Bitterly Delicious, Two-Minute Salad

Bitterly Delicious, Two-Minute Salad

Pickings are somewhat slim these days at the local farmers markets, so I was doubly pleased to find one of the most beautiful displays of winter greens I’ve ever seen at the stand of Jesse Kuhn’s Marin Roots farm. He probably had ten kinds of bitter lettuces and chicories, all surreally gorgeous and deliciously bitter.

“Deliciously bitter” may sound like a contradiction, but it’s not (it also sounds better in Japanese: “nigakute oishii” is high praise there). The trick to enjoying these beautiful, healthful salad greens (“salad purples” is more like it) is to introduce a tiny amount of sweetness in the dressing to offset the bitterness. So my two-minute prep of this salad went something like this:

1. Tear up enough leaves for your salad (Jesse washes his lettuces meticulously, so I often don’t even bother with rinsing and spinning) 2. Drizzle on your best fruity green unfiltered olive oil, along with a drizzle of something sweet. My favorite sweetener for this use is jaggery syrup (watch for a video on how to make this soon in this space), but you could also use agave, ginger syrup, simple syrup, or maple syrup). A brief squeeze of Meyer lemon or other citrus for acidity. 3. Toss on pomegranate arils, a few marcona almonds, and flowers, and dust with s&p (yuzu salt or tangerine salt are especially nice). 4. Declare victory, and get ready for an entirely different — and thoroughly pleasant — salad experience.

You could tart this up a million and one ways — with more fruit, smoked fish, other veggies — but sometimes the simplest salad is the best, provided your ingredients are top-notch.

Does anyone else here like bitter lettuces?

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