Food Friday:
Bring on the Spring Salads!
No more hearty meals! Hold the chili. Stop with the spaghetti. Please, no more meatloaf. 86 the nourishing stews. Give me sunshine and light, suppers under blooming dogwood trees, crisp white wine, flimsy cotton clothes. And no more snow boots.
This winter has been never-ending. We thought we were turning the corner, rounding the bend into spring. Oh, we are silly, silly humans. Mr. Sanders and I flew up to Massachusetts for a few days last week, only to be chased home by that enormous snow storm. We had enjoyed a couple of snow flurries up there, charmed by the novelty of frozen ponds, and tall piles of snow near a Hopper-esque light house. We had brought woolens and thick socks and gloves, just in case. Tra-la, it was all sweet and glittery, like an old fashioned Christmas card. After a couple of days of snow globe fantasy we sped back to the airport, with the dogs of Winter Storm Hernando on our heels. Home to rain and dour skies. We left our friends back there in Massachusetts, shoveling out from under 37 inches of snow. So I guess I should quit my belly aching, and get on with business.
Except I went to the doctor this week for a check up, and lo, all these many days and nights of warm stodgy comfort food seem to have stuck with me. It’s time for lighter fare, indeed. And getting back out on the open treadmill. So long, warming baked potatoes. It is time for rabbit food.
I am going to retire the crockpot, stash the Dutch oven, put the lasagna pan out to pasture and start digging into light, healthy, crispy fresh, low-cal green salads. With a just a longing glance at crusty French bread and sweet yellow butter, and a little less cool Chardonnay.
I wish someone would sneak more vegetables into my diet, but being the chief-cook-and- bottle-washer around here, I can’t very well surprise myself with well-disguised broccoli or imperceptible beets. Therefore, I must suspend my disbelief and will finally surrender to adulting, and lighter winter salads might be the best way to go.
I love a nice leafy, crunchy salad. I was raised on iceberg lettuce salads, so the discovery of romaine in college shifted the tectonic plates of my tetchy palate. I used to eat sun-warmed tomatoes out in the garden every summer, but grew up eating tasteless, refrigerated, hothouse tomatoes in my salads all winter long. Luckily time does march on, and we can avail ourselves of healthier vegetables all year long. Our local farmers have also come into the 21st century and are ready to nourish us with their winter bounties. Look for parsnips, garlic, turnips, rutabagas, leeks, lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, potatoes (sweet and regular), and cabbage.
The end of winter is a good time to introduce hints of color and sparkle to you salad. Cranberries! Apples! Cheddar cheese! Pomegranate seeds! Kale Salad
You can throw everything in a main course salad, cleaning out the produce drawer in the fridge by adding shredded cabbage, carrots, Brussels sprouts, roasted squash, and chunks of apples, and sections of citrus. You will be cutting down on clutter while eating in a healthier fashion - because you are marvelously efficient and thorough.
Put down your phone, pick up the leash, walk the dog, and eat your veggies. Leave the meatloaf behind. You’ll feel better. It’s almost time to plant seeds, and then the daffodils will start blooming, right on schedule. Spring is just around the corner, I promise.
If you are going to plant your own garden this year, now if a good time to go through some of the seed catalogues that have been arriving weekly, and piling up on the kitchen counter. It’s time to start sowing seeds to nurture inside, while waiting for spring to finally arrive. Planting Calendar
My mother was fond of ordering from the kind folks at Burpee, so give them a whirl. She always had an amazing garden. Burpee Seeds
“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is ‘soporific’.”
― Beatrix Potter
©Jean Sanders 2026. All rights reserved.