I didn't like salad until very recently. When an ex said he loved salad, I truly couldn't comprehend it. Salad? Who would say they liked salad? I chalked it up to being one of those things only people from LA liked, along with beaches, open-top Jeeps, board shorts, and fruit smoothies (shall I mention that Beverly Hills 90210 was the first TV show I ever loved?).
Salad was something you ate 1) on the side, as a brief respite from the "real" food 2) smothered in a creamy cheese-based dressing 3) begrudingly when your mom put it in front of you before producing a pizza or pasta dish.
But over the past few years, I have come to like - dare I say love or is it too soon? - salads. One way that I find helpful to focus my cooking energies (and keep my svelte figure) is to keep a routine of one heavier meal and one lighter meal each day. I like to have the heavier meal be during lunchtime (I hear this is better for you in general because then your body has more time to work it off) and the lighter meal for dinner. This schedule also works better for my workout routine, which I do daily after work (I know - are you barfing yet?). My go-to light meal has been the heretofore-scorned salad, and one of my favorite ways to compile it is by ladling a non-leafy salad over a bed of salad greens. Kind of like how you put anything over rice for Asian food. Same idea.
In the future, you shall witness my true devotion to eating hot things over salad greens (curried cauliflower, quinoa with portobellos, a thin omelette with fried pancetta cubes) but today I shall focus on one of my favorite non-leafy cold salads, which I adapted from a mere sentence from The Minimalist's "Recipes for 101 Simple Salads for the Season"
21. Dice cucumbers (if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first) and toss with cubes of avocado, a little mirin (or honey, but then it’s not vegan), rice vinegar and soy sauce. (You could mix in a little lump crab meat, really not vegan, even rice, and call it a California roll salad.)
It's really just that simple. I get the crab meat from Trader Joe's - it comes in a can and clocks in under $2, and I wouldn't even bother making this without it. I add a drizzle of sesame oil and top with cilantro; I think you could add some red chili flakes or sriracha if you so desire. I spoon a small bowlful over a big bowl of salad greens and call it dinner.
