Salad

The definition of a classic Niçoise salad is often contested, especially now that it is so popular at cafés and restaurants. It is, however, essentially a country salad, so the ingredients depend on what is in season. The basics of this rough country salad are lettuce, hard cooked eggs, anchovy fillets, black olives, tomatoes, and garlic in the dressing. Most people add tuna, too, but you can consider it optional. Among the myriad other possible additions are cooked green beans, potatoes, and artichoke hearts, raw or roasted bell pepper, capers, and basil.

This is a warm salad, combining a wide range of textures and flavors, great as a light lunch or a starter for any Asian meal. Although you can buy packaged fried tofu at many Asian markets—and that is undeniably convenient—it is much better homemade. Just be sure to remove as much of the water as you can, by firmly pressing the tofu between paper towels as detailed on page 491. For information on shrimp paste, see page 9; for information on nam pla, see page 500.

You can use canned black beans for this (you can even use frozen corn), but the salad is best with beans that have been cooked, with good spices, until tender but not mushy.

Potato salad is an American classic, but this is a lot more flavorful than the mayonnaise-based version. It’s great served warm, but the important thing to remember is that it’s far better at room temperature than cold. If you like, add about 1/4 pound diced slab bacon, cooked until crisp, along with 1/2 cup minced shallot or mild onion for a Germanic twist.

A well-known standard, this marinated salad combines the sweetness of peppers with the saltiness of anchovies and capers, using a good olive oil to tie all the flavors together. You can use jarred roasted peppers (“pimientos”) for this if you like. Canned or jarred piquillo peppers (page 47) are better, but still not as good as peppers you roast yourself. The best anchovies commonly available are sold in jars, packed in olive oil. It’s best to make this salad ahead of time so the flavors marry. Eat this at lunch, as a starter, or as a side dish with something flavorful, like Beef Stew with Dried Mushrooms (page 380).

North African spices enhance the smoky flavor of the peppers here, and the preserved lemon—which you can buy at a specialty shop or make yourself (page 598)—makes it exotic. You can prepare this salad ahead of time since it is best after marinating for an hour or so. For extra color, use bell peppers of a couple of different colors.

Eggplant is everywhere in the Middle East; you see it as often as you do tomatoes. Here are three takes on a creamy, mild dish of eggplant and yogurt. The first relies on the charred flavor you get when you grill or broil eggplant; especially when seasoned this way, it’s really the best. The variations are easier and still very good. As always, small eggplants are best; regardless of size, they should be as firm as you can find.

This cooked salad can be prepared in many different ways, including a twice-fried method that by most standards is overwhelmingly oily. These options are all suitable, though the first one, in which the eggplant is grilled, is my favorite. The salad is best served cold, so plan to prepare it ahead of time and refrigerate. It’s quite good warm or at room temperature too.

Think of asparagus with mayonnaise but with a very sharp (and relatively low-fat) twist. As in most recipes for poached asparagus, thick spears are best; they retain some of their crispness while becoming tender. Those that weigh an ounce or more each—that is, eight to sixteen per pound—are the best. Their only disadvantage is that they must be peeled before cooking to remove the relatively tough skin. Fortunately, it’s an easy job, with either a vegetable peeler or a paring knife.

This classic combination of beans and tuna is great when made with white beans that have been cooked with garlic and other spices, like White Beans with Garlic (page 441). If you use bland or canned or frozen beans, jack up the seasonings here; add, for example, a bit of garlic, some fresh thyme, and/or a little cayenne. A great picnic recipe, this can be made well in advance; note the green bean and salami variations, which are also good. Any of these salads would be great toppings for Crostini (page 41) as well.

When you want a rice dish that screams “northern Italy,” but you don’t want something as rich (or as much work) as risotto, try throwing together this Italian rice salad, which was first made for me outside of Milan, served alongside a simply roasted chicken. You could add leftover chicken, shredded cheese, or other more substantial foods to make this into a meal, but it’s a wonderful side dish.

A northern European salad that is a great accompaniment to grilled sausages or cooked ham. It combines fall fruits and vegetables with a creamy dressing spiked with horseradish. If you cannot find a rutabaga—the thick-skinned yellow turnip also called a swede—substitute a couple of white turnips or a daikon radish.

Tabbouleh, the well-known salad that uses bulgur as its base (usually; there’s also a rice version, which I’ve included as a variation), should be dominated by its herbs, mostly parsley but also mint. You can prepare the bulgur ahead of time and toss in the herbs right before serving.

Bulgur, which is precooked cracked wheat (see page 525), needs only to be reconstituted to be ready to eat. Usually this is done with water or stock, but here freshly made tomato juice is the liquid. (I had no idea what I was tasting when I first had this, but fortunately it was explained to me so I could experiment.) The nuts add a welcome crunchiness to this wonderful salad.

Not unlike the preceding recipe, this one, too, is best with fresh, firm small eggplants. Serve as a starter or side dish, especially in summer.

One of the few recipes in which eggplant is boiled. It’s an unusual preparation, and a good one, but you can also sauté it, as in Sautéed Eggplant (page 456). Small eggplants are almost always preferable to large ones, and the Japanese know this better than anyone; you don’t even see large eggplants there. (If you must use a larger eggplant, try to get a very firm one, which will have fewer seeds.) Typically, this is made with wasabi powder; but I had it prepared with Dijon mustard in Japan, so I consider this version perfectly legitimate.

There are two keys to this salad. The first is buying dry, pressed tofu (bean curd), which is sold at most Asian food markets and some natural food stores. It’s much firmer than regular tofu and has a dense, chewy texture and a brown skin. (If you can’t find it, use extra-firm tofu and press it yourself; see page 491.) The second key is allowing the salad to marinate long enough for the tofu to absorb the dressing. That part’s easy, but it does require advance planning.

A Chinese salad that contains one unusual but powerful ingredient: dried shrimp. These tiny bay shrimp are used throughout East Asia (especially Indonesia) and can be found at any Asian market. They’re intensely flavored with the sea and salt and are so powerful they may be an acquired taste. This, however, is a great way to try them.

A simple summer salad that is best with tomatoes that have just started to ripen. You can also toss this salad into hot or leftover pasta for a quick hot dish or pasta salad.

Don’t be deceived by this salad’s simplicity: the lemon dressing and fresh herbs bring out the complex flavors of the tomatoes and onions, and if the ingredients are good, the results are practically miraculous. Note the extremely useful technique of “killing” the onions—as they say in Turkey—which you might try whenever you use raw onions, to tame their harshness. You can make this salad an hour ahead of time, refrigerate, and toss again before serving.