Jill Dupleix

Green salad

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Feeds

    four

    as a salad

Appears in

Old Food

Old Food

By Jill Dupleix

Published 1998

  • About

A green salad does not, and has never had, cherry tomatoes and bean shoots in it. It has only the delicate, tiny tips of herbs and leaves. That’s why it is called a green salad. Otherwise it would be called a green, red, yellow, pink and white salad. A French housewife’s trick: throw in a spoonful of the cooking juices from a roasted chicken or lamb to the green leaf salad you will be serving with or after the roast.

Ingredients

  • around 2 cups of the tips of mixed cresses and leaves: oakleaf, curly endive, radicchio, watercress, lamb’s lettuce, dandelion greens, rocket
  • around ½ cup of the tips of mixed fresh herbs: chervil, sage, tarragon, dill, basil, marjoram, mint
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar or lemon juice
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Wash leaves carefully, and dry them even more carefully. Whisk red wine vinegar or lemon juice with lemon rind, sea salt and pepper. Add olive oil slowly, while whisking, until dressing thickens. Toss the leaves gently in the dressing, using your hands. Pile leaves high on a plate.

PS. The Romans often added edible flowers to their table. Try mixing the petals of fresh marigolds, daisies, pansies, roses and chive flowers and tossing them through the salad.

© 1998 All rights reserved. Published by Murdoch Books.