Salad Brain is a creativity platform.
These exercises use the platter, rather than the typical deep salad bowl, as the canvas for creation and a means to illustrate the universal process of creative thinking and design. No matter the field, the steps of creativity are the same. Here we’re using salads because we all have some experience with salad, a low-stakes, easy medium for practicing everyday creativity. Plus, your installation eats will feed you beautifully and well, and shouldn’t we all be eating more salads anyway?
We call it PLATTERAL THINKING!
For an introduction to Salad Brain and platter salads, read Welcome to Salad Brain Creativity
INGREDIENTS:
Golden beets, cooked and doused with vinegar and sugar, let sit for a while if you can
Cooked Forkhook limas, get a frozen bag and follow the package directions, cook until just tender, drain and cool.
Watercress
Baby red romaine leaves
Red onion, cut into thin slivers
Watermelon Radish rounds
Fennel, thinly shaved
Whole mustard vinaigrette
PLATTERAL THINKING:
The big idea here was to combine limas with golden beets. The gold and the light green and nicely muted and share the same intensity. I’m a sucker for watercress as it adds spicy crunch. Just happened to have a watermelon radish, that was just a happy coincidence. Love the dark hue of the baby red romaine, I had originally thought to use some radicchio. Red onion extends that same color. Shaved fennel adds the pop of white. Creamy, crunchy, tangy. I made the dressing and let the beans sit in it before assembling the salad. The golden beets are the biggest shape in the salad. Too much of the same size can be a bore.
WHAT IF?
What other beans would you use? Big creamy cannellini, rustic speckled butter beans? This current version is wintery. What would you change in the spring or summer? I want to try purple beets with big speckled butter beans.
