Bored with the blandness of many salads, I experimented with adding fresh herbs to enliven them. I also reasoned that more varied foods, especially using more herbs, would provide healthier nutrition. Once I had started, I soon found the herbs outgrew the 'lettuce and cucumber' portion. During really hot summers when lettuce crops failed, I discovered that by blending many herbs I could make delicious salads without any lettuce or most other conventional saladings at all. The more herbs I blended, the better the overall taste, as long as I used the very bitter and strong herbs with the utmost moderation.
Although some of my more conservative friends have looked questioningly at these strange mixes, they have nearly always gone on to enjoy them. The basic principle is to use as many different edible herbs as possible without letting any one flavour dominate. Go to each herb and take small quantities and chop them fine. By varying the proportions the mix can be adjusted to suit most tastes.
Of course, for some people the flavour will be too strong, but this can be tempered by adding saladings to dilute the herbs. Much of the year it is possible to continually crop small amounts of very many different herbs, though the choice is not as wide in late winter and early spring. It is then that the hardier herbs and vegetables such as sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, cabbage and kale can be valuable by providing the most part of salads.
Super salad
Add, mix and adjust to taste as available. All should be finely chopped: Small amounts of rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram, sweet cicely, summer savory, shungiku, coriander and fennel.
Large amounts of parsley, chervil, dill, French tarragon and basil. Lots and lots and lots of chives and rocket
Varying quantities to taste of mint, nasturtium leaves and flowers, purslane, iceplant, good King Henry, grated horseradish, land cress, citrus leaves, radicchio and alpine strawberries.
Mix all the above up thoroughly to be diluted with background saladings of: shredded carrot, grated red and green cabbage, shredded kohlrabi, chopped red, green and some of the hot peppers, cucumber and gherkin bits, tender curly kale leaves, corn salad, Claytonia and even lettuce, chicory, endive, almost any edible green, and baby peas. Then add pot marigold, day lily (Hemerocallis), pelargonium and shungiku petals, borage and rosemary flowers, some violets, pansies, bergamot and loads of rose petals. When ready to serve top with sliced 'Gardener's Delight' tomatoes and sprinkle over hull-less pumpkin, poppy, celery and sunflower seeds. I rarely use salad dressings on this, but prefer to serve it with a well-moistened dish such as taramasalata, humous, egg mayonnaise, etc. (I have also eaten, but cannot and do not recommend including, very small amounts of clary sage, salad burnet, lovage, hyssop, winter savory, lemon verbena, lemon balm and lavender.)
Toast topping
A very nutritious meal for those in a hurry. Soft boil an egg (or eggs), make some toast and chop up finely a handful of any tasty herbs, but especially chives and chervil. Put the chopped herbs in a small bowl and add (to taste) grated cheese, mayonnaise, salad cream or similar, some tomato ketchup and a dash of hot chilli or Worcester sauce. As soon as the egg is cooked, shell and chop it into the bowl, mix quickly and spoon onto the buttered toast. This goes well with the salad above and the kohlslaw below to make a mega-healthy meal.
'Kohlslaw'
This is like coleslaw but made from grated kohlrabi instead of cabbage, plus carrot, apple and onion, mixed with mayonnaise (or similar), a little garlic and paprika. I often add grated celeriac, red and green peppers and small amounts of dill and other herbs. This is a moist dish to complement salad or to go with baked potatoes or toast topping.
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