Salad is an algorithm the stomach loves to solve.
41
Wife’s quote “Devine!” She was wiping the remaining dressing with a piece of focaccia until salad plate was clean.
20
Seems like they are wasting a lot of water to make a lettuce salad. Guess this is not cooking for drought areas.
21
I totally agree with the owner of Via Carrota that she feels Frisée lettuce can be too much sometimes. I always quote my sister she feels Frisée is like barbed wire going your throat.
25
The Best in the World? Why so overwrought and overwhelmed? Good cooks have been 'calming' shallots with a bit of warm water forever. I learned it from the chef at a great Japanese restaurant a decade ago.
24
@Seth Tillett
I was very happy to hear of the “warm water” trick—new information for me. Thanks to Jodi Williams for sharing it.....
96
When you do with cucumber and tomato, you end up with plenty of juice without adding water. I spinkle it on my food and then drink what's left. I just love it -- I prepare it more for the juice than salad.
When I saw the title of this article, I immediately thought of sugar like the author has. Sugar is a vilified additive, yes. But it is also very underated, perhaps because it is vilified. A little bit of it will tremendously wake up flavor out of most food. Often times you don't need it; you get sweetness from things like onion or carrot. But the sugar dispenser stands by on my countertop for dishes that lacks caramelized veggies.
29
Funny -- I'm obsessed with memories of Chez Panisse salads. There is always the PERFECT amount of dressing on them. Just perfect. I knew I wasn't a complete weirdo about this when my mother said exactly the same thing. Actually, this makes us both weirdos.
42
Here's my go to for salad dressing that I learned from a friend. She served the simplest green salads but her dressing was always light, fresh, and delicious. Depending on how big the salad is, insofar as servings, expand or contract the amounts used.
And don't be spooked by the simplicity. For a salad serving four, mix:
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
-1 teaspoon Ume plum vinegar
That's all. Mix, pour over and blend with the greens. You'll be hooked.
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@Peter
Hi Peter: except for the toasted sesame oil, which I use on
roasted vegetables, your first and third ingredients are ALL Ive been using for several years now, and love it Every Night. And, amazingly, every night it seems to taste different, and perhaps even a wee bit better--oh, an apotheosis to the perfect and easiest salad dressing on the planet.
I've never been one to measure; I start w/ pouring olive oil generously over all the collected greens, etc. in a large wood bowl. Toss it; sprinkle Ume plum vinegar over all, and toss again. Of course, this mix adapts itself to so many variations. Right now, I'm adding turmeric, ginger and cinnamon to everyone thing I eat: morning toast and honey, afternoon almond milk, peanutbutter & crackers--whatever
I eat--in order to reduce inflammation.
Also, amazing, are the Ume cherries--one for good-sized salad, smushed up by hand and you get to such on the pit.
14
@Peter
My go-to salad dressing also has 3 ingredients, free-poured from spouted bottles in this order:
organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar--a generous amount;
Bragg's aminos--smaller dose than vinegar
olive oil--very light sprinkle
oh, and then fresh ground pepper on top.
--and I also love ume plum vinegar to add zing to steamed veggies, soups, hummus, and fresh sliced mango . . .
10
I, too, missed where/how to incorporate the mustard seeds.
And they refer to vinaigrette dressing but don't say how its made... just vinegar or ???? This seems to be at least half the success. Please update and let us know!
13
@Anne Ashley
Maybe they are referring to the whole seeds in the 1-1/2 teaspoons of whole grain mustard as my mustard has the whole mustard seeds in it.
16
Charlie Bell salad (Maxim’s, Houston). Not green, but still a salad and the pinnacle.
6
I learned the water trick from J. Kenji Lopez's The Food Lab cookbook. Now I never omit it when making salad dressing. A small amount of warm water turns a thick oil and vinegar dressing into a yes, almost drinkable, less dense dressing that coats the greens much better than if you omit it. I'm kinda surprised - very surprised - that I knew something Ms. Nosrat didn't. Her ignorance on this subject must be connected to her usual less than crazy feelings about salad!
16
One CUP of olive oil?
What wouldn't be great? That is restaurant food, all right.
14
What is " Dijon " ? All of American so called Dijon mustard contains sugar and has nothing to do with real French mustard from Dijon.
No sugar in mustard !
16
Oh, the irony! I always get a kick out of how many people get a recipe and then immediately set out about changing it, making it into something else.
52
Love the quinoa and kale salad at Olive and Finch in Denver. This looks good but a bit fussy to make.
4
Thank you for this delightful article...It takes me back to the Limestone Bibb salads from the Chadwick gardens of Santa Cruz and the home grown salads from the hills of Auburn kissed by a "perfect balsamic vinaigrette" where the table became silent and we looked at each other in amazement.
11
@ghadden47 A salad with Bibb lettuce is already halfway around the track when the other salads are just leaving the starting line. Bibb/Boston lettuces really do make the salad!
28
My mom taught me the water trick when I was a kid. Roughly equal parts vinegar and water. It works!
11
Where are the mustard seeds in the recipe? Referenced in photo and sounds like great ingredient to include.
5
@Jennifer Doss
right after the dijon: 1 ½ teaspoons whole-grain mustard -- the seeds are in the whole grain version
14
Hey, a little MSG snuck into my recipe sounds like a good idea, because I’m not a foodie purist (alarmist caredy-cat anymore) can dig something that tastes exceptional (made at home of course, who can afford to ALWAYS go out)
6
@Capt. Pisqua dice some anchovies into it, or a dash of fish sauce, or even worcestershire.
7
MSG is perfectly safe. Please stop imply it is not.
41
One whopper of a migraine for me. Would not appreciate anyone’s sneaking it in.
41
There is no way you would or could even notice MSG.
25
Thank you!
Can't wait to try it, but when do you add the mustard seeds? And how much? Please update the recipe to include this detail.
3
@busterbrown
right after the dijon: 1 ½ teaspoons whole-grain mustard -- the seeds are in the whole grain version
6
@busterbrown Did you read the actual recipe? It includes mustard.
5
Sorry, New Yorkers, but the best green salad in the world is at Mama' Fish House in Paia, Maui.
13
You paid a food photographer to take that pic, a food stylist to arrange the food and a prop stylist to supply a bowl, a napkin, fork and tablecloth, it must have cost about $5k to $7k for all that at least and yet the tablecloth manages to detract from the green salad and the fork is awkwardly placed, you could probably have banged out a better pic with your phone.
53
@John
Yeah, and why does piling it up need to be part of the 'recipe'. So much yadda-yadda-yadda. I see that pic and think this is going to be a mess to eat.
27
Amen.
9
This sounds like a tasty salad but can we please keep Alice Waters -- "As a student of Alice Waters, the patron saint of salad, I’m no stranger to the art of lettuce washing." -- out of our salads and vegetables? My mother, of Italian descent, frequently served a wonderful and varied, mixed green salad at the end of dinner -- in season from lettuces my father grew -- way before Miss Waters visited France and had her legendary vegetable epiphany. There were many persons in the United States who managed to retain their culinary heritage with respect to vegetables and greens. Clearly, they were not in Miss Waters' universe during her 'salad days' when her experience was green.
71
@FunctionalIlliterate. I don’t get your point. Why should we want to keep Alice Waters out of our salad and vegetables, just because your mother was there first? Surely salad and vegetables are generous enough to make room for all.
102
Dressing sounds great (I wouldn't add the honey). Right now I'm into oil and vinegar: tossing greens with olive oil or grape seed oil (lots of it) then adding white wine vinegar. Sometimes a little Bulgarian white cheese; no salt is added to the salad; sometimes a chopped Medjool date if a little sweet surprise is desired. GREENS: mixture of kale and mustard greens or dandelion greens (I prefer bitter). And sometimes some chopped apple mint sprigs or licorice leaves (little salad surprises that are found on the way as salad is eaten).
9
@MJN should always add vinegar first since it will slide off the oil and not get to the leaves.
11
In the late 40s my family lived in Paris, and had a wonderful rotund French cook who always - no matter what - wore bedroom slippers. She taught my mother that after the leaves are washed they should never be dried. This makes a lovely, more delicate salad which always gets positive comments. Don't let anyone see you; they will insist that this is a salad sin.
46
Never been but this recipe looks amazing. Thank you!
11
I’m sure it tastes very nice, but the caloric expenditure from producing this salad seems to exceed that of its consumption.
46
@Justin
Which makes it that mush more attractive to me!
10
Yawn. It’s a salad. Not every dish deserves to be compared to chocolate cake.
17
@Justin
Isn't that one of the best side benefits of salad?
14
Thank you for this! It's a great restaurant. I make this in variations. The warm water is a great idea. Trick is keeping myself in good butter lettuce. I am not a fan of hydroponic. There's nothing like finding good fresh heads!
22
Hurray! Thank you, I am so excited to try this!
10