Emily —Theoretically, during the Middle Ages lost and brooding individuals found solace and learning in their pilgrimages to secluded monasteries. The Department of Salad shares the same function, bringing comfort and some erudition to us sad souls struggling in this now very gloomy thick wood of a world. Thank you.
And of course salads can be a comfort food! Whenever I eat hearts of palm salad my mother is miraculously co hired up in front of me. And because I’m from California (we were eating this long before the concept of “bowls” took flight) I find the somewhat blasphemous taco salad soul salving. What could be better than a big bowl of assorted lettuces, spicy beans, avocado and cheese?
And before I forget I’ve been wanting to ask: isn’t an artichoke served with some nice mayonnaise based dressing a kind of salad? Especially if it was cooked with some white wine and olive oil and herbs of Provence and then chilled? Very comforting, despite the quills.
My own personal favorite sort of green comfort is often found in left overs. I know this peculiar but I love eating left over salad of any type the next morning. It’s a little wilted, marinated in dressing, everything softened and the slightly sodden leaves carry the good and comforting vibes of the night before. I look too in my fridge to see if there’s anything else I want to add—olives maybe, a few left over green beans or a bit of cheese.
OK—I’m going right now to make that salad with sweet potato and greens because I’m still desperate for comfort.
Please, please Emily, write The Book of Salads (sort of like the Book of Hours). We need it and you now more than ever.
So KIND!! Thank you. I LOVE taco salad and leftover salad, too, and the collard salad might be BETTER the next day. I'm so glad to get this note--you made my day!
Trifecta! Hats off to Emily, everyone. An article about "comfort salad" that includes Wile E Coyote, Acme, and a nod to Tennyson's Ulysses "...To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" in the same paragraph. And, two great recipes. I feel better than I have felt all week. Cheers! John K
John, thank you--I am so glad this newsletter made you feel better! Thank you for being a reader, too, by the way. I appreciate it so much. Cheers from Emily
I just love them. I have another delicious shaved collard salad from an earlier issue--https://open.substack.com/pub/emilyrnunn/p/a-magical-coconut-potion?r=mmay&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Last night I had a real need for comfort food, so went to the wee place up the road and had bacalhau à brás (shredded cod, matchstick fried potatoes, melted onions bound with egg and topped with black olives and parsley), a whopping glass of red wine from the Douro, and the perfect salad. Ruby red ripe tomatoes sliced thin, piles of curly green lettuce punctuated with arugula and seasoned with salt from the local salt pans, dried and highly aromatic oregano, and olive oil. If your ears were burning late Sunday, it is because I whispered a tiny prayer in your direction.
Nice work, lovely questions: "The lovely comfort chime buried deep within each of us— and our lifelong quest to ring it? Isn’t it just a smaller version of the human search engine that drives us forward from minute to minute? Always seeking, never truly knowing anything, but also never giving up?"
I can't deny that my blankie is Chinese food (memories of Pu Pu Platters every Friday night with nana and papa); pizza (after roller skating while staring at Andy Sheldon); lasagna (after museum-ing with the Kawadler's ever Sunday); ice cream sundaes (we had a dairy near my home); lobster (I miss the bibs); Nova on warm everything bagels with lox, eggs onion (nana and papa); and, everything Second Avenue Deli (now). Oh, and challah. I can down a loaf in 15 minutes. I'm still in search of the perfect chocolate cookie that beats the Pillsbury/Nestle's log we had growing up and I still have on New Year's Eve...As a kid, I would have said a Whopper or Dairy Queen or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Food has always comforted me through the Jewish holidays with relatives I couldn't relate to...But I digress... these days, I eat a lot of salad. Why? I call the farmers market home. Does it comfort me like a Whopper did? No. I have yet to "ace" a salad and the dressing. It's good but it's not great. Challah is great. I didn't grow up with salad. And it doesn't come with a memory. It's harder to put together than a hot pastrami sandwich. But I'm getting there. That's why I keep coming back here. P.S. You got a simple dressing to dress chicory? I'm all ears....
Will try tonight. I am having a love affair with chicory, thanks to the Campo Rosso stand at the Union Square farmers market (Fridays, if you’re ever in NYC), where the farmer, and one of his food-loving acolytes, educated me. I can’t get enough of the stuff (and over buy) but I’ve grown tired of my olive oil, balsamic and salt dressing (can I add a squeeze of lemon?). Puntarelle is the only veggie I can’t get the hang of but that’s because I failed to heed the lesson on using the innards. Instead, I sautéed the outer leaves in garlic, olive oil and some Katz’s vinegar. My taste buds were supremely unhappy.
I wrote to a chef in Italy and she said she feeds the leaves to her chickens. I am not a good chicken…I made a gorgeous salad by Colu Henry, featured on the Rancho Gordo website. After making it over and again - so comforting - I took a picture I was so proud of and showed it to the farmer. His smile was all I needed to keep salad-ing. So now you see why the dressing matters…I want to do justice to their produce and I buy so much, I gotta know how to make it sing. He believe in simple. I am going to roast some radicchio tonight (which he recommended). Your dressing is destined for it.
As always your light and wry approach comes at a perfect time. Thank you. Over here we are also rocking parsnip soup (with shiitakes), roasted veg salads, and yes even meatloaf (one I had to develop using farm vegetables when I wrote a farm to table book. You would really like it I think -it has kale and feta in it! Very moist. Not sure it is good form to paste another's recipe link into a comment so I'll just leave that right there! tho I will also say I don't eat anyone else's meatloaf. That whole loaf of meat thing + cafeteria - yeah.
Lovely salad and soup! Unfortunately no collard greens here in France, can’t think of a substitute either?? No Dill no collard greens ! What is it with French? Also difficult to find fresh corn on the cob but I do grow my own so that’s ok…
Emily —Theoretically, during the Middle Ages lost and brooding individuals found solace and learning in their pilgrimages to secluded monasteries. The Department of Salad shares the same function, bringing comfort and some erudition to us sad souls struggling in this now very gloomy thick wood of a world. Thank you.
And of course salads can be a comfort food! Whenever I eat hearts of palm salad my mother is miraculously co hired up in front of me. And because I’m from California (we were eating this long before the concept of “bowls” took flight) I find the somewhat blasphemous taco salad soul salving. What could be better than a big bowl of assorted lettuces, spicy beans, avocado and cheese?
And before I forget I’ve been wanting to ask: isn’t an artichoke served with some nice mayonnaise based dressing a kind of salad? Especially if it was cooked with some white wine and olive oil and herbs of Provence and then chilled? Very comforting, despite the quills.
My own personal favorite sort of green comfort is often found in left overs. I know this peculiar but I love eating left over salad of any type the next morning. It’s a little wilted, marinated in dressing, everything softened and the slightly sodden leaves carry the good and comforting vibes of the night before. I look too in my fridge to see if there’s anything else I want to add—olives maybe, a few left over green beans or a bit of cheese.
OK—I’m going right now to make that salad with sweet potato and greens because I’m still desperate for comfort.
Please, please Emily, write The Book of Salads (sort of like the Book of Hours). We need it and you now more than ever.
So KIND!! Thank you. I LOVE taco salad and leftover salad, too, and the collard salad might be BETTER the next day. I'm so glad to get this note--you made my day!
Trifecta! Hats off to Emily, everyone. An article about "comfort salad" that includes Wile E Coyote, Acme, and a nod to Tennyson's Ulysses "...To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" in the same paragraph. And, two great recipes. I feel better than I have felt all week. Cheers! John K
John, thank you--I am so glad this newsletter made you feel better! Thank you for being a reader, too, by the way. I appreciate it so much. Cheers from Emily
All my salads are comfort food. And soup is my second-in-line. I love this one!
Thank you, Elizabeth! So much. ❤️
Love collards and never thought to include them in a salad. Thank you!
I just love them. I have another delicious shaved collard salad from an earlier issue--https://open.substack.com/pub/emilyrnunn/p/a-magical-coconut-potion?r=mmay&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank YOU, Tia ❤️
I think I’ll make that collard salad for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks for the inspiration!
It would be so good at thanksgiving! Thank you, Karen, for being here! ❤️ 🥗
Of course it is. (salad = comfort food)
Last night I had a real need for comfort food, so went to the wee place up the road and had bacalhau à brás (shredded cod, matchstick fried potatoes, melted onions bound with egg and topped with black olives and parsley), a whopping glass of red wine from the Douro, and the perfect salad. Ruby red ripe tomatoes sliced thin, piles of curly green lettuce punctuated with arugula and seasoned with salt from the local salt pans, dried and highly aromatic oregano, and olive oil. If your ears were burning late Sunday, it is because I whispered a tiny prayer in your direction.
Oh, wow, that sounds so good! RIPE tomatoes??? How great--and I really love oregano so much. Thank you, Caroline!
You inspire me in so many ways.
That makes me so so so happy! thank you thank you. ❤️
Nice work, lovely questions: "The lovely comfort chime buried deep within each of us— and our lifelong quest to ring it? Isn’t it just a smaller version of the human search engine that drives us forward from minute to minute? Always seeking, never truly knowing anything, but also never giving up?"
❤️❤️❤️
Emily - your dressing + chicory = happiness. Perfection!
Excellent!! Thank you!
I can't deny that my blankie is Chinese food (memories of Pu Pu Platters every Friday night with nana and papa); pizza (after roller skating while staring at Andy Sheldon); lasagna (after museum-ing with the Kawadler's ever Sunday); ice cream sundaes (we had a dairy near my home); lobster (I miss the bibs); Nova on warm everything bagels with lox, eggs onion (nana and papa); and, everything Second Avenue Deli (now). Oh, and challah. I can down a loaf in 15 minutes. I'm still in search of the perfect chocolate cookie that beats the Pillsbury/Nestle's log we had growing up and I still have on New Year's Eve...As a kid, I would have said a Whopper or Dairy Queen or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Food has always comforted me through the Jewish holidays with relatives I couldn't relate to...But I digress... these days, I eat a lot of salad. Why? I call the farmers market home. Does it comfort me like a Whopper did? No. I have yet to "ace" a salad and the dressing. It's good but it's not great. Challah is great. I didn't grow up with salad. And it doesn't come with a memory. It's harder to put together than a hot pastrami sandwich. But I'm getting there. That's why I keep coming back here. P.S. You got a simple dressing to dress chicory? I'm all ears....
Lonni--this is great with sturdy chicories https://open.substack.com/pub/emilyrnunn/p/the-department-of-salad-dressing?r=mmay&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Will try tonight. I am having a love affair with chicory, thanks to the Campo Rosso stand at the Union Square farmers market (Fridays, if you’re ever in NYC), where the farmer, and one of his food-loving acolytes, educated me. I can’t get enough of the stuff (and over buy) but I’ve grown tired of my olive oil, balsamic and salt dressing (can I add a squeeze of lemon?). Puntarelle is the only veggie I can’t get the hang of but that’s because I failed to heed the lesson on using the innards. Instead, I sautéed the outer leaves in garlic, olive oil and some Katz’s vinegar. My taste buds were supremely unhappy.
I wrote to a chef in Italy and she said she feeds the leaves to her chickens. I am not a good chicken…I made a gorgeous salad by Colu Henry, featured on the Rancho Gordo website. After making it over and again - so comforting - I took a picture I was so proud of and showed it to the farmer. His smile was all I needed to keep salad-ing. So now you see why the dressing matters…I want to do justice to their produce and I buy so much, I gotta know how to make it sing. He believe in simple. I am going to roast some radicchio tonight (which he recommended). Your dressing is destined for it.
Speaking of salad comfort: Julius Roberts making a salad of blue cheese, walnuts, apple and bitter greens makes me want to run to the kitchen: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy3rAm1NrCN/?igsh=MWYxZzVjdzBnMHNhbw==
Oh, wow--this looks so good. I love the way he hacks it up!
And he’s so friggin adorable. His joy in making food is intoxicating. I wish I had an orchard.
As always your light and wry approach comes at a perfect time. Thank you. Over here we are also rocking parsnip soup (with shiitakes), roasted veg salads, and yes even meatloaf (one I had to develop using farm vegetables when I wrote a farm to table book. You would really like it I think -it has kale and feta in it! Very moist. Not sure it is good form to paste another's recipe link into a comment so I'll just leave that right there! tho I will also say I don't eat anyone else's meatloaf. That whole loaf of meat thing + cafeteria - yeah.
Lovely salad and soup! Unfortunately no collard greens here in France, can’t think of a substitute either?? No Dill no collard greens ! What is it with French? Also difficult to find fresh corn on the cob but I do grow my own so that’s ok…
In your hands salad IS comfort food, Emily!
Emily, have you left social media? I get it but I miss you.
The Department of Salad - a contemporary sanctuary. With soup, too. Who knew? More would be well to know.