First, if you're interested, I interviewed Bob Mariano, CEO of Roundy's and Mariano's, the grocery store chain here in Chicago that magically gives you a Whole Foods-type experience but at non Whole Paycheck prices. I had an idea for him on how to improve the shopping experience and I'm sure you'll agree that it's a good one.
Anyway, everyone says that they have an easier time eating healthy in the summer compared to the winter, but that's not the case for me. The outdoors just inspires festive, beer-and-margarita-fueled binges of hamburgers and chips and guac and ice cream. It's hard to stay on track. This summer though I've made several veggie-ful things from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen and they have helped me remember that there can be joy in eating healthy, that it's not just the steamed veggies and poached fish that always seems like the only alternative when I'm wavering between calorie blowout or martyr-ey restriction.
Salads Unto Themselves:
Napa Cabbage Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
I made this last night for dinner along some steaks my husband grilled. I had at least three servings: it's crunchy and savory and tasty and light, but not so light that it doesn't feel substantive. In fact, it even made me feel favoraby towards celery again, which I've been on the outs with for some time. To make life easier on myself, I just used a bag of radish matchsticks instead of actually dicing radishes. Also, I just used the entire napa cabbage (what would I do with some leftover napa cabbage? Let it rot in the fridge, that's what) and added a little bit of extra of everything to the dressing to make sure it would all go around (which I didn't need to do, it turned out: there was still more than enough dressing.) I dressed the whole thing and took it to lunch the next day, to find that it was still delicious and crunchy but a tad more coleslaw-y, so if you love the crunch and want to make leftovers last awhile, I'd just dress what you eat immediately and save the dressing and vegs for your later meals.
Carrot Salad with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas
I made this for my friend Erica when she came over and we finished the whole thing between the two of us, even though it was quite filling (we ate it with some meatballs that I'm not too proud to say I got from behind the deli counter at the Jewel.) We loved slighty nutty creaminess of the dressing, and the way the spice of the chickpeas played off the sweetness of the carrots. My Cuisinart was awesome at shredding all them carrots up quickly. I used a mallet and a plastic bag for the pistachios because I hate chopping nuts. Also, NB, it took me about 10-15 minutes more than what the recipe suggested to get my chickpeas crisp because my oven is weak-ass and I also half-assed the drying process of the beans.
Barley, Corn and Haricot Vert Salad
I felt kind of apologetic when I made this for my friend Molly when she came over for dinner (you don't make friends with salad) but I need not have: this has everything that is awesome, according to me. When I posted it on Facebook, somebody mocked the term "haricot vert," but I actually bought the fancy little beans at Treasure Island and was glad I did: I'm sure regular beans would have been fine, too, but the skinniness and delicacy of the French version made it a really forkable salad. I actually ignored the directive that you cook the corn first, and I was more than pleased with the way it turned out (I noticed that Deb posted this recipe in May, and I made it in July so that probably explains our corn differences.) I just sliced the corn off the cob and threw it in. Finally, cutting the arugula was new to me but again, it made the salad really easy to max on: I like a salad you don't have to finagle (which is why I hate frisee).
Side Salads:
I wouldn't call this a meal salad on its but it was still a keeper (a keepr for me, in case you're wondering, is one that merits being cut and pasted into my recipe binder, along with a heart drawn on it.) I hosted my family for Father's Day and made this to go with some burgers and grilled corn and peach ice cream (which was a total pain in the ass and not that great; ugh.) I have always been wary around potato salads: sometimes they just seem like a heart attack in a tupperware container, one that isn't even really that much worth having. This one, however, as Deb describes, is "cluttered, crunchy and bright." I have nothing else to say about it except that we happened to have a variety of little baby pickles in our fridge and I would just go with those over dill pickle spears because I can't imagine they would be better than the cornichon.
Ignore the chicken part of this blog post (I have only encourtered one grilled chicken recipe in my life that is worth a damn and I'll share that some other day) and make the slaw the next time you are preparing some sort of barbecue-y meat thing, especially for a crowd, since it's so pretty with the green dressing and the purple vegs. I warn you that this recipe gives you really...bold breath, between the green onions in the dressing and the red onions in the slaw, but who cares. I personally find red cabbage to be one of the more filling, satisfying veggies out there and red onion usually is the best thing in any given recipe, so I was a big fan. I imagine if you threw in some shredded rotisserie chicken this could be a meal-salad. Also, I bet it would be fabulous on some shredded pork tacos.
(Do you like how this post was originally about salad and I ended it with pork tacos?)