The Little Salad Bar That Could
A funny thing happened last week on the way to my salad story. I stumbled upon a neat idea for dinner that seems to achieve the near-impossible task of pleasing all four of my family members.
The idea isn’t new. In fact, you can see it at work in thousands of restaurants across the country. Yes, I am talking about a salad bar.
What was new, at least for me, was throwing together a salad bar at home.
I had been testing recipes for my salad story, so I had a couple of cooked meats, homemade dressings and countless containers of cut vegetables crowding my fridge.
So, not really thinking that my family would like it, I declared that we were having meat salads for dinner.
Normally, I probably would have made one salad for everybody and then portioned it out. But because on this day I had such a load of ingredients, it made more sense to put everything out on the table in separate bowls.
I had cooked and thinly sliced steak and pork chops, creamy blue-cheese dressing and tangy Dijon vinaigrette, cooked potatoes, grated Parmesan cheese and croutons. And then came the vegetables — carrots, onion, celery, radishes, lettuce, spinach, red pepper and avocado. I also had some orange segments.
This dinner was a big hit. To me, the highlight was all the vegetables, but the keys to success were actually the extras. I highly recommend offering cheese, a starch such as croutons or potatoes, and fruit — especially in a household with kids.
I knew this dinner was a success when my wife and daughter — both of whom are hardly the easiest eaters to please — said that they wanted to pack leftovers for lunch the next day.
I’d guess that part of the fun came from the interactivity of assembling our own meals, but I also think my family members each enjoyed picking what they wanted to eat. For a change, I wasn’t force-feeding them one entry, like it or not.
I can’t remember ever eating a regular family dinner as a child where my parents offered me choices. Maybe it’s the fragmented (and narcissistic) world we live in. But my little salad bar brought home the idea that the best meals are those that offer choice.
