February 2000

WARM SALADS

In the dead of winter, when we mainly want to pull the covers over our heads and stay in bed, and once we do get up we mainly want to turn the oven on and bake something, salad is not a favorite food. I'm a voracious salad eater, but it's hard to get excited about eating something crisp and watery and chilly when the weather outside is crisp or watery or chilly.

We all gravitate toward more substantial foods at this time of year, but we don't have to give up on salad altogether. I figure that if we can eat cold soups in the summer, we can eat warm salads in winter.

A warm salad can be a very simple affair. Roasted root vegetables, browned and crisped at the edges, tossed with some fruity olive oil or a good walnut oil and a few drops of your best vinegar, make a fine salad. However, if you can spoon those roasted vegetables over a plate of lightly dressed watercress sprigs, and garnish them with some chopped, toasted walnuts - even better - fabulous!

That, I've found, is my favorite way to put together a warm winter salad: something cooked, still warm from the oven or the wok, combined with something raw and leafy. I like the contrast of temperature along with the contrast of flavor and texture. Some of the leaves wilt, some stay crisp. There's a freshness about the dish, and the comforting quality of cooked food as well.

One rainy day last week I made a warm yam salad. I peeled a few hot roasted yams, cooled only until I could just barely handle them. I added some finely chopped celery, sliced green onions and chopped cilantro, along with a bit of minced fresh ginger for bite. I drizzled on some oil and rice vinegar, and added salt and a tiny amount of brown sugar. I tossed all this together gently, so the pieces of yam would not fall apart. Now I had a nice potato salad, good warm or cool, but I wanted the leafy part, too.

I chose greens that are at their best in colder weather - baby spinach leaves, radicchio, arugula and mizuna, which I dressed with a very sparing amount of oil and vinegar. I scooped a generous spoonful of the warm yam salad over the greens, and sprinkled toasted sesame seeds over everything for a finishing touch. The sweetness of the yams was delicious with the occasional peppery bite of arugula.

The same wintry greens would be wonderful with warm, stewed white beans spooned over them, and shavings of Parmesan cheese. Tuscan White Beans with Garlic and Sage (The New Vegetarian Epicure) would be perfect. The larger Great Northern Whites, slowly simmered with some herbs and olive oil, would also be great, as would white limas. The important thing is to stir the beans carefully and infrequently as they cook, so that they don't turn to mush.

A salad of these warm beans on mixed winter greens could be served with toasted cheese croutons for a satisfying lunch or light supper. Crusty baguette slices spread with goat cheese and put under the broiler for a few minutes would be ideal.

A barely cooked stir-fry can also be treated as a salad. Here's one I tried recently when I was up in the mountains, and wanted a lunch that was fast and light, but not cold.

I like young Napa cabbage, so I cut some in wide strips, along with slices of shiitake mushroom and green onions. I heated sesame oil (not much) in a wok, dropped a clove of minced garlic into it, stirred it around for a minute, then added the mushrooms. In another couple of minutes I added the rest of the vegetables. I had some grilled tofu on hand, so I cut it into thin strips and threw that into the wok too.

I tossed everything together over high heat just until the cabbage wilted, then sprinkled on a little rice vinegar and soy sauce, and spooned it out of the wok directly onto a plateful of arugula. I scattered cilantro sprigs over the top - they enlivened all the flavors. It was a great salad, and it took about fifteen minutes to do, from start to finish, including all the slicing.

I'm mad about soups, I love stews, and I'm glad to eat risotto any time at all - but it's nice to keep some salads in the repertoire through the darker months. In this month's New Recipes, you'll find Warm Salad with Roasted Root Vegetables, and Warm Yam Salad.

February 2000 recipe