Bamboo Plantation Garden Center

Seasonal Salad With Bamboo
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Seasonal Salad With Bamboo

 

 

May 17, 2011

Most bento box salads are an iceberg lettuce afterthought. Chef Naoko Tamura's, however, celebrate peak-of-season Willamette Valley ingredients at her Portland, Ore., cafe. I used young Walla Walla onion with green stalks still attached. Any spring vegetables would be good here: blanched asparagus, fennel, pea greens. Chef Naoko tops this salad with the ancient food known as frikeh, field-burned green wheat from Ayers Creek Farm near Portland. You can find imported, packaged frikeh at Middle Eastern markets.


 

Seasonal Salad

 Laura McCandlish for NPR

 

Makes 4 servings

For The Dressing

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup rice vinegar

1 tablespoon canola oil

Mix soy and vinegar together, then slowly whisk in oil. Set aside.

For The Salad

4 ounces young sweet onion, thickly sliced

16 sugar snap peas

1/2 bunch kale raab or young beet or turnip greens

1/2 head green lettuce, romaine or butter, plus enough seasonal local salad mix for 4 portions

2 ounces boiled bamboo shoot tender tips, thinly sliced

Handful of frikeh (roasted green wheat), optional garnish

Soak the sliced onion in water for 5 minutes and drain.

Steam the peas and greens for 1 minute and cool.

Wash lettuce and salad mix and drain. Hand cut lettuce into strips. Combine the lettuce, salad mix, cooled blanched greens and onion, then give the dressing a few whisks and toss it with the salad before plating.

Top with tender bamboo tips and garnish with frikeh if available.

 
Bamboo plants are thought to have originated in the late Cretaceous period - some 65 million years ago. They remain relatively unchanged to this day, making them very ancient plant forms.