A Simple Green Salad

A simple green salad is surprisingly delicious.

I’ve learned a lot about food and cooking in the decade that I have been doing it professionally.

First, food doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious. In fact, sometimes simple is best. Few ingredients, but more importantly good ingredients are key. As is the case with this simple green salad.

Next, sometimes you don’t need a recipe to make something good, but a technique. In the case of this salad, using the best greens you can find, and doing something so simple it will blow your mind will change the way you look at a salad.

I got these greens at my local farmer’s market. Even though the summer is almost over, it’s still a good time to get all the fresh things, and salad greens are a favorite.

I brought them home and wanted to eat them right away to preserve that fresh flavor, but my pantry was kind of sparse. Not many other veggies lying around, and the ones I got at the market I had a plan for. Dumb of me, I know. But it’s what happened.

So I made literally the simplest salad ever. With greens, a few croutons for crunch and texture, and an easy delectable salad dressing.

But there’s a secret ingredient — coarse sea salt. If you’ve never salted salad greens before, I’m begging you to try it. Get some good coarse salt, put your salad greens in a big bowl and add a generous pinch of salt. Then toss. The salt adds a bit of crunch, but most important brings out the flavor of the greens. This is why you want to start with good, fresh leaves. Baby ones are even better.

The dressing is a combination of lemon and light olive oil with a dash of mustard. Not too complicated because you don’t want to overwhelm your salad.

Don’t get me wrong — I love a big salad with lots of ingredients, textures, and flavors. But sometimes, it’s easy to forget that certain ingredients have a personality all their own, and you’re missing out by covering it with everything under the sun.