Awesome Salads #1
The basics
This will be the first post in a series of my favourite (and a few of my least favourite) healthy salads which usually act as sides or accompaniments to dinners, but in some cases, the salad becomes the meal too! It is usually carried out without an ounce of aggression.
I love salads! And I love trying out different combinations of greens, veggies, nuts and seeds and dressings far beyond when the cows would have come home if we did own cows (I keep subtly asking for my birthday and nobody seems to be getting the hints). I enjoy trying out recipes that I find in books or online, but I also love stocking my fridge and pantry with a variety of salad ingredients and then playing around using my family’s and my own palate as our playground.
Back in the day, when I lived with old roommate Paul, every Sunday was “Big Salad Night”. We even went as far as making a low-budget sign saying as much. I did suggest matching pant suits and he turned me down. We’d go to the grocery store and buy a million ingredients and throw them together. We’d make some garlic bread and then sit down and watch some TV and become stuffed full of salad (deluding ourselves that overeating when it was “just” salad was somehow okay).
Even though I have now had so many other salads that I like as much if not maybe a little more, this old standby holds a special place in my heart and I still recreate a salad in this vein from time to time (just on a much smaller scale). In my mind, it is the perfect mix of a variety of different flavours, textures and subtle aromas and, with the laundry list of ingredients, each bite is unique and exciting.
The Must-Haves
I always try to include as many fresh veggies as possible in all of my meals — with salads being an easy fit. There are some great additions that are more readily found in cans and jars and I am okay with that despite my mostly irrational fear of being canned or jarred myself.
Lettuce — An obvious place to start and, as this was back before all of the readily-affordable and available mixes of greens, we would usually select red or green leaf lettuce as our base. When I make this salad today, I always choose a mix of greens as they are more interesting to eat and hold up to being dressed much better. I aspire to be dressed so well myself. These days I only eat arugula. Seriously. My wife and kids are starting to worry.
Cucumber — We always selected the long English variety over the field cucumber even though we sacrificed some flavour, due to not having to peel it as we never could find our veggie peeler. These days I am fully aware of where the peeler is and yet I still buy long English cucumbers — I am as confused as you are.
Tomato — Now these days, I choose either super-sweet and tiny grape tomatoes or equally amazing Campari tomatoes, but back twenty years ago we always bought regular old large tomatoes that are much higher in water and, therefore, pack a lot less flavour. One lesson I’ve learned over the years, the bigger the vegetable usually the less flavour, but often the better companion when walking the streets at night.
Avocado — I am a huge fan. This absolutely delicious food is an absolute must in nearly all salads that I make and we never left it out of this one either. If finances were not an issue I would literally bathe in avocado pulp….it just got a little awkward here, didn’t it?
Feta Cheese — My favourite cheese! I just love feta and it is one ingredient that I always splurged and bought the better quality varieties of. It adds salt that helps pick everything up as well as just being super tasty in and of itself. Feta is the sole reason I can’t eat at any pizza place that distinguishes itself as only Roman. I honestly cannot figure out how to include more feta in my diet which is not only a healthy limitation but also a commentary on my inability to figure things out after consuming so much feta cheese.
Baby Corn — I’m not totally sure why, but I have always loved these slightly-limp, sort-of-crunchy, mostly-flavourless canned vegetable and I always will (especially in salads). I sometimes sit by the window with my opened can of baby corn and wonder what they would have been like if they could have reached full size.
Chickpeas — A welcome hit of protein helping grant the salad entree status; a new texture to invite to the ball; and gives those gathered a chance to continue the debate “is it a bean or is it a pea?”
Artichoke Hearts — Similar to baby corn, my fascination with artichoke hearts confuses me. I always loved when my parents prepared steamed artichokes with a butter/lemon/garlic dipping sauce and the heart was always the prized part of the entire vegetable (much as I imagine my heart would be to any wild animal who was eating/dipping the outside layers of my body wondering “why are we doing this? He doesn’t taste that good? Oh! the heart! Yummmm”). But, I have to be honest, as much as I love them, they are not that amazing. I am trying not to question myself too much as I’m told that it is a path I just don’t want to walk down (I think it is muddy).
Olives — I adore olives and they are such a great flavour in so many dishes with salad being one of the best as they stand out among all of the raw flavours. I sometimes like to think of myself as a human embodiment of an olive and other times I try to keep those feelings private.
Optional Guests
I include some of these each time — just not all of them at once! You don’t want to invite any of these guests too often because then they just randomly show up feeling like they own the place. Try getting an unwanted bell pepper to leave sometime!
Grated Carrot — Some crunch, a different shape, a bright colour, and healthy (something it is fully aware of), but I’m not always in the mood for carrot in my salad. Commence head-shaking now.
Bell Pepper — Now, when this salad was in its infancy, the only pepper that was readily available and affordable was the green variety. I liked them, but didn’t love them and felt that they were far better cooked in a stir fry or pasta then eaten raw. Begrudgingly, we’d occasionally allow one in the bowl. Fast forward to today and reds, yellows and oranges are not that expensive any longer. There are also baby bells that are really sweet as well as long, thin red peppers that are so tasty they make me want to cry (or is that when I cut myself?). These days when I make a salad in this vein, non-green peppers are almost always included.
Spinach — I usually wantonly throw in a generous handful of this super-green as the pre-washed bags at the store makes it so easy compared to before when it was quite the process getting all of the grit and dirt off the spinach. I draw the line at baby deer when it comes to washing grit and dirt off of things.
Baby Kale — Yes!!!!! Awesome!!!
Radish — These would be used rarely in the past and with much more frequency now. They bring some welcome crunch to what can often be soft upon soft upon soft, and no, I am not describing my wonderfully comfortable bed or how others see me when working out.
Tofu — A moment of truth: I used to eat a lot of tofu. While we are sharing truths: I often put my shoes on my hands and double over with laughter at the sheer lunacy of the situation — “nice try hands!” I often say to myself. I used to consume a lot of tofu and other soy-related products and I have reduced my intake of all soy foods recently. I know this will stun the meat-eaters out there, but I actually really like the texture and subtle flavour of soft tofu and used to sprinkle a little soy sauce or some kosher salt on cubes of tofu and eat that as a snack. Was that just the sound of hastily retreating footsteps? Anyways…I would usually put in cubes of marinated firm or extra-firm tofu in my salads partially for the added protein and partially as my way of giving back to society. Some would argue that that is not how you give back and I would argue that your shirt does match your pants regardless of what I inferred five minutes ago. This is an example of a salad ingredient from days gone by — my wife doesn’t love tofu (only in small amounts when found in miso soup) and all the health-related materials say to “lay off the soy already”.
Canned Tuna — Here is another example of a food that I used to consume by the can (that is how it is sold — not my fault!). And when I say “consume” that is because that is what I did with the tuna once I opened the can — not really sure why I have to share these sort of details with you; seems pretty obvious. I loved me some tuna. I ate so many tuna fish sandwiches I could write a book (albeit an extremely dry book unless I used enough olive oil and lemon juice with a dash of Worcestershire and Tabasco as I did when I used to make all of those sandwiches). I also added canned tuna to pastas, rice stir fries and salads. I ate so much of this fish that I am never surprised when all of the heavy metals set off alarms and briefly make people with metal detectors thrilled at the beach. Finally, after years of my mother begging and pleading for me to “Stop! Eating! So! Much! Mercury!” I gave in. Now, I love fish and have tried canned salmon in tuna’s place, but it is just too aromatic (read: smelly) and when I take a salad or sandwich with canned salmon to work, my entire office almost turns into some sort of hazardous zone. Why do the things we love smell so much sometimes….
Smoked Gouda — What a tasty cheese! Every once and awhile if I decide to take a break from feta, I break out a chunk of this wonderfully smoked cheese and cut in into a small cubes which satisfies another lingering desire of mine as well. There are some great smoked cheddars as well and I’ve briefly considered buying a smoking gun mostly to complete my new look for the spring.
Hard Boiled Egg — My wife and I love adding egg to our salads. It is something that we will always share. The eggs make the salad a meal, the yolks mixed with the avocado make such a wonderful creamy addition to the dressing and we just love eggs in our house. Among the four of us, we eat so many eggs that we should at least look into putting some chickens on a retainer.
Goat Cheese — Nice for a tangy change from feta as well. Particularly great with spinach salads with a mustardy vinaigrette. I still like feta better, but goat cheese you do occupy a small place in my heart (I should definitely get that checked out soon).
Nuts and Seeds — This is more of a recent thing — we have started adding in roasted almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds to our salads. Our favourite, by far, are roasted almonds and we toss those in most of the time (I have better aim, while my wife displaces considerably more finesse). I buy huge bags of bulk almond slivers and after carefully removing those that got stuck in my paws and then nursing those wounds and momentarily forgetting where I am and what I was doing, I resume roasting my almonds and mentally solving long division questions.
Dried Fruit — Also a new addition to the salad bowl at our house and one that I am not always in the mood for. The most common fruit we use are dried cranberries and they can be good especially with some bitter greens and radishes. We have also tried sliced dried apricots, cherries and raisins.
Fruit — We never put fresh fruit in our salads in the past (and yes, I am well-aware of what tomatoes really are) as it seemed borderline sacrilegious, and these days we still don’t include them very often for vastly different reasons that I am not permitted to get into right now. But, there are times when a nice crisp Ambrosia or Fuji or a tart Granny Smith makes an excellent addition. When I write about other salads I love in the future, I will mention fruits in some of those recipes, just not in this “Big Salad”.
Fennel — I adore ultra-thin slices of fennel in salads. Crunchy, a unique flavour and a some welcome smarts to the table. Fennel will be mentioned in a future Salad post as it is the star of one of my other favourite salads.
Dressing
Nothing groundbreaking here (we are talking about dressing after all)
- a good amount of a good Extra-Virgin olive oil (another ingredient I don’t believe in skimping on)
- a splash or two of lemon juice
- a splash or two of vinegar (usually balsamic or red wine)
- salt and pepper
- occasionally minced herbs (basil, parsley, dill)
- occasionally a dollop of mustard (Dijon or Grainy)
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And that is it! It makes a big salad! Easily enough for dinner for four plus some lunch. Leftover salad isn’t for everyone — I don’t mind it the next day — if it isn’t for you, don’t make the salad humongous even though it is fun to let yourself go there. There is just something about mixing a tremendously large salad in the biggest bowl I own…maybe it’s just me. And, more ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean you will create a tastier salad as I have found out on numerous occasions.
I hope you try it out and come back and check out some of my other favourite salads that I will post from time to time.
