Posted: July 21st, 2011
Salad day if I ever saw one.
It's a good night for a cold vinaigrette. On cold food. Any food. If you can put vinaigrette on it, it's a salad.
Normally, I hate salad recipes. Meaning the ones based on lettuce. I hate them not because I hate salad. I love salad. I just don’t like making it. I never know what goes with what and getting, prepping and assembling someone else’s salad idea always seems like a whole mess of hassle to put together food that’ll be served cold.
Other people, however, are more than welcome to make salad for me. I had a great one on July 4. Spinach, grilled chicken, walnuts, cranberries, feta cheese and a sweet and tangy dressing that pulled it all together. I filled my plate twice.
Of course, it all comes down to the dressing. Even after you’ve purchased and stored and chopped and tossed, without the right dressing, it’s just a bowl of plant chunks. I like vinaigrette the most. I like the taste of ranch, but it’s too overpowering on greens. I love blue cheese, but it takes a weighty toll on everything but iceberg. French is good and honey mustard will work, but in the end, the best salad dressing is an combination of:
Extra virgin oil and red wine vinegar
A touch of sugar and
Some green stuff, like oregano and thyme
All shook up with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Give it a try and let me know how it goes. I’ll be in the freezer taking a nap.
Posted in: Uncategorized
I’m like you–any salad made by someone else is superstar! Me make the exact same thing and I only pick at it and sigh. My dear Mother always said food tasted sooo much better when someone else cooked it and Inever understood that until later years..especially salads. Make John fix them or better yet ask him sweetly. Enyoy! Beth