I realized this week how abrupt my transition from “winter food” to “summer food” has been. It’s not that we haven’t eaten any fresh vegetables during the winter months, but that much of it has been mostly savory, sauteed and/or cooked. Even the fresh stuff doesn’t seem memorable.
This past week we received 10 ounces of salad greens. “Ten ounces!” You say. “That’s hardly a pound.” Well, let me tell you, 10 ounces is like 3 big salads each for two. So, we went from sauteed kale and raabs to eating salad three times in one week. From warm and soft to pungent and textured. I actually have to do some chewing!
I’m not sure I was mentally (or digestively :P) prepared for that!
But, I really feel blessed we can eat this way, so the short end to this story is that this was the Week of Salad.
What is a salad–well, I have to figure a very loose definition of some sort of lettuce with pretty much anything else on top of it with some sort of sauce/dressing. One night, we had our salads with purple onions, salad turnips (which we had no idea what they were, so we just sliced them up and put them in the salad b/c they had the word “salad” in their name) olives, homemade croutons, hard boiled eggs, and leftover barbecued chicken we made over the weekend (of which the now (thankfully) forgettable weird kale-mushroom-liver saute thing was birthed). The other night we had the same sort of setup but instead of chicken, we dumped in a can of tuna. Both were simply dressed with freshly ground pepper and good olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Oh yes, and I had salad for lunch one day with just onion and greens and some super old Annie’s dressing I found in the fridge. I’m surprised I didn’t make myself sick as the dressing was questionable (so was the slightly moldy raspberry cake I decided to eat, but that is another story).
Last night we had more salad but by this time we had run out of balsamic vinegar so we found some sherry vinegar and used that and had just salad with onions and croutons.
Now, in addition to the balsamic vinegar, we are tapped out of croutons and onions. Time to stock up as I believe we are now in the Salad Season. Bring it on—I don’t mind!
Two recipes that will help enhance your salads:
The Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg
I read this somewhere and now I don’t even use a timer, I just estimate. It works out every time!
Put eggs in a pot and cover with cold water.
Put the pot over high heat until it starts to boil. Let boil for 3 minutes.
Turn off heat. Let eggs sit in pot for at least 13 minutes.
Pour off water, peel eggs.
“Asian” Salad Dressing (for lack of a better title)
My mom makes dressing this way b/c in my experience Koreans don’t really eat salad like the way it is made in the U.S. or use dressing like French or Ranch or whatever.
Soy Sauce
Canola Oil or any neutral oil
Sesame Oil
Rice Wine Vinegar
Chili Powder (The asian kind, not cayenne or mexican/latin. If you don’t have asian chili powder, cayenne will do, but just be careful–asian chiles are a little milder.)
Green Onions
Combine the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and canola oil in the same proportion you would if you were making a balsamic vinaigrette. Add a little sesame oil so that the sesame flavor is present (it is really strong, so don’t use a lot). Add a little chili powder to taste. Slice the green onions in rounds and add to dressing and dress salad.
