Reina's School of Salads

As warmer weather comes in to Southern California, we thrive with our best foods. With everything blooming and the seasons changing, it means it’s time for some great salads.

Mind you, in California, salads are not so much a food as really a way of life. Need proof? A few days after my wedding two and a half years back, I went to lunch with my new mother-in-law (who I lovingly call Ima) and Maureen Martin, a new cousin from London that came out for the event. We sat down to have lunch at a restaurant where there were some beautiful salads to choose from. Maureen looked up from the menu, and then said, “You know, I’ve never had so much salad in my life as I have here.”

Here, salads are large, small, homey or downright experimental. They can be comforting, gourmet, or something that you have never tasted before. But the best part is that they are simple and often cheap to make. You can throw almost anything into a salad, save for ice cream (and don’t tempt me – I love it so much, I may just do it). Salads are a great way to use leftover items in your fridge, canned items such as beans and tuna, and the main ingredient doesn’t necessarily have to be lettuce if you don’t want it to be.

So on that note, I have decided to do a blog dedicated to coming up with salad ideas. I have given you some recipes, but I think that salads allow your inner creativity to flourish. Here are my best tips for salads:

• When it comes to choosing your salad base, you should be thoughtful of it. It should be something that you can get plenty of. Lettuce is always good, as are beans. There are plenty of other bases for salads: beets, carrots, even broccoli coleslaw. The object is that it should be plentiful and hearty enough.

• The traditional base is lettuce or some dark leafy green, and you should consider which one to choose. Romaine is mild, crunchy and fresh, while spinach has a good flavor and adds a lot of body. Butter lettuce has a wonderful texture, and oak lettuce is really beautiful and different. The only lettuce I don’t really encourage the use of is iceberg lettuce – unless it’s a modified wedge salad (without the bacon, of course) or if you have problems with your Coumadin. It’s crunchy, but there’s not a ton of flavor.

• Your salad should have a variety of textures, tastes and colors. For example, in the strawberry salad recipe below, you may notice that there are strawberries, but there are also white beans, olives, green onions and gorgonzola cheese. These all provide a different element – strawberries provide sweetness and color, olives provide an accent and salty yet meaty bite, beans offer creaminess and green onions offer a savory and sharp taste. The gorgonzola cheese connects the dots by offering a creaminess and sharpness, while the dressing adds a bit of sweetness.

• Although you should be considering this with whatever you eat, with salads it’s extremely important to make sure to use seasonal ingredients. Sure, you can get strawberries in the wintertime, but the chances are they won’t be as good as getting them during strawberry season, which is usually spring to early summer. When you’re using your ingredients raw, without the mask of cooking them, it’s best to get the freshest possible.

• If you’re going to use canned ingredients, give them a quick rinse to remove the packing liquid. You don’t want your beans and olives to taste like they’ve been in a can.

• If you need some extra protein in a leafy salad, feel free to add some canned tuna or salmon to the mix. Although you can make tuna or salmon salad on its own, it can also be good when mixed in. If you are vegetarian, just stick with beans or hard-boiled eggs for a protein. Another good option is to cook up some salmon or some tofu and put it on the salad hot – my mom does this with salmon and pasta, and it’s just yummy.

• Dressing is an important consideration for any salad. You can use store bought (and I do – Ken’s Steakhouse is a great brand that has many O-U choices), but you can also make your own. Just remember that you should use really good ingredients, particularly when it comes to olive oil when making vinaigrette. All olive oils are different, but you should always use an extra virgin olive oil when you’re making a dressing. Don’t know which one to pick? In certain cities, there are places that offer olive oil tastings – and they are quite enjoyable.

• Meats are possible on salads, and some that you never thought of. Up in LA, if you go to Pico Kosher Deli, you can get a delicious Cobb salad – complete with bits of pastrami, chicken and pareve ranch dressing. So yes, you can make a Chinese chicken salad if you want to. Just be careful if you choose a store bought dressing to check the hechsher.

• Above all, have fun and be creative. There are tons of fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses (although not in the same salad, people!) and other such items that can be wonderful in your salads. So, enjoy and p’tay avon!

The recipe below is for one of my favorite people in the world, Ann Mellon. She was my sales rep at my last job, and I just adore her, her husband Frank and their little boy Daniel. They came to my Ima’s house one day, and she served them a strawberry salad that was really good. This is my version, complete with my family’s traditional dressing, and I hope she likes it.

STRAWBERRY SALAD

3 small heads or one large head of romaine lettuce

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 can cannellini beans

1 can olives

4 green onions

1 cup slices hearts of palm, rinsed

Gorgonzola cheese (optional for dairy)

DRESSING:

¼ cup rice vinegar

2-3 tablespoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons dill weed

½ cup olive oil

Wash and rinse romaine (see KOSHER ALERT!). Chop off the ends and then chop into 1-inch leaves. Pour into bowl. Rinse beans and olives and add to lettuce. Slice off ends of green onions and cut into ¼ inch pieces. Add strawberries and hearts of palm.

In a small bowl, mix the rice vinegar, garlic powder and dill weed. While stirring with a whisk, add the olive oil so that it will emulsify completely. Taste and adjust to your liking before adding to the salad. Serve with gorgonzola cheese on the side.

QUICK TIP: I love gorgonzola with this recipe as it has a little bit of a pungent flavor that I find complements the strawberries and dressing nicely. However, if you don’t like it or can’t find it, I think some shavings of parmesan will be just as delicious.

KOSHER ALERT!: Make sure that whenever you use fresh lettuce like romaine to make sure to inspect for bugs. Rachel Bookstein likes to use a tub and mixes the water with a teaspoon of vinegar. That way, all the little bugs will rise to the surface.