Momma always made pretty nutritious meals. I don’t really know why but I never remember having to eat salad in my younger years. As I’ve shared before, we had to eat whatever was cooked and placed on our plate so I think I would remember turning my nose up at salad. I do remember her serving it occasionally when we had company for a meal though.
Do you remember those wooden salad bowls with knobby feet on it and cute little wooden salad bowls ? I have some now… they came from either her house of Aunt Bernice’s.
Anyway, I never ate salad until I was around 14 and I did it because I was embarrassed not to.
I was “going steady ” (Who remembers that term??) My boyfriend’s parents invited me to eat steak with them one Friday night. I was a real meat and potatoes kind of girl so I was excited. Until his mother served a salad before the main course !! It had iceberg lettuce (the only kind we knew about at that time), tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion (all things I didn’t like )!
What was I going to do??? I was so embarrassed to not eat it that I forced myself to eat it. thankfully they had Thousand Island Dressing. I had learned if you mix mayo and ketchup together you get a very similar condiment so I probably drowned it in dressing to cover up the taste and I’m sure I ate a ton of crackers with it (probably one cracker with each bite- another trick I had learned from having to eat tomatoes ).
And surprisingly, I liked it pretty well ! I came home and asked Momma why we didn’t have it more often…I started eating salad more frequently and now I eat it at least 4 times per week.
A friend of mine had been telling about eating Grilled Romaine Salad. I can’t believe we never tried it until last Saturday night when we went to a cooking class. Y’all, it is soo yummy we had it again Monday night !!
Chef Wolfe at the Farmer’s Table in Livingston, MS is a really good instructor and we always enjoy his classes. I’m sharing the recipe in hopes that you will enjoy it, maybe even this weekend !
Grilled Romaine Heart Salad:
Romaine heart, cut in half
heirloom cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
baked bacon, crumbled (Baking is My New Fave way to cook Bacon !)
red onion thinly sliced
bagel seasoning
- Preheat grill to 450 degrees and brush the halved Romaine Hearts with oil, season with S & P and place on a sheet tray.
- Place the lettuce on the preheated grill and sear for 60 seconds to achieve a good char. Remove from grill.
- Plate the salad with veggies & bacon on top. Drizzle with dressing and bagel seasoning plus a soft cheese like feta, gorgonzola or blue cheese if desired.
Smoky Comeback Dressing
1 onion, smoked and pureed.
1 bunch green onions sliced
2 cups of Duke’s mayo
1/2 C of ketchup
1/4 C of creole mustard
1T of garlic powder
1 celery stalk, pureed
1 t cayenne pepper
1 T of Worcestershire
1 T of French cracked black pepper
- After smoking the onion, puree in food processor with celery.
- Add all other ingredients in processor and pulse until smooth.
ENJOY !!!!
I have also seen a recipe that called for grilled chicken and a vinaigrette dressing that we will try soon.
There are so many great salad recipes and it’s a way to get lots of veggies into your diet, a healthy option if you can transition from creamy dressings to lighter vinaigrettes.
Dinah's Dabblings 