Salad Days

If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one kind of salad ever again, it would be a chopped salad. The best ones are lively, thoughtfully chosen compositions of lettuce, vegetables, and sometimes fruit cut into bite-sized pieces, with supporting players like nuts and cheese. Tonight, Nick and I are bringing one of our favorites to a potluck birthday party - a pear and cranberry version - perfect for the fall.

Pear & Cranberry Chopped Salad
Serves 4 to 6

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 T olive oil
3 T cider vinegar
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 pear, cored and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 small red onion, minced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 romaine heart, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 ounces blue cheese
1/2 cup pistachios

Whisk oil and vinegar together in large bowl. Add cucumber, bell pepper, pear, onion and cranberries. Toss and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes to blend flavors. Add romaine, blue cheese, and pistachios. Toss to combine.

Today’s salad is inspired by all of the crisp, fragrant Washington apples that finally made their way into grocery stores around here. Pick your favorite variety and go to town!

Apple-Edamame Salad
Serves 1-2

Salad greens
1/2 apple, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cup frozen edamame (thaw 1 minute in microwave)
1/2 - 1 oz walnuts, chopped
1-2 Tbsp raisins
1 Tbsp flavored vinegar

Pack as many salad greens into a bowl as will fit. Add everything else on top.

Nutritional Wisdom

You’ll notice that many of my salad recipes do not include oil or have very little of it in the dressings. Many people think oil is good for them, particularly olive oil. I’d like to counter this notion with a few thoughts…

To be a food, something must be able to support healthy life and be of some benefit. The best foods for our bodies have the highest ratio of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) to calories. Junk food, on the other hand, is a food that is high in calories (and/or fat, sugar, salt) and has little, if any, nutrient value.

Oil is a highly refined processed and extracted “product”. It has no protein or essential amino acids (which we need), it has no carbohydrates (which we need), it has no fiber (which we need), it has no minerals (which we need) and has virtually no vitamins (which we need) except for a small amount of Vit E and some phytosterols. Worse yet, most oils have high ratios of omega 6 (which most of us need to lower) to omega 3 (which most of need more of). So, basically you are getting lots of calories (oils has almost 2.5 x more calorie per TB than sugar), lots of omega 6s, some saturated fat (depending on the oil), and virtually no nutrients. By definition, oil is more junk than food.

Some people have pointed out to me that studies show olive oil is healthy. This is simply untrue. Those studies compare vegetable oils, like olive oil, to the fats in meat. Olive oil, in these studies, might be slightly better than the saturated fat in meat but it is far from a healthy food.

We should treat oil for what it really is. Junk. Pure and simple. Treat it like the junk food it really is and consume it sparingly.

I’m not advocating eliminating fat. We certainly need it for a properly functioning body. We should focus our consumption of fat, however, on healthy fats - those found in food in their natural state, such as whole seeds, nuts, avocados, etc.

Why have the same mayonnaise-laden tuna when you can make a light, fresh salad that won’t hold you back while you chase the kids around the yard?

Salad al Tonno
Serves 2-4

1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
8 cups chopped hearts of romaine
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives
2 6-ounce cans chunk light tuna, drained

Whisk lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add romaine, tomatoes and olives; toss to coat. Add tuna and toss again.

Nutritional Wisdom
Canned white tuna comes from the large albacore and can be high in mercury content. Chunk light tuna, on the other hand, which comes from smaller fish, skipjack or yellowfin, is best for health-conscious eaters. According to a recent study, canned white tuna samples averaged about 315 percent more mercury than chunk light tuna samples.