Chopped Green Salad

Spring is the first season of harvest in the vegetable garden. California leads the country in agriculture in too many crops to capture here. Fortunately for our lunch plate and our waistline, these include the ingredients that fill our salad bowl: lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, even the olive oil for our dressing. It is no coincidence that salad is a mainstay of seemingly every menu in Los Angeles, from brunch and lunch spot to our urban home. Some of that has to do with the LA obsession with fitness, but while every cuisine begins with local availability, California cooking has always centered around fresh, local ingredients. Locally this gives us everything from Bay Area sourdough and cioppino to Central Coast Pinot Noir. It gives us fruit salad and Cobb salad and Caesar salad. And universally, it gives us mom's weeknight dinner side specialty: chopped green salad.

 

Here is Urban Home Blog's official recipe for chopped green salad. It is fresh and bright with strident iceberg lettuce, crunchy with assertive radishes and soothing cucumbers, crowned with sun sweetened cherry tomatoes. While this is the combination of vegetables we prefer in our urban home, a true chopped salad should reflect your household preferences. These can come from cultural tradition or the bounty of the garden or, the best reason of all, because "we've always done it this way." I have seen chopped salads anointed with everything from shavings of carrot to threads of red cabbage, from fresh herbs to dried mushrooms, from the dreaded beet to the welcome red pepper. In our home, the rule of thumb is that chopped green salad must be made from the freshest vegetables available. Ideally these come from the home garden or the farmer's market, but there is no reason you shouldn't be able to make a great chopped salad from the produce aisle of the supermarket. A great chopped salad is best when served with fresh dressing. Favorites include basic vinaigrette, blue cheese, and ranch, but the winner is Italian, so I have included the recipe for an Italian dressing so flavorful it evokes the cruet of countless weeknight dinner tables.

Chopped Green Salad

As noted above, use any combination of fresh vegetables that reflects your family's tastes and traditions.

 

For the salad

1 head iceberg lettuce

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 cucumber

1 bunch radishes

1 bunch scallions

1 dry pint cherry tomatoes

 

For the dressing

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/3 - 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium clove garlic

1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

 

Make the salad

1. Position an in-sink colander into place.
2. Place a drop of vegetable cleaner in the palm of your hand and rub each pepper with the cleaner. Rinse the peppers under cool water until clean. Cut each pepper in half from cap to bottom. Cut away and discard the stem; cut away any pithy white from inside each half. Rinse each half under cool water to remove the seeds; if saving seeds for planting, do this step over a fine mesh sieve to catch the seeds. Cut off the rounded top and bottom of each half and set aside for composting. Set aside one green pepper half for another usage.
3. Turn a burner on low. Spear one red pepper half with a heat- and fire-proof fork or skewer. Carefully place the speared pepper over the burner and turn the pepper over the burner to roast it, until the skin is wrinkled and slightly blackened. Turn off the burner.
4. Transfer the roasted pepper to a small mixing bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap.
5. Inspect the head of iceberg lettuce, removing any papery or yellowed or brown leaves. Rinse the head of lettuce under cool water and place, core side down, on a layer of paper towels to dry.
6. Decant the cherry tomatoes into a small colander. Pick through the tomatoes to remove and discard any that display discoloration or soft spots. Remove stems and caps if any. Rinse the tomatoes in cool water and set aside to drain on paper towels.
7. Run the radishes under cool water, making sure to clean off dirt if any. Remove the stems from the radishes and set aside for composting. Cut the radishes crosswise into coins. Transfer the cut radishes to the in-sink colander.
8. Flatten the two remaining pepper halves, one green and one red, skin side down against a clean cutting board reserved for vegetables. Cut each flattened half roughly into strips and cut across the strips to form rough squares. Transfer the diced peppers to the in-sink colander.
9. Peel the cucumber and cut in half lengthwise. Use a teaspoon to scrape away the pith and seeds. Cut each half into crescents. Transfer the cut cucumber to the in-sink colander.
10. Lay the scallions on the cutting board. Align the scallions side by side and across the bottom. Use a sharp knife to cut across the bottom of the row of scallions to remove and discard the stringy root ends of the scallions. Use the knife to cut to remove and discard the browned or papery outer skins of the scallions. Use your hands to remove and discard limp, yellowing, or papery green tops from the scallions. Use the knife to cut across the scallions, both white part and green part. Transfer the cut scallions to the in-sink colander.
11. Use a tomato knife or sharp paring knife to cut the tomatoes in half. Transfer the chopped tomatoes to the in-sink colander.
12. Give the in-sink colander a shake to mix the chopped vegetables and to drain excess water if any.
13. Hold the head of lettuce core side down and shake it dry. Place the head of lettuce core side up on the cutting board. Use a bread knife to cut the head of lettuce in halves straight down through the core. Use the bread knife to cut each half straight down through the core into quarters. Use the bread knife to cut away and discard the core from each iceberg wedge, doing your best to keep the leaves from separating.
14. Cut across the lettuce wedges to form ribbons. You will need between 2 - 3 wedges depending on how big a salad you are making. Transfer the ribboned lettuce to the in-sink colander as you work, lightly mixing the lettuce into the chopped vegetables in the colander.
15. Once the salad is chopped, leave in the in-sink colander to drain. If it will be more than an hour or two before serving, place the salad in the salad bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until serving time.

Make the dressing

1. Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl containing the roasted pepper (steps 3 and 4 above). The pepper should be very soft and fragrant. It is okay if it has expressed liquid.
2. Use a fork to mash the pepper. It is okay if some pieces of papery skin remain. 
3. Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Half each clove; remove and discard any sprouting from the center. Use a garlic press to press the garlic into the bowl containing the mashed roasted red pepper.
4. Sprinkle the mashed pepper-garlic mixture with the dried herbs, salt and crushed red pepper flakes.
5. Mix 1 tablespoon cold water into the mash to form a paste. Using the fork to mix the paste, slowly measure the vinegars into the paste.
6. Measure 1/3 extra-virgin olive oil into a glass measuring cup with a spout. Use the fork to continue whisking the mixture in the bowl as you drizzle the extra-virgin olive oil into the bowl. You should have a thick, fragrant emulsion; if necessary, thin the dressing with another tablespoon or two of extra-virgin olive oil.
7. Give the dressing a final stir and serve with the salad.