February 3: Beautiful BC Salad

This was an example of salad as an art form. You start with what you have, and then inspiration hits. You never know if you'll end up with a masterpiece, but today I came pretty close!

It started with the intention of using up some leftovers; half an apple from yesterday and some smoked salmon from the day before. The way the flavours blended was almost too good to be true; I've never had smokey apples before, but I highly reccommend it! These are both products of beautiful British Columbia, Canada, where I have lived for most of my life. Those of us who are lucky enough to live here think it's the best place in the world!

 Once I put the apples and salmon together, they didn't need much more, although if I'd had some pecans they would have gone nicely. My daughter thought it didn't need dressing, but I wanted to keep the apples from going brown, and it was also good to add a little tangy element, since this is quite sweet.  It was so pretty, I went looking for a way to display it, and luckily my daughter has some perfect glassware. This salad was a filling Sunday Brunch for me, but it was almost too much for me, as the salmon is very rich. I think it would make a wonderful appetizer, using this amount for 3 servings. 

Recipe:
1/2 a golden delicious apple, 1/2 cup bite-size pieces of candied smoked salmon, 3or 4 sprigs of flat-leaf parsely (pinch the leaves off and discard the stems). Be careful not to over-mix, as the salmon starts to break up.

Dressing: whip together 2 teaspoons mayonaise, 2 teaspoons rice vinegar (Another time I would use lemon juice instead), 1 teaspoon sugar.

Bonus Salad: The BLT
Since this salad didn't give me the greens I need for the day (I have to eat at least 3 cups of raw veg to keep my tummy happy), I made another one for dinner. I don't usually include these extra salads, but this one was so pretty, I snapped some shots of it.

I just used the rest of my field greens, some fresh tomato and home-made bacon bits. (My daughter was making the fresh bacon bits for a Superbowl treat and threw some my way.) I tossed it in a greek dressing, which had some nice flavours, but was a bit salty for me, especially combined with the bacon.