When thinking of what salad to make, it should not be too complicated. Nothing is wrong and everything is right. Just pick something green, something with leaves, something crunchy, something creamy, something fruity and something meaty. My main salad ingredient was “Valeriana” also known as lamb’s lettuce. I always play with the colours of the ingredients. We first “eat” with our eyes. Right? So take a pen and start writing down the colourful list. I always try to mix different dressings too. It is always great to have some lemon or lime at home. A fruity vinegar is also always handy.
The ingredients that I used are:
- ca 200 g of Valeriana (maybe you know it under names as corn salad or lamb’s lettuce)
- 10 small radishes (you can choose the one you like)
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 aubergine
- 2 small beef steaks
- some grapes
- fig vinegar
- olive oil
- lemon
- salt and pepper
How to make it:
Wash the corn salad well. Usually, it is cultivated on sandy fields and some sand might still be on the salad leaves. And there is nothing more unpleasant than the sound of the sand under your teeth.
Take a grilling pan and turn on the stove. Wash the aubergine and cut it in slices. I cut it lengthwise, but you can do it how you prefer. Sprinkle the slices with some salt and olive oil and put them in the grilling pan. The pan should be very hot. Grill them for a couple of minutes or until soft. When the aubergine slices are done, place them on a plate and cover them.
Rub the steaks with some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them in the hot grilling pan. It depends on the taste of each individual how the steak should be done. I like it medium rare or medium. This means 3.5 – 4.5 minutes of grilling on each side (if the steak is ca 3-3.5 cm thick). When it’s done you have to let it rest for at least 5 minutes. Therefore put it on a cutting board and cover it with aluminium foil.
In the mean time, while the steak is resting, wash all the other ingredients, cut the radishes into halves or quarters, cut the tomato and remove the grapes from the stem.
Take a big salad bowl and start “building” the salad. Start with Valeriana, then add the radishes, the tomato and the grapes. If the aubergine slices are too big, just cut them in half and add to the salad.
Furthermore, mix the juice of one lemon, some olive oil, salt and fig vinegar in a small bowl. Pour it over the salad and mix nicely all together.
I left the steaks on the cutting board rather than on a plate and I brought everything to the table. Serve the “Valeriana” salad in a nice deep plate, cut the steak into 1 cm thick slices and place some of them on top of the salad.
Enjoy!
