Embracing the veggies

Make friends with salad

According to Alice Zaslavsky, you can definitely make friends with salad.

Photo: Rochelle Eagle
Photo: Rochelle Eagle

Salad often gets a bad rap. Many will tell you that salad isn’t a “real” meal, only an accompaniment. But Alice Zaslavsky is on a mission to prove that you can indeed be friends with the humble vegetable.

In the foreword to her new recipe book Salad for Days, Zaslavsky acknowledges that the salad of the past was quite drab. Salad 2.0 though is a whole different story.

“Salads are cool,” Zaslavsky laughs over the phone to The AJN, before getting a bit serious.

“I think salads encapsulate the way that we are eating now, and will continue to eat into the future, because they’re veg-forward. They’re mobile for our lifestyle, they’re adaptable. And they also encapsulate the multicultural way in which we’re thinking about eating and cooking these days.”

Zaslavsky has always been loud and proud about her heritage, and how growing up in Georgia impacted her eating and cooking habits.

“[It’s] the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The culture and cuisine were very influenced by both the fresh herbs of Southeast Asia and the spices of the Middle East and the spice trail,” she said, explaining that it’s this multiculturalism and variety that you get in Salad for Days.

Zaslavsky explained that for every recipe included in the book she was inspired by ingredients, seasonality and mood as well, and just how salad can change the way we feel both mentally and physically.

“You’ve heard of dopamine dressing, well this is actually dopamine dressing – mood boosting dressing,” she laughed. “It’s also about utilising colour as well, as we learn more about how eating a wide range of colours can really make us feel better.”

In terms of physically feeling good, Zaslavsky shares that she knew she was getting over a recent flu when she felt like eating salad vegetables again.

Sticky eggplant, tofu and noodle salad. Salad for Days, page 82. Photo: Rochelle Eagle

“It’s not just psychosomatic, it’s physical. Mother Nature gifts us with these incredible ingredients, and I think that as a culture we’ve known for a long time about the benefits of eating with the seasons,” she said. “Every Jewish holiday is about seasonality, and about eating the fruit and the vegetables of that time, so I think that it’s a very natural state for us. People reading this book from the community will be like, I feel at home with this book.”

In previous books, Zaslavsky has included lots of tips and tricks for at-home chefs to adapt and experiment. But with this one, she has kept things a tad more curated and refined.

Saying that she still suggests alternatives if particular fruits or vegetables aren’t in season, Zaslavsky said that she’s always flattered when a reader tells her that they adapted her recipe.

“It’s a real compliment to me when someone says, ‘I made your recipe, but I made it my own.’ That tells me that someone has been empowered and emboldened to actually become a better cook through my recipes. So that’s my aim,” she explained.

Salad for Days is separated into sections for Warmer Days and Cooler Days because despite the assumption that salads are summer foods, you can most certainly enjoy vegetables in their own right through the cooler months.

For Zaslavsky, perhaps the best thing about salads is that they’re easy to make, bearing in mind that usually it’s less about cooking and more about assembly, meaning even the most apprehensive at-home chef can make an excellent side or main, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

And as she points out with every delectable recipe in Salad for Days, you can win friends with salad, “and it’s very ready to make friends with you.”

Salad for Days is published by Murdoch Books, $45 rrp.

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