Recipe: Salad of the Americas
I first started thinking about eating locally back in 1994. I was assisting a reporter who was working on a story about Joan Nathan's then-new book, Jewish Cooking in America. As part of the interview Nathan cooked a couple of dishes from the book, one of which was chicken and olives in a vinegar sauce. It was fabulous. As we were getting ready to taste it she said, "You know, I've made this so many times and this is the first time I've noticed that this is truly an Old World dish. There are no tomatoes, no peppers, no potatoes."
I was blown away by that statement - and very glad that I was just an assistant so I could tune out the interview and think about it more. What she meant was that it was a dish that could have been made in Europe before 1492. In that chicken dish, there were no plant species that were native only to the Americas.
It was 1997 when I picked up that train of thought again. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He makes a long and complex argument in it, but the one that really struck me was about food. The strength of native bean-grain combinations, he writes, is one of several things that dictate the strength of technological development of a culture. Think of the Chinese dynasties supported by the nutritional powerhouse of rice and soy, the Europeans fed by the wheat and lentils of the Fertile Crescent. The corn and beans of the Americas aren't nearly so nutritious, Diamond writes, so the Native Americans had to work harder to produce the same amount of nutrition. It didn't didn't leave them as much time or energy to develop technologically.
Again, I'm drastically reducing this one point in a complex book - but it really got me thinking about my food. Where did these plants first grow? I asked myself when I went to the grocery store. The apples from upstate New York probably came from trees that first grew in Central Europe. I thought about the Europeans living in Virginia valuing the exotic pineapples from South America so much they carved them into their furniture. At the farmers market, I was seduced into making a yellow-on-yellow salad of fresh corn cut off the cob and sungold tomatoes. When I realized that they were both native to the Americas I wanted to take it even further. Each time I made the salad I added more American species - black beans, peppers, pine nuts, quinoa.
Here's my Salad of the Americas. We're just getting to its season, the high summer, and it's good until early fall.
Dressing:
1 clove garlic
lime juice of 2.5 limes
tiny bit sugar, honey or agave syrup
salt and pepper
olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
Salad (pick any combination you like):
1 cup quinoa
1 can black beans
3 ears corn, kernels cut off
2 bell peppers, medium diced (about the size of the corn kernels)
sungold cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
1. Cook the quinoa: put 2 cups of water in a saucepan with a lid over high heat. Put the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and rinse very well. (There's a bitter coating you have to wash off.) When the water boils put the quinoa in with a little bit of salt. Turn it down to a simmer for 15 minutes. When it's done the grain will be a little translucent with a visible opaque sprout. Fluff with a fork to let the steam out. Spread out in a big bowl to let it cool a little. Add black beans.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a little glass jar or whisk in a bowl. Put most of the dressing on the quinoa and beans while they are warm. Stick the bowl in the fridge or the freezer while you prep the rest of the vegetables and toast the nuts.
3. Put everything together and toss. Adjust - I often add that leftover half of a lime juice or more olive oil.
I was blown away by that statement - and very glad that I was just an assistant so I could tune out the interview and think about it more. What she meant was that it was a dish that could have been made in Europe before 1492. In that chicken dish, there were no plant species that were native only to the Americas.
It was 1997 when I picked up that train of thought again. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He makes a long and complex argument in it, but the one that really struck me was about food. The strength of native bean-grain combinations, he writes, is one of several things that dictate the strength of technological development of a culture. Think of the Chinese dynasties supported by the nutritional powerhouse of rice and soy, the Europeans fed by the wheat and lentils of the Fertile Crescent. The corn and beans of the Americas aren't nearly so nutritious, Diamond writes, so the Native Americans had to work harder to produce the same amount of nutrition. It didn't didn't leave them as much time or energy to develop technologically.
Again, I'm drastically reducing this one point in a complex book - but it really got me thinking about my food. Where did these plants first grow? I asked myself when I went to the grocery store. The apples from upstate New York probably came from trees that first grew in Central Europe. I thought about the Europeans living in Virginia valuing the exotic pineapples from South America so much they carved them into their furniture. At the farmers market, I was seduced into making a yellow-on-yellow salad of fresh corn cut off the cob and sungold tomatoes. When I realized that they were both native to the Americas I wanted to take it even further. Each time I made the salad I added more American species - black beans, peppers, pine nuts, quinoa.
Here's my Salad of the Americas. We're just getting to its season, the high summer, and it's good until early fall.
Dressing:
1 clove garlic
lime juice of 2.5 limes
tiny bit sugar, honey or agave syrup
salt and pepper
olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
Salad (pick any combination you like):
1 cup quinoa
1 can black beans
3 ears corn, kernels cut off
2 bell peppers, medium diced (about the size of the corn kernels)
sungold cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
1. Cook the quinoa: put 2 cups of water in a saucepan with a lid over high heat. Put the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and rinse very well. (There's a bitter coating you have to wash off.) When the water boils put the quinoa in with a little bit of salt. Turn it down to a simmer for 15 minutes. When it's done the grain will be a little translucent with a visible opaque sprout. Fluff with a fork to let the steam out. Spread out in a big bowl to let it cool a little. Add black beans.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a little glass jar or whisk in a bowl. Put most of the dressing on the quinoa and beans while they are warm. Stick the bowl in the fridge or the freezer while you prep the rest of the vegetables and toast the nuts.
3. Put everything together and toss. Adjust - I often add that leftover half of a lime juice or more olive oil.