Cooking Lesson #242 Fresh Spinach Salad

… from the California Kitchen

How you doin’? This recipe has been written to maximize versatility… it can be a chilled, healthful salad, and can easily be made into a warm, Wilted Spinach Salad with the addition of a couple of strips of bacon—more on that in the ChefSecret below. You can use baby spinach leaves, or you can buy more mature spinach and tear the leaves. Like romaine lettuce you never want to cut the leaves with a knife as that will bruise them—just tear them into smaller, bite-size pieces.
 
I can tell you where the Cobb Salad was invented and where the Taco Salad was concocted; I even know where the Caesar Salad came from and it was far from Italy (it was Tijuana, Mexico), but the Spinach salad… not so much. Some think it came with the turn of the century German immigration rushes. Others think that it originated right here in the USofA… I really don’t know. But here’s how to make this simple, but mysterious salad.
 
No surprise, Spinach Salad is a salad with spinach as its main ingredient. Common additional ingredients include chopped tomatoes, eggs, goat cheese, slivered almonds, walnuts, pecans and/or dried cranberries.
 
Spinach salad is classically served with a warm bacon or vinaigrette dressing, but variations are endless.
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Yield:  1 serving (7 Ounces)
 
Ingredients
3 ounces (about 3 to 4 cups) fresh-torn spinach
1 large hard-cooked egg, 1/4-inch dice
1 ounce brown mushrooms, sliced lengthwise 1/8-inch
1 ounce tart apple, julienned cut
1 ounce caramelized pecans (store bought)
4 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette (see Cooking Lesson #235)
 
Directions

1. Measure all ingredients and have ready at your side.
2. In a large salad bowl place the spinach, dressing, half of the egg and mushrooms, then toss together.
3. Place into an individual serving bowl.
4. Sprinkle the rest of the egg and mushroom over top.
5. Place the pecans around and sprinkle the apple slices in a heap in the center of the salad.

ChefSecret:  Spinach Salad is classically served wilted with a warm bacon-vinaigrette dressing. Following the directions above, start by cooking up 2 strips of chopped bacon in a sauté pan. When the bacon is cooked and crispy pour the dressing in with the bacon and then invert the pan over the greens and finish off the salad as directed above. Let the pan sit over the greens to wilt them.

Covid-19 Quip of the Day: “Another pandemic discovery: if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid. Now, you have one missing sock and a lid that doesn’t fit anything.”
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