An Idiot’s Guide to Salad: Play with Your Food
Ever notice that if you call something an Idiot’s Guide, the idiot is the writer of the guide not the one who follows it? Think about it, Frommer's Guide, Michelin Guides, Strunk and White’s Guide, they are all named after the writers of the guides. So this Idiot’s Guide to salad, written by yours truly, is a starter for how to not take things seriously but keep it funny and simple.
This particular post I am writing for my cousin's husband who has an excellent sense of humour and who says that cooking is stressful because of the directions, which is fair enough, so I am making a guide that can be loosely followed rather than stressing the details. It's all about having fun with it.
Every savoury salad requires:
Body (usually vegetable but can be fruit). This is usually greens, but can be almost any type of vegetable. For example, I used grated carrots in Emergency Vegan Curry Salad.
Accents (vegetable or fruit): something sweet and something sharp. Sweet often in the form of tomatoes or sweet peppers but can even be fruit. For example strawberries or figs in a goat cheese spinach salad. Something sharp or herbaceous. Fresh basil or dill or arugula or radishes.
Texture: Usually something crunchy. Can be toasted nuts or corn chips or croutons. This isn’t true for every salad, but most salads involve a crunchy element.
Something creamy or fatty. Avocado, mayonnaise, cheese, nut butter or tahinni
Something acidic. Lemon juice, or any type of vinegar or even sometimes orange juice.
Quantities:
the body comprises most of the salad, then pick one or two accents including something sweet (fruit dried or fresh), something sharp or strong tasting (onions, herbs, arugula) something colourful if this isn't already satisfied by the other two. Crunchy bits are generally few, just a handful of roasted nuts, or croutons, corn chips, sesame seeds, dry roasted soya beans… any of these things. There should be about twice as much of the creamy or fatty item as the acidic one. As a matter of fact, salad dressing is usually two parts oil to one part vinegar. But you can also make a nice salad without a traditional dressing, as long as there is something fatty and something acidic. You do, however, usually want something that coats the greens.
“Salad dressing is usually two parts oil to one part vinegar, but a traditional salad dressing isn’t always necessary.”
As long as your salad has all five of body, sweet, sharp, texture, fatty or creamy and acidic and maybe a sprinkle of salt and pepper, it will be good. Fatty or creamy and acidic are usually the dressing.
Examples:
Body foods: lettuce, cabbage, spinach, grated carrots, zucchini spirals, cucumber, beans, chickpeas, mushrooms and so on…
Sweet accent: tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, currants, orange section, raisins, dried apricots, walnuts, almonds, etc
Sharp or herbaceous: arugula, fresh basil, fresh dill, fresh sage, or any herb, parsnips, radishes
Rich: fatty or creamy: goat cheese, yogurt, nut butters, avocado, old cheddar, cheddar, buttermilk, blue cheese, mayonnaise
Acidic: wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, orange slices, grapefruit slices, yoghurt,
And season with salt and pepper!
Body, sweet, sharp or strong, texture, fatty, acidic. If your salad checks all five boxes sweet, sharp, crunchy, fatty, acidic. It will be delicious. So get creative with it!
Body, sweet, sharp, texture, fatty, acidic. Not every salad that is delicious checks all these boxes, but every salad that checks all these boxes will be delicious.
“Body, sweet, sharp, texture, fatty, acidic. Not every salad that is delicious checks all these boxes, but every salad that checks all these boxes will be delicious.”
Say it with me: body, sweet, sharp, crunchy, fatty, acidic. Now get creative!!
