Winter Salads

As the days grow shorter and colder, it’s human nature to seek solace in comfort food. Starch, fat, protein, and sweets crowd the table. In fall and winter, it's easy to fall into unhealthy habits, and for raw veggies to all but vanish from your diet. For me, winter salads have become a comfort food. Crunchy spiced nuts, creamy cheeses, citrus fruits, spicy greens—all flavors that I associate with the holiday season. 

Salads are a matter of balance. Sweet, salty, sour, acidic, bitter, spicy, and fatty. A salad doesn’t need all of those elements, only that they be balanced against each other. If you are using a lot of bitter greens, you’ll need to balance it with sweet greens or a sweet dressing. Sour and acidic flavors are mellowed by sweet or fatty ingredients. Likewise, a balance of textures is desirable. Soft, crunchy, creamy…

Salad greens fall into three categories: sweet, spicy, and bitter. I like to choose either spicy or bitter but not both. Spicy greens include watercress, arugula, and mustard greens. For bitter, try endive, dandelion, or radicchio. Sweet greens like kale, spinach, mustard, lettuce, sunflower greens, cabbage, and bok choy will round it out. Most greens other than lettuce can be wilted: dress and then toss briefly in a very hot, light pan and pull it back out before it cooks down. If you have a big metal bowl, a good pair of tongs, and a gas stove, that’s the way to do it.

The basic ratio for a vinaigrette is two parts oil to one part vinegar. I use aged balsamic, Dijon mustard, fresh herbs, and a mixture of olive and avocado oils. If you use a good amount of mustard instead of vinegar, or add an egg yolk, you can slowly beat the oil in with a whisk for a creamy, emulsified dressing. Mayonnaise can be used as a shortcut to creamy dressing. Add honey or brown sugar to sweeten, use citrus juice in place of all or some of the vinegar, or try using a strongly flavored oil like walnut or sesame (sparingly). Bitter and spicy greens benefit from pairing with a sweeter dressing, other sweet ingredients like fresh or dried fruit, and creamy add-ins like gorgonzola crumbles.

I always have a few non-green veggies in my salads. Slice crunchy veggies like sunchokes, carrots, cucumbers, fennel, or radish into thin slices. Tougher, more fibrous vegetables can be grated and added to the top of the salad or mixed into the dressing to marinate. Try this with things like rutabaga, celery root, sweet potato, and beets. For beets, I also like to boil until tender, peel, cut, and marinate in a little light vinegar.

And don’t shy away from fruit! Crunchy apples or pears sliced thin are great, but try segmenting oranges or grapefruit- cut away all of the skin and just the outer bit of fruit with a sharp knife, then cut each segment free from the membrane and remove seeds from the segments.

Freshly roasted or candied nuts are another great addition to winter salads, especially salads that feature bitter or spicy greens along with fruit. Roast nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for five to nine minutes depending on the nut—five minutes or so for pine nuts, up to eight for something like walnuts. They will start to change color and become fragrant. To make candied and spiced nuts use about ⅓ cup sugar to one egg white to a pound of nuts. Mix the sugar with ¼ tsp salt and whatever spices you like (try a teaspoon of garam masala!). Beat the egg white with a tablespoon of water until frothy. Toss the nuts with the egg white, then slowly stir in the sugar until the nuts are evenly coated. Bake on a cookie sheet, preferably with a sheet of parchment paper, for about ten minutes. Continue cooking them, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes until golden brown, another 30 to 50 minutes total. Allow to cool completely, and store in a sealed container (in the freezer for longer periods).

I hope that I’ve inspired some of you to eat more veggies in the dark months than normal. It’s easy to do in this beautiful and abundant valley, thanks to local farms that take seriously the idea that everyone should have access to locally grown high-quality produce all year round. Boldly Grown Farm, in particular, has given us variety in winter produce that we’d never seen, finding better ways to produce later and store longer. They, and all of our other wonderful local suppliers, allow us health in our comfort and bring a bit more light into the dark months.