Scotch Salad

photo courtesy of la maison du whisky

"Only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes," sings country troubadour Guy Clark. I'm inclined to agree with Guy (about most things he voices, actually) , though at the moment our tomatoes are just spindly starts and I'm singing the praises of one other thing that money can't buy: home grown salad greens.

Unlike the notoriously dreadful store bought tomato, store bought salad greens (especially the overpriced baby greens that I buy) are edible. However, the texture of homegrown greens is noticeably different: crispier, more delicate. Homegrown lettuce has thin, silky ruffles and homegrown spinach evades the leathery texture that mars, say, Popeye's Spinach Salad Mix. This year I'm growing butter lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, and rocket (which sounds infinitely cooler than arugula, does it not?). Having a pleasing array of fresh salad greens on hand is definitely an incentive to eat salad.

Not the gardening type? More of a cigar smoking libertine? Find salad totally boring even when it's crafted of the most meticulously harvested locally grown microgreens? This post is crafted with you in mind, too.

Yesterday I discovered that lettuce is better with single malt scotch. Don't ask me why I happened to discover this. But no, I wasn't just going around indiscriminately pouring scotch on things and then sticking them in my mouth.


Scotch Salad Dressing

You will need:
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of granulated garlic
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of warm water
1/2 teaspoon of honey
1 teaspoon of scotch (I used Abelour)
4 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil

Mix soy sauce, granulated garlic, and balsalmic.
Add honey.
Add warm water and scotch.
Stir.
Add olive oil.
Close jar and shake.
Cool before applying to salad.