Saturday, August 20, 2011

Keeping Currant On The Philosophy Of Salad

I think what I like best about salad is the laissez-faire nature of its preparation. If you can eat it, you can put it in a salad. That pretty much sums up my perspective on salad.

That may be a bit simplistic. There are some things that don't belong in a salad, such as sawdust, or even worse, sauerkraut. Still, there is a lot of flexibility, and a salad is difficult to butcher, so to speak.

Nevertheless, my latest idea for a salad innovation was not attractive to Marina. In fact, it was so definitively NOT attractive to her that she left the country for a month in the hope that I would forget all about it.

I do not forget, however.

So last night, taking advantage of Marina's absence and resultant lack of veto power, I decided to combine crispy lettuce from a romaine heart, sliced radishes--which have become my favorite staple for salads due to their peppery kick--dried currants, and crumbled goat cheese.



I made just a small portion, a one serving size to go with the pasta and chicken sausage entree and a glass of Carmenere. As with most of my salads, I skipped any sort of dressing. A lot of people find this tendency of mine to be weird, but I would argue that salad nudists are people too, with a valid point of view.

The goat cheese had a heavy taste, slightly sour, but not excessively so, and it matched well with the sweetness of the currants and the bite of the radishes. I would call it a success.

What are the oddest combinations you have tried in a salad, and what were the results?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not fond of radishes, but the currants and goat cheese combination makes sense, just like feta and dried cranberries. What I have recently discovered about salads is that I like them better if I just mix in whatever else is on my plate: lima beans, Stove-top Stuffing, whatever... much more interesting and varied that way! I applaud your daring experimentation.

Benjamin said...

I'm not just saying this because of your comment about kraut, but: I love to pile a bunch of homemade sauerkraut into a bowl, mix it with some chopped up sprouted almonds (or any other nut), and then cover it with nutritional yeast and flax seed oil. Call me crazy, call me a hippie, call me gross ... it tastes amazing.

Devin said...

Anonymous: good idea about the overall mixing. I guess that's the appeal of a taco salad. Benjamin: tell me, what are sprouted almonds? I love sprouts, I love almonds, so maybe I would love sprouted almonds.