The Loose Connections Recommender #26

On The Salacious Secrets Of A Late Blooming Salad Queen

I was laughing with my husband yesterday about ‘LO’S NOT MAD ABOUT IT LIST’, that he stuck to the fridge when we first got together over twenty years ago, because my dietary likes were so limited. The thing that amazed him, and prompted him to subject me to a ongoing questionnaire that was the source of this ever growing usually drunkenly scrawled shameful confessional list, was that despite my total vegetarianism since I was a child, there were very few vegetables I actually ate, beyond the acceptable basics (potato, pumpkin, corn, peas).

Cucumber? Zucchini? Sweet potato? Capsicum/pepper? Beetroot? Cauliflower? Broccoli? Bok choy? Tomato? Eggplant? Olives? Celery? Fennel? Bean sprouts? Mmmm yeah not mad about it, thanks.

I was completely resistant to the charms of salad, except perhaps a few decorative loose lettuce leaves sans dressing.

I (and my daughter) basically existed on my own invented version of the Mediterranean diet - spaghetti, pizza, risotto, vegetarian lasagna and roast vegetables - pesto, spanakopita and a large bowl of peas swimming in butter a few times a week the only concession to greenery.

Cut to now, and I have been anointed by those who eat with me as ‘The Salad Queen’. Please forgive my lack of humility here, but Lord its hard to be humble because it is something I do know I am good at. Don’t let me near a cake though, every attempt ends in disaster. It’s good to know your strengths.

I started attempting to eat salad-type dishes when I was knocked up with my now seventeen year old, because all the ultra hearty food I usually relied on was making me feel completely ill and I had to come up with something I could eat, so I started making little simple vegetable dishes that eventually evolved into these frankly spectacular salads that easily serve as a main meal.

I have always been completely unable to follow a recipe (we can analyse this another time) and can only cook/make dishes by imagining the flavours and textures working together. Quite honestly, it’s exactly the same process that I use for recording; imagining how the sounds will blend and work together and just knowing when it’s right.

Let me show you some salacious examples;

Here we have mixed salad leaves with honey goat cheese, hazelnuts, orange & fresh fig, a simple dressing of red wine vinegar, dash of mustard and olive oil. Goddamn this one was good.

Above is a rainbow garden salad with rocket/arugula leaves, nasturtiums, shredded carrot, yellow capsicum/pepper, feta cheese, walnuts and blueberries, dressed with lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil.

A variation on a rainbow salad here with baby spinach leaves, radish, red pepper/capsicum, avocado, shredded carrot & hemp seeds, served with a hearty drizzle of balsamic glaze, lemon zest and olive oil.

A perfect simple concoction of pear, feta, walnut and salad leaves with sherry vinegar, lemon juice, walnut oil & extra virgin olive oil dressing. And a few left over cooked green beans from last night’s dinner.

I like to think of the above salad as a ‘Mexican Summer’; baby spinach leaves, nasturtium flowers, lightly cooked corn, red pepper/capsicum & queso fresco (you could use feta if not available). Served with a dressing of lime zest, olive oil, white wine vinegar and a tiny dash of maple syrup.

Mmm here we have oak leaf lettuce, cucumber, strawberries, pistachios & feta, dressed with balsamic glaze, sherry vinegar, lemon zest and a mixture of walnut & olive oil.

I think you get the idea.

This is my basic formula, that can be adapted to whatever you have handy

• something green for a base

• add some varied colour and texture with salad vegetables such a cucumber, tomato, fennel, corn, pepper/capsicum, radish - or roast vegetables like pumpkin, beetroot, cauliflower or sweet potato

• add a pop of flavour with something like red grapes, strawberries, blueberries, capers, olives, figs, apples, nectarines, dates

• add something creamy like cheese, chickpeas or avocado

• add something crunchy like nuts, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds

• add lemon zest to make all the flavours zing

• add a good dressing - if you can’t be bothered making one just a generous drizzle of balsamic glaze and extra virgin olive oil will work with almost everything.

My very best tip is to grow your own salad stuff and then just make it with whatever’s ripe and ready to rock in the garden.

If this post has got you dreaming about salad, like it has me, allow me to recommend an inspirational Substack I have very recently discovered - although I can’t follow a recipe I love to browse them (ie look at pictures) for sparks of inspiration:

One of the sexiest songs in the world was written about salad and a girl that makes a mean mess of it. Sock it to me Tony Joe!

I always meant to eat me a mess of ‘poke sallet’ when I was in the South and I’m sad to say I never had the opportunity.

For now, I will leave you with this beautifully poetic description that makes me dream of rectifying that some day (although I will replace the hog jowl that forms an integral part of this recipe from Garden & Gun with, um, something else, cos I’m not mad about hog jowl:

I always look for pokeweed first. Right after the daffodils start to bloom but before the monarch butterflies come back, before the strawberries catch their color and asparagus gets that violet tinge, when the bluebirds start singing and the cardinals come around again, I know it’s time to start scanning the edges of the woods for the scarlet-stalked plant my family considers to be “good eating.” We aren’t the only ones fond of this towering weed found throughout the South. Indigenous people have used the pokeweed plant for herbal medicine for centuries, but its traditional Southern culinary preparation was probably born out of desperation. After families ate through their stockpiles of preserved food during a hard winter, pokeweed was one of the first edible greens to appear every year. 

Pokeweed, or poke sallet, as it’s known once it’s cooked, is survival food. But it’s on par with morels for the complexity and versatility it can attain  in the hands of a capable cook.

I’d leave to hear your salad recipes, your favourite salad songs, stories of your salad days (actually if anyone can tell me why our salad days are called our salad days and save me a Google I’d be grateful - as I am always, for your company.

Thanks for being here.

Eat your greens!

And listen to Tony Joe White,

Lo x

PS Bonus extra for parents of small children: We still tease my now eleven year old son about his disdain for/distrust of salad - a few years ago when I returned home from a big trip, I opened the front door and he greeted me with the words ‘I ate a salad and I didn't like it’.

Not a lot has changed, despite my saladial skills, although he will force a little down when forced to. But I did read once somewhere about a salad that French people make for their children and that has proved acceptable, so for those with kids that hate salad try this:

Shredded carrot, shredded apple, shredded cheddar cheese - possible additions avocado and/or sultanas. Little bit of olive oil. That’s it. Good luck!