How was your Christmas kittens? I had a LOVELY time. I ate too much naturally but everything was delicious! Now I am craving a salad, and as this post has been in my drafts folder for several months, here it is!
I actually made this in the summer and planned to stick this up on the site on “National Clear Out Your Refrigerator Day” but that was months ago! No matter, here’s the perfect recipe for next time you plan a big old clear out of your salad drawer.
I liked Ruta’s addition of pine-nuts to her salad which put me in mind of Angela Lansbury’s Kitchen Sink Salad which had almonds sprinkled on top.
I strayed a bit from Ruta’s original recipe as I didn’t have Jerusalem artichokes and I’m not a fan of the mushroom BUT I justify this by referring to the title. To my mind a Clear Out The Refrigerator salad will now be any salad that has everything salady I can find in the fridge, plus pine nuts!
went all Italian on me
There’s a lesson here for 2020. I cannot for the life of me find the pictures I took of my Ruta Lee salad but if I spot them amongst the gazillions of food photos on my ‘phone at a later date I’ll pop one in.
For now, imagine a lovely healthy looking plate of salad! One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to write up recipes I have tested QUICKLY so I don’t lose the photos or my deep and meaningful thoughts about the dish. Will it happen? Dunno!
I think this salad blueprint recipe is going to be a summer replacement for Phillis Diller’s Garbage Soup which I have made gazillions of times. Throwing everything except the kitchen sink into a soup is a fun way of creating a feeling of virtuousness about not wasting food.
The only drawback with making a salad to use up all the bits and bobs rather than making soup from them is that you can’t freeze it. But hey ho the freezer is FULL TO BURSTING ANYHOW.
Thanks Ruta! Sometimes just putting a name to something makes it special. Who wants to come round for some Clear Out The Refrigerator Salad once summer comes around again?
