In honor of BridgetownBites Salad Week and the fact that my porch thermometer reported 100F today (it's still 88F at 7pm), I thought I'd make two salads for dinner, neither requiring any heating at all, just cutting, washing, and marinating. Each also requires one obscure ingredient, but hopefully you can still make use of them for your own heat wave days.

When we have a heat wave like this, I don't want to turn on the stove, and I also don't want to go outside to the grill. So I look for dishes I can prepare which require no heat. Salads top the list, of course, and I could just do a green salad. But in the middle of summer, I can be more creative. Also, the heat wave already killed my lettuce.

I also wanted to take advantage of some produce I had. First, we'd recently been to Walla Walla and brought back a bag of their famous sweet onions (it's the season). Second, Nathan the Watermelon Man started deliveries this week, so I had a delicious Hermiston watermelon. This led to a Persian onion and barberry salad, and a Greek watermelon salad.

Persian Onion Salad

This onion salad comes to us from Naomi Duguid's Persia, with my usual tweaks, of course. It's a very traditional Persian salad, usually served to accompany grilled meats, but delicious on its own if made with sweet onions like the Walla Wallas. I don't recommend making it with regular brown onions except as a topping for meat; without real sweet onions, it would be too sharp to eat by itself.

The obscure ingredient here is dried barberries. These are a staple of Persian cuisine but only found in good Middle Eastern markets here in the US. Fortunately, I live near one. They are quite tart, so if you can't get them, try unsweetened dried cranberries, chopped. The recipe also requires the spice ground sumac, but most major supermarkets carry that these days.

The onion requires a bit of sitting, so start this recipe early.

• Two large Walla Walla, Maui, or Vidalia sweet onions, about 2lbs
• 1 Tbs or more kosher salt
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup dried barberries
• 1 tsp dried mint, or about 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 1 tsp ground sumac
• 2 tsp sherry, champagne, or cider vinegar

Halve, peel, and thinly slide both onions. Layer them in a colander with a sprinkle of kosher salt over each of 4-5 layers of sliced onions. Let sit in the sink for around 1/2 hour. Soak the barberries in 1 cup cold water for the same period of time.

Drain the barberries. Put the sliced onion in a large bowl, fill it with cold water, mix it around, and drain. Then put the onions back in the bowl, fill it with cold water again, and let sit for another 15-20 minutes. This should remove most of the salt and any sharpness from the onion. Then drain the onions, maybe even drying them on a towel.

Toss the onions, barberries, mint, and sumac together. Drizzle over the vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes, then serve.

Greek Watermelon Salad

This type of salad will be more familiar to many readers. I got it from Diane Kochilas Meze years ago when it was less familiar to Americans, and have made it ever since. It's a very tasty salad, and a great way to use up leftover watermelon. Do use quality watermelon, though; if yours is bland or too watery the salad will be meh.

Kochilas' recipe includes a traditional, and hard to find, ingredient that most American recipes leave out: barley rusks. These add a strong, earthy flavor to balance the salad, and absorb the excess watermelon juice. The salad really isn't the same without them, so they're worth mail-ordering.

• Around 3lbs peeled and cubed watermelon
• 2 oz barley rusks
• 1/4 of a large (or 1/2 of a small) red onion, peeled and minced, around 1/2 cup.
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 8-12 oz mild, creamy feta cheese, cubed or crushed
• black pepper
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar

Crush the barley rusks, breaking each rusk into 4-6 pieces. Put these in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Cover them with the watermelon cubes, and then pile the feta, mint, and onion on top. Sprikle with black pepper, and drizzle the vinegar over.

Leave the salad 10-15 minutes for the watermelon juices to soak into the rusks. Then toss thoroughly. Some of the feta will break up during tossing, which is desireable. Serve.

I hope both of these recipes give you some options for dining during a heat wave, too. Have a good Salad Week!

Now that the raspberries are coming in, we need something to do with the excess -- particularly the ones that are a bit squished and won't keep in the fridge. One way to use those up is a fresh raspberry salad dressing (also works fine with thawed frozen raspberries).

We got this recipe 20 years ago from a retirement home chef who was doing cooking demos at the Sonoma-Marin County Fair (now, that's a retirement home I'd like). It's a wonderful alternative to lettuce salads, while still relying mostly on cheaper produce. The combination of super-crunchy veggies with the tart raspberry dressing makes it a great side for any kind of grilled or roasted meat or fish.

The one tricky thing is finding a small enough napa cabbage; most of the ones sold here on the West Coast are big enough for three salads! Aside from the cabbage, you'll want some other crunchy salad veggies, sliced thin. Optinonally, you can also include croutons.

napa cabbage salad

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves roasted/toasted garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbs red wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup mashed raspberries
• 1 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbs minced fresh)

Salad:

• 1 small napa cabbage, around 1 lbs
• Fresh ground pepper
• Optional extra ingredients, any of:
  • 3/4 cup croutons
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced, around 2/3 cup
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced, around 1/2 cup
  • 1 bell pepper, sliced
  • Other crunchy veggies, such as radishes, celery, etc.

Equipment: large salad bowl, salad spinner, measuring cup, immersion blender

To make the dressing, first thaw the raspberries if frozen. Toast the garlic cloves (see below). Put all of the dressing ingredients together in the measuring cup, and then puree them with the immersion blender (you can use a regular blender instead if that's what you have). Set aside.

Separate the leaves of the cabbage. Slice any large leaves in half or thirds lengthwise. Slice them crosswise, 1/4" to 1/3" wide (around 1cm). Wash and dry. Put the napa cabbage in the salad bowl, together with any of the optional ingredients you're using.

Toss with the dressing and ground pepper to your taste. Serve within 1 hour of making it (after that, it gets soggy).

Toasting garlic cloves: if you don't have already-roasted garlic on hand, drop a few skin-on cloves of garlic in a small, dry, hot pan on the stove. Toast them on one side for a minute or two -- until the skin scortches -- and then flip them and toast on the other side. Then peel and use.

Substitutions: might work with iceberg lettuce. Would not really work with other varieties of cabbage; their taste is too strong. Could work with other berries, like marionberries, although most would need to be seeded.

I love tabouleh, which can be a bit of a problem around our house. Not that my sweetie hates it; it's just that she likes tabouleh as a bulgur & tomato salad with parsley, and I prefer it as a parsley salad with tomatoes and bulgur. So, there's a bit of compromise. Mostly by me.

Some of those compromises led to me thinking about making tabouleh into a whole meal, instead of just a meze. So I started adding stuff to it, making tabouleh a "main dish", that could be a lunch on its own. The end result was something that isn't really tabouleh anymore, it's some kind of bulgur salad, but we like to call it "tabouleh plus plus".

The recipe below is less a set of instructions and more an assembly kit. You can add or subtract many things from this tabouleh++, so it's more a matter of needing a few things from each group instead of needing them all.

As always, a quick note on bulgur: this recipe requires fine bulgur, sometimes labeled "#1" for the grain size. These grains are around the size of large-crystal sugar or kosher salt. It's the same bulgur sold in overpriced instant tabouleh boxes. Larger grains, or cracked wheat (which sometimes gets mislabeled as bulgur) will not work. Small-grain "instant" couscous probably would.

tabouleh++

Required Ingredients:

• 2 cups fine bulgur (#1)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 to 1.5 lbs tomatoes, diced small
• OR: 1 to 1.5 lbs cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 medium bunch parsley, chopped, around 1.5 cups
• juice of 1-2 lemons, about 1/4 cup
• 3-5 Tbs good olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste

One or two proteins, such as:

• 1 drained can of chickpeas
• 1 drained can of green or black lentils
• 5-9 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 5-9 oz other Middle Eastern cheese, such as kasseri or Village Cheese, diced small
• 4-6 boiled eggs, diced small

Two to three vegetables and aromatics, such as:

• one medium red onion, diced small, around 1 cup
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped, around 1 cup
• 1-2 ripe bell peppers (or other peppers), diced small, around 1.5 cups
• 1 cup sliced smaller peppers, like banana peppers
• 1 large avocado, diced
• 1 cup pitted olives, roughly chopped
• 1 to 1.5 cups diced cucumber
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds

Zero to two additional seasonings, such as:

• 1 bunch of mint, chopped (could even replace the parsley)
• 1 small bunch of dill and/or oregano, chopped
• 1/2 to 1 tsp Aleppo pepper
• 1-2 Tbs pomegranate molasses

First, soak the bulgur. Put it in a very large bowl (you'll need room for all of your ingredients) and pour the water over it. Cover loosely (lid, plastic wrap, whatever) and leave for 1 hour to hydrate. Toss with a large fork (see faster method below if you're short on time).

While the bulgur is soaking, dice all your other ingredients. You can put them in one big pile, they're all going in together. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt into a dressing. If you're using both feta and olives you might want to omit the salt.

Once the bulgur is fully hydrated, put all the diced ingredients on top. Drizzle the dressing over the pile, add any optional seasonings, and toss everything together until uniformly mixed. Let sit for 10-15 minutes to blend.

Serves 4-6 as a main dish or light lunch. Keeps up to 1 week in the fridge, unless you used avocado (in which case it's about a day). Do not freeze.

Note: you can hydrate bulgur faster with hot water, at the cost of a somewhat mushy texture. Just heat the 2 cups of water to boiling, pour it over the bulgur, cover tightly, and let sit for 15 minutes.

Since it was just a few of us this last Chistmas and not the usual crowd (thanks to you-know-what), we decided it was time to make our dinner a tribute to St. Nicholas. Specifically, Saint Nicholas of Myra, the Bishop of Turkey. Which means ... Turkish cuisine!

Now, a proper Turkish feast means lots of different dishes. But I didn't want to go crazy given that there were just the four of us, and there was only so much we could eat. So I settled on a menu of two meze (small dishes), two salads, a palate-cleaning soup, manti as the main course, and a pastry pudding as dessert.

The two meze were what I jokingly called "cheese sticks and meat sticks". The "cheese sticks" are a very common Turkish appetizer known as "sigara böreği", or "cigar pastries", for reasons that should be obvious if you look at the picture. If you can locate the correct dough, called yufka, these are very easy to make. Yufka is about twice the thickness of phyllo, but doesn't dry out or tear as easily. Better, in a well-stocked Middle Eastern grocery you can find yufka cut into triangles perfect for rolling sigara in the freezer case. Grate some village cheese or kasseri, add a little yogurt and chopped mint, and roll them up, then fry.

The meat sticks were even easier, because I bought them pre-made from the butcher at Basics Market on Sandy. They were a mixture of beef & lamb, a simple kebab I didn't need to prepare myself (especially since I wasn't going to eat it). Then, the salads.

For a touch of seasonality, both salads were red and green. Red with a little green is this salad, made from rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, pomegranate seeds, feta and mint. This was excellent, and worth making again as a winter salad. But it wasn't as good as then other salad.

This one was green with a little red. The red was just hothouse cherry tomatoes, but that wasn't what made the salad great: that was the herbs. Like other near Eastern recipes, this salad treats herbs as salad greens, having handfuls of parsley, mint, basil, watercress, and dill. Now, as you can imagine in the middle of winter that made it a bit spendy, probably $20 worth of herbs there. But boy was it worth it, so that's the salad I'm going to share with you.

Herb Salad with Pomegranate Dressing

based on a recipe from Istanbul & Beyond

Salad greens

volumes below are loose packed, and very approximate. More of one herb can substitute for less of another

• 1/2 head of Romaine lettuce (full leaves, not just hearts), torn into bite-sized pieces, about 3 cups
• 1 bunch watercress leaves, about 1 cup
• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped large, about 1 to 1.5 cups
• 1 small bunch basil or Thai basil, leaves stripped and very roughly chopped, about 1 cup
• 1 small bunch dill, roughly chopped, about 1/2 cup
• 1 bunch mint, leaves stripped, around 1 cup
• Leaves from several twigs of oregano, about 1/2 cup
• 1 basket cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbs pomegranate molasses
• 1-2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt

Put the greens in a very large bowl and toss them until completely mixed. Add the tomatoes on top.

Whisk the dressing together, and taste it for tartness. It should be pleasantly tart; if not, add the extra tablespoon of lemon juice. Drizzle it onto the greens. Toss again, and serve within 1/2 hour of tossing.

Enough for six people as a first course.

There is a brief window in the middle of the summer, when the snap peas are producing their last pods before they dry up, and the early tomatoes and corn start to come in. It's during that week or two that you must -- simply must -- make this salad. Here in Portland, that window is now, so don't wait on it.

The salad is a variation on a caprese salad that was the single good recipe we got out of a vegetarian magazine subscription a relative gifted us. While most of the other recipes were brown-things-for-health, this one was delightful and we've been making it every summer since.

I mean what I said about only doing this during the right couple of weeks in summer; the salad will not work with winter tomatoes, starchy corn, or frozen snap peas. Ideally, make it out of your own garden.

snap pea, tomato, and corn salad

• two ears sweet corn
• 1 lbs ripe cherry tomatoes, or small salad tomatoes
• 1/2 lbs snap peas (around 1 1/2 cups)
• 8-12 basil leaves
• 6 oz fresh, water-packed mozzarella, such as bocconcini
• 2-3 tsp high-quality, "fruity" olive oil
• 1 to 1.5 tsp balsamic vinegar
• fresh ground pepper
• a few pinches of salt

Strip and blanch the corn, either by steaming or in the microwave. When it cools, cut the kernels off the cob and break them up in a medium salad bowl.

If using cherry tomatoes, cut them in half. If using salad tomatoes, dice them into large (1/2") dice. Remove stems and strings (if any) from the snap peas, and cut them in half. Mince or chiffonade the basil. Cut the mozarrella into 1/2" or smaller pieces.

Toss all this together with the corn in the bowl. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic over the top, add several grinds of pepper and a few pinches of salt, and toss again, gently. Let sit for 15 minutes, then serve.

Serves 4 as a appetizer, and 2 as a main course (with bread). Leftovers will be OK in the fridge for a couple of days, but let them warm to room temperature before eating.

Notes: because it uses such small quantities, this salad is a good place to use fine, expensive oil and vinegar. Ideally, use real balsamic, the kind that comes in tiny costly bottles. It's also a good target for any fancy sea salt you have around. Do not use "paste" tomatoes such as Romas, because you need the acidity from sharper tomatoes. Vegan Adaptation: substitute diced avocado for the mozzarella.

To steam corn in the microwave, strip the ears and them wrap them in plastic wrap. Microwave in bursts of 30-40 seconds until they get really really hot; usually 2-3 bursts does it. Cut off the plastic and let them cool.

If, like me, you live on the West Coast (or in the Southwest), then you've been making a fair number of quesadillas and/or frozen tamales for your self-isolation menu. They help fill in on the days/nights when you just don't want to cook anymore (and they are kid-friendly).

But, let's face it, quesadillas aren't terribly nutritious. You need a side to go with them that provides lots of vitamins, but that takes no more effort than heading up a frozen tamale. Enter mexi-cal slaw, an quick and less spicy version of the curtido that accompanies every pupusa order you get from a Salvadorian food cart.

speedy mexi-cal slaw

• 1 lbs pre-shredded cole slaw mix, about 5 cups
• 2-3 Tbs juice from one lime
• 1-2 Tbs apple cider vinegar, enough to round out the lime juice to 1/4 cup total
• 3 Tbs neutral vegetable oil, such as corn or canola
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 to 1 tsp ground chili peppers, such as Ancho or Poblano, or substitute chili powder mix (salt free)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Put the slaw mix in a large, non-reactive bowl (ceramic, glass, or steel). Put the lime juice, cider vinegar, oil, cumin, chili pepper. and salt in a measuring cup or small bowl. Whisk together, then pour over the slaw mix. Toss the slaw mix until uniformly coated.

Let sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes, or until your quesadillas are all made. Serve on the side.

Makes 4-6 servings. Keeps for 3-5 days in the fridge, although it's best the day you make it.

If you don't have, or want to buy, premade slaw mix, the following is an even better mix to make your own:

• 4 cups shredded/thin sliced green cabbage, from 1/4 to 1/3 head of cabbage
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin slivers
• 1 large carrot, grated (around 3/4 cup)
• 1/2 large red onion, sliced thin and layers separated, around 3/4 cup

The important part here is to slice everything very thin, like 2-3mm, so that it marinates quickly.

Here's another one for all y'all who were stockpiling kale for the crisis. Long Meadow Ranch in Napa Valley used to serve this salad, and I liked it so much that I reverse-engineered it. The result has been delightful, and I've made it several times. It makes an excellent first course or side dish for roast meat, fish, or even pasta.

This deceptively simple salad nevertheless has a lot of flavor. Like other recipes with only a handful of ingredients, though, you don't want to substitute anything. This is part of my "good first recipe" series for anyone trapped at home and learning emergency cooking skills, so I've made the instructions very explicit.

The recipe requires a technique that might be new to a bunch of you, which is making "parmesan cheese crispies". If you can buy parmesan cheese crisps, which you increasingly can in the "keto" sections of upscale markets, you can skip that step, and this becomes a super-easy recipe. This video kind of shows the technique, except that he doesn't let his cook long enough.

Most of the effort is prepping and washing the kale, which you have to buy whole so that you can remove the stems.

kale and cheese crispy salad

• 2-3 oz parmigiano cheese, grated fine (or substitute 2 oz store-bought parmesan cheese crisps)
• 1-2 bunches Tuscan kale, 3/4 to 1lbs
• High quality olive oil, up to 4 tsp
• 2 tbs juice from 1 lemon (fresh)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground hot pepper (pequin)
• pinch of salt
• equipment: salad spinner, large salad bowl, large, good condition, nonstick pan

First, remove the stems from the kale leaves completely. This will be fairly tedious; see if you can get a family member to do it. Rip it into roughly 2" squares, then wash it and dry it completely, first in a spinner and then finishign with a towel. It needs to be really dry.

If you couldn't buy crispies, make one. Get the large nonstick pan and sprinkle the shredded cheese over the bottom, forming an even, thin sheet. Place the pan on the burner and heat it over low-medium. In 3-7 minutes, the cheese will start to bubble and melt. If there's hot spots, move it around on the burner. After another 3-5 minutes, the cheese will turn a darker brown and seem to "dry out"; at this point, it's done and you should take the pan off the heat.

Allow it to cool for 5 minute or so, and peel up the crispy. If you have difficulty getting it to peel up, wait for it to cool more. Place it on a plate or rack to cool.

Put the pan back on the heat and turn it up to medium-high. The pan should be oily with the oil from the cheese; if it's not, then add 1tsp of olive oil. Now "stir fry" the kale in the pan, constantly flipping and stirring it, for about 1 minute, just until it starts to darken slightly and some of the edges get seared. You do not want the kale to wilt. If your pan is on the smaller side, you'll need to do two batches.

Dump the kale in the salad bowl. Drizzle with another 2-3 tsp of olive oil, the lemon juice, hot pepper, and a pinch of salt (two or three pinches if your cheese isn't very salty). Break up the cheese crispy into 2" pieces and put it in. Toss the salad vigorously until all leaves are coated. Serve. Do not allow this salad to sit for more than about 20 minutes, or it will wilt and not be nearly as nice.

Ingredient Notes:

Cheese: you need Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, or a really good American aged parmesan for this. Also, pre-grated or shredded won't work because of the starch they put in it to keep it from sticking. Dry jack might work, but pecorino romano and asiago won't.

Kale: this is also known as lacinato kale, Tuscan cabbage, dino kale, or cavalo nero. Do not substitute other kinds of kale.)

Hot Pepper: dried pequin peppers you crush yourself are the ideal flavoring for this. Substitute ground cayenne, since most people don't have those. If you're very sensitive to spicy food, use fresh-ground black pepper instead.

If you have a garden, there's a couple of weeks in July when the snap peas are still fruiting, the basil is tall and the tomatoes have started to ripen. Add that to good corn available at the store, and you have the makings of the most summery of summer salads.

We got this recipe years ago from a vegetarian magazine which is long out of print, so it's about time to share it with the internet. This salad is entirely dependent on the quality and freshness of its ingredients, so don't even try to make it off-season.

High Summer Salad

• 4 ears of corn
• 1 large basket of cherry tomatoes, about 2 cups
• 3/4 cup of loosely packed basil leaves
• 2 cups of freshly picked snap peas
• 8oz of mozzarella bocconcini
• About 2 Tbs premium virgin olive oil
• About 2 tsp real aged balsamic
• Large-grain salt and ground black pepper

Steam, boil, or grill the corn, then allow to cool. Cut all the kernels off the cobs and break them up into individual kernels with your fingers.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Leave any small basil leaves whole, but chiffonade (sliver) the large ones. Stem the snap peas, and cut any larger ones in half. Cut or tear the bocconcini in half or thirds.

Toss all the ingredients together in a large salad bowl. Let sit for 10-15 minutes for flavors to blend, then serve. Works as a meal salad for 4 people with a side dish, or as an appetizer for 6.

Substitutions: if you don't have garden-fresh snap peas, buy store ones and steam or blanch them briefly. Fake balsamic (most of what you find in the store) is OK with this, it just won't taste as good. If you can't get bocconcini, any fresh mozzarella that comes in a ball will be fine, just cut it into 1/2" cubes.