We love us the sweet stuff over here, but it’s all about balancing healthful meals with the treats. I have to tell you that when my friend Alison, author of the blog Alison’s Lunch that will surely have you salivating, offered to do a salad post with her mini-chef Meredith, my whole body gave a resounding WHOOP of joy. So here is her whole post for a healthy, bright, and beautiful salad-and I swear that I didn’t pay her or Meredith to say such nice things about Tribeca Yummy Mummy. They’re just cool like that….
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This time of year, we all have so many traditional sweet treats to make-for our friends, family and ourselves! I remember making lots of special holiday cookies with my mom when I was little. Some that come to mind are the spritz butter cookies that I loved to squirt out of the press in the green wreaths and decorate with red hot candies, the krumkake that we made in a special waffle iron and then rolled around a wooden cone, and the peppermint-flavored dough that we rolled into pink and white snakes and then twisted into candy-cane shapes. For a few years, my mom even made rosette cookies, with the heavy iron molds she dipped into the cookie batter and then deep-fried in her electric wok. Remember those? Dusted with powdered sugar, they left a grease slick on the roof of my mouth… With all those fond memories, plus plenty more of my own favorite cookie recipes, it’s pretty easy to think of holiday treats and cookies to make with my four-year-old, Meredith. I’m sure it’s the same for you.
But why do we only think about including our kids when we’re making treats and sweet things? I didn’t learn how to cook until I went to college-my mom didn’t think to include us kids when making dinner-I think she just wanted to get dinner on the table, and didn’t need us underfoot. So in the interest of teaching Meredith to cook healthy, delicious meals (not just desserts), I try to include her in all sorts of cooking projects. She’s not always quite as interested in making a salad as making treats like graham crackers (eating raw dough is one of her favorite hobbies), but there is almost always a fun part in even the most ordinary meal. If I’m not rushing to finish lunch or dinner, I’ll ask if she’s interested in helping. And usually she is-for a little while, anyway!
My greatest inspiration for Meredith-inclusive cookery is my friend Cate, who writes a fabulous blog about cooking with kids: Tribeca Yummy Mummy. She is all about including our kids in cooking real food-using real, raw ingredients, and making meals and FOOD, not just treats. Thank you, Cate, for encouraging us to raise our expectations of what we assume our kids are interested in, and are capable of doing in the kitchen!
For this salad, Meredith chopped up the pears for the dressing with a table knife, helped measure the rest of the dressing ingredients into the blender jar, and then picked the pomegranate seeds. (Oh, and then she helped eat it!)
Green Salad with Pears, Fennel, and Pear Vinaigrette
For the Dressing:
*1 medium very ripe pear, peeled, cored, and chopped coarsely
*6 T. pear vinegar (or 4 T. apple + 2 T. apple juice)
*1/2 t. sea salt or kosher salt
*3 T. olive oil
*sugar, as needed
Place the pear in a blender with the vinegar and salt; puree it until smooth. Drizzle in the oil while the blender is running. Unplug the blender! Taste for salt and sweetness. If your pear wasn’t very sweet, you might want to add a little sugar to the dressing, or you can add more olive oil to tame the vinegar’s sharpness. Refrigerate until ready to serve the salad.
For the Salad:
*2 large heads of lettuce, or about 10 cups of baby salad greens
*1 large fennel bulb, cut in half, cored, and sliced very thinly crosswise***
*1-2 ripe pears
*Optional garnish in winter: 1/4 c. pomegranate seeds
Wash and dry the greens.
Cut the pear in half, cut the core away and slice thinly with a table knife.
Put the greens and fennel in a bowl and toss them with dressing to your taste, then add the pears and toss gently. Arrange on individual plates and top with the pomegranate seeds.
