Tender greens with somewhat assertive flavors, such as peppery arugula and watercress or bitter endive, or young dandelion go wonderfully with sweet citrus fruits like oranges, mandarins, and blood oranges, ripe pears or crunchy apples, and figs. Roasted nuts bring out the sweetness in the greens. There are endless possible variations on this theme. One of my favorites is arugula, blood oranges, and roasted pine nuts. Or, for an easy main-course luncheon salad, combine frisée, quartered ripe figs, and walnuts, then top it with thin sheets of prosciutto or smoked goose breast.
This salad is a combination of simple elements: mesclun salad, warm goat cheese, roasted garlic and good, crusty bread: a perfect lunch. The garlic cloves, soft and puree-like from roasting, can be squeezed onto slabs of bread, along with the creamy goat cheese, to make an impromptu open-face sandwich as you eat the greens.
This chicken salad recipe should never be forgotten. With its chunks of pineapple and crunchy pieces of water chestnut, and the surprise flavoring of curry, it is delicious from the first bite and people will ooh and aah. The salad can be served on top of butterhead lettuce leaves or sandwiched between two pieces of whole wheat bread.
Ingredients
This refreshing salad goes perfectly with the ham. To make short work of trimming the green beans, use kitchen scissors.
On paper, yams (a.k.a. sweet potatoes) should make a great-tasting salad with a gorgeous golden color. However, my first attempts turned out mushy and cloyingly sweet. The answer to the problem turned out to be to use a combination of roasted yams with boiled potatoes (peeled after boiling, for the same reason), and a brightly acidic lemon vinaigrette to balance the sugary yams. Mint supplies a fresh note, but cilantro or parsley can be substituted. Use medium potatoes so they cook evenly and with relative speed.
Betty Crocker was never a real person. "Born" in 1921, Betty Crocker was at first only a signature and a voice on a radio program created to answer consumer questions about Gold Medal flour. She didn't have a face until a portrait was commissioned in the mid-1930s. Betty Crocker represented one twenties ideal, the perfect happy homemaker, while the flapper represented the decade's "other woman."
But, the basic affinity of corn and green shell beans inspires many surprising permutations, like this delectable version made with fresh green soybeans and smoky bacon.
Straight from 19th-century American cookbooks, these big chunks of ripe beefsteak and green tomatoes get bathed in a warm, garlicky, sweet-sour dressing. They stand on their own, top greens, or make a good potato-tomato salad. Bacon fat was favored 150 years ago; olive oil works well today. Out of season, this recipe still works with supermarket tomatoes on the vine.
Substituting sea palm for the anchovies gives the salad that familiar briny flavor. A bowl of hot pasta with red sauce is the ideal accompaniment.