Every day, chapter 6
Salads
A great salad is a balance of contrasts: crisp against soft, sharp against rich, salty against sweet. Get that balance right and three ingredients are enough; get it wrong and no amount of garnish helps. The salads in this chapter range from a Greek horiatiki that needs only ripe tomatoes and good oil to main-course plates like Niçoise and Thai beef salad. A few principles carry through all of them. Dry your leaves thoroughly, because dressing slides off wet ones. Salt watery vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbage ahead, so their juices season the salad instead of drowning it. Dress warm potatoes, grains and beets while still warm, when they absorb flavor best. And taste the dressed salad, not the dressing alone, before it reaches the table.
18 recipesOpen the chapter in the app
Caesar SaladCrisp romaine, garlicky croutons and a punchy anchovy-Parmesan dressing30 min
Greek Salad (Horiatiki)Ripe tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and a slab of feta — no lettuce25 min
Salade NiçoiseA composed salad of tuna, jammy eggs, potatoes, beans and olives40 min
Larb GaiLao and Thai minced chicken salad with toasted rice, lime and herbs25 min
TabboulehA parsley salad with a little bulgur — not the other way round35 min
PanzanellaTuscan tomato and bread salad, soaked in its own juices55 min
Smashed Cucumber SaladSichuan-style cucumbers in garlic, black vinegar and chili oil30 min