Times have Changed……Anything Goes!” So wrote Cole Porter in 1934, when the world as they knew it was collapsing at their feet.
So, at home, locked down… stuck in, unable to find every single ingredient you need to try this anything goes salad.
As my great grandmother who raised her family in southern Italy in the 1930s, always said, ‘if you don’t have it…you don’t need it.’
ANYTHING GOES SALAD
Open your fridge…bring out the salad drawer and put together a mixture of ‘anything goes!’
Ingredients
Handful of each of any of the following:
Broad beans
Asparagus spears
Red peppers
Small red onion, thinly sliced
Little gem lettuce
Radicchio or chicory, bitter leaves
Fresh mint leaves
Flat leaf parsley
Greek black olives
Greek feta or any salty cheese
Method
Pod the broad beans and remove the inner fluffy seed cover to reveal delicious fresh beans.
Asparagus spears need to be well washed as they can harbour grit in the fronds. Use a potato peeler to trim away the tough pointed leaves along the stems. Cut lengthways.
Red peppers can give some people indigestion if eaten raw. Use a potato peeler to remove the outside skin and remove inner seeds. Cut into thin slithers.
Slice a red onion very thinly and soak in a cup of cold water for 10 minutes or so to take away the sharp taste and crisp the texture of the onion.
Please, please buy whole heads of lettuce, chicory and radicchio instead of mixed bags of salad leaves. You can use the leaves from each head and mix and match as you fancy. Not only are the leaves much fresher, and tastier they are less likely to be contaminated with bugs that can breed in sealed bags. Fill a clean bowl with salted cold water and some ice cubes and add the cleaned lettuce leaves to refresh them.
Use fresh herbs like parsley, basil and mint to add bursts of flavour.
Add all the prepared leaves and vegetables in a large bowl.
Dress the salad and just before serving sprinkle with crumbled salty feta to make it very moreish and irresistible.
Dressing
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Zest and juice half a lemon
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Sea salt and ground black pepper.
Method
Put all the ingredients into a tight-fitting jar and shake it up and down until everything is emulsified into a tasty dressing.
Check seasoning and use as required.
If you like the salad dressing make four times as much next time and store it in the fridge for when you need it
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