Basic Green Salad

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 10 minutes

F V

A green salad you can eat every day either as a side or use as the base for a main dish.

• 6 cups lightly packed torn assorted greens (like mesclun, or any lettuce)
• ¼ cup olive oil, or more as needed
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, or more as needed
• Salt and pepper

Put the greens in a bowl and drizzle with the oil, vinegar, and a pinch each salt and pepper. Toss gently with your hands or two large utensils. Taste, add more oil, vinegar, and/or salt and pepper and toss again. Serve immediately.

Green Salad with Balsamic Dressing For a slightly sweeter taste: Replace the sherry vinegar with balsamic vinegar.

Neutral Green Salad Less assertive flavor, perfect alongside dishes with Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, or otherwise spicy flavors: Replace the olive oil with 3 tablespoons good-quality vegetable oil; use rice vinegar instead of sherry vinegar.

Greek Salad The classic, simplified: Add ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese and ¼ cup each chopped fresh mint or parsley (or both) and chopped pitted black olives. Use fresh lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Lyonnaise Salad Very hearty: Use strong-flavored greens like frisée, arugula, dandelions, or radicchio, alone or in combination. Top with 2 Poached Eggs (page 525) or peeled Medium-Boiled Eggs (page 523).

Endive Salad Elegant and delicious: Combine endive with radicchio, watercress, and other strong-flavored greens. Toss in about ½ cup toasted walnuts or hazelnuts (see page 299) and use nut oil, if you have it.

11 Other Ideas for Basic Green Salad

1. Omit the oil or reduce the vinegar by half for a lighter salad.
2. Substitute any flavorful oil, like walnut, hazelnut, or sesame. (Use less at first, because these are more intensely flavored than olive oil.)
3. Change up the vinegar: red or white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, champagne vinegar, cider vinegar, and many more.
4. Shower the top with freshly grated Parmesan before serving. This is probably the easiest way to enrich any salad.
5. Add chopped raw or lightly cooked vegetables.
6. Add tomatoes: Halve cherry tomatoes or cut large tomatoes into wedges and toss with the greens. The easiest way is to serve the salad on top of thick slices; this prevents the greens from getting soggy.
7. Add a spoonful minced shallot, onion, or scallions, or a pinch minced garlic.
8. Add crumbled blue, feta, or other soft cheese.
9. Add sliced pears, apples, oranges, or other fruit.
10. Add seaweed: Figure about a quarter-ounce, soaked and drained as described on page 53. Or add a sheet or 2 of nori, toasted (see page 244) and crumbled.
11. Add diced roasted red peppers (see page 228; yellow are fine too), capers, or anchovies.