Salad Days

Wilma Kenny | Aug 24, 2016

By this time of summer, the ‘baby greens’ are getting big, tough and bitter. If the critters haven’t eaten your lettuce, it’s dried up or bolted. Here are some of my favourite less traditional versions of raw summer garden treats, broadly described as salads.

Watermelon Salad

This is a strictly summer salad, for the melon must be very sweet, and the mint fresh. It has only four ingredients, is quick to make at the last minute and should be eaten within an hour or so of being made. It’s a lovely balance of sweet, salt and tart flavours.

Warning: If you bring it to a potluck, you may have to insist it’s a main course accompaniment, for two or three helpful folks are sure to relocate it to the dessert table.

1 small seedless watermelon, cut into bite-sized pieces (or use a melon-baller, if you want it to look fancy.)

Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar.

Add: 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, and

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh mint

Toss together & add more cheese, vinegar or mint to taste.

Serve chilled.

Cucumber-Dill Salad

A crisp,refreshing almost-a-pickle side dish, this must be made at least four hours ahead of time, and is still excellent the next day. Even people who don’t much appreciate plain fresh cucumber slices will enjoy it. (There are such people: I’m one.)

2 long ‘English’ cucumbers (or an equivalent amount of ‘burpless’ cucumbers from your garden) washed and sliced very thinly.

Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir, set aside for a few minutes. Stir again and drain before adding dressing.

For dressing, combine:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup each white vinegar and water

1/4 cup chopped dill ‘weed’ or leaves

2 cloves garlic, slivered

Bring to a boil, pour over cucumbers, refrigerate 4 hours or overnight, stirring once or twice to marinate all cucumbers. Serve with anything from the barbecue, or on make-your-own open faced sandwiches.

Napa Cabbage Salad

This crunchy salad serves 6; for a big crowd, recipe can be doubled. It looks like a lot of cabbage when you start, but most people go back for seconds, then ask for the recipe. The ‘secret ingredient’ here is creative use of one of those little packages of instant noodle soup that were almost as popular as Kraft Dinner when I was learning to cook in my hungry tight-budget days. Needs to be made a few hours or even a day ahead.

1 pkg Ramen instant noodles with chicken (or other)-flavoured soup base

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 Tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp white sugar

optional: few drops sesame oil (recommend Kadoya brand)

1/2 large Napa cabbage

4 green onions chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 sweet red pepper, diced (optional)

1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted

1. An hour or more before using, mix the soup flavour packet from the soup package with the oil, vinegar and sugar. Stir occasionally.

2. Chop the cabbage (I use food processor) You should have about 8 cups. Add onions, parsley & pepper.

3. Mix the dressing thoroughly with cabbage at least an hour before serving; stir once or twice.

4. Drain off extra moisture before adding final ingredients.

5. Just before serving, add slightly crushed dry soup noodles, sesame seeds & almonds. Toss to mix.

Notes:

• Toast almonds and sesame seeds on shallow baking pan at 375 deg for 3-6 minutes, stirring often, til golden.

• Main salad can be made day before: add nuts, noodles just before serving.

• Savoy or regular cabbage is an ok substitute.

• A few drops of dark sesame oil adds an extra touch of flavour just before serving, and gives an almost smoky taste to many Eastern dishes.

• Once the dry noodles have been added, this salad needs to be served and eaten soon, before it loses its crispness.

Tom’s Tomato Salad

I was first served this ‘instant’ salad by a clever bachelor who knew how to make the most of minimal cooking skills. It’s best for those late days of summer when you’re almost tired of tomatoes fresh from the garden. (Though an over-abundance of tomatoes may be hard to imagine right now, what with drought, deer and tomato wilt.)

Cut several fresh, sun-warm tomatoes into bite-size pieces.

Stir in one small jar of pickled artichokes, juice and all. (Chop the artichoke chunks up a bit, first.)

Serve.

Good with crusty, buttered bread.