Simple Salad
Romaine lettuce
goat cheese
walnuts
avocado
1/4 lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper
For one:
Tear lettuce leaves into bite size pieces, enough to fill dinner plate.
Slice two rounds, 1/4 inch thick of goat cheese log. Crumble over lettuce.
Grab a hand full of raw walnuts, toss over lettuce.
Cube 1/4 avocado and add to plate.
Squeeze lemon over salad.
Drizzle salad with high quality olive oil.
Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and grind desired amount of pepper over salad.
---------------------------------------------------------
This week was our first head of lettuce in a box for quite some time. And it was today at lunch when I was throwing this salad together that I realized how much better this fresh from the field lettuce really is. I usually wash all the leaves and store it in my salad spinner or a covered glass dish in the refrigerator until I need some. It cuts down on time when I want to grab something quick and I noticed I tend to eat the lettuce faster while it is still crisp and full of flavor.
While I was eating my salad I realized how much better this lettuce is than anything you can buy in a bag, pre-washed or torn or just crammed into the bag with two other heads of the same thing.
My kids have more recently taken to the green part of a salad. I could get them to eat most any vegetable except the green part, which was good but required fixing a separate veggie just for them, usually carrots, cucumber or broccoli and some sort of creamy dip.
I used to pick up the plastic wrapped lettuces because they seems easier, then I changed to green and red leaf lettuce. I loved them. My husband decided he liked salads and at last my kids even were into eating some greens with the right dressing. I have been buying the red and green leaf ever since, until recently when I grabbed a bag of organic Romaine hearts at TJ's. I was in a hurry and was trying to get everything at one store for lunch or dinner that day.
Fast forward to the meal including salad. My kids did not like, it was bitter they said. And it was true. Unlike our co-op box stuff, this lettuce was bitter and bland. I don't know when the packaged lettuce was picked, how long it sat in carefully hydrated refrigeration, or how long it had been on the shelf at the store. What I did know was the lettuce I got from Farmer Steve was picked two days before I got it and it tasted good.
This is really a lot to say about lettuce, but I believe the simple stuff makes our lives better.
The recipe above illustrates this perfectly. There are no overwhelming flavors and each component adds something to the other without eliminating its own special goodness.
Eat well and enjoy.
