Long ago, many years before fat-free blue cheese dressing and packaged croutons, when humans were merely modest players on the Earth, animals among animals, we ate leaves. Massive quantities of them, scattered with the occasional handful of sweet, ripe berries or tender young nuts and seeds. Leaves, greens, foliage of all sorts, unadulterated and brilliant in their raw glory, were the natural and convenient basis of the human diet.
So
it came to pass in the days of ancient Babylon that an ancient but far-sighted
foodie doused an earthenware dish of grasses and herbs with oil and vinegar (at
least, thatÕs the rumor). Thus was the salad born. It remained popular
throughout the ages in its simplest incarnation of greens and dressing, making
its way onto ancient tables and into classic literature, beginning with
ShakespeareÕs Antony and Cleopatra. In that first reference to salads,
Cleopatra says ÒMy salad days, when I was green in judgment, cold in blood,Ó to
explain her youthful indiscretions with Julius Caesar who, coincidentally or
not, was the namesake for one of our most popular dressings.
These early dishes of
greens, oil and vinegar defined salads for hundreds of years until the French,
bless their hearts, invented mayonnaise in the late 1700s. A creamier era of
dressings was born, prompting creative twists on salads. For the next 200
years, people enjoyed robust, meaningful salads with such creative additions as
marigolds, rose petals, celery root, truffles and hard-boiled eggs.
Then, in 1946, an enterprising botanist at the USDA developed iceberg lettuce, which gained such enormous promotion that by 1950, 95 percent of the production and consumption of all lettuces was comprised of iceberg. As if by some unwritten code, salads were uniformly composed of piles of this water, insipid stuff, strewn with pale tomatoes and listless slices of cucumber. Salad soon became an afterthought, an obligatory first course at steak houses and consolation prize for dieters.
Happily for us, in the early Ô80s, fern bars were invented. With them came the advent of arugula, heirloom tomatoes and artichoke hearts, and the reinvention of salads. Nutrition became a national sport, and health food stores sprang up like Starbucks coffee shops. Salads were redefined in the United States, and a new era of salads-as-actual-foods began.
It was only the logical
next step, then, that salads would move from warm-up band to the main act. This
required the development of salads with substance, something more than a
handful of insipid leaves peeking diffidently from beneath a drizzle of low-fat
dressing. Salad-as-statement was thus created. Beds of delicate baby greens
scattered with berries and nuts, heaps of robust watercress finished with
buttery slices of ripe pear and the assertive bite of feta cheese, artfully
arranged leaves of pleasantly bitter endive and delicate fennel layered with
white beans, wild mushrooms and Moroccan olives:brilliant in color and festive
in flavor, the simple salad became
an artisan model of a dish, worthy of a meal in itself.
[SIDEBAR]
1.
TheyÕre high in nutrients. Raw veggies,
fruits, nuts and beans contain antioxidants and phytochemicals that help
prevent disease.
2.
TheyÕre packed with fiber. A cup of
blackberries has 8 grams of fiber, a cup of beans, about 12 grams. Compare that
to a slice of whole-wheat bread, with a paltry 2 grams.
3.
TheyÕre mostly raw. Cooking food destroys
enzymes, and damages many vitamins, minerals and other nutrients; ask your raw
food friends.
4.
TheyÕre quick to make. Leaving more time
for frolicking in the sun, or under the summer stars.
5.
TheyÕre light. YouÕre showing more skin.
Any more questions?
Mache, Radicchio and Endive
Salad with Blackberries and Mango
Serves 4
1/4 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup blackberry preserves
Pinch cayenne pepper
3 medium heads Belgian endive
1 small head radicchio
1 cup mache leaves
1 cup mango cubes
3 ounces ricotta salata cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup fresh blackberries
To make dressing, combine grapefruit juice, olive oil, blackberry preserves and cayenne pepper in a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, and shake vigorously until smooth. Season with sea salt, pepper and additional cayenne pepper, if desired.
Cut endive heads crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces. In a large salad bowl, combine endive with mache and arugula. Add mango cubes, ricotta salata and hazelnuts. Drizzle with just enough dressing to lightly coat leaves, and toss to mix (store additional dressing in glass jar). Divide among four salad plates, scatter with fresh blackberries, and serve immediately.
Basil and Bitter Greens with
White Beans, Sweet Peas and Yellow Tomatoes, and Lemon Walnut Vinaigrette
Serves 4
2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive
oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced toasted walnuts
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1 cup baby arugula leaves
1 cup baby spinach leaves
1 cup dandelion greens
1 cup cooked or canned, rinsed and drained white beans
1 cup fresh garden peas, uncooked or lightly steamed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/2 cup Moroccan olives
1 cup yellow pear tomatoes
To
make dressing, combine walnut oil, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, walnuts and
mustard in a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, and shake
vigorously until emulsified. Season with sea salt and pepper.
In
a large salad bowl, combine basil, arugula and spinach; toss to mix. Add white
beans, garden peas, chopped almonds and olives. Drizzle with just enough
dressing to lightly coat leaves, and toss to mix (store additional dressing in
glass jar). Add tomatoes, and toss gently. Divide salad among four individual
plates and serve immediately.