Thanks! Vegan or not. Salad dressing too. I like a lot of fruit in my salads. I wish I didn’t but I do.
At the bottom of a large bowl, dissolve half a teaspoon of kosher salt in one tablespoon of good wine vinegar (I usually use Vilux). Add three tablespoons of good olive oil (I usually use Trader Joe’s Kalamata) and stir well. Toss with greens, correct salt.
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I don’t usually add fresh fruit in my salads, but I often use dried.
Last night’s salad: mixed greens, Trader Joe’s steamed lentils, cherry tomatoes, avocado, raisins, simple olive oil and lemon dressing seasoned with Spike. Would have been vegan but I added anchovies yesterday, and sardines today.
I like making a knock off of my favorite Trader Joe’s salad: kale or another sturdy green, edamame, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, almonds, and green onions. Theirs has a creamy dressing, but I just do olive oil and apple cider vinegar (might be a good opportunity to use Veganaise).
My favorite fancy salad is expensive because it’s essentially a cheese board in salad form. It has manchego, diced membrillo, and almonds (I use marcona) in a sherry vinaigrette dressing. I sub arugula since watercress isn’t always easily obtainable: Watercress salad with manchego, membrillo, and almonds.
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Here is Serious Eats inventory, Salad Recipes.
Here is a comical essay on Food 52 about French attitudes to salad, Don't Cut Lettuce With a Table Knife, and Other French Salad-Eating Rules
I confess to loving the French approach to salads, It may be that my in-laws, whom I dearly love, murder greens by dousing them with with inferior olive oil, bad wine vinegar, garlic salt, and commercial Parmesan along with copious amounts of chopped vegetables. They always make too much so they can have leftover salad the next day…still I love them dearly.
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From the Mozza cookbook, my favorite vinaigrettes:
Lemon Vinaigrette
Oregano Vinaigrette
I usually skip the shallots and garlic, but that’s just me.
I also highly recommend the Gjusta cookbook for salads and vegetables.
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I’ve recently fallen for the simplest thing. A cup of arugula, a pinch each of s&p, a T of (good) oo and a squeeze of lemon juice. I loathe fruit in salad.
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Right with you there . Fruit in salad . Runaway.
Don’t like nuts either.
Waldorf salad would be my hell .
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I’ve riffed on this salad for a while:
Bed of mixed greens (get something with a good crunch in there, plus whatever else you like).
In a glass/non-reactive bowl combine supremes of a couple types of citrus (first time I had it the salad included blood oranges, ruby grapefruit, and clementines) - dice into bite-sized pieces if large, plus a diced avocado (the citrus juice will stop the discoloration), finely minced shallots, sea salt and cracked pepper, and good quality olive oil. Let it sit for a few minutes so the avocado breaks down a bit (can mush it with a fork).
Pour the citrus mixture over the greens and top with chopped, dry toasted pistachios.
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That’s funny. I grew up in the South and that was a fixture. But I don’t think I’ve had it since.
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Holey moley. I could get into this. Tart and crunch and avocado and… Thanks a whole lot for this. Truly.
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You’re welcome! It’s really forgiving and fun to play with (types of citrus/nuts/greens can change the dynamics) - for me, the textures and colors (on top of the flavors), make it craveable. And if you go with less sweet citrus, that might decrease the “frutiness” element.)
I like Waldorf salad, but not the walnuts!
@Luluthemagnificent - one of my quick salads is a bed of greens topped with a diced pear (peeled or unpeeled), some chopped toasted nuts, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar. If so inclined, crumbled blue or gorgonzola cheese can be added.
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That’s my exact thought.
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Spinach and strawberry salad, those little canned mandarin oranges in Chinese chicken salad, dried cranberries and hazelnuts with kale. These are a few of my favorite things. 
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That first recipe is 38% vinegar / lemon juice to oil and the second starts at 13%. Around 25% (3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar) seems right to me.
We all have our preferences.
A 3:1 ratio of oil to vinegar is quite standard for vinaigrette. Anything much off that is unusual and typically reflects some ingredients in the salad that need adjustment, e.g. sweet or pickled elements.
It’s odd that Mozza’s recipes are so far off the norm but stranger that one has three times as much acid as the other. I suspect that the second recipe is something they mix up in large quantities for the mise en place and in practice the “more to taste” brings the ratio to around 3:1 in finished dishes.
What if I told you… I prefer a 2:1 ratio?
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What if I told you that you’re not the only one that prefers 2:1.
chacun à son goût
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