Difficulty Level Easy

I was reading through Mark Bittman's article in the New York Times on 101 Salad Ideas and thinking about all of the things I could make over the next couple of weeks when the produce is so plentiful and there are so many choices for fresh fruits and vegetables. So when my husband and daughter came home from the farmers' market with a huge basket of cherries, and a big bag of baby spinach, I went back to the list to see what Mr. Bittman had to suggest.

In fact, the suggestions are what is so clever about this list of 101 salads, and about most of what Mr. Bittman does. There aren't any hard and fast rules here and he doesn't give you a recipe to follow. He gives you ideas of what foods work together, with some variations and then he lets you figure out the proportions for yourself. Experimenting with taste is the way to feel comfortable in the kitchen and to become an intuitive cook and salads are a pretty forgiving way to do it.

I, for instance, probably wouldn't have thought about cooking the cherries and making them a main ingredient for the salad, but I might have tossed them in with a bunch of other things. This salad is completely different from the kind of salad that I would normally serve, and we all thought it was delicious. I didn't have any nuts on hand, but I did have some hazelnut oil that I brought home from Paris, so I drizzled that on and it really elevated the flavour of the salad. Walnuts or pine nuts would also be delicious. I added Parmesan cheese, but a soft cheese like brie, camembert, or a goat cheese or even feta would work. For a vegan salad, just omit the cheese. Use any tender greens that you have, it doesn't need to be spinach.

INGREDIENTS