Big Salad! A Vittles Summer Cooking Supplement

Four recipes for main course salads by Boutheina B. Salem, Hetty Lui McKinnon, Nick Bramham and Paris Rosina.

Salad can include anything edible, and the spirit of Big Salad behind the Vittles Summer Recipe Supplement might be said to have arisen in the 17^th century ‘in the era of what was called the grand sallet’, as set out in the Oxford Companion to Food. In 1685 Robert May published fourteen grand sallet recipes, the first of which begins thus:

‘take a cold roast capon and cut it into thin slices square and small (or any other roast meat), mingle with it a little minced tarragon and an onion, then mince littice as small the capon, mingle all together…then lay capers by themselves, olives by themselves, samphire by itself, broom buds, pickled mushrooms, pickled oysters, lemon, orange, raisins, almonds blue-fits, Virginia Potato, caperons, crucifix pease, and the like…garnish the dishes sides with quarters of oranges, or lemons, or in slices, oyl and vinegar beaten together poured on it over all.’

What madness! What fun! And what a substantial and varied meal can be had by eating from May’s composition, which, though rich, still feels summer appropriate thanks to its unheated state. ‘Mingle’ and ‘lay’ might be the two key culinary methods from May’s recipe when it comes to salads. Either allowing ingredients to be mixed and develop into something greater than the sum of their parts, or laying them down on a serving dish to then be re-encountered in varied combinations on one’s own plate. Both are are to be found in these four ‘big salads’ by four of our favourite cooks, all of which can be eaten as a main course.

omek houria; sesame & celery noodle salad; charred mortadella Olivier salad; roast chicken 'nduja panzanella

Nick Bramham’s roast chicken and ‘nduja panzanella was inspired by a private moment of ecstasy during restaurant service, after dragging a piece of focaccia through a dish of pan juices and is also an homage to one of the greatest textures in food: ‘crisp-gone-soft’. Speaking of texture, Hetty Lui McKinnon was in search of one that could sate her craving for Cantonese jellyfish salad, when she came up with this slippery glass noodle dish punctuated by crisp celery and fried tofu which can be whipped up in a trice for a cool savoury moment at lunch. I will never get over Tom Hanks’s character eating all the caviar from the salad in You’ve Got Mail. I would feel similarly enraged if someone ate the garnish of Boutheina B Salem’s addition to our salad of salads, omek houria. This beautiful arrangement of everything good – tuna in oil, olives (black ‘never pitted’), hard-boiled egg, capers – on a base of caraway-scented, harissa spiced carrot is exactly what I want to share on a warm evening (with friends who will behave equitably…) Finally, Paris Rosina’s maximalist masterpiece may be the most direct connection to Robert May’s ‘grand sallet’, with this luxe take on Olivier (or Russian) salad, in which a cubed miscellany including mortadella, potato, artichoke, pickled chillies and charred beans (and more) is bound together with a silky mayonnaise laced with fresh herbs. Swoon! RMJ

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Roast Chicken ‘Nduja Panzanella

Nick Bramham’s supercharged juicy crispy fiery take on the classic Tuscan tomato and bread salad.

This… was born one night at the restaurant where we had been roasting chickens in ’nduja butter. After serving the dish, I couldn’t resist dragging a piece of focaccia through the juices left in the roasting tray. It was like the best crouton I’d ever tasted. I knew it had to feature in a dish in its own right.

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Omek Houria

Boutheina B Salem’s sweet-sharp caraway scented Tunisian carrot salad garnished with tuna, eggs and olives, and served with crusty bread.

Omek houria is one of Tunisia’s most beloved salads, a fixture of countless lunch tables, wedding buffets and restaurant menus….Morocco has its carrot salads too – generally involving cumin, which settles into the earthy sweetness of the carrots. But Tunisia takes a different route: we use caraway, which feels brighter, greener, almost citrusy. It wakes up the lemon juice and parsley, giving omek houria its characteristic freshness.

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Sesame & Celery Noodle Salad

Hetty Lui McKinnon’s vegan reinvention of cold Cantonese jellyfish salad, with slippery glass noodles, fried tofu and crisp celery.

My mother, the best cook I know, rarely made salads. In Cantonese culture, salads and raw dishes in general are regarded as ‘cold’ foods, which upset the body’s internal balance. The fact that I built a career on salads as a culinary artform might be my ultimate Chinese daughter rebellion.

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Charred Mortadella Olivier Salad

Paris Rosina’s fresh and luxurious take on the classic diced vegetable, meat and mayonnaise salad.

This is my chunkier, more charred take on an Olivier salad (also known as a Russian salad), which I make with mortadella – a perfect ensemble of mundanity lifted with folds of creamy mustardy mayo, zingy pickles and fresh herbs. It almost always features on my dinner menus. As a maximalist, it feels like the perfect salad to me, as it calls for everything but the kitchen sink.

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The Vittles Summer Recipe Supplement was written by Boutheina B. Salem, Hetty Lui McKinnon, Nick Bramham and Paris Rosina. It was photographed by Emil Bendixen at Quality Wines in Farringdon. The recipes were tested and prepared by Georgia Rudd. The shoot was styled collaboratively by Georgia and Emli. The full Vittles masthead can be found here.