Main Dish Salads

This time of the year, when lots of salad greens are coming in my CSA share box, and I don’t want to turn on the oven, I love to have a refreshing and satisfying salad for dinner. This is not a new idea; salmagundi was the colonial name for what we call a chef salad today. The French have the salade nicoise. And in Thailand, they enjoy a spicy beef salad called laab. Here is a simple formula for assembling main dish salads when it’s too hot to cook.

A few tips for success:
1. Use fruits and vegetables that are seasonally available.
2. Plan ahead to save leftover cooked meat, chicken, lentils, and beans so they are ready when you want to assemble this salad for dinner.
3. Keep certain ingredients on hand in the freezer (frozen peas and edamame) and cupboard (tuna, beans, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and olives)
4. Use a theme to decide what to use in each layer. For example, if you have leftover leg of lamb, follow a Greek theme including spinach, olives, and feta cheese. What about a BLT salad with low fat blue cheese dressing and rye croutons?
5. Assemble the salad in a wide shallow serving bowl or on individual plates.


Layer 1: Lettuce base
Wash, dry, and tear into small pieces, whatever kind of lettuce you have (a mixture of colors and textures is ideal), including baby spinach, tender beet leaves, mint leaves, and other fresh herbs. Plan for about a cup of lettuce per person.

Layer 2: Raw vegetables
Wash, and slice or dice the raw vegetables and scatter uniformly on top of the lettuce. Right now, I would use: sprouts, cucumber, radishes, celery, green onions, snap peas, snow peas or shell peas, strawberries. As they become available, you can also use tomatoes, blueberries, apple slices, fennel, peppers, and zucchini. Here is where you can add defrosted peas and edamame, too.

Layer 3: Cooked vegetables
Blanch, drain, and chill any of the following as they are available in season: asparagus spears, green beans, sliced carrots, quartered beets, quartered red skin potatoes, corn, and broccoli or cauliflower florets.

Instead of scattering this layer, I am more inclined to place each type into a neat pile on top of the previous two layers.

Layer 4: Protein
Try one or two of the following items, arranged in neat piles on top of the previous layers:
• Al dente cooked lentils (Cook 1 cup of lentils in 1-1/2 cups water or broth for 45 minutes until the liquid is absorbed, and the lentils are tender but not mushy.)
• Leftover cooked chicken, ham, beef, or lamb. Cut into strips or cubes.
• Canned tuna or crabmeat
• Canned garbanzo beans or black beans
• Leftover cooked sausage, sliced
• Hard cooked eggs, sliced or quartered

Layer 5: Extras and toppers
Finish your salad with any of these additional items, but be careful to not overdo it with those that are high in fat:
• Blue or feta cheese crumbles, Parmesan shavings, Swiss cheese strips
• Olives, artichoke hearts, pickles
• Pumpkin or sunflower seeds, toasted walnuts or pecans
• Raisins or dried cranberries
• Bacon
• More fresh herbs or edible flowers
• Homemade or store-bought croutons.
• Homemade or store-bought low fat dressing. My favorites from the grocery store are: Ken’s Steak House lite varieties and Marie’s yogurt dressing.


Serve your salad family-style with tongs or on individual plates with bread or rolls on the side.

Summer Herb Recipes

Three Herb Sauces

While summer is the perfect time to make a batch of pesto, you can also make a variety of other delicious herb sauces to save the fresh and fragrant taste of summer for the winter ahead. These easy and versatile sauces freeze very well.
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Safety tip: when chopping and seeding hot chilies, wear a latex or plastic glove on the hand holding the chili to avoid getting the volatile oils on your skin. Wash your hands well after you are finished handling the chilies.

Cilantro Salsa

Makes about 2/3-1 cup which you can freeze in 1/3-cup portions. Freezes very well.

Ingredients
1 jalapeno chili, seeded
a large bunch of cilantro, tough stems removed
½ cup mint leaves
2 cloves garlic
½ cup olive oil or grape seed oil
Juice of a lime
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
salt to taste

Procedure
Place coarsely chopped chili, garlic, cilantro, and mint into food processor. Puree with the oil. Then add the lime juice, cumin, coriander and salt.

Use this to give a summery, Mexican taste to a variety of foods, or as the seasoning for tomato salsa or guacamole. It is excellent with eggs, potatoes, and rice.



Basic Green Herb Sauce
2 tbsp chopped shallots or green onions ( including some green part)
1 tbsp chopped garlic
½ cup chopped parsley
½ cup copped mixed herbs (dill, tarragon, thyme, mint, whatever you have)
2-3 tbsp capers, drained
grated zest of a lemon or lime
2-3 tsp juice from the lemon or lime
¼ to ¾ cup olive oil

Procedure
Place the onions, garlic, parsley, herbs capers, zest, and juice in your food processor and pulse until the desired level of puree is reached. Then in small amounts, start to add the olive oil until you have the thickness you want. This cause can be looser or tighter depending on how you plan to use it.

Suggestions: a great seasoning for roasted vegetables or spread on top of goat cheese and crackers for a snack.


Green Curry Paste
Makes 2/3-1 cup, enough for 2-3 dishes. which you can freeze in 1/3-cup portions. Freezes very well.

Ingredients
4-8 hot green chili peppers (jalapeno, serrano, whatever you have)
1 medium yellow onion
½ cup fresh cilantro
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger (or use crystallized ginger)
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp shrimp paste or fish sauce or anchovy paste

Procedure
Chop and seed the chilis. Leave more seeds for more heat. Coarsely chop the onion. Combine the chilies, onion, cilantro, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, pepper, and shrimp paste in a food processor. Pulse until you have a paste.

To use the paste for green curry sauce: For a family meal, use 3 to 4 tbps of curry paste. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet then add the paste and cook for about 30 seconds. Add a 14-ounce can of coconut milk (I use light coconut milk). Stir and bring to a boil. Add a cup of broth (chicken, vegetable, or seafood based on what you are including in the curry), 2-3 tbsp fish sauce and 2-3 tbsp sugar, if desired. Then add the meats and or vegetables you wish to the sauce to cook for about 10 minutes.

Suggestions for green curry: chicken, shrimp, or tofu and green beans, eggplant, zucchini and fresh basil leaves for a garnish. Serve with basmati rice.