Summer salads we claim as our birthright, but amid the starchy foods of winter, a salad of raw or lightly cooked vegetables can have an even greater impact on a meal, the freshness of a dressing or the bite of something crunchy acting as a lively, arresting counterpoint.
For a Monday night dinner recently, to partner a blue cheese potato gratin, I boiled some beetroot, then peeled and sliced them, and over the top sprinkled a few shreds of mizuna (a japanese salad leaf), rocket and shallot, with a good drizzle of walnut oil and a pinch of salt to bring the flavours together. The freshness offset the rich gratin perfectly, and it's something I shall make again.
Winter salads can be the simplest things, as we see below with Nika Hazleton's Broccoli with Oil and Lemon, or more complex, substantial affairs, like Suzanne Whitty's fun Mixed Bean Salad.
Roast Red Onion, Chicory, Crouton and Green Bean Salad
We begin with an idea from Peter Gordon, which caught our attention mainly because of the funky roasted red onions it features and the use of chicory, which is now in all the shops. Gordon serves this salad with asparagus, so at this time of year substitute green beans rather than use imported asparagus.
3 medium-sized red onions, peeled and sliced into 5mm (1/2-inch) rings
150ml (5 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
100ml (31/2 fl oz) balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
6 slices stale bread, crust removed and cut into rectangles
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 heads chicory 24 green beans
Turn the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Put the sliced onions, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper into a ceramic ovenproof dish and seal tightly with foil. Use a dish that's just large enough to hold the onions. Bake in the oven for one hour, remove the foil and cook for another 15 minutes, then remove and cool completely. Drop the temperature to 150C/300F/gas 2 and lay the bread slices on a baking sheet. Brush them with the olive oil and bake until golden on both sides, then remove from the oven to cool.
Cut 2cm (three-quarter inch) from the base of each chicory head and separate the leaves, wash and drain. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Drop the beans into the boiling water for a minute. Drain and refresh in cold water. Mix the onions and their cooking juices, the chicory and beans together. Serve on a plate with the croutons on top.
Broccoli with Oil and Lemon
Nika Hazleton suggests that aside from broccoli, you can use cauliflower, green beans, chard or spinach with this simple treatment, the favourite Italian way of eating vegetables. If you are someone who never eats the stalk of broccoli, do give it a try, cut up as in this recipe; the stalk is as delicious as the florets. Cook in well-salted water to bring out the greenness of the broccoli.
1 large head of broccoli, trimmed, heads cut into florets, stems peeled and cut into three-inch pieces, washed and drained
4 fl oz (10cl) extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juice strained
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Cook the broccoli in just enough boiling salted water to cover it for four to five minutes, or until tender but still crisp. Drain and put the broccoli into a serving dish. Combine the oil, lemon juice and a little salt and pepper and pour over the broccoli. Serve hot or cold.
Note: if you have good fresh fennel, do something similar to this but don't cook the fennel. Simply slice it as thin as you can, and pour over it some lemon juice and Pernod, then leave for an hour. Stir the mixture again and then pour over it your best olive oil. Simon Hopkinson suggests this as a very good accompaniment to grilled fish.
Suzanne's Michigan Bean Salad Suzanne Whitty runs and cooks in Suzanne's, our local restaurant, and here is one of her splendid bean salads, always a feature of the restaurant. The cooking of the beans is a little bit of a palaver, as they need to be done separately, so cook plenty and then use them in various ways over the period of a few days.
The Beans:
Aduki beans
Flageolet Beans
Lentils
The Vegetables:
carrots, finely diced
onion, finely diced
celery, finely diced
red, green and or yellow pepper, finely diced
The Dressing:
Make the dressing with equal amounts of oil, vinegar and sugar, with herbs e.g.:
250ml plain oil
250ml cider vinegar
250gm sugar
1 or 2 teaspoons each of dried basil, thyme, oregano
2 teaspoons salt and freshly ground pepper
1 or 2 teaspoons paprika (or to taste)
Prepare the beans. Choose a convenient measure for yourself, depending on how much you want to make - use equal amounts of each bean. Soak all dried beans overnight, separately. Then rinse and cook in plenty of water, again separately.
Rinse quickly after they are cooked, just till still firm to the bite, and put into a large bowl. Prepare the vegetables, and then make the dressing: bring all the dressing ingredients to the boil, simmer a moment, pour over the cooked beans while hot, then add fresh vegetables. Cool, put in covered containers (non-metallic) and keep in the fridge. This salad keeps well and combines excellently with a bulgar salad.
Parsley Sauce with Boiled Vegetables Just as cooked and raw winter vegetables can be enlivened by just a squeez of lemon juice and some olive oil, a parsley dressing makes the most splendidly vivid sauce for still-warm, cooked vegetables. This typically imaginative Deborah Madison sauce will work with any vegetable, so treat the list offered here as a moveable feast: simply use whatever you have to hand.
Small whole carrots, steamed
Red or golden beets, baked separately and quartered
Red potatoes, steamed or roasted
Cauliflower or broccoli, in florets, steamed or blanched
Leeks, the white parts, cut lengthwise and blanched
Slices of raw fennel or small fennel bulbs, quartered and blanched
Belgian endive, the leaves separated and served raw
Red radishes, with their small green leaves
Baby turnips, blanched
Winter squash, peeled and cubed or sliced, fried or blanched
Parsley Sauce:
2 small cloves garlic
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
8 black peppercorns
3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
3/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
3/4 cup finely chopped parsley (preferably Italian parsley)
1 large shallot or 4 scallions, finely chopped
grated peel of 1 lemon
3/4 to 1 cup virgin olive oil
Champagne vinegar or red wine vinegar to taste
Salt
Pound the garlic in a mortar with the sea salt, peppercorns, fennel seeds and tarragon to make a smooth paste. Add about two tablespoons of the parsley, and work in into the paste. Stir in the rest of the parsley with the shallot or scallions, the lemon peel and the olive oil. Let this mixture stand covered while the flavours infuse for an hour or more. Just before serving, add the vinegar to taste, and season with salt if desired. Ladle the sauce onto serving plates and loosely arrange the vegetables on top.
Serve this salad at the beginning of a meal with good bread, perhaps a warm loaf of olive oil bread, and follow it with something simple, such as a creamy squash soup or an uncomplicated pasta dish.