Thursday, May 26, 2011

Salad Days

I go through phases with salads. Once upon a time, I was a vegetarian and grew tired of salad being the only non-meat option, which led to their being long-absent from my diet. Fortunately, I'm happy to eat them now! Sometimes, I will eat them for weeks on end without tiring of them; other times, I can go for months without eating them or wanting them. Sometimes, it takes a fantastically fresh and delicious salad to get me back on the kick. Now that the weather is warmer, it's an excellent time to get back on the salad kick.

At a recent brunch, I was served a fantastic salad of baby spinach, mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, and a simple vinaigrette. Yum. The other day, a friend gave me some lettuce from his garden. I washed it, spun it in my salad spinner (yes, they make a difference), tore it, and tossed it with some yummy toppings-- dried cranberries, walnuts, goat cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. It was so good!

When I do salads, I like to combine the greens, a fruit of some sort, cheese (more often than not), a nut or something crunchy (like noodles), and a light yet flavorful dressing. Look for what's in season and what looks good. Experiment! Throw on some grilled steak, chicken, or shrimp if you want-- I recommend marinating it first, or at a minimum, seasoning it well. There are so many possibilities.

Tell me: how do you most enjoy your salads?

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