The Way to Love a Salad
Can you feel the seasons shifting, just ever so slightly? Down and corduroy feel just a tad too warm, there’s a dampness in the air, and if you carefully eye a slender gray tree branch you may see the tiniest little buds. Yesterday on a walk, Sebastian and I saw the season’s first crocuses shooting out from the ground in front of a stately brownstone, in the company of daffodil lookalikes. And perhaps the strongest indicator of a change in seasons: I am starting to crave salads again.
If you are someone who has come to see salads as diet food, I am sorry. Whoever did that to you deserves to be punished. Salads are so much more than rabbit food. The perfect simple accompaniment to a pizza or a nice chop, salads can also be wonderfully luxurious and rich when they get to stand center stage. A tangle of frisee and hot nuggets of bacon with an oozing yellow yoke can send you straight to France. Or with fried chicken, green onions, and mild cheddar cheese can take you to Texas. My mom goes crazy for those Thai beef salads so spicy they burn your tongue into oblivion. And even when they’re not transporting, they fill you in the freshest way. Just like spring, yes?
But I have a feeling you don’t need me to tell you this. I have a feeling I’m telling you something you already know, that you love salads just as much as I do. Maybe, like me, you even keep an empty jam jar filled with your homemade vinaigrette in the door of your fridge and drizzle it on your big salads made in Pyrex bowls. Maybe you too feel a spinach salad with feta, apples, and sunflower seeds coming on.
Red Wine Vinaigrette
makes 1 cup
Here’s a salad secret: toss until all the leaves look thoroughly coated, then toss a few more times and something great happens.
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 scant teaspoon dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
Pour ingredients in an empty, clean jar. Shake like crazy. Keep on hand, refrigerated, for all your salad needs.
Kristi: I am in the same boat, fresh crisp salads with a homemade viniagrette are perfect this time of the year.1 year ago
amen to that, kristi.1 year ago
Lisa (dinner party): Ooh, salads. Can spring come right now, please?? I can’t even look at my sad, pilly sweaters anymore.
Red wine vinegar is my fave for salad dressings too. It works especially well with mustard, I think. Nice to toss a shallot in there too if you have one hanging around. Yum.1 year ago
Sara Rose: I’m such a silly purist. I love making salad dressings/vinaigrettes but I always come back to minced garlic and shallots, olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. Like, as in, every day. Sometimes I’ll be adventurous and put mustard in too.1 year ago
Christine S.: Have to agree with Lisa and Sara Rose…the addition of shallots to any basic vinaigrette is perfection! And, to me, salads mean sunny skies, sundresses, flip-flops, ponytails, painted toenails, and playfulness are all just around the corner!:)
Oh, yeah, need to add that orange juice vinaigrettes are sublime, too!1 year ago
Good point — shallots do add a nice touch. I just never seem to have them on hand. But the next time I do, they’re going in.1 year ago
Kristina: Shallots are never the thing I have kicking around, either. But I love salads– I crave them all year, no matter the season. A big romaine salad with dijon dressing is on the menu at our house, tonight. Yum!1 year ago
Adrienne: WHERE have I been? Vintage pyrex on etsy? You’ve just opened up a whole new world for me.1 year ago
Julia: Red wine vinaigrette seems to be the only vinaigrette I’ve mastered. I like to grate parmesan into it too. Unfortunately I’m not the biggest fan of salads. I like them when they’re freshly prepared but if I try to bring a salad to work for lunch, forget it.1 year ago
Melissa: Arugula, tomato, pine nuts, shaved parmesan, and lemon = happy girl.1 year ago
Sarah: Julia, Have you tried packing the vinaigrette separately? That can make all the difference between a fresh, crunchy salad and a sad, soggy one.1 year ago