Mark Bittman's "Salted" Chopped Salad ♥

Today's new vegetable salad recipe: Mark Bittman's chopped salad recipe, the one from last week's New York Times, the kind of salad you can make every few days, adding and subtracting vegetables as you see fit. Healthy. Low carb. Low points. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Michael Pollan's new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation is on my read-soon wishlist. It rethinks our adventures in the kitchen, following four elemental ways of cooking.

FIRE That's captured fire like a gas or electric stove or the open flame of wood fire.
WATER That's boiling and braising.
AIR That's baking. (Have you ever thought of an oven as just a small furnace? Me either.) It's also air-drying thin-thin layers of meat, say, as the Swiss and other Europeans do.
EARTH That's the action of fermentation, whether cooking up some homebrew or making cheese.

Peeling and chopping, slicing and dicing, these are the constants of a vegetable lover's kitchen, the acts that come before Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. This salad takes more than the usual measure, leaving time to consider which element of cooking would be applied here, when salt is applied to "cook" the vegetables just enough to soften and infuse with freshness and flavor. I suppose, yes, it must be "Earth"?

No matter. I was much taken with this salad. It's a sort of slaw, I suppose, except composed with a cornucopia of crisp raw vegetables and substituting the acidity of lemon for vinegar. It kept for a week, an easy side salad, a quick healthy snack. This is one to go back to again and again.

COMPLIMENTS!
”...this stuff is delicious, high fiber, low calorie, low carb, and keeps for a while." ~ Christy
”...a wonderful recipe, Alanna. Much nicer than slaw and actually improves with keeping." ~ Ellabella
”...tried it with sesame oil, for a fabulous flavor ..." ~ Christy

RECIPE for MARK BITTMAN'S "SALTED" CHOPPED SALAD

Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Time to table: 30 minutes
Makes about 8 cups

For vegetables, aim for about a total of 2-1/2 pounds of chopped vegetables, adjusting the individual amounts according to taste and availability. For visual interest, choose vegetables of different colors and chop them in different shapes and sizes.

SALTED VEGETABLES
1/2 green cabbage, trimmed and sliced as thin as possible
Kosher salt
2 carrots, peeled and cut in matchsticks
1/2 cup finely diced sweet or regular onion
1 cucumber, trimmed and peeled and seeded if needed, cut in half moons
1 turnip, peeled and cubed

OTHER VEGETABLES
2 ribs celery, trimmed and cut in half moons on the diagonal
1 bulb fennel, chopped
1 - 2 bell peppers, diced

DRESSING
2-1/2 tablespoons olive oil (use 1 tablespoon oil: 1 pound of vegetables)
1 - 2 lemons, zested and juiced
Generous salt and especially pepper

SALTED VEGETABLES In a colander or salad spinner, salt the cabbage with about a tablespoon (yes, tablespoon) salt, layering the cabbage with salt as it's prepped. Put it in the sink to drain. As the salt wilts the cabbage, give it a good squeeze to remove excess liquid. Add the carrots, onion, cucumber and turnip, lightly salting each one as they're added. Let the vegetables rest at room temperature while you prep the Other Vegetables and the Dressing, Bittman says that 15 minutes is the minimum, 60 minutes the maximum.

OTHER VEGETABLES Collect these in a large bowl (one large enough to hold everything) and set aside.

DRESSING Whisk together the oil, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper.

RINSE Squeeze the Salted Vegetables again, really wringing out as much liquid as you can. Rinse the Salted Vegetables under running water, running your fingers through the vegetables to let water get right through. (I know, I know, it's crazy to squeeze out liquid and then add more, but trust me, this works.) Run the vegetables through a salad spinner until quite dry.

COMBINE Stir the rinsed and well-drained Salted Vegetables into the Other Vegetables. Toss with the dressing. Taste and adjust, adding more lemon juice, more pepper, even more salt to taste.

TO SERVE Refrigerate until ready to serve. Salad is ready to eat right away but does develop over a couple of days. It will last for up to a week, just give it a stir every day or so.

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from Chopped Salad in the New York Times.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Half Cup/Whole Cup: 32/64 Calories; 1/2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 26/53mg Sodium (NOT including added/absorbed salt); 6/12g Carb; 2/4g Fiber; 2/5g Sugar; 1/2g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS: WW Old Points .5 & WW PointsPlus 1/2 CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie serving, 1-1/2 cups; 50-calorie serving, 3/4 cup.

ABOUT SALT I have no idea how to measure the amount of salt absorbed by the salad, so when I calculated the nutrition, I included only the native sodium in the vegetables themselves, no added salt.

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