There's no better time of year for tomatoes, peppers, beans and other delicious ingredients, writes Hugo Arnold
To the Romans, who are generally credited with inventing the idea, a salad was something dressed. But think fish and chips rather than lettuce laced with olive oil: they had a fondness for vinegar. Oddities have to be allowed for if you are intent on conquering the world, I suppose, but in our house the dressing tends to be oil-based, with a little acidity to perk it up and provide variety; balsamic, certainly, but other vinegars get a look in, too, along with lime and lemon from time to time. As for the salads, cooked ones are among our favourites, often as starters when friends are round.
At a time when vegetables are so good, it seems an ideal way to begin a meal. Peppers cook down to a sweetness. Tomatoes take on an almost meaty flavour when slowly baked in a low oven. Lettuce, little gem particularly, takes on a sweetness that is hard to resist when it is braised. Wilted greens are another Roman idea: spinach, or perhaps beetroot and turnip tops, briefly plunged into salted boiling water, so they retain bite but take on a silky softness. Their tannin makes them a devil to partner with wine, but, that aside, they have a really clean, refreshing flavour. Salad potatoes are often laced with mayonnaise. Instead, douse them while they are still warm in a vinaigrette pepped up with mustard and laced with parsley, tarragon, chervil or chives (and don't hold back).
So many vegetables at this time of year deliver bags of flavour and texture once they're cooked and dressed. Chief among them are artichokes, asparagus (particularly locally grown asparagus, if you can lay your hands on some), beetroot, broad beans, carrots, summer leeks, peas, spinach, Swiss chard and almost every shape and size of tomato.
There is often a tendency to add protein to a salad - cheese and eggs if you want to keep things vegetarian, meat and fish otherwise - but keeping to the vegetable theme is more rewarding for the next few months than at any other time of year.
All recipes feed four
AUBERGINE, BASIL, SPINACH AND CHILLI SALAD WITH YOGURT, PINE NUT AND GARLIC DRESSING
2 aubergines
large handful basil leaves
50ml olive oil
4 tomatoes, sliced
225g washed baby spinach
1 garlic clove
200ml yogurt
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp pine nuts
juice of a lemon
Cut the aubergine into slices about a centimetre thick. Grill until slightly charred on both sides, transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film. If working in batches, make sure to re-cover the bowl each time. If you can barbecue them, so much the better. Roughly chop the basil leaves and add to the aubergine, along with the olive oil, tomatoes and spinach leaves. Peel and mash the garlic with half a teaspoon of salt, whisk it into the yogurt and add to the aubergine, along with the chilli. Heat a frying pan without any oil; when it's hot, toast the pine nuts until they just begin to colour. Add them to the bowl, toss everything well, squeeze the juice of the lemon on top and serve with lots of bread.
NEW POTATO, FRENCH BEAN AND QUAIL-EGG SALAD WITH SALTED CUCUMBER, YOGURT AND CORIANDER VINAIGRETTE
1 cucumber
450g new potatoes
250g French beans
extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
12 hard-boiled quails' eggs
2 tbsp rich full-fat yogurt
1 garlic clove, peeled and mashed
1 bunch finely chopped coriander
Trim the cucumber and remove the seeds by running a teaspoon down its length. Thinly slice on the diagonal (a mandolin is useful, although not essential, for this part). Place in a sieve with a generous teaspoon of salt, toss together and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse under lots of cold running water, squeeze thoroughly and set aside.Cook the potatoes in plenty of salted water until tender (about 10 minutes). Drain. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, peel and cut into one-centimetre slices. Blanch the beans in plenty of boiling salted water for four minutes, or until just tender, drain and add to the potatoes. Whisk two tablespoons of olive oil into the mustard, as you would for mayonnaise, and add the vinegar. Toss the beans and potatoes in this mixture, along with the spring onions, and pile in the centre of four plates. Top each with three quails' eggs.
Whisk the yogurt with two tablespoons of olive oil, the garlic, coriander and a generous seasoning of pepper. Spoon on to the plates, add a pile of the cucumber at the side and serve.
CAULIFLOWER AND ROCKET SALAD, ANCHOVIES AND PARMESAN
1 small cauliflower
olive oil
1 tsp caraway seeds
juice of a lemon
4 handfuls rocket
12 anchovy fillets
1 tbsp Parmesan shavings
Trim and break the cauliflower into florets, then cut into five-millimetre slices. Don't worry if they break up a little. Blanch in boiling salted water for three minutes, then drain. Add to a salad bowl, season with salt and pepper and add four tablespoons of olive oil. Add the caraway seeds, lemon juice and rocket and toss well, so everything is well coated in oil. Divide between four plates and dress with the anchovy fillets and Parmesan.
SMOKED TROUT, POTATO SALAD AND HORSERADISH
2 dessertspoons fresh horseradish (or same quantity from a jar of grated horseradish, but not horseradish sauce)
Tabasco sauce
125ml creme fraiche
350g waxy potatoes
2 tbsp chopped shallots
125g butter
250g smoked trout fillet
1 lemon, quartered
Peel and grate the horseradish, combine with a dash of Tabasco and the creme fraiche, and set aside. Peel the potatoes and cut into two-centimetre dice. Cook in plenty of boiling salted water until tender (about five minutes). Drain and toss with the shallots and butter in the hot saucepan, so the butter melts. Spoon on to four plates. Arrange the trout to one side and serve with a lemon quarter, the horseradish cream and lots of black pepper.
WARM PEA, BROAD BEAN, FENNEL AND HERB ROASTED SWEET POTATO SALAD WITH PARMESAN DRESSING
800g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
generous handful fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano or a mixture of all three)
2 medium-sized heads fennel
700g fresh broad beans, podded (podded weight about 250g), cooked until tender and refreshed in iced water
4 large tbsp finely grated Parmesan
500g fresh peas (podded weight about 200g), cooked until tender and refreshed in iced water; you can use a good frozen variety if necessary
large handful salad greens (choose whatever adds colour and flavour - try shredded radicchio, rocket or dandelion)
This recipe is from a new book, Salads: the New Main Course, by Peter Gordon, published by Quadrille, £18.99
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas 6. Line a wide roasting dish with baking parchment and add the sweet potato, garlic, two tablespoons of the olive oil and the herbs, and mix together. Add four tablespoons of water and roast for 20-30 minutes, until the potato is just cooked, tossing twice as it bakes.
Meanwhile, using a mandolin or a sharp knife, slice the fennel very thinly. If the broad beans are large, remove their grey skin by tearing it and squeezing the green centres out, but if the beans are small and sweet then don't bother.
In a large bowl, mix the remaining olive oil with half the Parmesan and all of the lemon juice, then add a little salt and pepper and mix in the broad beans, peas and fennel.
Once the potato is cooked, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over it and toss together, then divide this between four warmed plates. Lay the salad greens on top, then add the fennel salad last of all.