Perhaps it seems like the wrong time of year to be writing about salads. Well, if soup is more your thing right now, Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette (such a melodious-sounding name, oui?) stirs up soup recipes, too; and that book, “Twelve Months of Monastery Soups” is also available at the library. But today I’m all about salad because, as my husband likes to say, I must be part rabbit. Cat lady? Yes. Rabbit gal? Maybe.
There are two very good reasons for my salad obsession: I really like salads, and I don’t cook. I mean, I’ll cook if I have to, but why should I when my spouse is my personal chef? And here’s a fun fact about salads — they’re good for you. OK, I suppose that fact isn’t all that fun. Kind of sounds like the parental remonstrance every child hates to hear — “Be sure to eat all of your vegetables!” Believe, me, I understand the reluctance to embrace vegetables en masse. Brussel sprouts, asparagus — the green nemeses of my childhood. What I know now, that I didn’t know then, is that some greens require several introductions to the palate. In a way they’re just like people: some we like right away, some we learn to like over time, and some, well, some never make it past “hello.” Beets are like that for me; I no longer speak to beets, yet somehow I carry on.
Despite the fact that quite a few of the recipes in this week’s title include beets, I’m still a fan of Brother Victor-Antoine’s heavenly “Twelve Months of Monastery Salads.”
I find that I appreciate his seasonal approach to the salad menu. For October the choices include Crunchy Couscous Salad, Cooked Fennel Salad, Avocado and Watercress Salad, Persimmon and Greens Salad, as well as many others.