Thursday, March 15, 2012

Salad Week

I have decided that it is time for salad week. I just got back from a vacation. I ate a lot of good food and a lot of dessert. So now, I feel the need for salad. A whole week with salads for dinner each night. But there are some rules, of course. These salads must be greens based - some form of greens must make up a majority of the salad. Also, I want to branch out beyond my normal staples of spinach and red leaf lettuce. Therefore, a different green base each day. Some greens that I don't use as much are chicory, arugula, endive, seaweed, radicchio, watercress, and mâché. Oh, cabbage would also count! I also think that there should be a significant portion of raw veggies. A cooked component is fine, but it cannot be the major component.

Here is my planned menu, in no particular order:

1) Taco Salad - the childhood classic version I grew up with that includes Mexican black eyed peas and my staple red leaf lettuce. With tortilla chips, avocado, and lots of cilantro!

2) Chinese Tofu Salad - from my blog recipe, maybe with a mix of cabbage and romaine. Just to shake things up a bit. And watercress, if I can find it.

3) Seaweed Salad - from Mark Bitman's cookbook and served with cucumber, avocado, and maybe a rice ball rolled in sesame seeds.

4) Salad Rolls - with spinach, carrots, avocado, and an herb explosion, or as close as I can get to an herb explosion in early March (basil, cilantro, uh ... I guess we will see how the new Whole Foods is). Oh, and peanut sauce. Yeah, definitely peanut sauce. You know, for protein!

5) Lentil Salad - French Lentil Salad with Caramelized Balsamic Vinaigrette from Vegetarian Planet, to be exact. I know, I know, this is a lentil salad, and I specified a salad based in greens. Well, what I will do is serve a nice spoonful of this salad on a bed of greens. Probably butter lettuce or something suitably delicate. Maybe with some good cheese on the side, like brie. Or chèvre, my seemingly eternal favorite.

6) Endive and Citrus - this is a salad I made up. Well, made up based on a salad I ate at a restaurant. It is sliced endive with bell pepper and orange segments in an orange cilantro vinaigrette. I'm still wondering what would be good to add to make it feel like more of a meal. Avocado? Wait, I can't eat avocado with my salad four days in one week ... or can I? I am considering incorporating wild rice, making it a wild rice, endive, and citrus salad. We'll see how I feel.

7) Something with escarole. I need to look up recipes.