The humble salad is often relegated to a side dish or accompaniment, but with some clever tweaking and a to-die-for dressing that binds all of the healthy ingredients, salads can easily be transformed into the star attraction at the family table.
There are salads, and there are great salads.
They don’t always have to be a mix of boring vegetables with mayonnaise or Italian dressing, as is most common in the Fijian kitchen.
The abundance of fresh fruits, herbs and vegetables at the markets lends itself to creating some awesome tropical island salads that not only provide a meal, but can be transformed into one of health and medicine for the body in the cold season.
Once you understand the basic structure of a good salad, the possibilities are endless and are an ideal way to get the family to eat more raw fruits and vegetables for their essential vitamins and minerals.
STRUCTURE OF THE PERFECT SALAD
A tossed salad is usually a few ingredients like lettuce, tomato and cucumber mixed together in a bowl, but the more complicated and delicious composite salad is built up with four basic components:
Base
Gives definition to the salad’s placement and symmetry on the plate like lettuce and greens, or maybe rice, noodles or grains
Body
This is usually the star protein like poultry, red meat, seafood or the vegetarian equivalent of legumes, tofu or green jackfruit
Dressing
Binds all of the ingredients together, giving boring watery vegetables more enhance flavour of sweet, sour and tang in a mayonnaise base or vinaigrette
Garnish
Adds texture and crunch, colour and design like fresh herbs, olives, fried shallots, croutons or even slice chillies
SALADS AS A MAIN MEAL
If I’m going to make a salad as the main dish, adding starches like brown or exotic wild rice, rice noodles, wholemeal pasta or the healthy grains of quinoa (pronounced “kin-wah”) turns the boring side salad into a healthy main course for lunch or dinner.
Speciality shops in Fiji like Yon Tong and Lazy Chef in Suva, and selected supermarkets like New World are beginning to stock the more exotic rice and grains that can be used with local herbs and vegetables to create the most vibrant and textural meat, seafood or vegetarian salads that adds crunch, fibre and colour to even the most boring raw vegetables.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE
DRESSING
The key to the taste of a great salad is obviously in the dressing.
Just as you wouldn’t eat a Barbecue, fish and chips or a great steak without a sauce, a salad is just not a salad with a matching dressing made with mayonnaise, citrus base or some type of vinegar.
Making your own mayonnaise is better than most store-bought ones with added sugar and processed oils, and you can add herbs and spice to make it more medicinal.
Using virgin coconut oil is also a great tropical island twist to the basic mayonnaise.
The basic vinaigrette is usually vinegar with something sweet, salty and with body like a mustard, but there are many different vinegars to the common white vinegar.
Look carefully in the speciality shops or supermarket shelves and you’ll find apple cider, white and red wine, Chinese black and red, and many more different types of vinegar to use.
Thai dressings mainly do away with vinegars and use citrus juice like lemon or lime mixed with palm sugar, chilli and fish sauce to create their distinct hot and sour flavours.
The lack of more raw fruits and especially vegetables in the daily diet of most Fijians is one of the key missing food groups that is allowing the development of non communicable diseases, NCDs.
They provide fibre and vitamins and minerals not found in other foods, yet many consider them boring to eat. Salads are one of the best ways to get the family and that stubborn husband or boyfriend to eat more fibre and medicine foods to reduce the likelihood of sickness and disease.
You just need to be creative and maybe not call it a salad at home. “Honey, this is not a salad. This is your medicine!”
NEXT WEEK: Chef Seeto shares his continued travels around the world to discover and bring back recipes and flavours that can be adapted for the Fijian palate, and that make more use of the local produce. First stop, the city of roast ducks, wet markets and a culture of eating out — Hong Kong.
* Lance Seeto is the executive chef, author and food writer based on Castaway Island, Fiji. Through this chef’s culinary eye, Fiji looks delicious. Follow his adventures at www.lanceseeto.com and Facebook.
