When you say “salad,” you can mean a couple of things. Some older persons use the word “salat” to mean turnips or other green leafies that must be cooked
A “salad” can be a lot of things. It can be a mixture of fruit, hence fruit salad; a mixture of some kind of meat, hence chicken salad or tuna salad; or a dish made with gelatin (a.k.a. Jell-O, which appeared first around the mid 1920s), and commonly called a congealed salad.
All these have the dressing incorporated within them and are good choices for light lunches, club meetings, etc. Where would missionary circles and garden clubs be without chicken salad?
The salads I like best are those some people called “tossed salad,” but which I prefer to call a “green salad” made with fresh vegetables. These appear on many restaurant menus, and if you order one it will be served while your main dish is being prepared.
The “good manners gurus” don’t like this. A salad, if served as a separate course, should be served properly following the main course and before dessert. However, I think the restaurant people are going to win this one.
A fresh green salad is an asset to almost any meal. You can serve it on a separate plate following the main course and before the dessert or you can put it on the table or buffet and serve it along with the meat, vegetables, etc. In these days when not many people have a household staff who can properly serve a dining table, the “serve yourself” buffet table is popular.
It is equally correct to put the serving dishes on the table and pass them to the right until everyone is served. A fresh green salad in a pretty glass bowl is both a healthy and an attractive addition to the buffet table, but the traditional wooden bowl is better because it holds the flavor of the dressing.
The basis for most of these green salads is lettuce. Tear it with your hands into one-inch pieces. It isn’t very graceful to spear a piece of lettuce as large as an oak leaf and try to eat it without opening your mouth to the size of Mammoth Cave.
Although lettuce is usually the basic for this green salad, fresh baby spinach is often mixed with the lettuce or used alone. Most supermarkets now offer bags of mesclun – a fancy word meaning several young, tender mixed greens, including arugula, radicchio, etc. Other additions to your green salad may include chopped tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, cooked beets, etc.
Plan soon to have a fresh, crisp salad and dress it with one of these dressings for a pretty and healthy dish for … Sunday Dinner.
French Dressing
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon pepper
Shake together in a covered jar. Store in refrigerator.
Variation 1: Add to the above 1 teaspoon each of dry mustard, paprika, sugar, onion salt, celery salt, and 1 clove garlic.
Variation 2: To make creamy French dressing, increase oil to 2 cups and vinegar to ½ cup. Add 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 4 tablespoons catsup, 2 tablespoons grated onion or onion juice, 1 unbeaten egg white, and 2 cloves garlic. Shake vigorously.
Thousand Island Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons chopped pimiento
1 teaspoon grated onion
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 tablespoon stuffed olives, chopped
Combine all ingredients.
Variation: Add 1 tablespoon finely chopped sweet pickle.
Roquefort Cheese Dressing
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
2 cups olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup lemon juice
½ pound Roquefort cheese, crumbled
Combine all ingredients and beat together until smooth.
Dear Readers: People tell me they enjoy the Sunday Dinner column. Please send your recipes and/or church-published cookbooks to Sunday Dinner, The Baptist Courier, 100 Manly Street, Greenville, SC 29601. – Juanita Garrison