Our Verdict: Salad Freak

Kirstin: I loved this book. Maybe it was the heatwave, maybe it was because I needed to lose a little weight after all that pasta and pizza in Italy. But it was exactly the book I needed for August. The recipes were easy to follow, they were themed according to season with gorgeous photography and were packed with flavour. I also loved that Jess didn’t make this a diet book as a lot of salad books are. And she often flirted with the idea of a salad which worked for me.

Maureen: This book was a tremendous success. Part of it might be down to “Right Time, Right Book”– if there were ever a time in which you’d want to dine out on salads continually, it’d be during a British heat wave. The salads were delicious and easily achievable (for the most part, if you look past the amount of chopping required for the average salad). The book also is divided by season, which will be awfully handy in the deepest, darkest parts of winter, when having a salad wouldn’t be a terrible idea but I might be short on ideas of what exactly that would look like. Sure, there were several “salads” that weren’t really salads, but I think we can muscle past that. All in all, it was a great book.

“Tortellini Antipasto Pasta Salad” from “Salad Freak”

In the introduction, Jess Damuck writes that she would like an origin story that involves the French countryside, the Tuscan hills, the Spanish sunshine or the California coast. (Me too, Jess. Me too.) But she admits that’s not how she grew up, but if she were to write her origin story, this salad would feature.

I know what she means because this salad was very much a featured player in many summer barbecues of my childhood.

It’s simple enough, and requires no special ingredients. In actual fact, you might have many of them in your cupboard already. But to me, a good pasta salad just screams “Summer” to me. (Although, frankly it’s good any time of year. We always ordered an antipasto salad on our local Italian restaurant in Chicago, even on the coldest of cold days.)

The recipe, as written, was designed as a side salad. But we chowed down on it as a main. After all it has everything– fresh vegetables, several different types of cheeses, and array of deli meats and room-temperature tortellini. That sounded like a complete meal to me, so that’s how we ate it. It was delicious, and still great the next day for lunch.

All in all, a superb salad.

“Lamb meatballs with cucumber and herbs” from “Salad Freak”

Kirstin: Categorising this as a salad may be a little bit of a stretch for some, but I am going to go with it. Because this was an incredible lunch. I realised as I was making it, how Jess’s recipes fill me with joy; the prep is always easy and straightforward and the resulting flavours I KNOW will be fabulous and well thought out. We absolutely loved this recipe (you can click here to make it yourself). It might be our favourite meal from the book, even if some people may choose not to think of it as salad-ing.

“Steak Salad to Change Your Mood” from “Salad Freak”

Is this a salad? I’m not sure.

Arguments for: It certainly looks like it. Salad leaves feature prominently. There’s also a salad dressing.

Arguments against: If I took the components and put them into piles, rather than all together on the plate, this essentially would be our usual steak dinner.

Either way, it was delicious.

I should say that I did make a few modifications. First, the ingredients call for filet mignon. “Filet mignon!” I thought. “I’m not putting it in a salad. If I’m going to invest in that piece of meat, I’m going to make sure it’s the star of the show, rather that member of the chorus, as is here.” I ended up buying the bavette cut instead, and it worked a treat.

Second, I didn’t have any prepared horseradish for the salad dressing, so I made a blue cheese dressing instead. I have no regrets about this decision. It was delicious.

So is it a salad or not? I’m still not sure. But we all (minus the vegetarian, obviously, who skipped the steak) loved it, so I’d call it a win either way.

“Peach, cucumber, avocado, dukkah” from “Salad Freak”

Kirstin: What a wonderful salad on a hot day. It’s an interesting group of ingredients which you might not think would work together; cucumber, peach, mozzarella and avocado. But they do work really well together, especially with the dukkah which unites the salad with some interesting texture and flavour. Yet another winner from Jess!

“Egg Salad” from “Salad Freak”

Proust had his madeleines. I, apparently, have egg salad.

I can explain. In his novel,  À la recherche du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past, Proust recounts eating a madeleine, which then unlocks a memory of eating crumbs of madeleines with his Aunt Leonie. (Fun fact! À la recherche du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past spans seven volumes, contains more than 1.2 million words, making it one of the longest novels in history.) A “Madeleine moment” is a moment when the distance between the present and the past collapses.

In the last few days, I have been racing through The Paper Palace, a brilliant novel by Miranda Cowley Heller. It tells the story of Elle, who spends her summers at her family’s house/compound on Cape Cod. Barbecues, Fourth of July fireworks, long days at the beach all feature heavily. As I was reading this, it brought to mind my American summers, where barbecues, Fourth of July fireworks and long days at beach featured heavily. I also was lucky enough to get invited to my friend’s Cape Code compound– much like the one featured in the book– for a weekend once. (My lingering memory of that weekend was how all the kids slept overnight on the tennis court, but that’s a story for another time.)

While I was reading The Paper Palace, I had a primal craving for an egg salad sandwich. It was the strangest thing, because I haven’t eaten an egg salad sandwich in years. But I did eat a great many egg salad sandwiches in the summers of my youth, so reading “The Paper Palace” seemed to have brought it all back to me.

I knew “Salad Freak” had a recipe for it, so I went out, stocked up on eggs and mayonnaise, and then got to it. Reader, I was not disappointed. It was delicious. And in fact, I’ve subsequently made it again, I liked it so much. (One thing to note: this recipe called for “lots of dill.” I’m sure that would make it delicious, but as my husband is not at all a fan of dill, and I knew he’d like to eat some of it, I skipped that herb. But I’m sure it would be just as good with it.)

Overall, it was a triumph.

Like I said, Proust had his madeleines. I’ve got egg salad sandwiches. Apparently, you don’t get to choose your Madeline moment. It just comes to you.

“Bright and crunchy salmon” from “Salad Freak”

Kirstin: I thought I really should give a few of the less obviously salad-y recipes a go. Like this one, for instance. And boy, am I glad I did. All the Thai flavours from the dressing and herbs, with the crunch coming from the cucumber, radish, shallots and peanuts. Paired with the roast salmon, this was an absolute winner of a recipe.

(For the record, I changed this recipe slightly as I didn’t have time to make the shallots and shallot oil substituting them with garlic oil and ready made crunchy onions. It worked for us!)

“BLT Potato Salad” from “Salad Freak”

I’m sorry. Bacon in zoom is not very picturesque.

At the peak of Tomato Time in the summer, is there anything better than a glorious BLT sandwich? I think not.

This is a variation on that glorious foodstuff, though in this case, the starch is provided by the new potatoes rather than the bread. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about the inclusion of the potatoes– I just couldn’t see how that would work– but they provided some bulk and made the salad feel more like a meal than a side.

One of the fun things about this recipe was we were directed to make the bacon “Snoop Style.” As we know, Jess Damuck was Martha Stewart’s salad maker, and as we also know (or if you don’t, I hope your home under a rock is comfortable), Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog are friends. Jess first saw him make bacon “Snoop Style” (you pile it all up into a frying pan and move it around for 15 to 20 minutes), and was a convert to this method of cooking ever since. It worked a treat! I might now forever be making my bacon “Snoop Style” too.

However, I need to add a caveat with this recipe. I thought this would be fairly straightfoward and quick to make. But l underestimated how long it would take to chop everything and also make two different dressings. The effort was definitely worth it, but next time I make it, I’ll allow myself more time to make the magic happen.

Honestly, Summer Tomato Time is one of my most favourite times of the year. Tomatoes are, by far, my favourite thing to eat, and when you can source them at peak freshness? Even better. This recipe is a great way to help them shine.

“Matzo fattoush” from “Salad Freak”

Kirstin: These salads are so pretty to make. Honestly, it’s a joy to present them on the table. This one was no exception. This one has broken up matzo crackers (toasted with egg and za’atar) and pomegranate molasses (my favourite ingredient in a dressing) which Jess says makes it ideal for a Passover meal. Or in our case, a weekday lunch.

“Charred Corn, Tomatoes, Halloumi and Chilli Crisp” from “Salad Freak”

One of the challenges of having one vegetarian sitting at the dinner table is trying to find a meal that everyone will love. It’s not a bad thing– like I said, it’s a challenge, which I always welcome– but there are times when it can be difficult.

I’m thrilled to report this was one of the times when we all loved the vegetarian dinner equally.

We’ve been having a Heat Wave (upper case letters very much required) here in the U.K., so there couldn’t have been a better time for a cookbook called “Salad Freak.” I made this on one of the days where the temperature had reached 33C/96F, so limiting my time at the stove wasn’t just an option, it was imperative.

This was bound to be a winner. We all love halloumi. Add summer fresh tomatoes, corn and basil and you’re reaching championship status for a dinner. The twist was drizzling chilli crisp oil over the top. I cheated and used the chilli crisp oil we keep in the pantry at all times rather than making it myself. (Did I mention we’re in a Heat Wave? I was trying my best to limit my time in the kitchen.) The chilli crisp oil pulled it all together to make something really wonderful.

The other modification that I had to make was with the corn. Jess wants you to char the corn still in its husks, but the corn I bought came without the husks. (Ah, for the days of my American childhood, where this time of year featured regular trips to the farm to get fresh corn. Delicious.) So I ended up sautéing the corn instead, in a bit of butter and sunflower oil, and then adding loads of salt and pepper to it. It wasn’t quite the same as the charred corn she was prescribed, but needs must, and all that. It didn’t matter. It was still delicious.

We all loved this vegetarian salad, and I expect I’ll be making it again very, very soon.