Salad (2011 - 2015)

[LynnFoodies]

Japanese tomatoes, arugula, parmesan, and a micro green mix from my CSA. The micro greens were an intriguing mix of various things that I am not very familiar with, including amaranth, orach, bull's blood (beet greens?), and red shiso.

The color is impressive!

Only Japanese tomato can make this astonishing look!

[Dave Hatfield]

Nicoise Salad

A classic French sald that I frequently make this time of year when the ingredients are at their best.

[FrogPrincesse]

Beautiful salade niçoise, Dave. With a slice of rustic bread, that could be a complete (and delicious) meal.

I made a grilled kale salad with fresh goat cheese and white peaches last night, adapted from this recipe.

The smokiness and slight bitterness of the grilled kale worked great with the peaches and the goat cheese.

[FrogPrincesse]

Here are a few salads we enjoyed this summer (I can't believe summer is almost over!).

Fattoush-inspired salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, chives, butter lettuce, parsley, mint, zahtar (from the Dinner thread).

Les Halles tomato salad with basil and balsamic vinegar (from the Les Halles cookbook thread).

A chopped cucumber and tomato salad with mint (also from the Dinner thread).

Heirloom tomatoes from my CSA with buffalo mozzarella and basil.

Arugula, black figs, fresh goat cheese, Parma ham, balsamic, olive oil.

Based on a recipe from Lucques, a summer fruit salad (peach, fig) with arugula and Marcona almonds.

Another tomato salad - when tomatoes are in season, I don't get tired of this!

Arugula and the sweetest yellow peaches from the farmers market with fresh goat cheese (from the Labor Day thread).

Lobster chopped salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, corn and home-cured bacon (from the Labor Day thread, based on a recipe from Lucques).

[FrogPrincesse]

I made a salad last night with ingredients from my CSA: heirloom tomatoes, yellow watermelon and fennel.

The fennel was amazingly tender and delicate; great with the tomatoes. I see the watermelon + tomato combo a lot in recipes but I still don't get it. The watermelon looked pretty but I don't think it added much.

[Joel Hicks]

One of my favourite salads, Potato, Fennel, Olive, Saffron and Mussel Salad. This recipe is from Australian Chef, Damien Pignolet, from his book, "French". Ive made it hundreds of times as a meal in itself, or as a side for grilled fish or chicken.

Mandolin the Fennel and save the fronds

De-pit and roughly chop Kalamata Olives

Steam the potatoes

Cook the mussels in white wine garlic and onion

Strain and deshell mussels keeping Mussel liquor.

Strain Mussel liquor carefully removing garlic, onions and any sand etc.. and then add saffron strands to liquor and allow to steep.

Make a vinegarette using saffron mussel liquor

Toss warm/hot potatoes in vinegarette

Add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Add to cooked mussels and Fennel, toss and enjoy with a glass of dry white wine.

[rod rock]

Yumm this Lobster chopped salad from Frog Princesse seems delicious! And this thread is one of the best on the forum

[FrogPrincesse]

Yumm this Lobster chopped salad from Frog Princesse seems delicious! And this thread is one of the best on the forum

Thanks rod rock.

I made this simple arugula, pear and goat cheese salad this weekend. All ingredients were from Trader Joe's. I decided at the last minute to add pomegranate seeds (I had just gotten a couple of pomegranates from my CSA). However pairing bitter arugula with pomegranate is not necessarily the best idea. The dressing was shallots + walnut oil and red wine vinegar. Next time I will replace the pomegranate with some nuts.

[rod rock]

This one looks delicious too! Nice work!

[TheCulinaryLibrary]

My Green Papaya Salad & Fruit Salad

[rod rock]

Wonderful salad decoration! Nice work.

[pacman1978]

I plan on doing a starter of pigeon breast with a warm salad consisting of bacon, mushrooms and walnuts tossed with spinach with red wine vinaigrette. Will get some pics and upload them - this thread is making me think more about how to make it look better as well instead of just a pile..

[FrogPrincesse]

Persimmon and pomegranate salad last night. This is based on a recipe from Lucques (details here) but I skipped the toasted hazelnuts and used a mesclun with arugula instead of just arugula. The persimmon bought at the farmer's market was very nice.

Edited November 20, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[SobaAddict70]

As you might imagine from looking at the pix below, I belong to the minimalist school of salads.

Sometimes "less" is more.

Insalata di zucchine e pomodoro -- zucchini, tomato, arugula, sea salt, black pepper, extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar

Mozzarella, ham and fig salad -- fresh mozzarella, honey ham, figs, wildflower honey, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, extra-virgin olive oil

Chanterelle mushroom and fried herb salad, with farm egg fried in olive oil -- mixed lettuces, chanterelle mushrooms, egg, herbs, extra-virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, sea salt, black pepper

Warm green bean and potato salad -- green beans, Yukon Gold potatoes, red onion, chives, white wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, Dijon mustard, sea salt, black pepper

"Fennel, celery, cheese" -- shaved fennel, celery, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, celery leaves, lemon zest, extra-virgin olive oil

Fennel, green apple and walnut salad -- fennel, Granny Smith apples, chopped walnuts, baby arugula, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, sea salt, black pepper

[rotuts]

every salad SA looks delicious.

but Warm green bean and potato salad has given me New Ideas!

many thanks!

[FrogPrincesse]

You have some beautiful salads there, SobaAddict70. I agree that you don't need a lot of ingredients to make a tasty and interesting salad.

In the zucchini and tomato salad, is the zucchini blanched?

[SobaAddict70]

FrogPrincesse -- yes it is. very perceptive.

[FrogPrincesse]

FrogPrincesse -- yes it is. very perceptive.

Thanks. I have never used zucchini in a salad so you are giving me new ideas.

[SobaAddict70]

FrogPrincesse -- yes it is. very perceptive.

Thanks. I have never used zucchini in a salad so you are giving me new ideas.

I played around with zucchini for a few weeks earlier in the year. Some recipes made it to the blog, while others are on Facebook.

I also love it used in a variant of frico. It occurs to me that paired with some mixed lettuces and a generous helping of lemon zest and celery leaves, that this might make for a delicious and unusual salad. I'll have to try it next summer when the zucchini problem manifests itself again.

[FrogPrincesse]

In the colder months, I really like salade de chèvre chaud. The crottin de Chavignol (smuggled from France) is put under the broiler for a couple of minutes with a piece of bread until it starts to melt, and used to top the salad. I sprinkled a little bit of herbes de Provence on top. I like a dressing with plenty of red wine vinegar and chives with this.

[jsmeeker]

Help me improve upon my "Greek" salad. Here is what I put in it

cucumber

red bell pepper

red onion

kalamata olives

feta cheese

Dressed with red vine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, dried oregano and black pepper.

I like to combine all the ingredients with the dressing and let it set. Then I put it in shallow bowl and eat i. But what can I change up here? Should I be adding some greens or lettuce? Maybe flat leaf parsley? Anything else? I know I could use something better than standard supermarket crumbled feta. How should I cut the vegetables? Sometimes I slice the cucumber and sometimes I dice. Most times I use English style cucumber, but sometimes I use standard ones. What about the dressing? Should I change it up?

[Okanagancook]

In my greek salad I dice the vegetable to about 3/4 inch size and I use english cucumber, only green bell peppers, red onion, celery, red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives. I toss the vegetables except the tomatoes in olive oil with lemon juice, a little salt, and black pepper. I put the salad in the serving bowl and break the feta into large pieces over the vegetables followed by scattering the tomatoes around followed by dried oregano sprinkled on top. Sometimes I put it on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce or a whole leave of romaine.

[OliverB]

I tend to skip the peppers, kids don't like them and my wife doesn't like them since we had our kids, and I'd probably not use the mustard. Just oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Maybe oregano, fresh if you have.

Mint can also be nice or fresh thyme, that's really good with the cheese. Break/crumble the cheese, toss with a bit of olive oil and thyme, maybe a bit of pepper. Red pepper flakes if you like a little kick.

Fun stuff :-)

[jsmeeker]

cool. Sounds like I am pretty close already. I like red peppers and don't have any kids that I am feeding. Or a wife.

[OliverB]

it's so flexible, you can throw in some mushrooms, mix up the olives (our safeway has a great olive bar now, I love to mix and match and try different ones) and while probably not authentic, you could add some chicken, shrimp, fun things like that. I also sometimes use other cheese like gouda if I don't have feta.

Fennel is also very good in there, nice and crunchy and fresh.