This recipe comes from my Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays cookbook and I serve it often. It is a great salad for a buffet or when you are looking for something unusual to complete a meal. Whenever I bring it to a pot luck, everyone wants to know who made it. I assume that is because they liked it so much.

Oftentimes my best recipes get buried in my files and forgotten. This is just such a recipe. I pulled it out to teach to my Foster City Village senior class and when my assistants and I tasted it, we were blown away with how good it is. When the class finally got around to making it, they wrote me glowing reports.

For over a year now, I thought I’d never want to look at another kale salad. I definitely had OD’d on kale. But then I came across this shredded Lacinato kale salad with shedded raw Brussels sprouts, apples and Parmesan cheese and thought it was worth a try. I’m so glad I did, because it is unlike any other kale salad I’ve ever tasted. It’s definitely intense—-bursting with flavor and textures. Kale Caesar, step aside.

Oftentimes great dishes are created with what you have in your fridge. That means, of course, that this one is adaptable to whatever greens and berries you may find in yours. I used champagne vinegar because I it is slightly less acidic than wine vinegar, but wine vinegar will work well, too. Just taste and adapt the vinegar and oil until you get a nice balance.

When I read a recipe in a magazine that includes ingredients I’m not familiar with, I am hesitant to make it. I am not sure I want to invest in an ingredient I might never use again. But since I am not a magazine and I hope you have more faith in me than any magazine, I am passing this terrific recipe on to you. It comes from Food & Wine and includes 2 ingredients you probably don’t have on hand, gochujang and gochugaru. I didn’t even use the gochugaru, or its substitutes, red pepper flakes or red chili sauce, because I found the recipe just spicy enough with just the gochujang.

“Interesting is the kiss of death for a movie,” my friend Danny Kaye said as we walked out of a movie premier years ago. Interesting is what people say when they don’t want to tell you everything wrong with the movie.

I thought of his words as I ate this salad and found myself thinking how interesting the flavors and textures were. What goes for movies doesn’t necessarily translate to other genres. After all, synonyms for interesting are alluring, fascinating, and compelling. This salad with it’s teriyaki chicken, grilled pineapple, tomato salsa, honey mustard-coated greens and crushed tortilla chips, fits each of those descriptions.

This isn’t a salad, but I’ve added it here because before serving, I like to toss in some spinach or arugula and let it wilt slightly. Then toss everything with a simple vinaigrette made with lemon juice and olive oil. Add some more greens and think about it as a main meal salad.

Let's get one thing out of the way. This is NOT another Kale Caesar. It has some similarities, but this salad is so much more exciting. One bite and you'll understand why I call it baby kale's newest BFF.

Melon wrapped in prosciutto has been around for centuries. In Medieval times melon was considered such a highly dangerous fruit due its cold and juicy nature that cooks would counterbalance it by wrapping it in something dry and warm. I’ve gussied up my version to make it au courant.

Before peaches and plums disappear this summer, make this delicious salad that promises to make your taste buds sing.

Crunchy crimson cabbage, crispy, smokey bacon and tangy goat cheese made such an impression that decades later upon seeing a red cabbage, I knew I had to recreate it.

Truly, you can make delightfully crunchy pickles in 15 minutes and they will keep for weeks when submerged in the brine.

A truly unique, mouthwatering and taste tingling salad that makes you wonder, what am I tasting?

Smear salad plates with tahini dressing, top with thinly shaved raw beets, carrots, radishes and leafy greens and enjoy a unique, fresh, crisp and colorful salad. Of course you'll scrape your plate clean.

This salad is delish, but it's the tahini vinaigrette that is amazing. It is so good that it makes a great dip for veggies, too. This dressing will change the way you think about salads. Guaranteed. 

When I served it at a dinner party recently, not a leaf of arugula was left on a plate. It looks great  arranged on individual plates or on a large platter for a buffet.

Toasting cumin seeds in a skillet and then blending them into a smokey vinaigrette makes an unforgettable dressing. Corn, apples, tomatoes and avocados add flavor. Tortilla chips and pepitas add crunch. 

It takes very few ingredients to create an heirloom tomato salad worthy of applause.. This one has a touch of balsamic and olive oil, a couple of fresh herbs and crumbles of cheese to  enhance the tomatoes' sublime sweetness.  

In the winter, fennel is one of my favorite veggies to use in salads. With its licorice flavor, it blends beautifully with oranges, especially navels that are also a cold weather favorite.

These are no ordinary carrots. Cooking them in honey and then seasoning with cumin makes them so flavorful that they become a conversation piece. Everyone tries to guess the ingredients. 

Next time you need to bring a dish for a luncheon or dinner or are looking for an easy-to-prepare dish to complete any meal, make this delicious toasted couscous salad. Like the basic black dress, it is so versatile it fits in anywhere. I call it my go-to salad and once you make it, I know it will become yours, too. 

This salad has it all--healthful ingredients, nutty farro, crunchy pine nuts and a light, refreshing pesto. You can watch me making this by going to Videos on my website.