By Janet Groene, F47106
May 2017
From side dishes to entrees, menu choices abound.
In the capricious climates of springtime, salads are a motorhome cook’s salvation. Gather recipes for cold salads, warm salads, sweet or savory salads, main-dish and side salads. Put them on speed dial. Here’s a collection to get you started.
Freezer Coleslaw
Make it by the barrel and freeze it in small batches. It’s so convenient to have this slaw on hand.
2 12- to 16-ounce packages shredded cabbage for coleslaw (about 10 cups)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed
In a large bowl, sprinkle the shredded cabbage with salt. Set it aside for an hour, then drain. In a saucepan, boil the remaining ingredients for one minute. Allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm and blend well with the cabbage. Divide the slaw into freezer containers, making sure the syrup is distributed evenly. Freeze for up to three months. Thaw, stir, and serve very cold. Makes about five pints.
Pennsylvania Dutch Wilted Lettuce Salad
Use this hot dressing for any lettuce, from the most tender leaf lettuce to a torn-up head of iceberg.
3 strips bacon, cut up
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar
Cook the bacon until it’s crisp. Do not drain. In a bowl, whisk the flour, egg, sugar, water, and vinegar, and stir into the hot bacon over low heat. Cook and stir the dressing until it’s thick. Toss the hot dressing with 6 to 8 cups of torn lettuce. Serve at once. Makes four to six salad portions. To make this a main dish, add one sliced hard-cooked egg per person.
Wait-In-The-Wings Salad
Lettuce salads lose their crispness if dressed too early. Here’s a whole-meal salad that becomes more flavorful, and won’t lose its crisp edge if it’s made early in the day. Add peanuts just before serving.
1 tablespoon sugar
1 12- to 16-ounce package shredded green and red cabbage
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 large green pepper, seeded and cut in slivers
1 10-ounce can chunk chicken or solid-pack tuna, broken up
1 15-ounce can white beans such as Great Northern, rinsed
1 cup salted, dry roasted peanuts (more or less to taste)
In a bowl, sprinkle the sugar over the cabbage and set it aside while you make the dressing. Whisk the vegetable oil, 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and onion powder. Set aside. Toss the cabbage lightly with the tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Then toss with the green pepper, chicken or tuna, beans, and dressing. Chill. Sprinkle with peanuts. Makes four to six servings.
Variation: Substitute slivered beets for white beans. Toss with the salad ingredients.
Indonesian Golden Salad
This exotic, marinated salad keeps several days in the refrigerator and just keeps getting better.
3 cups cauliflower florets
1 small yellow sweet pepper, cut in slivers
1 cup matchstick carrots
1/4 cup water
Place the vegetables and 1/4 cup water in a large, covered dish, and cook on high in the microwave oven for 2 minutes. Drain immediately.
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
In a small skillet, cook the garlic in hot oil, gradually stirring in the water, salt, ginger, turmeric, sugar, and vinegar. Toss the hot cauliflower mixture with this dressing. Cover and chill several hours or overnight. Stir and serve. Makes six servings.
Salad On A Slab
Mix the spread ahead of time, if you wish, but don’t assemble these open-face sandwiches until serving time.
1 8-ounce brick cream cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
Salt, pepper to taste
Toast or rye crackers
Sliced heirloom tomatoes
Remove the cream cheese from the package and heat it in a microwave oven for a few seconds to soften it. Stir in the lemon juice, dill weed, and onion. Season to taste. Spread the mixture on toast or crackers and top with a tomato slice.
Cranberry Chicken Salad Pie
1 baked pastry pie shell
1/2 cup water
1 packet lemon gelatin dessert mix (entire package won’t be needed)
3 cups chicken salad, homemade or from the deli
1/2 cup chopped, dried cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Cool and chill the crust. Boil the water and stir in a tablespoon of the gelatin mix to dissolve it. Cool the gelatin mixture and stir it into the chicken salad. Add the dried cranberries. Spread the mixture in the pie shell, sprinkle walnuts on top, and chill thoroughly. Serve in wedges. Makes six servings.
Tear-Riffic Chicken Salad
Pick up a deli-roasted chicken and whip up an easy, main-dish salad for your first night out. If the evening turns nippy, bake hot biscuits. If the weather is steamy, accompany the salad with crunchy, kettle-cooked potato chips.
1 deli-roasted chicken
1 pint red grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 pint yellow grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 medium Vidalia onion, cut in crescents
1 15-ounce can whole green beans, drained
1 small can sliced mushrooms, well drained
Italian vinaigrette to taste
12 basil leaves
Tear meat from the chicken in ragged chunks. Toss the first six ingredients together, adding vinaigrette to taste, and sprinkle with fresh basil leaves, cut chiffon-style (roll several together and cut them into strips with scissors). Makes six to eight servings. Refrigerate leftovers. They’ll keep well for the next day.
Shrimp Wiggle
Generations ago, jellied “salads” made with meat, fish, vegetables, or fruit were all the rage. This make-ahead salad presents a pretty plate when you cut it in squares and place it on a bed of shredded lettuce.
1 16-ounce package cooked salad shrimp
1 can condensed cream of tomato soup
1/2 cup water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut up
1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups finely chopped crisp vegetables such as celery, sweet onion, and green pepper
Set the shrimp aside to thaw and drain. In a saucepan, bring the soup and water to a boil, then remove from the heat and whisk in the gelatin to dissolve it. Whisk in the cream cheese until it melts, then whisk in the mayonnaise. Fold in the shrimp and vegetables, and place in a 9-inch-by-13-inch dish. Chill until it sets. Makes six servings.
Deep South Cola Salad
Invented in Dixie, Coca-Cola is an essential ingredient in Southern dishes ranging from cakes to barbecue sauce. This make-ahead “salad” is a colorful dessert. It works equally well with regular or sugar-free gelatin and cola.
2/3 cup water*
1 8-serving packet (or two 4-serving packets) raspberry or black cherry gelatin dessert mix
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1 15-ounce can pitted sweet cherries, drained
1 cup broken pecans
1 12-ounce can Coke or Dr. Pepper soda
*The liquid measure can include juices from the pineapple and cherries.
Bring the water to a boil and dissolve the gelatin. Add the fruit, nuts, and cola, and chill until it sets. Makes eight servings.
Cook’s note: To serve this as a salad, put each portion on a bed of lettuce and drizzle with a creamy dressing. To serve as a dessert, present it plain or top with whipped cream.
Salad Diversions
- Instead of croutons, add crunch to a salad with corn chips, oyster crackers, or small pretzels.
- Cut cantaloupe, honeydew, or baby watermelons in half; scoop out the fruit with a melon baller; and combine it with other fruits to make fruit salad. Serve it in the melon skins. To make a flat-bottom “bowl,” cut a thin slice from the bottom of each melon half.
- To sweeten up coleslaw, whisk together one part vanilla yogurt and one part mayonnaise with a little honey mustard.
- Customize deli salads with extra ingredients such as pecans, dried cranberries, chopped celery, grated carrots, or slivered almonds.
- Cut up drained, pickled herring in wine sauce. Drain a can of sliced beets and cut the beets in strips. Toss together with mayonnaise to taste, and serve in lettuce cups.
- Instead of using bacon in spinach salad, heat canned french-fried onions by tossing them gently in a dry skillet. Toss with spinach and warmed Italian dressing. Serve at once.
- Mix a 3-ounce package of cream cheese with 1/2 cup of finely chopped vegetables and 2 tablespoons of crumbled blue cheese. Cut the core out of a head of lettuce and fill it with the cream cheese mixture. Wrap it in a damp towel and chill. Slice the lettuce in round slabs, each centered with the filling. Drizzle with blue cheese dressing.
- Keep white vinegar such as white balsamic or white wine vinegar on hand. Apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar will discolor white vegetables.