Summer Salad of Deliciousness
I am hopeless at making American-style salads, totally and utterly useless at it.
In my entire life I have never had success at combining lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, etc into a bowl with dressing to produce something palatable. Everything is badly proportioned - too chunky, too leafy, too dressed, too vinegary, and it is the same at a salad bar. My salad bar salads end up being little sections of this and that - a glop of cottage cheese here, a sad pile of pinto beans there, jalapenos strewn over the top.
I ask you, does any of that sound appealing? No, the word you want is appalling.
Fortunately I am half French and that half knows how to make European-style salads. This basically means tossing things with a very nice vinaigrette. My two basic salads in this style would be the shredded carrot with raisins (or dried cranberries) and the chickpea, tomato, and mozzarella salad, with pesto.
This is that salad and I have pretty much eaten it every day this week:
Anyway this is DELICIOUS stuff.
Basically you just chop up a tomato and a 4oz ball of fresh mozzarella. Toss with a little vinegar (I use white balsamic), a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, and few finely chopped leaves of basil.
Then you saute a rinsed can of chickpeas in some olive oil with some chopped garlic. I love garlic so I put in a couple of cloves.
Saute the chickpeas until just golden, usually less than ten minutes. Then dump them on top of the tomato and mozzarella mixture.
Toss until everything is well mixed and coated with the vinaigrette. Eat it with a fork and a hunk of bread if you are so inclined.
And that is what I call a salad!
In my entire life I have never had success at combining lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, etc into a bowl with dressing to produce something palatable. Everything is badly proportioned - too chunky, too leafy, too dressed, too vinegary, and it is the same at a salad bar. My salad bar salads end up being little sections of this and that - a glop of cottage cheese here, a sad pile of pinto beans there, jalapenos strewn over the top.
I ask you, does any of that sound appealing? No, the word you want is appalling.
Fortunately I am half French and that half knows how to make European-style salads. This basically means tossing things with a very nice vinaigrette. My two basic salads in this style would be the shredded carrot with raisins (or dried cranberries) and the chickpea, tomato, and mozzarella salad, with pesto.
This is that salad and I have pretty much eaten it every day this week:
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| Oops, crap cell photo because I cannot find my camera cord... |
Basically you just chop up a tomato and a 4oz ball of fresh mozzarella. Toss with a little vinegar (I use white balsamic), a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, and few finely chopped leaves of basil.
Then you saute a rinsed can of chickpeas in some olive oil with some chopped garlic. I love garlic so I put in a couple of cloves.
Saute the chickpeas until just golden, usually less than ten minutes. Then dump them on top of the tomato and mozzarella mixture.
Toss until everything is well mixed and coated with the vinaigrette. Eat it with a fork and a hunk of bread if you are so inclined.
And that is what I call a salad!
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