Salad

What is a country salad? In my mind it is a thoughtful blend of greens — Lola Rosa, frisée, red oak leaf, tatsoi, endive, mâche, arugula, and mizuna — combining different tastes and textures, topped with a ripe cheese and an artisanal cured ham, and garnished with seasonal fruit and vegetables. A well-balanced vinaigrette and spiced walnuts make it impossible to resist. This salad was always a bestseller at Quilty's, the small restaurant in SoHo where I created my contemporary American seasonal cuisine. It was always on the menu — tweaked a bit every few months. It was fun to march around the year with this salad, the seasons reminding me when to change from the last, dark red blood oranges of the winter to the first tender spears of asparagus, from the voluptuous fresh Black Mission figs of the summer to the delicately perfumed Seckel pears of the fall. The same technique I used at Quilty's can easily be used in your home kitchen. Look around at the markets, and take your cues from the seasons. Making this salad is not so much about a recipe as it is a framework, helping you to build your own best-selling salad for your family.

Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Katie Brown's Weekends. To read more about Katie Brown and to get her tips on throwing a headache-free cocktail party, click here.

Shlata Chizo Carrot salads are a relatively new dish, especially raw ones. Until well into the twentieth century, most Europeans ate only cooked carrots, primarily in stews and soups. In the Middle East, people also used them as a component of cooked dishes, but sometimes added grated or minced raw carrots as a minor ingredient to various salads. It was in northwestern Africa that carrots, both cooked and raw, became the featured component of salads — typically an accompaniment to couscous or part of an assortment of salads. Moroccans brought carrot salads to Israel in the 1940s, and they quickly became ubiquitous. These salads are a traditional Rosh Hashanah dish in Israel, a symbol of a sweet and fruitful year to come. At many Israeli restaurants, cooked carrot salad automatically appears on the table with the bread, pickles, and hummus. The carrots are usually flavored with charmoula, a characteristic Moroccan marinade of oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and salt. Most cooks add heat with chilies, sometimes in dangerous proportions. I have tasted some that left me gasping and other that proved a lively appetizer, so adjust the amount of chilies to your own preference and that of your guests. For fancy presentation, Israelis serve raw carrot salad, commonly called gezer chai ("live carrots"), in quartered avocados or on a bed of lettuce leaves, garnished with a sprig of mint.

SALAT TIS LESVOV Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Aglaia Kremezi's book The Foods of the Greek Islands. To read more about Kremezi and Greek Easter, click here. From the first October rains up until the end of April, the greengrocers of Mytilini, the capital of Lesbos, sell each head of romaine lettuce tied together with two or three sprigs of borage (often with its little blue flowers), two or three scallions, several sprigs of peppery arugula, four or five sprigs of dill or fennel fronds, a few sprigs of peppery wild cress and either fresh mint or a little wild celery. Once home, these essential ingredients for the local green winter salad are thinly sliced and tossed with a simple vinaigrette. It's important to cut the greens at the last moment and to slice them very thin. If they are coarsely cut, the salad will taste different.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Joan Nathan's book The Foods of Israel Today. Nathan also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Nathan and Israeli cuisine, click here. Sometimes called Turkish Salad, this typical Israeli salad, served at almost every meal, has many variations. But one thing remains the same: the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cucumbers must be cut into tiny pieces, a practice of the Ottoman Empire. Two types of cucumber are common in Israel: one, like the Kirby cucumber, goes by the name of melafofon in Hebrew and khiyar in Arabic; the other, called fakus in Arabic, is thinner, longer, and fuzzy, and is eaten without peeling.

I am delighted to see broccoli di rape in the supermarket almost year-round and of excellent quality: fresh, bright-green stems and leaves, with tight heads of pale-green florets (don't buy any with yellowed, open flowers). I hope you are familiar with this versatile vegetable — related to both turnips and broccoli — and love its unique bitter-almond taste as much as I do. This warm salad is a particularly easy way to prepare broccoli di rape, and its mild flavor and comforting texture will please even those family members who are wary of new vegetables!

In winter we use a variety of greens and winter vegetables to make interesting salads that taste fresh, refresh our palates, and aren't trying to reproduce the delicate leafy greens of the summer.

(Uborkasalata) With little or no refrigeration and often only impure water available until the twentieth century, ordinary people did not risk eating fresh vegetables that couldn't be peeled or shelled. Cucumber, beet, or cabbage salads were about the only ones used in Eastern Europe, and cooked salads featuring eggplant or broiled peppers were served in many Mediterranean countries. Lettuce, the base of most crisp salads we eat today, had to be cleaned in sterilized water and eaten immediately.

Fuyu persimmons look like orange tomatoes and have a melon-like texture. Many farmers' markets and supermarkets carry them from October through December.

To dress up a typical watercress salad for the holidays, Santibañez added orange segments, avocados, and a sweet-tangy pomegranate dressing.

Truffles are pressure-cooked during the canning process, which causes them to release some of their water content. Using just a bit of this truffle juice in a vinaigrette will impart a delicious woodsy flavor.

This delicate salad, combining crisp celery and tender fresh porcini, grew out of the memories of two food editors — Zanne Stewart and Alexis Touchet — of similar ones they had enjoyed at restaurants in Italy. (Surprisingly, they were in different regions and traveling 20 years apart.)

This recipe makes much more dressing than you'll need for the salad, but it's so delicious you'll be glad to have extra in the refrigerator.

Actress Bridget Moynahan is fueled both by stardom and foods that keep her in top form. "I love beets," Moynahan says. She can get her fix with this dish from Axe, her healthy eatery of choice. Pick up organic fixings at a farmers' market and enjoy!

Round out your lunch: Add 1 small pear and 1 large hard pretzel.

If you're looking for a way to get soy-good-for-you tofu into your diet, call off the search. This cabbage-based blend busts the myth that tofu is tasteless. Our secret weapon: rich (but not fattening) peanut-yogurt dressing.

Tortillas aren't the only depository for beans, corn and tomatoes. Let romaine lettuce do the job. Feta cheese supplies a dose of calcium and major flavor. And the honey-lime dressing adds just the right touch of tangy sweetness. Buen provecho!