Mushroom and Celery Salad
I’ve been MIA for the past two days, too lazy on a Sunday to post and busy busy yesterday. Here I thought that I would do this whole NaBloPoMo thingy, I’ve failed, I’m too new to this blogging thing to be so disciplined. Not posting does not mean that I haven’t been cooking though, our weekend was spent in the kitchen and around the table, perfecting old recipes and experimenting with new ones, I even made pancakes on Saturday morning.
The New York Times has been releasing a series of articles each week in the Health section focusing on one vegetable or grain, they list their health benefits and offer a few recipes of ways to use it. This week was celery, a vegetable I mainly use for making broth, cornbread dressing or eating with peanut butter, other than that I don’t really know what else to do with it. I’ve never really liked celery in salads, something too crunchy and stringy about it, but this recipe caught my eye, and since the health benefits are so great (like reducing stress), I figured that I would give it a shot.
Aside from the fact that I find this salad physically beautiful, the light and dark greens layered with brown and white, so pretty, I also liked this salad because it was a little different than a normal tossed salad and could be served with so many different things. We ate it after Risotto alla Milanese (which will be my next post).
My husband was squeamish about the raw mushrooms, which I can’t figure out since he likes mushrooms. The New York Times claims that this is an Italian salad, but you really don’t find raw mushrooms very often in Italian food. Honestly Italians aren’t all that into raw vegetables. My husband complained that the zucchini in my last post’s dish was too raw, it was a little crunchy, but I liked that, it added complexity where it needed it. Maybe this is a Northern Italian salad, who knows. All I know is that the further south you go the mushier the vegetables get, it may not be universal, but it is certainly true for the US and Italy.
Italian Mushroom and Celery Salad adapted from The New York Times Health Section
- 1/2 pound cremini or white button mushrooms, very thinly sliced
- 4 celery stalks, from the heart of the celery, very thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon minced chives (I couldn’t find chives, so I skipped this)
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice, or 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 ounces shaved Parmesan (didn’t have any handy, so I skipped this as well)
1. Toss together the mushrooms, celery, parsley, and chives, and season with salt and pepper. Mix together the lemon juice (or lemon juice and vinegar) and olive oil, and toss with the vegetables. Just before serving, toss again with the Parmesan.
Yield: Serves 4
Advance Preparation: The salad can be assembled hours before tossing with the dressing and the Parmesan.
Italicious 