Salad: A Healthy Obsession

I'm here to talk to you about salad. It is an odd topic for me - as many of you know I am a prolific carnivore - but I have been talking vegetarianism/veganism with a few friends. (I'm not a dramatic convert but I do like to talk about these things to get some perspective. I even ate at a vege-vegan restaurant this evening. Big shouts to Sophie, Deb and Ellie for the recommendations!)

Anyway, back to it…

My new obsession with salad started at the bar of MoVida in Melbourne. Since tasting their gem lettuce heart with raw garlic, anchovy and olive oil, I have had this about three times a week. Now that the sun has returned to the UK in earnest, salad season is well and truly here. Whether it be with tomatoes - which are growing on me - or drizzled over chicory, this magical Spanish-inspired wonder dressing will keep that holiday feeling even after you get home to the mundanity of daily life.

The Dressing

Take a good slug of extra virgin, enough to generously cover the leaves you have chosen to sacrifice on the altar of sunshine. Smash and peel a clove of raw garlic before pressing it through a garlic crusher and adding it to the oil. Next, take four salted anchovy fillets and chop these to mince - really give it some with the business end of a cook’s knife. Mix all these lovely ingredients together in a bowl and leave to mellow for five to ten minutes. This sounds like the sort of thing that will allow the garlic to mellow out, but I don’t think it does - the garlic should still be a spicy kick to the tastebuds.

I’ve listed out a few things you could drizzle this dressing on below.

Beef Tomato Salad

Take one beef tomato for every three people, and slice the tomato into six slices - this assumes you bought your beef tomato from a supermarket where everything is uniform. I’ve tried using several different knives with varying degrees of success but the knife I found most effective was a serrated bread knife. If you use one with a single blade it could either slip and slash your hand, or pull the tomato’s skin in on itself in a science-fiction space-age black hole gravity well implosion. It’s like watching a tomato try to eat itself.

I have subsequently been informed by my editor Jen - BIG shout out to her - that there are these things called “Tomato knives”. She kindly sent me one via Amazon and I can report that a tomato knife is indeed very effective at slicing tomatoes. Having said that, it’s basically a miniature bread knife so I’m still claiming victory over this.

Drizzle the dressing over the tomato and crack some black pepper over the top. Take a few basil leaves and shred them for scattering at service.

Bruschetta/Pan Catalan/Tomato Bread

I will receive angry responses from two close foodie friends of mine for a) likening Bruschetta to Pan Catalan and b) likening Pan Catalan to Bruschetta. I’m aware that these are different but, seeing as the majority of my readership are from the UK, we either a) don’t care enough to let it bother us, or b) we just call it tomato bread.

Take some plum/beef tomato slices, and either chop them to pulp (to make Bruschetta) or smear them violently over dried ciabatta (Pan Catalan...on Italian bread). Generously attack with the garlic/anchovy dressing and force it into the bread by any means necessary. I’d even go as far as to spoon a tablespoon of the mixture onto the bread and press it in with the back of the utensil. It’s great therapy at the end of a stressful day. This can make for a lovely sandwich if you arrange two slices of bread on top of one another; I added two slices of beef tomato running through the middle for my supper today. C’etait tres delicieux.

Gem Lettuce Hearts

This is MoVida’s “recipe”. Take an ice cold gem lettuce and cut into quarters. Wash the quarters and dry them by any means necessary - but for God’s sake please don’t press or squash them as they’ll lose their lovely shape which also helps retain the dressing. My mum swears by a salad spinner but I think it takes up too much space in the cupboard; I tend to use the “Grays Road” method which is to shake something violently to dry it off. Please do not try this with animals or babies. Your choice; I digress.

Separate the leaves as you would rummage for a dog toy lost in a tree fern, ensuring that half a teaspoon of dressing gets between every leaf, and serve immediately so that the lettuce is still cold when it enters the diner’s mouth.

So, here ends my slightly late (a baby could have been conceived and born in this time) ramble through the hedgerows looking at salads. Hopefully this will inspire you for when the weather improves. If you’re in Australia, make good use of it whilst the sun doth shine. If you’re in the UK, pray for sunshine and we may get a few days down the road.