I bet you’ve come here today hoping for a French Fridays with Dorie St Valentine’s Day themed recipe… Well sorry to disappoint you this week but we’re making salad (Hélène’s all-white salad, p 108). Salad for St Valentine’s Day? Well yes, I mean if you celebrate, you’ll need something fresh to counter all that chocolate you’re going to be eating, right? The surprising thing about this salad is that it’s all one tone – white(ish) – and whilst that might sound odd to deliberately not make a colourful plate (one of the most appealing things about salads, for me, is the colour contrast you can achieve depending on your ingredients), I actually think it’s really pretty.
Apples, celery, cabbage and mushrooms form the base of this salad and it’s topped with a lemon-Greek yoghurt dressing. I added thinly sliced zucchini to my plate just because and I like the contrast between the dark green of the skin and the paleness of the other ingredients. When I served this the second time around (I halved the recipe but it still made loads!), I added sliced, blanched almonds and crumbled goat’s cheese and it really made for a meal in a bowl. I know Mr Neil wasn’t impressed with this week’s offering but I’ll be remembering this when I’m in Paris this summer – it’s the perfect meal for one!
You can find Dorie’s recipe for the all-white salad here.
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I love your tweaks…and think they may have given the salad the boost of flavor it so desperately needed. Well done!
Yes, I was pleased with how this came out!
Love the addition of the zucchini in your salad and the almonds too. I should have added some fennel in mine and the worchestershire sauce! But it was pleasant enough.
Fennel for the win next time!
Blue cheese. Blue cheese. This SO needed that extra flavor.
Once again, Mardi brilliance for the win!
Everything is better with cheese 🙂
Phew, I’m happy to hear that I wasn’t the only one who liked this one. I was beginning to despair. I was not expecting to love it (it’s the name I think, it just doesn’t inspire hunger) but it turned out to be quite tasty.
Yeah the name is quite uninspiring but I think it can be pretty and tasty!
We both really liked this salad, both the dressing and the mix. I did substitute romaine for
the cabbage and it worked well. I think the idea of using either goat cheese or blue cheese would really kick it up a notch. Enjoy your weekend.
Romaine would be nice here too!
I think I’m on record here as expressing my particular thoughts about salads in general – viz. the phrase “exciting salad” is an oxymoron. I know, I know…
It did look pretty, though, Mardi and I could probably ‘go’ for this with a blue cheese (roquefort?) dressing.
Yes, blue cheese would go well with this!
Nice additions. I made a third of the recipe and it still feels like plenty.
Right ? It was a giant amount!
Mardi, delicious additions to your salad – cheese sounds wonderful with this winter white salad – crumbled goat cheese is delicious (and white) and I really like the almond idea as well. Very pretty presentation too!
Have a lovely weekend!
Thanks – and yes the cheese and almonds worked well!
It was bound to happen that at least once in this project I would be on Team Mr. Neil. We now bring you back to our regular scheduled programming.
You’re mostly on Team Mr Neil, no?
Great additions! And lovely photography as usual!
Happy Valentine’s Weekend!
Thanks – and to you!
Your salad looks lovely. We liked this one and will make it again. I think next time I might grate the ingredients, though. Hope you are having a good weekend.
Ah yes grated ingredients might be good too – pretty!
I loved this salad even without tweeks but I can’t wait to try your additions.
Enjoy!
I liked the salad very much! It was fresh and crunchy and I did not mind the lack of vibrant colours. I could not find celery so I used fennel and it was perfect! As always I am completely in love with your photos <3
I love the idea of fennel in this salad!
Gorgeous. I would love to have tried your version for sure. And I am so glad to see that it was indeed a winner for some. Not sure whether my apples were just too tart or what in particular, but it was not to hit in our house. On to the crepes 🙂
I think that really tart apples might not be the right fit for this dish. Onwards and upwards…
I like that you got creative with this one, while keeping the pale color scheme. I tried hard, but I somehow couldn’t like it. Onward to next week’s crepes. I think I’m going to love them.
Crepes versus white salad… Hmmm…
Nice add ins! I’ll probably make a meal of this one when I make it.
It’d definitely the base for a meal!
I think the goats cheese was an inspired addition!
I love that you added zucchini. What a perfect combination! And you made it so much better with the blue cheese and almonds. That would have really made it so good!