Chop, chop, chop -- salad!
CHOPPED salad is the quintessential Los Angeles salad. After all, it’s akin to the Cobb salad, which rose to stardom during the heyday of Hollywood’s Brown Derby. And who hasn’t been tempted to order one in any of a dozen Italian restaurants that have it on the menu as a cornerstone? But let’s face it -- for years, the chopped salad has been resting on its laurels -- or its iceberg lettuce, anyway.
Fortunately, it’s undergone a renaissance lately. All those heaps of cut-up iceberg, mozzarella, salami and chickpeas tossed in red wine vinaigrette have given way to more interesting ingredients, more artfully prepared.
Take, for instance, the chopped salad at the Foundry on Melrose -- an over-the-top toss of diced red-purple beets, roasted butternut squash, fennel, celery, cucumber, currants, piquillo peppers and pistachios with Parmesan and Idiazabal cheeses. Plus, chef Eric Greenspan adds another dimension with greens such as arugula, romaine and frisee (what Alice Waters calls “the shock-headed leafy green fright wig” -- not so frightening when cut into manageable pieces).
So that you get a little of everything in each mouthful, the vegetables and cheeses are chopped into a small (quarter- to half-inch) dice. Every bite is deeply flavorful: sweet and salty with a hint of bitter, simultaneously a little nutty and a little herbaceous. The textures are all-inclusive, too. This salad is chewy, succulent and crunchy at the same time.
But just like a great three-ring circus or a lively Doo Dah Parade needs good stage management, a chopped salad isn’t about chaos; it’s about improvising with several categories of ingredients and linking together different combinations of flavors.
A good chopped salad is like a free-form composed salad. Each component is selected for what it brings to the party -- a bit of crunch, a juicy tang -- and when mixed together, the whole is surprising, perhaps, in its juxtapositions, but harmonious too.
You can change out the traditional mainstays. Instead of a base of lettuce, imagine a duo of grilled greens: romaine and radicchio lightly browned and crisp on the edges. The smoky notes and slightly wilted textures of the ribbons of leafy ingredients contrast with the add-ins of diced red onion, black olives, hard-cooked egg and parsley. An assertive anchovy-garlic dressing makes this a robust dish.
You can balance a chopped salad in a number of ways, weighting it toward greens sometimes, toward root vegetables another time. It’s a great winter dish because the season’s farmers market offers a lot of sturdy vegetables that stand up to chopping: celery, fennel, endive, turnips, artichokes, cardoons. . . .
And you don’t always need to start with a long list of ingredients. Just three or four can be sublime. How about diced beets and fennel, toasted walnuts and watercress? Dressed with a little tarragon, orange zest and sherry vinaigrette, it’s a lively and unusual mix of sweet, nutty, herbal and tangy flavors.
Now’s also the perfect time to toss in watermelon radishes, or daikon. The crisp texture and peppery bite of radishes set off grilled chicken beautifully. Maybe with carrot, cucumbers and green onions -- and instead of leafy greens, a leafy herb (cilantro) and spicy radish sprouts.
It’s everything a chopped salad should be, both satisfying and refreshing, with layers of textures, simple to prepare but with complex flavors. It’s a fastidious execution of laid-back chic, in true L.A. style.
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donna.deane@latimes.com
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The Foundry on Melrose chopped salad
Total time: 1 hour, plus 2 1/2 to 3 hours roasting time for the oven-dried tomatoes
Servings: 8 as an appetizer or 4 as a main dish
Note: Adapted from a recipe by Eric Greenspan, chef-owner of the Foundry on Melrose. Idiazabal cheese is a Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, available at the Cheese Store of Silverlake, Monsieur Marcel Gourmet Market and the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. You can substitute provolone or mozzarella cheese. Store-bought sun-dried tomatoes can be substituted for the oven-dried tomatoes. Piquillo peppers are available at Spain Restaurant in L.A., Surfas in Culver City, La Espanola in Harbor City and some gourmet shops. You can also use roasted red peppers.
2 pounds (about 8) Roma tomatoes
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Salt
1/4 cup diced butternut squash ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/4 cup diced roasted red beets ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/2 cup unsalted, shelled pistachio nuts
1/2 cup diced fennel ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/2 cup diced celery ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/3 cup diced cucumber ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/2 cup dried currants
3 tablespoons diced piquillo peppers ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup grated Idiazabal cheese
8 cups chopped mixed greens, chopped into bite-size pieces (such as arugula, spinach, frisee and romaine)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons golden raisins
1. Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Peel, seed and cut the tomatoes into quarters. Toss them with 3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt, about 1 teaspoon. Arrange the tomatoes on a rack on a baking sheet and bake until dried, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow to cool on the rack. Dice the cooled tomatoes into one-fourth-inch pieces. You should have about 6 tablespoons.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roast the squash and beets in a small baking pan just until tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, but leave the oven on at 350 degrees to toast the pistachios.
3. Toast the pistachios on a baking sheet 5 to 7 minutes until lightly toasted, then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
4. In a large bowl, toss together the roasted tomatoes, butternut squash, beets, pistachios, fennel, celery, cucumber, currants, piquillo peppers, grated cheeses and mixed greens.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar and the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil until blended. Stir in the raisins. Drizzle enough dressing over the salad to coat, and sprinkle over a dash of salt. Toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Each of 8 servings: 330 calories; 6 grams protein; 21 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 26 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 5 mg. cholesterol; 117 mg. sodium.
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Grilled radicchio and romaine chopped salad
Total time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
Note: From Donna Deane
1 teaspoon minced anchovies, from about 2 fillets
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic
vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped capers
4 tablespoons olive oil,
divided
Freshly ground black
pepper
Salt
2 heads Treviso radicchio, quartered lengthwise
1 small head romaine, quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup diced red onion ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/4 cup pitted black olives ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1 hard-cooked egg, peeled and cut into 1/4 -inch dice
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1. In a medium bowl, combine the minced anchovies with the garlic, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and capers. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until emulsified and season with a few grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt, or to taste. Set aside.
2. Heat a grill over medium-high heat. Brush the radicchio and romaine lightly with the remaining olive oil. Grill until lightly charred but still crisp, turning so that all sides are quickly grilled, about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Remove from the grill, and let stand until the radicchio and romaine are cool enough to handle. Cut into 1-inch squares.
3. Toss the chopped romaine and radicchio with the diced onion and olives, then toss with the dressing. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and salt.
4. Mound a quarter of the salad onto each of four plates. Garnish each evenly with the hard-cooked egg and parsley. Serve immediately.
Each serving: 179 calories; 3 grams protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 16 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 54 mg. cholesterol; 171 mg. sodium.
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Daikon and grilled chicken chopped salad
Total time: 45 minutes
Servings: 4 to 6
Note: From test kitchen director Donna Deane
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 lime
1/2 head nappa cabbage (about 3/4 pound), cored and thinly sliced
1 cup diced daikon ( 1/2 -inch dice)
1/2 cup diced carrot ( 1/4 -inch dice)
1/2 cup peeled, seeded and diced cucumber ( 1/2 -inch dice)
1/4 cup sliced green onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
3/4 cup cleaned and trimmed radish sprouts (about half of a 2.5-ounce carton)
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1. Heat a grill over medium-high heat. Place the chicken in a medium bowl and rub all over with the olive oil and garlic. Season each piece with one-fourth teaspoon salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper.
2. Place the chicken on the grill and cook until the meat is opaque and firm and a thermometer inserted into the center reads 165 degrees. Remove the chicken to a plate, squeeze a little juice from the halved lime over the chicken and allow to cool to room temperature, covered loosely.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the nappa cabbage, daikon, carrot, cucumber, green onion, cilantro and radish sprouts. Cut the cooled chicken into a half-inch dice and toss with the salad.
4. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and a good grind of fresh black pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat evenly. Serve immediately.
Each serving: 133 calories; 14 grams protein; 11 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 31 mg. cholesterol; 940 mg. sodium.
