One of the things that I love most about summer is that I suddenly feel like eating salad all the time. In the winter, I tend to look upon lettuce with disdain. But once the heat hits, it's all I want. This solves all kinds of problems, I can tell you. First of all, it's much easier to maintain your girlish figure if you are nibbling on leaves all the time. Second, it provides a definitive answer to the ongoing lunch dilemma. (What to eat? Argh.) And third, it gives you a creative project. And lord knows I love a creative project.
So here's what I do. On the weekends, I buy a ton of veggies. I don't worry about what I will do with them, only whether I actually feel like eating them or not. Asparagus, green beans, avocado, oh my! Then I buy greens: spring mix, baby kale, arugula, you name it. I tend to buy bags or boxes of pre-washed, since I'm lazy in the summer months, but if you have a salad spinner and some elbow grease to spare, buy full heads of lettuce and have at it. When dry, tear into bite-sized pieces, throw in a big bowl and cover with a clean dish towel.
Next, I buy some good quality protein: farm-fresh eggs, top notch parmesan, thinly sliced pancetta. Anything that I know I'll look forward to seeing on my plate. And some fresh herbs never hurt: flat-leaf Italian parsley and green onions are my top picks. Nuts and seeds and sprouts are always fun too.
On Sunday, I do some simple prep work. I might chop some red peppers or roast some potatoes. And then, every day, I add a new element into the mix. I boil an ear of corn or bake chicken or slow-roast cherry tomatoes.
The key to all of this, of course, is having salad dressing on hand. If you don't, chances are good that you won't get around to making a salad. But if you do, it's all as simple as throwing some greens in a bowl, adding fun toppings (well, hello there chick peas!) and drizzling the whole mess with dressing.
This here is my standby. It's a strong mustard dressing, but I've found that if I add extra olive oil, it's milder and can be paired with all kinds of fun flavours. For inspiration, I often consult Bittman's New York Times list of 101 Summer Salads.
Everyday vinaigrette
Adapted from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life
2 heaping tablespoons good quality mustard
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
3-4 tablespoons olive oil, to taste
pinch of salt
1. Whisk together mustard and vinegar.
2. Add oil and whisk well to emulsify.
3. Keeps for up to a week in the fridge.
Sometimes things are just so right. Like when you put on a new album, and within seconds of when the beat drops you know that it's going to be everything you'd hoped for. You know that you will forget that you are listening to music at all, in fact, and instead just experience the vastness of life. You know? Or when you pick up a new book and just a few pages in, you have to stop and sigh in contentment because you have absolute confidence that you're in good hands. You know that the story is going to draw you in and allow you to lose yourself in the wonder of it all.
I love that feeling. I love it when people make beautiful things and then send them out into the world to give others joy.
That's exactly what I thought about when I took the first bite of this dish. A friend had recommended Alice Hart's gorgeous cookbook Vegetarian and this was the first recipe I tried. Insanely delicious, my friends. The flavour was so good it was almost shocking, each element in perfect harmony with the others.
People are eating a lot less meat these days, so I am always looking for inventive vegetarian recipes to feed friends. If you have any plant-eating pals hanging around, feeling slightly forlorn about the steady diet of veggie burgers and tomato pastas they get served in restaurants, feel free to knock their socks off with this.
Warm couscous salad with preserved lemon & charmoula
Slightly adapted from Vegetarian by Alice Hart
Serves 4
4 young parsnips
3 red peppers, deseeded and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 preserved lemons, quartered
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 batch of charmoula (recipe to follow)
juice of 1 lemon
one small bunch of cilantro, leaves only
3/4 cup of Greek yogurt
salt and pepper, to taste
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Slice the parsnips lengthwise into halves or quarters depending on their size. Place in a roasting pan with the red peppers and coat with the olive oil and honey. Season with salt and pepper and roast for about 35 minutes, until caramelized.
3. Slice the flesh from the preserved lemons and discard. Cut peel into strips.
4. Cook Israeli couscous according to instructions on package.
5. Combine the roasted parsnips and peppers with the cooked couscous and add 1 tablespoon of the charmoula, along with the preserved lemon peel, lemon juice and most of the cilantro.
6. Ripple the remaining charmoula through the yogurt and serve spooned onto the salad. Garnish with the rest of the cilantro.
Charmoula
1 small bunch cilantro
1 small bunch parsley
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon paprika
pepper, to taste
1. Finely chop cilantro and parley.
2. Combine with the rest of ingredients. If it seems too thick, add extra olive oil. Season with pepper, to taste.
3. Keeps, covered in the fridge, for up to 2 weeks.
This is my confession: I have lunch issues. For real. I never know what to eat. Breakfast is simple and dinner is fun – but what exactly should one eat for the midday meal? I don't like eating out, and especially not on the run, so I always try to pack something. But at best, these brown bag provisions are uninspired. At worst, totally unappetizing. A few pieces of fruit, a halfhearted sandwich. Yawn. The utter boredom leads to not eating. And then, later on, scarfing down fistfuls of whatever candy is on offer at the office.
So you can imagine my delight when I found a truly stupendous lentil salad dressing recipe over at one of my fave blogs.
At first, the dressing seemed overly complicated (9 spices, really?) but it turned out to be easy peasy to whip up. When I tasted it, I had a bit of a Eureka moment. The dressing is intensely flavourful, with just the right amount of heat. And so this lentil salad has swiftly become a standby. What I like most is how much you can vary the recipe. Sometimes I scatter the seasoned lentils over mesclun, other times aruglula. I add some roasted red peppers, goat cheese or parsley. Sometimes I just eat the lentils plain, with a side of cut veggies. The options are endless. All that's required is a jar of this delicious dressing in the fridge and some lentils on hand, and viola!, goodbye lunchtime doldrums.
Lovely lentil salad
Adapted from My New Roots
1 cup of green lentils (or, better yet, fancy French Du Puy lentils)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. Rinse lentils. Fill a pot with water, bring to a boil. Boil lentils for approximately 20 minutes or until al dante. Drain.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk.
3. Toss the lentils with the dressing, to taste. (Store leftover dressing in fridge; will last a few days).
4. Serve the lentils over greens of your choosing. Add whatever else you like. Smile as people in your lunchroom admire your gourmet handiwork.
