New book puts salad front and centre
These recipes go beyond greens for main course inspirations
When I think of salads, I think of side dishes.
The big bowl of greens served beside dinner or nudged up against a sandwich at lunch. They are rarely, if ever, in my world the main attraction.
Maybe the problem has been I lack inspiration when it comes to salads, falling back on the usual combination of lettuce, carrots and tomatoes tossed with a homemade vinaigrette — with the odd handful of nuts or cheese thrown in when I remember I have those things on hand. Or it might be a chicken- or- egg situation; I’m uninspired so it doesn’t occur to me to think of it salad as the star of the show, or I don’t think of salad as the centre of a meal, so I don’t bother to get inspired.
Nicola Graimes doesn’t have that problem. The latest book from the English food writer puts salads centre stage. The Salad Bowl ( Ryland Peters & Small) features more than 75 recipes with full- colour, expertly styled, inviting photos for almost every one. Divided into chapters by their main ingredients — pulses, grains, dairy, meat and poultry, and fish and shellfish — the recipes touch on various international cuisines and include some more unusual ingredients and flavour combinations.
The book seems less like a collection of salads than one of recipes of which most have a healthy base of vegetables. A Seared Lamb with Pea, Mint and Radish salad, for example, is like a lamb dinner minus the starch and topped with a tangy lemon dressing. The Vietnamesestyle Beef Salad is like a bowl of pho with the noodles and broth replaced with long strips of cucumber, carrot and cabbage.
And maybe that’s the trick. And the reason I was bookmarking what felt like every other recipe when trying to decide what to make before finally settling on a Tandoori Chicken Salad with Crisp Chickpeas and Mango.
This — like the rest of the recipes in The Salad Bowl — is not your typical salad. It may start with greens, but that’s just the base. They are topped with a tender chicken breast cooked in tandoori spices and yogurt, chickpeas roasted until crispy, slivers of red onion for a bit of bite and slices of sweet mango. ( I will admit, a small part of the recipe’s appeal was getting a chance to try the water- glass- mango- peeling trick.) There’s a little more organization involved than a standard salad, but any extra effort is worth it when everything is on the plate. The heat of the chicken is offset by the mango and the mint- yogurt dressing, while the chickpeas offer a nice crunch, like croutons but far more exotic.
I was happy to have to make it twice. Then, instead of re- purposing leftovers into a salad, I turned my leftovers into a satisfying main dish by swapping out the greens for some couscous and a dollop of chutney served alongside.
Graimes has me thinking differently about salads. And while I may not be quite inspired enough to come up with creations on my own, I will be trying the rest of the ones I bookmarked in her book.
Any extra effort is worth it when everything is on the plate.