Pomegranate and cauliflower salad. Submitted photo

Last week I talked about Julia Child and her influence on my interest in cooking and baking anything from the basics to the complex. I ended with sharing a Vermouth Basil Vinaigrette recipe.

This week it seems appropriate to follow up with a salad conversation. Just like many of my discussions which can end up going in a variety of directions, so it is with my salads! When I was taking care of my cousin, she’d say to her friends, “That girl is always chopping. Chop, chop. I never know what she’s going to come up with”. Soon, several homemakers in the community asked me how to put salads together. One young woman asked me to give a demo at her place of employment!

Merriam Webster Dictionary has a lengthy description of what a salad is. My short version is a foundation of vegetables, cooked or raw, and meat or fish added. Food preparers serve them hot, warm, or cold. For instance, a summer potato salad will likely be served cold, but in the winter, redesigned as a vinegary hot salad.

Tacos may be a salad. Keep the ingredients separated and served in a soft or crunchy shell or a Butter Lettuce shell, and it’s a basic entrée. Break up all components, mix them in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and vinegar dressing or a Catalina dressing, and presto, you have a salad. Of course, there are also strictly fish, seafood, pasta, or gelatin salads, too. Today my emphasis is on vegetable salads.

Vegetable salads are one of the most versatile meals to make. Depending on the ingredients, they can meet nearly any dietary need.

Salads are perfect at any time of the grocery shopping schedule, but especially as quantities of vegetables run low. In the refrigerator vegetable drawer, there’s apt to be a little of this and a little of that, not to mention a few of those!

Today I took the remainder of scallions, lonely cauliflower, carrots, cilantro and celery leaves, a chunk of sweet orange pepper, a few cherry tomatoes and chopped them into small pieces.

I steamed the cauliflower for 5 minutes and scraped the other vegetables off my cutting board and into a bowl, then added the cauliflower. Some people prefer large chunks, but I like smaller pieces to get a mouthful of flavors. Then I sprinkled in a few pomegranate seeds, pecan pieces, and crumbled feta cheese.

Lastly, I drizzled a basic vinaigrette dressing over everything in the bowl and tossed all the ingredients together. I recommend making this in the morning so the cauliflower can absorb the flavors. Red pepper flakes and mayo are a great addition.

Avoid packaged mixed salads that you can’t wash before consuming to avoid contamination issues. Wash all vegetables before eating in any form.

Experiment with any vegetables to create different presentations. Add spices, nuts, fruit, eggs, herbs, or cheese. From a few ingredients, you can make a nourishing meal for one or many.