Warm Squid Salad

Makes 4 servings

This is a “minute” dish — and a stellar one. You cut all the ingredients for the salad — celery, pepper, red onion that’s given a quick dunk in vinegar, capers, tomatoes, avocado and lemon zest — then whisk together a lemon-lime dressing and, when you’re ready to serve, poach the squid for just 60 seconds. One minute is all it takes for the squid to become tender, ready to absorb the dressing’s sharp flavors and add its own to the salad’s mix of vegetables, both crunchy and soft. A light supper that can be enjoyed year-round, this is one of my favorite kinds of recipes: It seems restaurant-fancy but it’s really a cinch.

You can serve the salad on a bed of greens — it’s good with both dark greens, like kale and spinach, and crisp ones, like romaine or shredded iceberg.

a word on the squid

If you’re buying squid from a fish market, ask to have the skin removed, if it hasn’t already been, and the squid bodies cut into ringlets. If you’re buying it frozen — a good option — the skin will have been removed, so all you have to do is defrost it just until it’s easy to slice and cut the bodies with a chef’s knife into rings about ¼ inch wide. If the squid’s got tentacles, cut them into bite-sized pieces.

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water
• ½ medium red onion, thinly sliced and rinsed
• Juice of 1 lime
• Juice of ½ lemon, plus 2 wide strips of the zest
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed, patted dry and chopped if large, plus 1 teaspoon of the brine
• ¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• Fine sea salt
• About 8 baby potatoes, cooked, cooled and quartered or halved, depending on size (optional)
• 2 celery stalks with leaves, bottoms trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into small pieces
• 1 pint (about 300 grams) grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 pound (454 grams) squid, cut into rings (see headnote)
• Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 avocado, halved, pitted and cut into chunks (optional)

Working Ahead

You can make the salad up to 1 hour in advance and refrigerate it, and the onions can be pickled up to 1 day ahead.

Whisk the vinegar and water together in a small bowl and drop in the onion slices. Let the onions pickle — stir now and again — while you prepare the rest of the salad. (You can pickle the onion in the fridge for up to 1 day.)

Make the dressing in another bowl by whisking together the lime and lemon juice and the caper brine. Whisk in the olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt; set aside.

Bring a medium pot of generously salted water to a boil.

Meanwhile, finely chop the lemon zest and toss it into a large serving bowl. Add the potatoes, if you’re using them, the celery, bell pepper, tomatoes and capers. Drain the onion and add it to the bowl. Season lightly with salt and pepper and toss with a little bit of the dressing.

Drop the squid into the boiling water, stir and cook for 1 minute. (Don’t worry if the water doesn’t return to a boil.) Taste, and if you like the texture, drain well; if you’d like the squid firmer, cook for 30 seconds more.

Add the squid to the salad, toss with the remaining dressing, taste for salt and pepper and add a pinch of red pepper flakes, if you’d like. (The salad can be chilled for an hour.) If you’re using the avocado, gently stir it in, and head for the table.

 

Storing: You can refrigerate leftovers overnight — the squid will be great, but the salad stuff, particularly the tomatoes and the avocado, if you used it, will soften.