In taking a look back, I haven't given salads much love on this blog so far. Yeah, I mention turning the beef into a salad back in the kabob entry, but I feel like I didn't quite do salads justice. To be honest, salads often get written off. They're what you make or order when "you're on a diet", "not too hungry", "need to cut things back", and so on. This line of thought makes it sound like salads are some kind of penance or self-deprivation, and that, had we our druthers, we'd all be chomping on steaks and potatoes for every meal. Well, I'm saying it now- this is bull. A good salad is a thing of beauty! In fact, for all you beginner cooks out there... Scratch that, for ALL cooks, salads are probably one of the best exercises in flavor creation and pairing out there- You have direct control over how much of each ingredient, and ergo its flavor and texture, goes into each plate of salad. You have the fewest variables- no heat to burn or mush your ingredients, no complex knifework, and can easily change the one thing that can elevate or undo your dish- Dressing. As an added bonus, salads are a dish that tastes equally awesome vegetarian or carnivore, and can help give you a better understanding of using quality ingredients- there's no way to hide inferior materials in a salad. What you put in is directly what you get out.
Also, this is when a lot of my favorite greens come around in the year.
So, first as a refresher, let's take another look at the spectrum of flavors, and how we can include all this to make a tasty salad-
Sweet. Salty, Sour, Bitter, Umami.
So let's start with our greens. A lot of the time, greens fulfill a little sweet and mostly texture contrast. Some nice crunch mixed with a fresh, if sometimes neutral, taste. For this salad, I want my greens livelier than that and really contributing to our selection of flavors. Our choice? Baby Arugula. This little green has a nice bitterness and peppery taste to it that helps to... set the stage for our flavors, if you will. their flavor makes a nice backdrop to help all the brighter sharper flavors really stand out. That said, we don't want the bitterness to overwhelm the palate, so our second ingredient needs to provide a more earthy flavored base. Beans of some sort will do nicely for this task. Even better, they contribute a nice bit of umami to the mix. Now that we have a good strong base, let's begin to build up. Sweet can be found lots of places- tomatoes, carrots, fresh red pepper... What about roasted red pepper? It has the nice sweetness we want, with the added benefit of a touch of smokiness to help tie the umami and sweet together. Now our salty and sour will come from our dressing primarily, so no need to put too much of those in here, or they may overwhelm the palate when paired with the dressing. Now that we have all our flavor bases covered, we need one more thing. Our dish doesn't really have much texture. the arugula has a little crispness to it, but our beans and peppers are both soft. We need some crunch. It's a job for cucumber! Cucumber allows for a nice bit of crunchiness without modifying the flavor of your salad too much, and in this case adds to our flavor with it's nice bit of freshness. So after slicing and tossing all our ingredients together, let's make a vinaigrette.
I know I've covered vinaigrettes before, but for convenience's sake-
Now a lot of people love the balsamic vinaigrette, and it's a great thing, but I'm a big fan of sherry vinegar- not quite as sweet, but tons of character and complexity, and goes on just about anything. We'll add a little coriander, a little salt, pepper, dijon mustard, and some diced shallot. Lastly, our oil- When making a vinaigrette you want to aim for a 3:1 oil to acid ratio. In the end, though, just eyeball and taste your way to a good result. Whisk your mixture while lowly adding the oil (or put all but the oil in your blender, switch it to low, and then slowly add the oil as the blender runs) until well emulsified.
Now, while this salad is perfectly ready to go as a course for dinner, we want some animal protein if we're having it solo. With our selection of salad components, chicken would be the best choice, both for price and flavor. Add any chicken you have handy, in almost any way (except fried. Fried chicken is really more of a standalone thing). Enjoy!
Variations for salad ingredients- So let's say everything for our salad isn't available to you. A couple alternatives we can choose are-
Red peppers- cherry tomatoes
cucumber- celery
Cannelini beans- northern or navy beans
meat- lamb or beef
Arugula- Dandelion Greens, mescalin
side note: prepping a cucumber- One thing that's always bugged me is just how popular the english cucumber is. I mean, don't get me wrong, its a tasty veggie, but so many people buy it strictly for convenience, paying over twice the cost for it when there are perfectly good american or kirby cucumbers sitting right next to them, often organic and STILL cheaper than the english cukes. A lot of people say that, aside from the hassle of peeling a cucumber (which I counter by saying how it's not much easier to get that darn shrink wrap off the english cucumber), there's too much seed goop in the american cucumber, making it a squishy veggie to eat, and can water down the vinaigrette and the rest of the salad. Well, here's how you take care of that- After peeling your cucumber, slice it in half lengthways. Take a spoon, and scoop down the line of seed goop, discard. This may take two passes to completely remove the seeds, but there you go!
Until next time... I'm not making a tossed salad joke. come on, now.
