Emerald Salad
Photo by Lorelle Del Matto
I’m addicted to salad and I’m in good company – so is the much lauded author of the encyclopedic tome The Food Lab, Better Home Cooking Through Science, J. Kenji Lópes-Alt. (The book recently won a James Beard Award.) Here’s how he launches the salad chapter “I have something to admit: I’m ADDICTED to SALAD.”
Spring is the perfect time to eat greens. Salads – are a springboard for creative combinations of all good things that come from food – bitter, sweet, tangy and salty flavors and an array of colors and textures. Salad sustains when you add a protein – meat, seafood or in this case a shower of nuts and cheese.
Losing greens to a blender – hiding them in a smoothie – just doesn’t give the same sensory satisfaction. It is no wonder “breakfast salad” recipes are showing up. Start your morning on a healthy note and you’ll likely keep the momentum going for the rest of the day.
Photo by Lorelle Del Matto
This recipe for Emerald Salad has what I look for in a top-notch salad, assertive greens, kale and chard, and other fresh textures and flavors found in snap peas, radishes and shallot.
Photo by Lorelle Del Matto
The sharp-tasting vegetables are balanced by sweet fig strips that soak up the lemon- olive oil dressing, crunchy nuts and creamy cheese.
Photo by Lorelle Del Matto
Lópes-Alt verifies that the technique of “massaging” the kale is a necessary step, resulting in leaves that are more tender and crisp than simply tossing the greens with dressing. Greens have a waxy cuticle that protects them from rain; oil penetrates that cuticle during the “massage” and softens the leaves.
Consider the time you take to massage your salad an opportunity to relax, breathe deeply and shake off the effect of any thorny event that may have pierced your day.
I developed this recipe for the Valley Fig Growers Fig Focus Newsletter and you can link to it here: Emerald Salad
Celebrate the greens of spring.
© 2016 Lorelle Del Matto
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