High Summer Lunch Salad

Multiple times a year I look around and declare that this is my favorite time of year to cook.  I love it in the winter when citrus season peaks. I love it when fava beans are the brightest green with the silkiest, creamiest texture (before they go too starchy). And I love it when the pluots are sweetest and the heirloom tomatoes most concentrated.  This was the feeling I had earlier in the week when I got home from the farmers’ market with the most inspiring ingredients I’ve had in years. I wrote everything down in a list —lemongrass, banana peppers, fresh cranberry beans, baby romaine, etc.. — and then started daydreaming about what I might make. The first thing was this summer-maxxing lunch salad. I tapped my pantry for mung beans, whisked together a simple vinaigrette, and then assembled everything into a wildly colorful, substantial salad where every bite is a bit different. 

High Salad Lunch Salad: Ingredients

The key here is assembling peak everything. If the tomatoes where you are look a little sad, skip them and bump up one of the other ingredients. Or, swap in another ingredient you love – this salad is very forgiving.

• Tomatoes: My neighbor Emily tipped me off to just how good the Green Zebra tomatoes were this week, and she was spot on. I love their concentrated flavor and beautiful lime green and yellow striped markings. Keep an eye out for heirloom tomatoes where you are, and go for the ones with the best flavor.
• Pluots: I love the complexity of a perfect, ripe pluot, and while a lot of people I know wait for peach season, I’m actually team pluot. You can use either here.
• Crispy Shallots: A lot of people buy these, but I like to make my own. Fry thinly sliced shallots in a good amount of oil until deeply browned, then use a spider to transfer them to a paper towel. It’s one of the assertive elements that also brings crunch and savoriness to this salad.
• Banana Peppers: Keep an eye out! I love their color and mild bite and spiciness. If you can’t find them and like bell peppers, swap in some yellow or red bell peppers. Quite different, but reasonable!
• Vinegar: The vinegar here is important and should taste delicious. I’ve been using a red wine vinegar that is agrodolce – a bit sweet, but still plenty acidic (it’s this one). If you don’t have an agrodolce vinegar, consider adding a bit of honey or sugar to your vinaigrette to round it out a bit. Just enough to get it to your liking. 

A few of the other ingredients and flowers that were at the market at the same time. On the ingredient front there were: perfect carrots, yellow beans, fresh cranberry beans, shallots, lemongrass, and some little lettuces hiding in there. Marigolds made an appearance after weeks and weeks of show-stopping dahlias. It’s one of the first things I notice as we round the corner into fall. 

High Summer Lunch Salad: Serving Ideas

I served this salad basically as a meal on its own, with a bit of Zanzibari Sesame Flatbread from The Food of Oman (page 177), published in 2015. Sidenote: this is a wonderful book that Ken at Now Serving turned me on to a few years back. The flatbread has a rich coconut milk dough, and I’ve been making variations of it ever since I brought the book home. It seems like the book might be out of print, but poke around for a used copy – they’re out there. I also added a little plate of sheep’s milk feta drizzled with olive oil, more of a creamy bonus than an essential. 

As far as drinks go, I boosted some sparkling water with lemon, a bit of saffron, and plenty of ice, then called it a day.

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