Favorite salad?

[Rich Lang]

With green sprouting from the ground, and all the talk of gardening, thoughts turn to salad, which is a big part of our lives in this house. Unfortunately, far too often salad in restaurants means overly dressed mesclun greens with enough vinegar to polish the silverware and tomatoes that with the texture of raw potato. My favorites: Fennel, orange and olives (w/ just pungent olive oil and salt); Endive, radicchio and arugula with blue cheese and nuts (various); and a simple tomato salad of sliced tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic and capers on a bed of thin sliced red onion (left for several hours to marinate). I welcome suggestions from the crowd to color our salad bowl this year... Also any suggestions of good restaurant salads.

[sprinklez]

my favorite salad to make is baby spinach with sliced strawberries, almonds, red onion, and a strawberry or raspberry vinaigrette .. it's easy and healthy!

[Kylie Charter]

New Rivers always has lovely salads. I usually keep my salads pretty simple at home. Arugula, radicchio, baby spinach and some green leaf dressed simply with Orange zest and juice ,EVOO, salt and pepper. Then add smoked almonds, sliced apple or berries depending on what's in season and some thin peels of what ever hard italian cheese I happen to have in the fridge, reggiano or piave. Not much is more satisfying, especially with a thin crust pizza..... but that's another discussion.

[Rich Lang]

I agree that the salad and thin crust pizza is the ultimate combo. Tried this at Siena - where I have had some great meals - and the pizza was inedible. Will try again someday, because I was surprised, but a heads up...

[Stephanie]

Fennel, orange and olives sounds like such a good combination!

I made a salad last fall that's still in my mind - with roasted golden beets, pomegranate seeds and blue cheese. The recipe is in my blog here.

As for restaurant salads, one of my favorites I've had in Providence was at Local 121 right after they opened - a frisee salad with mustard vinaigrette and a poached egg. The greens were so fresh and delicious, and it was heavenly!

[V]

This salad is great for warm summer nights: cubed watermelon, crumbled feta and snipped mint. Refreshing and simple.

[Tony]

I've been making a lobster salad with avocado and spicy dressing which is simple to make and gets many oohs and aahs:

* 3 tablespoon of your favorite chili paste, or amount to your taste
* 5 tablespoon EVO oil
* 1 1/2 lemons, zested and juiced
* Juice of 1 orange
* Course salt (pink from Hawaii is great) and freshly-cracked black pepper to taste
* 2 avocados, halved, pitted and thinly sliced
* Three 1-pound lobsters, cooked, meat removed from shell and cut in chunks
* 1 1/2 bunch of watercress, stemmed, washed and dried
* 1 1/2 medium size romaine lettuce heads washed, dried and torn
* 2 medium sized blood oranges: peel and extract segments


To make the spicy citrus oil dressing, combine chili paste (like sambal) and olive oil in a medium bowl and whisk thoroughly. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and orange juice and whisk to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange 5 or 6 avocado slices in a loose circle on four salad plates. Drizzle the avocado with the dressing. Next, layer chunks of lobster directly on top of the avocado and drizzle the lobster with the dressing. Place lettuce and watercress into a bowl and toss with about 2 tablespoons of dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Fill the inner circle with a mound of salad and drizzle with remaining dressing. Garnish with 4 blood orange segments per dish.

Serve with a chilled bottle of Oregon Pinot Gris.

[Stephanie]

I have been addicted to the lunch-sized Chinese Chicken Salad @ Cheesecake Factory for years. Love all the different textures in the salad and the fact that the dressing is not creamy or mayonaise-y. That said, my new fav there is the (4-6) bar menu's chopped salad - chicken, romaine, (real) bacon bits, avocado, (can't remember whether or not there were also tomatoes in there too) apple, bleu cheese (i passed on that one) in a vinaigrette... it was SO yummy, just enough food (with their wonderful breads), a linen napkin and I think my bill was a whole $4.27!

[Stephanie]

At home, sometimes I buy some mesclun greens and a green leaf or red leaf lettuce, mix them up, add some walnuts and just eat that w/Paul Newman's Lite Raspberry & Walnut out of a big bowl with chopsticks. I also keep disposable chopsticks in the car for when I know i am going to have a caesar salad somewhere -- so much easier to lift out a crouton with chopsticks versus chasing it around the bowl trying to stab it. (I wrote to Cheesecake's site numerous times begging them to have chopsticks as their chinese chicken salad has many components that are not fork-friendly -- they now have them, just need to ask)There are places in RI that know me as 'the chopstick lady'.

[Jennifer Cavallaro]

I love tomato salad too - even without the balsamic because the fresh tomato juice acts as a vinegar. When i generally think of salad though, I am thinking green, fresh and TOSSED in a light dressing as a side dish. NOT a fully loaded dinner plate of chopped squirrel food! Pet peeve: dressing served on the side - how can you ever really toss the salad on a plate? In france they will toss the greens to let them soften and marinate a little ahead of time, which is fantastic. Also a good tip is to mix the dressing in the bowl first, swish it around then add the greens and toss.
I always make dressing 3:1 (oil to vinegar) but this has caused marital tension - he wants more vinegar!

[Rich Lang]

Have to disagree with you on this one BIG TIME JC. I specifically and ALWAYS order my dressing on the side, even if it is a total hassle to mix it on the plate because restaurants - even fine restaurants - almost always massively over-dress salads. Granted this is because most Americans have never encountered a fresh vegetable and the only way they will eat them is if they don't actually taste like vegetables, but rather taste like dressing! Still, I can't stand it and I will go through the effort of slowly and strategically tossing my salad!

[Pam]

No, I understand what you are saying Frank....it's best made "at home"...I use what my grandmother used to use...simple greens (Romain lettuce) with whatever works that day, ie; good tomatoes, red onion, oil cured olives, good cucumbers that are crisp, I happen to like red bell peppers and some capers if I'm in the mood...add just a good red wine vinegar, some EVOO, garlic salt and a few shakes of Italian Seasoning, add some fresh ground pepper.. and it's a go! Make some bruschetta and I'm in heaven! If I am feeling simple, just the lettuce, tomato, cuc's and onion...it's all good for you!