So I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with salads. I feel I must clarify two things: first, I'm not obsessed with salads in the weird "I like to go out for dinner, order a salad, and pick at it so people won't think I'm a cow" way. Second, when I say salad, I don't mean some bland concotion of lots of iceberg lettuce, flavorless tomatoes, boxed croutons, random other veggies, and ranch dressing. I am obsessed with interesting, flavorful and, most importantly, filling salads. Which is why I don't order salads as a meal in restuarants (except for really good restaurants...but then who goes there to get a salad?) anymore. I have found that, most restaurants (Chili's, Applebee's, Friday's, etc...I'm looking right at you) tend to give me a salad that is a LOT of lettuce, a random assortment of vegetables most of which have no flavor, a dressing that is either too overpowering or too dull, and some tasteless grilled chicken (and I mean tasteless in the lacking of flavor sense, not in the Lindsey Lohan sense).
So faced with a new committment to eating healthier and working out, I have decided that I need to reclaim the salad. It is possible to make a salad that can be a meal in and of itself and won't leave me searching the cupboards for a bag of chips or scavenging through the freezer for a hidden pint of Haagen-Dazs. I think that I should be able to feel both full AND guilt-free after a meal. Also, salads are just so great for dinner in the summer because they just feel refreshing. Cool ingredients and bold flavors are perfect on hot nights with cold beer or, even better, a bottle of my newest obsession: dry rosé wine.
All of that is well and good, but how exactly does one create the perfect salad? Well, I think I've stumbled upon a recipe and it starts from the bottom up. The greens in a salad are very important. Most people don't think so because they think lettuce has no flavor. And that's true, iceberg lettuce has no flavor. But there's a whole world of greens out there and they all can bring something wonderful to the party. My perfect salad starts with a 50-50 mix of organic baby greens and organic baby arugula. I then add a small amount of my favorite vinaigrette. Emphasis on "small amount". The purpose of adding the dressing isn't to flavor the entire salad. It's to lightly the coat the greens with a small amount of flavor. The rest of the ingredients will have plenty of their own flavor.
Now that we've got a base, it's time to move on to the rest of the cast. First up, the protein. If you read the previous post, you know that I've become somewhat smitten with a tequila-marinated chicken recipe as of late. I like to grill a few of the chicken breasts at a time and then save them for use later in the week. I use about one half of a chicken breast, sliced relatively thin, for this salad. So far with just the chicken and the greens we've got a flavorul and yummy salad. But, of course, I am only getting started.
Because this salad is my perfect summer salad, I feel like having some summer veggies is critical. One thing I adore about the start of summer is that it is corn season. Fresh sweet white corn is available everywhere and it is cheap. Serisouly cheap. Like eight ears for $2 at Whole Foods kind of cheap. Yum. So I took an ear of corn and (after shucking and cleaning) I placed it in a foil-lined roasting dish in a 450-degree oven for about 20 minutes (turning once halfway through). This makes the corn a bit softer, but it's still got some crispness and it's incredibly sweet. Once the corn is done roasting I take it out, run it under cool water until I can handle it and then cut the ears off the cob. I put about half an ear of the corn on my salad and save the rest for later (that's the great thing about this salad - you can prepare the ingredients early in the week and then save them in the fridge and throw it together in a few minutes).
So far we have greens, dressing, chicken, and corn. But there's still more to come. I like to roast some red and yellow bell peppers and then put a few strips of roasted pepper on top of the salad. Then I add a few of the super-sweet and very cute grape tomatoes. I could stop there and have a decent salad, but the next two ingredients are my favorites.
The first of the favorite ingredients is goat cheese. I could eat goat cheese plain. I love the tangy, creamy flavor. And it goes amazingly well in this salad. A lot of the flavors in the salad are spicy, smoky, and sweet. The rich and tangy goat cheese adds a special note all its own. However, if you're not a goat cheese person, you could also use bleu cheese or feta.
And finally, I add one of my favorite foods of all time: avocado. I am utterly and completely devoted to avocado. I will eat pretty much anything if there is avocado in it. When I go to a restaurant and see a dish that contains avocado on the menu, it automatically moves into the list of things I'm considering to order. And it moves high up. I truly think that the avocado was God's gift to food. I would probably be able to more easily give up steak than I would avocado. So now that we're in avocado season and I can find good, ripe, Hass avocados, I have to include it in my salad. I slice one half of an avocado and place it on my salad as the ultimate finishing touch (since avocado browns once cut, I usually add it right before I'm ready to eat and I wrap the other half tightly in plastic wrap and then put it in a zip-top bag and place it in the fridge).
And there you have it. The only salad I'll ever need to make and one of my all-time favorite summer meals.
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