Salad

In doubling or tripling this recipe, you can put all the ingredients for the dressing into a blender (cutting the amount of garlic in half) for a quick whirl. Store the dressing in a screw-cap jar until the salad is ready to be tossed. The flavor is the same, but the texture of the dressing is creamy and looks less attractive on the romaine.

Note: To slice the onion and fennel in the following salad into paper-thin spirals, we used a Japanese rotary device known as the Benriner vegetable slicer.

A side dish for grilled chicken, steak or fish.

For a picnic, transport this colorful side dish next to a cold pack in an airtight container.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Dry-toasting the barley adds a nutty taste and helps the barley retain its texture in this excellent meatless dish.

Fermented soybean paste-called miso-is the key ingredient here.

The almonds and crisp green beans lend good crunch. For a light lunch, serve this with French bread and a fruit salad.

The miso dressing — which has the body of an egg yolk dressing without all the fat — lends depth of flavor to sweet persimmon and creamy avocado.

Serve with: Steamed broccoli and roasted potatoes. Dessert: Baked apples.

Make the components of this salad early in the day, then toss in the shrimp just before serving. (Buy cooked shrimp, if you like, to save a little time.) Offer cold Mexican beers and Margaritas alongside.

It’s unclear just who the Louis of Crab Louis salad fame was; perhaps he was affiliated with the Olympic Club in Seattle, where opera star Enrico Caruso, who visited there in 1904, is said to have fallen in love with the crab salad. San Francisco also claims the dish, which reached its zenith there in the teens, as a specialty at Solari’s restaurant and at the St. Francis Hotel.

This is a great summer salad, perfect with all kinds of barbecue and grilled foods. It's also a wonderful way to brighten up a winter dinner of broiled chicken or beef.