Take Time for Salad

By Simona Carini onthetable@northcoastjournal.com

Iam not a fan of cold weather. By the time dinner time comes around I am dreaming of a hot dish: a hearty soup or a vegetable side or main dish that warms me and helps me let go of whatever tension the day may have caused. But before the warming course, I eat a salad — usually a big one.

If, when I was still living in Italy, someone had told me one day I’d be an enthusiastic salad eater, I would have laughed heartily. I grew up eating salad as a side dish almost every evening. My mother, an otherwise excellent cook, did not excel in creativity in the salad department. There are only so many years of mostly plain Romaine lettuce one can go through before turning into a salad skeptic.

Things have changed a lot since then and preparing my dinner salad has become

Throughout the month of March, a selection of the Co-op’s best cheeses will go head-to-head to earn your votes, but only one will be crowned the winner!

Taste and vote for your favorite cheeses each week during in-store sampling events, and the final winner will be put on sale in April.

NEXT TASTING &

VOTING DATES

Friday, March 24 (4pm-7pm) & Saturday, March 25 (11am-2pm) an end-of-the-day ritual. Starting the meal with a salad is also a good way for me to focus on enjoying what I eat. I have about two servings of salad, followed by more vegetables (indeed, I am a vegetable-powered writer).

I like mixing flavors and using what is in season, what I find at the farmers market. Lettuce of all varieties, mixed salad greens, arugula (if not already in the mix) and microgreens provide the green part of the salad. I often add radicchio, which I purchase at the grocery store (I hope one day to find some locally grown).

Next, root vegetables. Radishes add a hint of spice, which I balance with the sweetness of carrots. I am also partial to salad turnips — their greens, like

Milton Creamery Morning Harvest vs Milton Creamery Prairie Breeze

No purchase necessary. Full details and tasting schedule available at northcoast.coop/cheesemadness.

Your organic, member-owned grocery store since 1973 www.northcoast.coop

ON

The Table

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