©2003 Ashy's vegetarian recipes. All rights reserved
At its most basic, this is just lettuce leaves and a plain French dressing and it's delicious like that. We're going to go one step up the ladder of complexity here and throw in some chopped tomatoes but you can add other things too. How about some onion (spring or otherwise), chopped cooked potatoes, cucumber, fresh herbs, cheese, nuts? Use your imagination. The type of lettuce will change the taste and texture too. There are iceberg and cos lettuces to name but two. They are very different. There are also other leaves which aren't properly lettuces but are quite similar. Things like endives, chickory, radiocca and some oak leaf shaped things which are very tasty. I sometimes put young dandelion leaves into green salads.
It's best to make a green salad just before it's going to be eaten. It will keep for a few hours, even over night but it will get soggier as time goes on. It only takes a few minutes to make, so enjoy it crispy. It's best that way.
Ingredients
I lettuce
2 tomatoes
2 dessertspoons of olive oil
1 dessertspoon of apple or grape vinegar
A large pinch of mustard powder
Salt
Wash the tomatoes then separate the lettuce leaves and give them a good wash too. Set the vegetables aside to drain while you make a dressing.
Put the olive oil, vinegar and mustard in a small jar and shake it well. If you don't have a small jar, use a narrow glass and put your hand over the top. The mustard will act as an emulsifier and you will have a thick opaque liquid in the jar after shaking. This is what is often called a French dressing. If you leave it standing, the ingredients will separate out again into layers but another little shake will mix them back together.
Chop the lettuce leaves and the tomatoes, put them in a bowl and sprinkle a little salt over them. Mix them gently then pour over the dressing. Mix again and your salad is ready.
This is just a selection of the dishes included in the cookbook which go well with a green salad.
creamy mashed potatoes
fried potatoes
potato cutlets
cauliflower cheese cutlets
cauliflower cheese and potato
pie
pasta with pesto
skirlie
clapshot
samosas
pakora