The Everything Salad Book
THE
EVERYTHING
®
SALAD
BOOK
Includes:
Raspberry-Cranberry Spinach Salad
Sweet Spring Baby Salad
Dijon Apricot Chicken Salad
Mediterranean Tomato Salad
Sesame Orange Coleslaw
Aysha Schurman
Copyright © 2011 by F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.
An Everything
®
Series Book.
Everything
®
and everything.com
®
are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.
Published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com
ISBN 10: 1-4405-2207-3
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2207-9
eISBN 10: 1-4405-2555-2
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2555-1
Printed in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
— From a
Declaration of Principles
jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.
This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.
®
SALAD BOOK
Dear Reader,
I've always had a passion for food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, so it's my greatest joy to write this cookbook. As a child, I was constantly in trouble for sneaking blueberries from my mother's garden and sugar snap peas from the neighbor's yard. Thanks to my mother's avid gardening and adventurous cooking, I grew up with a true appreciation for fresh ingredients and multicultural cuisine. To this day, my idea of heaven is attending an outdoor party loaded with a diverse buffet of fresh salads and fruity desserts straight from the host's garden.
I'm delighted to now share my favorite recipes and demonstrate the creative potential of a simple salad. My aim is to display how much variety is possible, with recipes for every meal, budget, schedule, and occasion. Overall, I hope this cookbook acts as an introduction to the amazing world of salads while both inspiring and tantalizing readers with an array of culinary delights from around the globe.
®
Series!
These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.
You can choose to read an
Everything
®
book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.
We now have more than 400
Everything®
books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When you're done reading them all, you can finally say you know
Everything
®
!
Answers to common questions
Important snippets of information
Urgent warnings
Quick handy tips
PUBLISHER
Karen Cooper
DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS AND INNOVATION
Paula Munier
MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING
®
SERIES
Lisa Laing
COPY CHIEF
Casey Ebert
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION EDITOR
Jacob Erickson
ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
Lisa Laing
SENIOR DEVELOPMENT EDITOR
Brett Palana-Shanahan
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Ross Weisman
EVERYTHING
®
SERIES COVER DESIGNER
Erin Alexander
LAYOUT DESIGNERS
Colleen Cunningham, Elisabeth Lariviere, Ashley Vierra, Denise Wallace
Visit the entire Everything
®
series at
www.everything.com
To everyone whose inner child loves to eat sugar snap peas straight from the garden.
My deepest thanks to Adams Media and managing editor Lisa Laing for the opportunity, education, and guidance they've given me. My eternal gratitude to my mother Jill, father Don, and sister Leah for their decades of inexhaustible support and endless editorial labor. Many thanks to my amazing friends — especially Tahane, Barbara, Valeria, Dan, and Nina — for all their help, patience, and inspiration.
My love to Ed, who not only kept the family fed when I was too busy writing about food to cook, but also put up with my culinary critiques of each meal without once dumping anything over my head. Finally, my love to Alaina, who never tired of coming up with reasons why the book should only contain dessert and taco salad recipes.
CRISPY GREENS, JUICY FRUITS, tangy beans, or creamy pastas; there's something special about every type of salad. Unlike fully cooked dishes, salads have a wonderful way of retaining the distinct flavor of each ingredient. You can taste every green in a cool garden salad and each addition in a warm potato salad. Whether you're an experienced chef or just learning how to cook, salads have a way of waking up your taste buds and your creativity.
The term
salad
evolved from the Latin word
sal
, which means salt, an important ingredient in salad dressing. Bringing out the natural flavor of fresh ingredients is the secret to creating salads, and salt is a historically vital aspect in flavor enhancement. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians not only adored salads and salted salad dressings; they consumed the most coveted of all salad ingredients, lettuce. While you may think of raw salads and fancy dressings as modern ideas, ancient cultures reveal that humans have long appreciated the value and versatility of fresh produce.
It's true that modern salads include much more than just fruits and vegetables, but even potato, pasta, bean, and gelatin salads usually combine some sort of raw produce in the dish. Regardless of whether you grow your own succulent plants or choose the perfect produce from a farmer's market, turning raw ingredients into a culinary triumph provides a certain sense of satisfaction.
Fresh salads also offer something rare in modern life: They contain ingredients you can recognize and pronounce. As long as you stick with produce and all-natural toppings, you can create anything from an appetizer to an entrée without including a single mysterious additive in the meal.
Considering the easy preparation and numerous health benefits, it's surprising that more people don't eat a salad at least once a day. Part of the problem is due to a feeling that salads lack variety or imagination, which couldn't be farther from the truth. A pre-packaged tossed salad from the store may be a dull meal to eat every day, but with a little guidance and a few minutes of work, anyone can learn how to take a salad from simple to spectacular.
Think of salads as the ultimate culinary exploration and let the ingredients inspire you. Any ingredient you can consume in raw form can be put into a salad, as well as many foods that require cooking. All four food groups work in a salad, which means you can go wild at the grocery store. It's the perfect opportunity to grab a cheese you've always wanted to try, discover a new dressing to bring out the flavor of carrots, and find a use for the weird fruits you've seen in the produce aisle.
The Everything
®
Salad Book
provides you with an array of recipes to suit every occasion, from fancy gourmet salads you can serve at dinner parties to quick and easy salads that even the fussiest kids will enjoy. You can explore light salads and dressings for low-calorie meals, as well as rich salads and dressings for indulgent meals. Along the way, you'll learn the secrets to making your own salads and dressings, as well as how to select, prepare, and store produce. In the end, it's all about playing with the flavors and textures until you discover your own special way of making the recipe just right.