How to Make a Better Bean Salad – Rancho Gordo

Here are a few of Steve’s salad tips:

• I’ve found that if I wash my salad, spin it, and then roll it in clean dish towels, the veggies stay fresher longer. I wrap a rubber band around the roll and then mark it with labeled painter’s tape.
• I save bread, slice it, and then let it dry in my oven. Take a piece of the dried bread and pound it in my mortar and sprinkle over the salad just before serving to give the salad a richer flavor.
• As much as I love bean broth, I don’t appreciate it in salads. Make sure your beans are well drained. Once you get the hang of it, strain your beans in a sort of colander while you prep the rest of the ingredients. But save the bean broth!
• I’m lazy and don’t want to clean more dishes. So I like to make the dressing in the salad bowl, add the ingredients, and then toss. I usually start with the salt and garlic, mash them up and then add the vinegar and finally drizzle in the olive oil while stirring. Sometimes I add mustard. I often don’t. I also love making dressings in the same order using my mortar and pestle. It emulsifies beautifully. I have a wonderful marble mortar from Carrera, Italy. It’s beautiful, but it’s heavy, so I mostly use my ceramic mortar from Spain. It’s beautiful in a different way and much easier to wear and clean.
• After years of dread, I’ve embraced my mandolin for slicing. Don’t talk or take your eyes off the blade, no matter how confident you feel. The reward is great textured veggies like radishes and celery.
• If you soak your sliced ​​(or chopped) radishes in salted water, they will take on an almost buttery flavor. However, no longer than a few hours, otherwise they will become limp.
• A room-warm salad with wild rice and shredded xoconostle is a beautiful and easy thing to do. Add walnuts, kidney beans, macerated tomatoes and paper-thin sliced ​​radishes and your favorite olive oil and you’re done. It also makes great leftovers.