Green plate

In my salad days, I used to hate many green veggies. I remember when Maa used to scold me for the same. Somehow, I didn’t have a taste for them at that point in time, but gradually I developed such a taste that I can now survive happily on those green things (cow-food).

For a long time, Santanu wanted to make a change in our meals as it seems we both are putting on weight. As I mentioned in my earlier post, he tries to encroach that small part of the house mostly on weekends, so he made sure at least two days a week we have salad as our main course meal.

Having salad has a few plus points: it’s less time-consuming to prepare, doesn’t heat up a hot kitchen, and is very healthy, especially in this hot Paris summer, which means salad season. Besides watermelon or strawberry smoothie, salad is the perfect summer food. They’re light, crisp, and refreshing—especially when paired with a dressing—and they’re versatile, allowing one’s imagination to invent.

At the core of most summer salads is lettuce. It was viewed for years as a tasteless part of a salad that used to be covered up with a thick, sticky dressing. But what a metamorphosis lettuce has seen in the last 10-15 years! Interestingly, new lettuces with various shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors have started replacing the ubiquitous iceberg lettuce in supermarkets. The assortment of gourmet lettuces available to the consumer is getting better all the time.

So we had this lettuce leaves with deseeded olives, cherry tomatoes, and cheese, which were enrobed with a salad dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a few drops of lemon juice. At the end, drizzle it with salt and whisk together in a large shallow bowl. One can serve it in small portions as an accompaniment to roast chicken or grilled or poached fish. This dressing is actually meant to highlight, not overpower, the salad ingredients. Too much salad dressing will weigh down the salad ingredients and mask their flavors. So…

Bon Appétit, bien sûr!