This is a salad I made to “treat” the head cold I had.  Mizuna is a wonderful Japanese salad green that has a similar flavor to arugula–peppery, sharp, and sassy.  I think it tends to be slightly more delicate in structure, though– maybe it’s because I’ve only eaten young mizuna.  Anyway, it’s in the brassica family and is considered a mustard green.   Perfect green for a head cold! 

When you aren’t tossing your mizuna in a regular, refreshing salad during warm and healthy days, why not throw it into your Asian-inspired concoction that you made for dinner, and squirt a ton of hot pepper sauce over the top?  This will set you free.

The concoction above contains:

• Mizuna
• Egg drop soup (chicken broth, tamari sauce, with egg beaten into it)
• Quinoa (I didn’t have time to make rice)
• Chicken stir fry with peas & tons of garlic and onions
• Hot pepper sauce

My family ate the stir fry as I had intended them to, over the quinoa, with the soup on the side.  I, on the other hand, opted to pour them all together, mix in mizuna, and inundate the whole thing with hot sauce. 

It seemed to help on all levels.

I usually think of chard and kale as veggies to eat cooked, but Emerald City Salad has a special something, and I think it’s the rugged texture that the uncooked veggies have.   Seattle’s largest coop, Puget Consumer Coop, has an awesome deli, and Emerald City Salad is a standard you can usually find at one of the PCC locations in the (Emerald!) city. 

The ingredients are simple, flavorful, and hearty.  This is a list of the ingredients as found on the label on a to-go package from PCC.  

Emerald City Salad

Ingredients:

• Chard
• Kale
• (Cooked) wild rice
• Fennel
• Red peppers
• Lemon juice
• Canola oil
• Green onion
• Italian parsley
• Salt
• Garlic
• Black pepper

Fried rice is magnificent in salad!  The fried egg, veggies, and rice add such a lovely savory depth and, you know, fried flavor.   Give it a try sometime!

Tonight’s salad is all about my TexMex childhood, when everything was better with chili.  Speaking of which, have you ever had Frito Pie?  This is created by covering a plate with a layer of Fritos, pouring chili over them, then heaping on grated cheese and onions.  In other words, Frito Pie is a concentrated bomb of ridiculous TexMex SuperHeaven.  

This salad is Frito Pie without the Fritos (plus a whole bunch of veggies).    I can only imagine what this salad would have been like with that final Frito touch.  As it was, it was a bowl of healthy joy with 1970’s TexMex hiding underneath.

Chili Salad

Ingredients:

• Chopped celery
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped avocado
• Chopped onion
• Leftover cilantro lime coleslaw from night before last
• Grated cheese
• Homemade chili

Arrange salad makings over a bowl of chili.  Serve with corn bread.

Attractive, it is not.  However, the comfort-food-meets-good-health appeal is irresistible.  The red wine vinegar and oregano harmonize with the browned bits of the meatballs.  The tomatoes add necessary tangy juiciness.  Even though I wouldn’t take another picture of this one, I will definitely eat it again, exactly like this, in perfect simplicity.

Meatball Salad

Ingredients:

• Mixed greens
• Meatballs, chopped
• Grape tomatoes, halved
• Diced onion
• Red wine vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Oregano
• Salt & pepper

The alternate name for this specimen is The Chinese Takeout Grumpy-With-A-Head-Cold Salad

Kung Pao Salad

No dressing needed but the sauce from the Kung Pao.

Ingredients:

• Leftover Kung Pao chicken (warm or cold)
• Frisée
• Radishes, sliced
• Red onion, sliced
• Crunchy apples, sliced

Enjoy with a cup of hot & sour soup–and lots of water or tea. 

Wish I had fresh grated ginger, too. 

Benefits to a grumpy person with a cold: easy; spicy; crunchy, no dairy