SPRING SALADS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 226, 22 October 1943, Page 19

SPRING SALADS

ALADS should take an important place in the diet of the majority of people. They may well. form, a complete course in a meal, if a good variety of ingredients is used. In fact, a meal consisting of half a pint of milk, two good slices of wholemeal bread and butter and a good salad containing more than one kind of green, some roots (like carrots, potatoes, etc.), some fruits (apples, tomatoes, dates, prunes, etc.), and strengthened with a little meat, cheese, fish or egg, contains all the essentials for the protection of health for a day. Greens Use (1) Cabbage, the finely shredded, inner leaves; the outer leaves may go into soup. (2) Watercress, making sure that it comes from a clearrunning stream, and is well washed. Use stalks as well as leaves. (3) Spinach (very well washed), use only very young leaves. (4) Chives and spring. onions (chop finely). (5) Endive. (6) A few young leaves of dandelions and of nasturtiums. (7) Beans: runner, French and broad, all cooked. If the broad beans are young, cook them in the pods, after topping and tailing. and cut up when drained and cooked. Roots (1) Beetroot. Grate if raw; slice thinly or dice if cooked. (2) Carrots. If very young, slice them; grate older ones. (3) Celery. Divide the sticks, wash thoroughly, shred or chop. (4) Onions. Grate or chop very finely. (6) Potatoes or peas. Cook these; the potatoes may be sliced or diced. (6) Radishes. Wash and slice. Use some of the green part finely chopped. Fruits Use apples, cucumbers, dates, lemons or oranges (grated rind and juice), nuts, prunes (raw or cooked), raisins, sultanas, tomatoes and tree tomatoes (always skin these). Parsley, should be included always. Wash thoroughly and dry by squeezing in a cloth. Chop finely with a sharp . knife. Extras ; To give increased food value. (1) Cheese (either sliced processed » cheese, or grated’ cheese or cream cheese). (2) Eggs (hard-boiled and sliced, or cold scrambled). (3) Fish, (cold steamed fish, flaked up. Also fish roes simmered in salted water with a little vinegar, and cooled). (4) Scraps of left-over meat, such as rabbit, ham, or any cold meat. Cream Cheese Salad * ‘ You may make your’ own cream cheese from sour milk, or milk. curdled with junket. Put into a muslin bag and hang up for some hours to drain, catching the whey in a basin. The whey may be drunk or added to the salad dressing. Turn the dried curds into a bowl, mash well and add salt to taste and a pinch of cayenne. For the salad, add a tablespoon of cream and a few raisins or sultanans to the cream cheese; mash well with a fork, and form into little

balls about the size of a walnut. Press a raisin on the top of each ball, and arrange three balls on each crisp young lettuce leaf. Garnish round the balls with alternate tiny red radishes and white spring onions. Serve with a plain dressing. Asparagus Salad Line the sides of salad bowl with cold cooked asparagus tips; fill in the centre with layers of cold boiled carrots cut in dice, cold boiled peas, diced tinned’ pineapple, or orange sections, and diced apple. Cover each layer with a little mayonnaise. Eat with brown bread and butter.