Lime dressing, arugula add spice to salad

Michael Smith, the prolific cookbook writer from Prince Edward Island, is at it again with a new collection of more than 100 recipes called Real Food, Real Good (Penguin, $32). The appetizing photographs of Toronto food photographer Ryan Szulc again make Smith’s cuisine tempting, and this salad is a good example.

A proponent throughout his career, and in his nine previous books, of fresh, local food, the chef pledges in this book to battle what he calls “a relentless hurricane of less and less home cooking, more and more nutritionally vacant processed food.” His introductory pages about what he means by real food, how to switch over to it in your kitchen, his 12 “superfoods” and nutritional information about all the basic foods, make an excellent read.

As Smith followers know, the recipes are easy and well-tested. You can use your regular vinaigrette on this salad, but the spicy lime dressing is a plus.