Winter salad: apple, endive, walnut

After we moved to Davis, we began to understand that the salads of our childhoods--tomatoes and lettuce--were strange hybrids, requiring ingredients that cannot usually be found in the same time and place.  Most lettuces like cool, damp weather, while tomatoes are sun lovers.  Occasionally, one can find both late lettuces and early tomatoes at the Farmers Market.  For those who crave that combination, now is the time.  But if you want to make good market salads, the best strategy is to look, smell, and taste what is on offer at the market and to experiment with how to combine different textures, colors, shapes, and flavors.  It is often true that ingredients that are in season at the same time go well together.  Letting go of the notion that green is the only salad color will also free you to think differently about what counts as a salad.

 We will offer more reflections on salads as spring ingredients start to turn up at the market.  But for now, we want to start with a winter salad we eat often.  We purchase all of the ingredients for this apple, endive, and walnut salad at the market--except for the salt and pepper.  The walnut oil we show here is from walnuts grown and pressed in Woodland and is available at the Coop.  But walnut oil is also sometimes available at the Farmers Market.  It adds a smoky, nutty heft to vegetable and grain salads.

To make this salad, we cut off the ends of the endives, cut them in half and then cube them.  We core and cube the apples but don't bother to peel them.  The peels add not only nutrients but color this winter salad needs.  Try to get the endives and apples roughly the same size.  We then toss the apples and endives with a little Meyer lemon juice, walnut oil, salt, and pepper.  We used to worry that the endives and apples would brown quickly, but this salad can be made a little in advance.  If that's your plan, toss the vegetables with the lemon juice just after cutting them and then add the walnut oil just before serving. For color, we throw in some parsley, which is so abundant and fragrant right now.  In a salad this simple, don't stint on the salt.  Salads get their name from the Latin word for salt (sal) and salt heightens the flavors.  But remember not to salt until the last minute!  This is especially true for salads made of soft fruits and vegetables, which will melt to mush with shocking speed.  This salad, however, holds up well and is even good leftover.  It will also welcome the addition of cooked grains, such as farro, bulgur, or barley.