Midsummer is a sweet spot for salads on restaurant menus. It might even be called the “salad days” because the selection of chilled dishes featuring garden-fresh produce is at its peak.
More than lettuce and tomato, salads are culinary stars with boutique micro-greens, heirloom tomatoes and interesting vegetables such as shaved watermelon radishes or smoked candy-striped beets.
Dining out at the Proprietors during a recent trip to Nantucket, Mass., I enjoyed chef Tom Berry’s creative take on a Caesar salad. The Gem Lettuce Salad features crisp leaves adorned with Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, smoked almonds, white anchovies and Spanish paprika.
Boston-based registered dietitian Liz Weiss, who vacations on Nantucket, says, “It’s all about having fun with salads with different colors, textures and pops of flavor.” Weiss, co-author of the healthy family cookbook “No Whine With Dinner,” especially likes the way Berry adds interesting textures such as eggplant purees and grains such as quinoa to salads, “Sophisticated salads are the next evolution of the vegetable trend.”
Field to fork
Salads are where local farm-to-table sourcing comes into focus. Tomatoes from local farmers were required to enter the recent Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival competition to benefit Georgia Organics. Judges’ choice winner, chef Asha Gomez of Cardamom Hill, won for her stuffed Watsonia Farms cherry tomatoes served on a bed of tomato rice.
Sometimes, salad comes with a spoon. Chilled soups are summer favorites, including watermelon gazpacho with cucumber, pickled ruby red shrimp and chive at No. 246 in Decatur. Registered dietitian Regan Jones of Augusta, who co-founded Healthy Aperture, an online food photo gallery highlighting healthy food, says, “We’re seeing more photos of cold vegetable dishes such as gazpacho and fruit soups.”
Watermelon appears prominently, too, such as the tomato and watermelon salad with arugula and basil at Table & Main in Roswell.
“We’re seeing more fruit as the key ingredient in salads,” Jones said. “That’s good because you get a little sweetness from the fruit without using high-calorie sweet dressings made with a lot of sugar.”
When salads sabotage
Just because the word “salad” is used doesn’t mean it’s bikini-friendly. “In the South, we use the term salad pretty loosely and the mayo pretty heavily, “ says Nashville registered dietitian Sarah-Jane Bedwell, who writes the “Eat Like Me” blog for Self Magazine. She adds, “Indulgent ingredients such as a slice of fried green tomato or strip of bacon on top are OK if they’re a small addition to a vegetable salad.”
Another Nantucket case in point: At Cru, you can order the classic lobster roll with chunks of lobster caressed with mayo served on a toasted buttered bun. Or go with steamed lobster presented in a pretty glass jar with avocado, salad greens and sliced kumquats. Liz Moore McDermott, an Atlanta interior designer visiting Nantucket, says, ”I can actually taste the beautiful lobster better when it’s presented this way, and the tart kumquats are a terrific touch.”
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