Salads cover the widest range of dishes these days – decades ago a salad meant floppy lettuce leaves, chunks of cucumber, quartered tomatoes and quartered hard-boiled eggs, and I am convinced that such salads, of yesteryear, are responsible for too many of my age (sixth decade!) shunning any item with the word ‘salad’ attached!
Yet how much they are missing. Salads can and do combine both vegetables and fruits, both fresh fruits as well as dried. Salads can incorporate crispy bacon, or crumbled cheese – any cheese, hard cheddar-style, or creamy chunks of brie or goats’ cheese, or crumbled blue cheese. And salads can be dressed with a traditional French dressing or vinaigrette, or a creamy crème fraiche dressing, or a mayonnaise.
And any of these dressings can be flavoured with chopped herbs added, or with curry. Salads can contain contrasting textures – mixed seeds, or crispy bacon both provide crunchy texture contrasts, but so too do small croutons. It is up to us to make our salads interesting and tempting, because they are an invaluable source of nutrition. And they can be so convenient, as a salad can form the vegetable part of a main course, or a salad itself can be the main course. And more and more frequently a salad is encountered as a first course. So, to sum up, salads are a winning choice for eating, not just now in the summer months, but year round.
Here are two tasty salad recipes for you to try at home:
PEACH, PARMA HAM, MOZZARELLA AND SALAD LEAF SALAD WITH MINT DRESSING
SERVES 6 AS A MAIN COURSE
This is a gloriously messy main course salad, inspired by Stephen Devlin of Rocpool in Inverness. I can’t remember if the mint dressing is my addition or his – but every mouthful of anything I have ever eaten at Rocpool has been both inspirational and utterly delicious, so credit where it’s due. Feel free to substitute nectarines for the peaches if you prefer
4 peaches or nectarines, each skinned, and sliced in towards the centre, in even slices. Cut the slices into a bowl
3oz salad leaves of your choice – mine is for young spinach leaves, watercress and rocket
18 slices of Parma ham
2 balls of buffalo mozzarella
FOR THE DRESSING:
1 tblsp chopped mint, preferably apple mint for the best flavour
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
1 tblsp lemon juice
Half a tsp salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper
4 tblsps extra virgin olive oil
Snip any long stalks of watercress, and scatter the leaves over a wide ashet or platter. Scatter the slices of peach or nectarine evenly over the leaves. Tear the Parma ham and mozzarella into bits and scatter both as evenly as you can over the leaves. Mix together the dressing ingredients and drizzle it over the contents of the ashet. Serve.
BLUE CHEESE, PEAR AND WATERCRESS SALAD WITH WALNUT DRESSING
SERVES 6 AS A MAIN COURSE
3oz watercress, the long stalks snipped with scissors to bite-sized lengths
3 ripe pears, each peeled – I use a potato peeler – quartered, core cut out and the pears sliced or chopped
12oz blue cheese of your choice, crumbled or diced finely
FOR THE WALNUT DRESSING:
3oz walnuts, bashed with a rolling pin to break them
4 tblsps olive oil – not extra virgin for this
1 level tsp salt
10-15 grinds of black pepper
1 tblsp lemon juice
Start by making the dressing – heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chopped walnuts with the salt and black pepper, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes. Then take the pan off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Let it cool. Put the snipped watercress into a bowl. Add the crumbled cheese, and, if you chop the pears, the chopped pears. Mix the cold walnut dressing into the watercress and blue cheese and divide evenly between 6 plates. If you slice the pears, then divide the watercress, cheese and walnut dressed mixture between 6 plates, and lay the sliced pears around the edges.