Each week, a small unassuming bag arrives in my vegetable box, labelled “Hackney salad”. The leaves come in pretty colours: piercing greens, acid yellows, deep emeralds and rich purples. Each shade has a flavour so unique and so full of personality that eating a simple salad has become the leafy equivalent of a 3D film in surround sound.
Depending on the time of year, this London-grown salad from my local veg-box scheme, Growing Communities, is an impressive mix. There could be anything from turnip tops, perilla leaves or red-veined chard, to the rare and – to me – unheard-of buckler leaf sorrel. There are two other types of sorrel (salt bush and common, both sherbety and lemony), tiny, frilly baby kale, the grandly named salad burnet and baby rainbow chard. Not to mention lots of delicate salad herbs such as chives, mint and marjoram to name just a few.
Smaller salad growers are popping up all over the country and mixing their more complex and sophisticated leaves with simpler varieties. One Cornwall salad grower once gave me a tiny handful of leaves so distinct and flavourful that they tasted like a cool sip of fizzy lemonade.
But even with leaves from a local supermarket comes the possibility of a cut-above bowl of salad. I like to buy whole lettuces, cutting and washing them in one go, then filling a sandwich bag or the salad drawer with a few days’ worth of leaves, which stay crisp and cold in the fridge. There is a lot to choose from on the supermarket shelves: the bitter crunch of chicory, the soft frill of lamb’s lettuce, spiky rocket as hot as a peppercorns, sweet and crisp little gems, red-fringed cos ...
A leafy salad is always a part of my day, be it all green, or combined with a few carefully chosen ingredients and thoughtfully dressed. A good leaf salad is all about the balance of the leaves and the perfect dressing. I favour cooling, calm leaves to make up most of the plate, with a scattering of hot, peppery, earthy or citrus notes. A good salad is all about each mouthful being unique; a pop of lemon, a crunchy leaf, the frond of a delicate herb. This is what makes a simple green salad, for me, one of the most pleasing things to eat. It’s time to up your salad game.
Peppery green salad with apricots and curd cheese (pictured above)
This is all about the balance between the flavourful leaves and the icy, cleansing flavour of fennel. Search out more unusual leaves if you can, but rocket and watercress will do fine. Peaches or plums would work well in place of the apricots. A simple, but perfectly balanced, salad.
Serves 4
1 large head of fennel
4 big handfuls of peppery salad leaves, (rocket, watercress, mizuna, mustard leaf), washed
4 apricots, stoned and cut into eighths
100g goat’s curd or soft goat’s cheese
A handful of hazelnuts, toasted
For the dressing
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
A little runny honey
1 First, finely slice the fennel then immerse in a bowl of cold water to stop it browning.
2 Next, make the dressing. Squeeze the lemon juice into a jam jar and top up with twice the amount of olive oil, a pinch a salt and pepper, and a tiny squeeze of honey. Shake well. Taste for balance. Add more lemon, oil, honey and salt as needed – but, remember, it’ll taste a little mellower on the leaves.
3 Drain and dry the fennel, then put in a bowl with the washed leaves and apricot slices. Add a little dressing and toss to coat . Tumble into a serving bowl or platter. Crumble over the cheese and hazelnuts.
A green lunch salad
This salad is all green and yet has enough backbone to be eaten as a lunch or light dinner. It suits rocket leaves best, but watercress or mustard leaf would work well too.
Serves 2-4
300g frozen or fresh podded peas
200g runner or green beans, trimmed and chopped into 3cm lengths
3 celery stalks, very thinly sliced
3 large handfuls of rocket
50g pumpkin seeds, toasted
15 big green olives, chopped
2 ripe avocados, sliced
For the dressing
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tbsp white miso
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
4 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 First, blanch your peas and green beans in salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes until just cooked, but still retaining a little bite. Once cooked, run briefly under cold water to cool, then put to one side.
2 In a large bowl, combine the celery, rocket, pumpkin seeds, olives and, once cool, the peas and green beans.
3 Make the dressing by smashing the garlic into a paste in a pestle and mortar. Stir in the miso, then add the mirin and vinegar. Mix well, then stir in the yoghurt. Taste and adjust the dressing, if needed.
4 Toss the salad in half the dressing and add more, bit by bit, as needed. Slice the avocado into thin slices and add at the last minute.
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food
