Hippie Salads

When I was young, my parents sent me to a little art studio called Mud Pottery Studio in the Main Road, Diep River, for art classes.  They suspected (quite rightly) that we were not getting much by way of creative outlet at the quite decent “coloured” government school my brother and I were going to at the time (the mid-70’s).  It was here, I think, that I was exposed to a bit of the hippie culture of the time… art teachers with shawls and long petticoat skirts and loose Indian florals and those leather sandals and lots of stuff with mushrooms and brown rice.  I was bewitched!

In my constant quest to find new and arresting flavours for salads and accompaniments at The Kitchen, I pulled out an old hippie classic, The Moosewood Cookbook  http://www.molliekatzen.com/ sister to another favourite, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.  Mollie Katzen, was a pioneer of healthy, green and sustainable cooking at the time and the fact that I find her recipes so amazingly contemporary and enduring, is testament to her passion and their honesty.  And there is a treasure trove of them.  Some are a tad too healthy and granola-y/mung bean sprouty for me but I have selected a few (with our spin on them, of course) for The Kitchen and they are delicious!  Today, we want to trim down the number of ingredients.  We are looking to show off the integrity of each vegetable.  We want to cut our vegetables a bit chunkier.  And as always, we are looking for clean, interesting flavours.

Mollie’s books are all beautiful “hand lettered” quirkily illustrated works.  They are classics.  And an indulgent celebration of vegetables! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVykGrT0-c

We make her Indonesian Rice Salad with Brown, Fragrant and Black Rice (for interest and colour). The salad involves tossing the warm rice in the cold dressing so that it takes on all the delicious flavours (a good tip).  And we make her Thai Salad with a nice peanut dressing.  Her Lentil Bulgar (tabbouleh – like) Salad is another goodie. So fresh.

Photo:  http://kellyberoldphoto.blogspot.com/