Great to see you again! If you haven't already, please subscribe to my RSS feed, to keep updated on life in the middle of the road or follow me via Networked Blogs by clicking the button in my sidebar! If you are interested in mini-guest posting on A Moderate Life I would love to have you! Please check out my Baby Steps to a Rockin' Life Guidelines. Thanks for visiting!

Salad past its prime? Heat it up...literally for a delicious change!

My grandmother was the one who introduced me to lovingly preparing vegetables. As a child, she lived with us in my parent’s home, which was the European thing to do. Every person in the family had a job to do to make themselves feel useful, and so every day, my granny, well into her nineties would sit on a stool at the kitchen counter and wash and prepare any vegetables to be cooked for dinner and she would also make a salad.

My sister was much more interested in baking and cooking than I was at that time, and so, I would sit with my granny and watch her scrub, cut and slice and she would talk to me about the veggies. I know it is from her that I developed my deeply abiding love for all things growing in the ground, and I know it would thrill her to know after all these years that I now adore turnips and parsnips and Brussels Sprouts, which she tried to entice me with to no avail.

Because of my advanced education in vegetables, when it comes to family gatherings, such as Christmas and Christmas Eve dinner, I am always relegated to making and bringing a huge salad. I do my best to make them interesting, but if I use too many exotic ingredients, the kids do not like them and invariably the leftovers get thrown away, so I have learned my boundaries when it comes to salads and everyone is happy with the results.

This Christmas was no different from most. My sister was the hostess for Christmas Eve and after mass we went to her house to celebrate with a lovely roast ham. The next day my mother was hostess and made sumptuous beef tenderloins. Of course, I brought the salads!

I wanted to save time on Christmas morning by prepping all the vegetables for both huge salads the day before and store them in sealed bags so I could simply throw them together into the bowl when needed. I washed and prepped everything, threw one salad together, got dressed for church and off I went.

Upon arrival at my sister’s house, she oohed and ahhed at the Three Greens with Bacon that she has additionally requested, but gasped in surprise at the salad! Seems she had assumed that since she asked me to make the greens that the salad would be preempted. So, there I was with a huge salad and another set of fixings for the next day!

We don’t do a lot of fresh salads in the winter. None of us is very interested and they aren’t particularly seasonal or at all local this time of year in the north east. After a few days all those salad greens and veggies started to look a bit worse for wear and I contemplated simply dumping them. There is nothing in this world worse than wilted greens and past it salad vegetables! On my way to the compost pile though, I had an idea. If it worked, it would be wonderful! If it did not work, well, there was always the compost pile! Thank goodness, the former occurred much to my delight!

Hot Salad

Serves 4-6

1 Big old bowl of salad-mine contained arugula, romaine, English cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, shredded carrots, green, red, orange and yellow peppers, but yours could contain any salad fixings you like as long as they are vegetables or even fruits would work. Soggy croutons and cheese would need to be removed before proceeding. I used about 8 cups of veggies, mostly lettuce greens.

¼ Cup bacon grease to make this recipe vegetarian, simply switch to olive oil or an olive oil butter combination

1 Large onion sliced and cut in 2 inch strips

10 Cloves of garlic smashed and chopped (use less if you do not like garlic)

½ Cup chicken, turkey or vegetable stock or water

Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large deep covered saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the bacon grease over medium heat until hot. Place the onions in the pot and sauté until they are translucent. Add in the garlic and sauté until cooked but not overly browned.

Turn the heat up to medium high and put all the salad greens into the pot, pressing down and turning to wilt the greens well. Keep turning until all the vegetables have been reduced and then sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add in the stock and bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender, which will vary depending on which vegetables you use. Remove the lid and turn the heat up a bit to reduce any excess stock, then taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Serve as a side dish at any meal.

I was extremely surprised at how well this turned out and I was proud of myself for creating a frugal alternative to the compost pile for older salads. Even salad that has turned a bit rusty tastes delicious cooked this way. The real treat was the cucumbers! I had never had cooked cucumbers and thought they would turn mushy, but they stayed rather crisper than zucchini would have. The tomatoes did dissolve into the bacon grease and gave fullness to the stock, creating a heavenly dressing. All that was needed was a bit of salt and pepper to complete the dish.

So, in the future, when looking at a wilted salad and the thought of throwing it out crosses your mind, make it hot baby!

This article is a part of the Hearth and Soul Hop-Volume 28, Frugal Foods Thursday, Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent,  Let’s Do Lunch, Just Another Meatless Monday, Tuesday Twister and Frugal Friday.