This recipe makes enough salad for a picnic in the park, or to pack in your lunch all week.
Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
You can use any vinegar for this recipe. Make sure it's good quality because there's no oil to offset it. Seasoned rice wine vinegar, used in Asian cooking, tastes great with the carrots.
The cooking method here is similar to pasta. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and simmer the rice for exactly 10 minutes. The rice doesn't absorb the water; the extra liquid helps the grains stay separate for this salad. A squeezed lemon half (including the rind) in the water helps keep the grains white.
I recently devoured a sugar snap pea and radish salad at Locanda Verde, a new restaurant in TriBeCa, that was so succulent and sprightly that I became more determined than ever to make sure my next haul was large enough to accommodate both prodigious snacking and salad. Inspired, I also picked up some radishes, which have a gentle bitterness that pairs well with the crisp sugariness of the peas. Locanda Verde’s chef, Andrew Carmellini, dressed his salad with two pestos, a Sicilian one made from sun-dried tomatoes, almonds and olive oil, and a regular basil pesto.
This recipe originally accompanied Baja Fish Tacos .
Yield: Makes 8 servings
2 cups fine-shredded green cabbage
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp honey
2 tbsp minced red onion
2 tsp minced jalapeños
Pasta salad made with whole-wheat penne or fusilli is considerably more nutritious than a salad with regular pasta. De Cecco brand whole-wheat has a particularly good taste. This salad is tossed with grilled zucchini and roasted peppers, along with red onion, yellow or red cherry tomatoes, and crumbled feta. Add other cooked or raw vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, fennel), chopped green or black olives, or shredded Parmesan instead of feta.
Say the word barbecue and coleslaw immediately comes to mind, usually with a mayonnaise dressing. This is not your typical slaw. Greek yogurt forms the base of the dressing, with a touch of toasted curry powder (heating the spice brings out the flavor) and fresh ginger. Instead of using sugar, add raisins (or mangos) as a sweet note for the tart yogurt.
This is one of my most requested recipes. Using equal amounts of rice vinegar and sugar, you can make a simple, quick carrot, cucumber, or daikon radish pickle. Or try this same method with zucchini or summer squash. Make it spicy by adding 1 teaspoon of crushed, dried chili peppers. The cool, tart vegetables nicely complement hot or room temperature grilled foods.
A composed salad of salmon, potatoes, eggs, and leafy greens is a dish that seems just right all summer. Yukon Gold potatoes boil nicely and their yellow flesh looks pretty next to flaky pink salmon. When the potatoes are cooked remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and keep the water boiling to cook the eggs. The eggs will be perfect (yolks bright yellow and whites set but still creamy) after just 9 minutes. Get them into cold water quickly. Both romaine and bibb lettuces are juicy, crisp, and refreshing on a warm day.