Polish-Style Romaine Salad

Ninka recently caught some strange stomach bug and has had no appetite at all these past few days. She is not much of an eater anyway (though of course she sometimes is), but I really cannot remember her ever being this reluctant to eat. Still, I hope everything is getting back to normal. Today she asked for a salad, her favourite one with garlic toasts. Very spring-like, light yet filling. I will tell you how to make it (dead easy, as usual on Prymitywna), but I also promised Ninka she could write something of her own. So I am including a word from my little daughter too. Perhaps one day she will start cooking and writing about it as well?

A word from Ninka will go here once she writes it 🙂 She has not written it yet, although she promised she would. If nothing appears, it means “I couldn’t be bothered”, or “I didn’t know what to write”, or some other flimsy excuse. Still, I hope she will write something. I’m waiting 🙂 

I warmly recommend salads like this.

PRO TIP: how to store Parmesan?

In Poland, you probably mostly buy Parmesan wrapped in horrible plastic. Do not keep the cheese in it after opening, because it may start to grow mould, and as we know, Parmesan is not a mould-ripened cheese 🙂 I found a tip somewhere online, and it works: keep it in the fridge wrapped in kitchen paper. Then it does not go mouldy; at most, it dries out. So after a while it will simply be harder, which does not particularly affect its suitability for eating (unless it is rock-hard) and only slightly affects the flavour.

Recipe details:

Preparation time: about 15 minutes (including the garlic toasts)

Serves: one (multiply the ingredients if you want more)

Calories: don’t think about the toasts and you’ll stay within your limit

Ingredients for romaine lettuce salad:

• 3 generous romaine lettuce leaves (washed and dried so the leaves retain their crispness)
• 10 sweet little tomatoes (yellow and red—ideally cherry or strawberry tomatoes)
• 5 cm of fresh cucumber
• 3 radishes
• freshly grated Parmesan (about 5 – 7 decagrams)
• garlic toasts (from the garlic bread fingers recipe here)
• 2 pinches of salt
• 2 pinches of freshly ground black pepper
• half a teaspoon of Italian herbs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Recipe for a spring salad with garlic toasts:

I cut the lettuce into strips, halved the tomatoes and diced the radishes and cucumber. I put the prepared vegetables into a deep plate. I added the seasonings and freshly grated Parmesan. I drizzled over olive oil (it must be first-press oil) and gently tossed with spoons.

I placed the garlic toasts, prepared at the same time, on top of the salad so they would still be warm when served. And that is all there is to it. Polish-style romaine salad for spring was ready. Enjoy 🙂

.