During the hot days of summer, cool salads feel just right and
news feeds buzz with recipes for salads made with grains and grain
products. The LA Times sings the praises of grain salads. Meanwhile,
the NY Times is promoting cool noodle dishes as perfect summer food.
This has all the makings of a classic East Coast/West Coast
rivalry, in this case heavyweights Russ Parsons (Team Grains) vs.
David Tanis (Team Pasta).
Parsons, the advocate for grain salads, notes the variety and
"range of new flavors and textures" you can get with by
substituting different grains like farro, quinoa, and barley.
What's more, you can make a big batch of the grain on one day and
vary the add-ins to make each salad unique. Tanis, advocating for
pasta salads, points out the many ethnicities that feature cold
noodle salads: you can easily make Italian, Japanese, Korean, and
Middle Eastern variations. Interestingly, both men think couscous
belongs on their side. Russ Parsons notes that couscous "looks like
a grain and acts like a grain," so he wants to claim it. Tanis does
not make such a statement; he quietly assumes the claim by
describing a salad made with Israeli couscous.
Of course, the only real rivalry here is between our own taste
buds for tonight's dinner; we can enjoy both types of salads all
summer long. And let's not forget another salad featuring grain: bread salad. While you chew on that, here are
a few popular grain and pasta salad recipes from the EYB
Library:
Couscous
and mograbiah with oven-dried tomatoes from Ottolenghi: The
Cookbook
Roasted broccoli and farro salad with feta from
Fine Cooking Magazine
Kale
and quinoa salad with ricotta salata from Smitten
Kitchen
Chinese noodle salad with roasted
eggplant from Orangette
Double tomato pasta salad from Tinned
Tomatoes
What is your favorite salad made with grain (or a grain
product)?
Photos of Couscous & mograbiah and Chinese noodle salad
from the EYB Library