Wash...spin...toss

These are the salad days. Beautiful leaves recently sprouted after a season’s dormancy has started to overtake the market. Now, I admit that I love lettuce, and I would venture to confess that a last meal request would be a large bowl of young leaves – perhaps a mix of arugula, sorrel, oak and frissee all simply tossed with lemon juice, sea salt and olive oil. Absolutely simple I will admit, but grand in it subtleties and deep in its satisfaction. There has to a be an emotional component to this craving for my mother would nightly prepare a tossed salad filled with radishes, carrots, kohlrabi and that 70’s staple iceberg lettuce. A dosing of Seven Seas Green Goddess and I was complete. I am not such a purest that I will not add chopped vegetables, nuts or grilled chicken to my salad, but I am also contented with a simple mix.

My obsession with lettuce probably peaked with this past winter, as I just could not bring myself to purchase another dreary pound of whatever. I became addicted to charred romaine. I would just split the head in half lengthwise, wash it well, and under the broiler it went. It was the default vegetable on any given night. Think I will store that one from winter’s return.

For now, my salad spinner is earning its keep, and like my mother before me there will be a salad on the table nightly.










Green Goddess Dressing – yields approx. 3 cups
1-pound silken tofu
2-tablespoons olive oil
1-teaspoon lime zest
1/4-cup fresh limejuice
2-tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1-tablespoon fresh summer savory leaves
1/4-cup chopped chives
1-head spring garlic – roughly chopped
1/8-cup fresh chervil leaves
1-packed cup sorrel leaves – center rib removed
2-teaspoons salt
1/4-teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne

Place the tofu in a sieve sitting in a bowl, and let the tofu drain out its excessive water in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. Discard the water that the tofu has released.

Into the blender or food processor place all the ingredients, and blend until completely smooth.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.