we have never really been “salad people” in my family. when i order a salad in a restaurant i usually eat all the yummy stuff off (the bacon, hard boiled egg, cheese, croutons, candied walnuts, etc and then leave the boring lettuce. the other weekend i was in iowa and i had dinner [TWICE] at the cracker barrel. i had a perfect salad there - it was covered in fried chicken, deviled eggs, cheese and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. of course, when i got through those things i stopped eating and handed the waitress my bowl of romaine. and then i dipped into my mother’s chicken n’ dumplins, which i highly recommend.) there ARE a few exceptions… i LOVE the simple salad at brasserie ten ten - it has fried capers and tomatoes and butter lettuce in an amazing dressing and i eat all of it. i also love the kale apple salad at oak, which is bananas because normally i won’t go anywhere near kale. this kale is chopped into thin little strips no wider than a dried spaghetti and it’s covered with so many tasty things you can’t even tell it’s kale, which is why i can eat it.
(the fried chicken salad at the cracker barrel)
(the chicken n’ dumplins from cracker barrel… i am not sure what the dumplins are made of but they are seriously good!)
(the simple salad from ten ten… the fried capers are tip top)
(the kale salad from oak)
at home i always have a platter of chopped veggies on the table - typically red, orange and yellow peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, maybe some baby carrots, but salads i save for when other people are coming to dinner and then i usually just eat the chopped veggies like the children. salads seem like more work and i typically make too much and then i have to throw out the rest because the only thing worse than salad is limp, day old salad.
this summer however, my whole salad perspective was upended when my girlfriend, jen, came to visit. she made a delicious panzanella with an outrageous dressing. we didn’t use all of the dressing the first night for the bread salad so i made a regular salad with her dressing after she left. my kids were beside themselves, “mama, this is the BEST salad we’ve ever had! you HAVE to make this again!” it was actually one of the only salads they’d ever had because we are not salad people. except now we are.
JEN’S SALAD DRESSING
1/2 red onion chopped finely
1/3 C red wine vinegar
2/3 C good olive oil
1 big dollop of mustard (“pardon me, would you have any grey poupon?”)
salt and pepper to taste
put chopped onions in a bowl with the vinegar and cover… this is the KEY to the whole recipe. the longer the onions sit marinating, the more “pickled” and poignant they become. i try to do this first thing in the morning for an evening salad.
