Mix up your lunch at home
Top Toronto chefs share expert tips to transform your tired WFH salad into something to look forward to
Chefs offer tips on how to spice up work-from-home salad.
When I worked in an office, my lunch routine often involved ordering different variations on the same delicious chopped salad from a food delivery app and then eating it at my desk. Many of my colleagues did the same, and by the end of the day, the office fridge looked like a Jenga game: stacked brown takeout boxes stuffed with remnants of spring mix, farro, sweet potatoes and pomegranate seeds. And while working from home means I’ve dropped the unhealthy habit of robotically shovelling shredded kale in my mouth with one hand while typing with the other, my salads have become a seriously sad combination of whatever dinner leftovers happen to be piling up and any wilting veggies on the brink of expiration.
But the salads we make at home don’t have to be uninspired. All it takes is a reliable and foolproof formula and a killer dressing. Here, Zachary Kolomeir, chef at the new Taverne Bernhardt’s, and Jed Smith, of Junction fave Donna’s, offer tips for making a flavourful and filling salad.
Eat in season — even in winter: The main ingredients of a salad should always be seasonal, says Smith.
“It’s going to have the best flavour if it’s in season.” In other words, don’t put asparagus in your salad in the middle of February. Consider apples and pears, winter citrus like grapefruit, or persimmon, which Smith says is both sweet and sour. “We also use a lot of kale and brussels sprouts in our winter salads, as well as roasted squash or pickled squash,” he says. And for full flavour, don’t forget to season your vegetables. “We roast sweet potato, rutabaga and parsnips, and we season them with paprika, brown sugar and black pepper,” says Kolomeir.
Dress for success: Consider greens the vehicle for flavour, says Smith. “At Donna’s, we make a leafy green salad that looks like what would come up if you searched the word salad in the dictionary — it’s just lettuce, some boiled eggs and croutons.” But when tossed with Donna’s signature vinaigrette, which is made with brown butter, soy sauce, sumac, and sherry vinegar, it’s transformed into a coveted dish that had regulars begging them to bottle the dressing and sell it. (Good news: now they do.)
Bernhardt’s do-it-all vinaigrette features horseradish, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, grated raw garlic, cold-pressed canola oil (if you don’t have cold-pressed sub in olive, sunflower or avocado oil, says Kolomeir), and plenty of black pepper. “It’s spicy, sweet, acidic, fatty and tangy. You can drizzle it over roasted vegetables or serve it with little gem lettuce or radicchio. You can even marinate ribs in it,” says Kolomeir. Once you know that a vinaigrette is typically one part vinegar mixed with three parts oil, you can experiment with other ingredients and spices, he says. “There’s no rule book on salad dressing, but you need to make sure that you’re riding the balance between fat and acidity.”
And if you want to make a quick creamy dressing, get yourself some tahini. “It’s one ingredient that can really up your salad game,” says Kolomeir, who suggests scooping some right out of the jar whisking it with ice water until smooth, and then seasoning it with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, pepper, salt, a little bit of cumin, and a dash of hot sauce.
Think beyond mixed greens: Cooked grains and lentils are a great way to add sustenance to a winter salad, says Smith. And since it’s potato season at the moment, why not do a wintery potato salad? asks Kolomeir. If you’re set on lettuce, consider salad sleeper hits like escarole or endives, which are Kolomeir’s “favourite vegetable in the world” because you can roast them or eat them raw, and they’re great paired with salty anchovies or blue cheese to cut the bitterness. And if there’s wilting lettuce it in your fridge right now, Kolomeir has a plan. “Buttered lettuce is a classic French dish,” he explains. “There’s nothing more delicious than peas, bacon and wilted lettuce and butter alongside a piece of chicken or fish.”
Look to sandwiches for inspiration: “I’m a sandwich guy, but I’m also a salad guy,” says Kolomeir, “and I realized that any sandwich can be made into a salad.” So try reimagining a club sandwich as a chopped salad with chicken, bacon and avocado, or channelling a deli sandwich like a muffuletta by adding cold cuts and olives to your greens.
Rethink your proteins: While chicken is a go-to salad protein, you should also get into tinned fish, says Smith, which happens to be a big food trend at the moment. “A can of sardines or cod liver in a salad is really good.” Or try the salad version of steak and potatoes by adding thinly sliced steak to arugula, sweet potato and lentils. And if burrata isn’t in your budget, maybe it’s time to give cottage cheese a chance. “Just throw some olive oil, salt and pepper on it, and it’s exactly the same as the inside of burrata,” says Smith, who tops it with a roasted cauliflower, lentil, watercress and frisée salad at Donna’s.
Go big on texture and acidity: “At Donna’s, our salads are always high in acidity because it keeps your palate awake,” says Smith, which is why his favourite salad ingredient provides a little jolt: “Marinate green or white cabbage in an acid, like lemon juice or vinegar, for a few hours and add that to your salad for a quick acidity punch.” Keeping texture front-of-mind is another way to make sure your salads taste exciting. “You want crunchy things and soft things and crispy things,” says Kolomeir. “I love salads that have toasted nuts and seeds, and crispy garlic and fried onions.” That mix of textures and ingredients makes every bite taste different, whether that’s a pickled bean, a roasted vegetable or a fresh piece of fruit.