My friend Sarah Fishman makes a great fruit and lettuce salad that I’ve started serving a lot. It’s fresh, light, easy, and delicious. The only downside is my husband maintains salads shouldn’t have fruit, “because we call salads with vegetables ‘salad’ and fruit salad ‘fruit salad,’ ” so he always asks me to pass the fruit salad when I serve it. (Note that he does ask for it, though — it’s really good!)
The recipe is from The Bais Yaakov Cookbook, but we tweaked it a little bit because the dressing calls for poppy seeds, which we omit (teeth), and made a few small changes to the base.
For the salad, use any kind of leafy green — lettuce, kale, arugula, etc. — combined with a mango or grapefruit cut into segments (me) or mandarin oranges (Sarah), slivers of red onion, and cubes of avocado. Top with glazed pecans.
—Rachel Bachrach, associate editor
Salads are my favorite way to fill up a menu. They add color, texture, flavor, and of course fiber! I don’t plan my salads, I just stock up on a variety of greens (pre-checked) and every vegetable imaginable. I also always make a double recipe of at least five of my favorite salad dressings, which I rotate and sometimes even combine. Then, when I’m prepping my meal, I just throw together whatever I’m in the mood of.
Leftover sides from previous meals — for example, roasted squash, grilled zucchini, or steamed green beans — make fantastic additions to today’s salad. I love to combine fresh and cooked veggies, and I always try to have as much color and texture contrast as possible. Having some shredded veggies and others cut in chunks also keeps a salad fun and varied. Nuts, seeds, and roasted chickpeas are great for crunch.
Here’s my latest concoction: A bed of mixed greens, shredded fennel, shredded radishes, shredded carrots, steamed green beans cut in chunks, dried chickpeas, sliced black olives, and sesame seeds with my new Shallot Lime Dressing, recently featured in FT.
—Rorie Weisberg, health columnist
The colors of this delicious salad remind me of fall. There are no exact measurements, other than the dressing.
Blend all dressing ingredients. Drizzle over salad immediately before serving. Enjoy!
—Mati Swimmer, craft writer
