Along about mid December, the thought of fresh salad is a pretty good one. On the other hand, the thought of fresh salad made with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, green onions, and the like, just doesn't seem to fit the season. Not that we can't go to any grocery store and defy the season with the offerings there, but somehow, a salad made with ingredients more in keeping with winter (long-storing, cold-weather growing varieties), seems a better choice. So, you can imagine my moderate-to-high excitement when I came across two salad recipes recently whose crunch comes from kale and cabbage, instead of lettuce and greens.
I dove right in.
The first, I made for a gathering of girlfriends I hosted at the little house a few weeks back. My initial plan for the evening's food was simply dessert. But then, you know how it goes. One thing led to another and I was soon off preparing a whole meal to go along with the dessert. I must say, all the applause is due for rabbit trails and divergent plans such as this, because we got to eat Kale and Quinoa Salad (I substituted feta for the ricotta salata - cheese choices are limited in rural Wyoming grocery stores), and with it we got to eat Wild Mushroom & Stilton Galette (again, plain old, tame button mushrooms, because, Wyoming). We could. not. stop. dishing. our. plates.
I know you want to pause the world right now and make this food.
But wait.
You haven't yet heard about the Date, Feta, and Red Cabbage Salad that just happened in my kitchen this week.
The simple fact that it calls for red cabbage should excite you, because (let me connect the dots) a heap of vivid magenta-colored ribbons, glossed with dressing, sitting on your plate, in the bleakness of mid-winter, should be terribly exciting. Then add feta, dates, and toasted sesame seeds to the glossy magenta mix and you may never wish for spring again (my only tweak here was to use sesame oil in place of olive).
Eat it every day following for lunch (it won't last much longer than two), alongside various things like torn bread with butter, a hunk of roast chicken, or yolky steamed eggs with salt and cracked pepper. Today, it was roast chicken that accompanied, and my just-up-from-the-lunch-table review is that, with such ample time to mellow and marinate, it tasted even better today than it did two days ago.
Okay, now you can pause the world and go make this food.
I'm just sorry you'll have to decide which to make first.
What about you? Any go-to winter-time salads in your recipe box? I'd love to hear!
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