, they've got tons of fibre, and there's protein in there too. I'm all about it. - They're spoon ready. That is, if I want a salad with all the stuff chopped small, I don't have to prep the beans to get them small sized so I can get them onto my spoon, and shovel away. Even when I want a salad that I attack with fork and knife, kidney beans are great, because they're long and skinny, and can be speared with a fork. Hurrah for beans! However, I'm sure y'all can sort out this bit for yourselves. CRUNCHY For me, this generally means something like sunflower seeds, walnuts, or some other nut that's easy for me to get into my salad. If I'm going for something from a spoon, I'll cheerfully use crushed peanuts. If it's a fancy one that I'm using fork and knife on, I'll throw in some walnuts. Sunflower seeds are great in any situation. However, this doesn't mean that you limit yourself to this. Feel free to add croutons, toast, or whatever other crunchies you like. They're not mandatory, but I find them to be lots of fun to add. ARRANGED VS TOSSED I get it. You eat with your eyes first. A beautifully arranged salad is a pleasure to behold. All these bright colourful ingredients, neatly arranged in rows, or stacks. It's awesome. However, it's also a pain in the rear end to make, and eat. You're frequently left hacking at things with your dinner knife, and the plate looks ugly before long. There are times when neatly arranged is a must. Beets are one of these culprits. Carrots are another. Unless you want the whole thing stained with their colour, sometimes it's nice to keep these ingredients for those salads where you neatly arrange things. However, the salads I love most are the ones that are tossed together in a giant bowl, and everyone just serves themselves and goes at it. There's something about getting a tiny little bit of everything that went into the salad on one fork or spoonful that's viscerally rewarding. Again, this is all up to you. LEAVES OR NO LEAVES? I'm a no leaves man for the most part. When I was a kid, and my parents would force me into road trips (I hate road trips, except with mediaphage who makes them go really fast somehow), I'd pack myself a travel salad. It'd be like one of those kitchen sink type things. Throw in anything and everything you find delicious. Chickpeas, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, grated coconut, cilantro, lime juice, sunflower seeds, black beans, kidney beans, cubed tofu, corn, cabbage, boiled potatoes, celery, bell pepper, avocado ... The list would get ridiculous. However, it was great because it travelled well, and I could keep munching on that without either parent complaining about my eating junk food, and it kept me feeling satisfied and not hungry. I didn't like adding lettuce to the mix, because it would get too watery and wilty too fast in the Florida heat, and it was no fun to eat. However, the rest of the veg would hold up just fine, and I could chomp on that salad from Miami to Jacksonville quite happily. It became a bit of a family tradition to pitch in and help me make travel salad, so that the rest of the family could get in on this action. Because I wanted to convince my mum that the driver deserves to eat too, she'd agree to bring along a couple of bags of tortilla chips, so that the driver could just scoop up some salad, and keep on trucking. HERBS If there is tomato in the salad, you can bet your buttons that I'm adding either basil or cilantro somewhere. If there's a lot of earthy stuff going on, like chilled potatoes, or beets, I'm most likely going to throw some parsley in there somewhere. This goes double for if I'm using garlic in the dressing. I tend to steer clear of the hearty herbs, like thyme or rosemary, because they don't do so hot raw. Aside from that, experiment with mint, or oregano, or tarragon. Chives are always welcome. A bit of scallion never hurt anything. These are so nice to have in a salad, because there's a bit of freshness that comes through. GOURDS Almost every salad I make has some kind of gourd, whether it's cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, or even cooked butternut squash. It all depends on what I'm in the mood for. Gourds give you a sort of heft to any salad, which is always welcome. Diaphanous leaves of lettuce, gently tossed in oil and vinegar is all well and good, but it feels like you've eaten air. Gourds are so a great way to add bulk to a salad. SAVOR OR SHOVEL If I have the patience for it, I'll make a composed salad. Everything is tossed in dressing, and neatly arranged. Things are cut in large pieces, so that the diner can cut off pieces of what they're eating at the moment, and take small, dainty bites. I'm not a patient man. Generally, my salads are combinations of vegetables, chopped small, so that they can be enjoyed with a spoon, and eaten mindlessly. You get a little bit of everything in each mouthful, and the contrasting textures is such a joy to eat. LEFTOVERS This does not refer to that pot of soup I made for dinner. This is more so prepped ingredients that I had intended for something else, but didn't use up completely. If I buy a few ears of corn, I'll cook them up all at once, and eat what I want to on the day of. The rest go in the fridge. If I'm making a potato dish, I'll boil up a few extra spuds, and have them on hand for other meals. When I treat myself to nice mushrooms, I roast them all up at the same time. I can't eat all of it at once, so into the fridge it goes. There are times when I'll build a salad around a specific thing that's leftover. This especially happens when it's something special, like mushrooms, or tofu, or roasted squash. In these cases, the ingredients are either expensive (mushrooms, tofu), or take a long time to prepare (squash) so I don't get to have it all the time. I want to stretch out that ingredient, while still showcasing how special it is. In those cases, I'll tend towards a composed salad. In the other cases, where it's something cheap like potatoes or corn, I'll just chop up everything small, and throw some of it in there to use up those leftovers. Just because it's a salad doesn't mean it has to be raw! ACID Generally, I'm in the mood for citrus. I'm a Florida boy, so there's no big shocker here. However, sometimes limes and lemons are too expensive, and I have to revert to cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar. For my sake, I tend towards vinegar when I have a bunch of cooked food in the salad, and citrus when I have a lot of raw food in there. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's one that's served me well. FAT This isn't always just oil. Sometimes I will throw in some leftover hummus into my dressing to make it super creamy. Sometimes I'll throw in some avocado when I can find it cheap. Generally though, it'll be some nice olive oil with grassy or peppery notes in it. I haven't even begun to nick the surface of salad, so I hope this gives you all some inspiration to use up your garden produce to make salad!
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2017 01:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 15:22 |
|
|
I'm glad you made this thread because salad often doesn't get the respect it deserves. The place i work at happens to have some beautiful salads. here are a few of my favorites Squash crudo. Very thinly sliced squash, lacinato kale, roasted pecans, romesco, pickled pearl onions and pecorino. I normally don't like kale very much or raw squash but this is a great salad.  Carrot & harissa salad. Heirloom carrots, nice fluffy ricotta and harissa.  Everyone's favorite, the heirloom tomato salad. Featuring cherry tomatoes from our garden alongside bigger locally sourced heirlooms, shaved cucumbers, white gazpacho, feta cheese and tomato vinaigrette.  I love these salads because there is very little filler and all of the ingredients are cut into small pieces so that you can get a taste of everything in one bite. As far as arranged vs. tossed, I feel like that's a frivolous complaint. I don't mind tossing the salad myself for the sake of presentation. I am also in the no (or minimal) leaves camp. As exemplified in the above salads all of your ingredients need to contribute something to the dish. Also too much herbage gives the illusion of volume and leaves you hungry later. I'm all about substantial salads. As far as acids and fats, I prefer a sharper dressing. I developed a love for vinegar through hot sauce and I really appreciate the tartness of it to balance out the oil. I usually prefer thin crisp dressings that don't weigh the salad down. Also does anyone use a vinegary hot sauce as the vinegar in a dressing? that's something i thought about doing for my upcoming family meal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2017 08:32
|
|
|
I love salad. I have it most nights for or with dinner, and I make a large garbanzo bean salad every Sunday to take to work for lunch during the week. The version I make just happens to be vegan (and ultra-healthy), but you can always modify however you'd like. Garbanzo beans Cucumber Celery Radish Corn Red onion Serrano pepper Carrot Cilantro I season simply with salt and use plain red wine vinegar as a dressing, since I loving love vinegar and don't feel the need for anything else. Lunch salad aside, I myself am a leaf man. My favorite would be a spring mix, but I also love using fresh spinach since it's great as a salad green (just don't let it sit too long after you've dressed it or it'll get wilty quickly), and you can cook whatever spinach you have left over. Also, if you love hot sauce and you love vinegar, try using Trader Joe's Green Dragon hot sauce as a salad dressing. It's not too hot, and I've found it works exceedingly well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2017 13:29
|
|
|
this is a great thread. hotstepper, I esp. like your pics/dishes. I kinda "discovered" salad (aka, not just some leaves with tomato and stuff) at some point many years ago, and remember it being a pretty distinct snap in my understanding of what a salad could be. I particularly like mixing in a small amount of grain into salads - I have a tub of farro in my fridge that I boiled up, dehydrated, and deep fried for starchy crunch. Has been going on avacado and tomato recently, kinda a go-to. I also have a bit of jicama that I've put in a mild salty-sweet vinegar pickle - and some vietnamese style daikon/carrot mix doing the same. having stuff like that on hand makes it really easy to pull together a quick interesting weeknight side (or main) salad.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2017 07:42
|
|
|
One salad that always lingers in the back of my mind (and that I do not make often enough) is from Ottolenghi, it is easy to make, with ingredients that I like but do not eat often and is surprisingly tasty! Baby spinach with pita, dates, almonds and sumac:  http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/baby-spinach-salad-with-dates-almonds-shop
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2017 08:42
|
|
|
Salad. Not a side dish for me. This is possibly my favourite salad by one of my favourite chefs, Fergus Henderson. I make it when I can find crème fraîche (only really good sour cream has ever subbed well enough), the beets are good and the chervil in my garden is bountiful. A mix of tarragon and parsley almost replaces the chervil. If tempted or cannot restrain yourself from adding a protein, salmon or trout work beautifully. Cold rare beef with some horseradish would probably be quite wonderful.  Beetroot, Red Onion, Red Cabbage, Crème Fraîche and Chervil. To serve six. Too often you are offered a fait accompli on a plate, a weave of ingredients in which your only involvement will be to make a mess of it with the inevitable intervention of your knife and fork. Well, here is a salad that welcomes the messing-up process. 2 raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated 1/4 raw red cabbage with its core cut out, very finely sliced 1 very small red onion, peeled, cut in half from top to bottom and finely sliced 6 healthy dollops of crème fraîche 2 healthy bunches of chervil, picked Dressing Healthy splashes of extra virgin olive oil A little gesture of balsamic vinegar A small handful of extra-fine capers Sea salt and black pepper Mix everything together for the dressing. Toss all your raw red vegetables in the dressing, taste and adjust seasoning, then on six plates place a bushel of this red mixture. Next to this, nustle your blob of crème fraîche as if the two ingredients were good friends, not on top of each other as if they were lovers. Finally a clump of the chervil rested next to the other ingredients in the friendly fashion. A very striking salad ready for the eater to mess up. (Picture and recipe taken from Beyond Nose To Tail by Fergus Henderson)
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2017 17:40
|
|
|
This is a good thread. I could salad every day. Grilled baby romaine, chickpeas with tahini, mushrooms, cooked beets, eggs.  Kale, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, Syrian farmers cheese, eggs, pine nuts, sultanas. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2017 21:56
|
|
|
paraquat posted:One salad that always lingers in the back of my mind (and that I do not make often enough) is from Ottolenghi, Thanks, going to give this a go tomorrow night!
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2017 09:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 15:22 |
|
|
You all have inspiring salad ideas. I gotta try me those two recent recipes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2017 14:47
|
|