The Salad Hierarchy

There are frivolous salads, token salads and serious salads. Frivolous salads can be a mixture of small lettuces strewn with threads of julienned fennel or cucumber, a confetti of red, yellow and green peppers or edible flowers. Never robust, they add color and texture to a meal.

Token salads--small plates with either a chunk or chiffonade of greens topped with a stodgy slice of tomato and splash of dressing--are dutiful, obligatory salads to make a meal right.

A serious salad, like a spinach salad with chutney dressing, can be a lunch or supper dish. Warm Boston brown bread and sugared bananas in cream complete the meal.

This salad combines crisp sweet apple, toasted rich pecans, big chewy raisins and the zing of green onion with small leafed spinach. A bold, spicy chutney dressing pulls it all together. The chutney dressing recipe makes more than you’ll need for the spinach salad, but the leftover will keep in the refrigerator up to two weeks.

Boston brown bread makes the salad a meal. It’s an old American steamed bread with the flavors of rye, cornmeal and wheat. It used to be spread with soft cheese and served with dried fruit as a late morning or midafternoon snack. When you make the bread, double the recipe and steam two loaves. Then you’ll have bread and chutney dressing for another meal just waiting for the spinach salad to be made.

For dessert, forget fancy. Sugared, sliced bananas with cream are better than you can imagine.

Cunningham’s latest book is “Cooking With Children” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1995).

SPINACH SALAD

1 cup pecan halves

2 bunches small-leafed spinach, washed, dried, chopped

2 red Delicious apples, cored, halved and cut crosswise in thin slices

1/2 cup Muscat raisins

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Chutney Dressing

Place pecans on baking sheet and toast at 300 degrees about 12 minutes, watching to make sure they don’t burn.

Combine spinach, apples, toasted pecans, raisins and onions in bowl and toss. Serve with Chutney Dressing.

4 servings. Each serving without dressing:

267 calories; 93 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 14 grams fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 2.08 grams fiber.

CHUTNEY DRESSING

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup mango ginger chutney

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine oil, chutney, curry powder, mustard, salt and lemon juice in bowl and stir until well mixed. Gently pour enough dressing over salad to coat all ingredients completely.

1 1/3 cups. Each 2-tablespoon serving:

57 calories; 98 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.01 gram fiber.

BOSTON BROWN BREAD

1/2 cup rye flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup molasses

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup golden raisins

Butter

Combine rye flour, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Stir in molasses, buttermilk and raisins with fork and blend well.

Fill buttered 1 1/2-quart mold or 1-pound coffee can 2/3 full with mixture. Cover tightly with foil or lid and place in deep kettle. Add boiling water halfway up side of mold. Cover kettle and steam over medium heat until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Do not over-steam; bread should be moist but not tacky. Serve warm.

10 servings. Each serving:

156 calories; 152 mg sodium; 1 mg cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 36 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.40 gram fiber.