Ham and Cream Cheese Salad

For some reason people believe that every salad ingredient has to be chopped small. Most also think a salad should be drenched in mayonnaise. Yet a salad with ham and cheese, herbs, tomatoes and green salad leaves can taste much better even without the ever-present mayonnaise.

A salad is most often a cold or warm appetizer made from a mix of different foods: salad greens, vegetables, herbs, fruit, mushrooms, legumes and so on.

The dressing largely defines how a salad tastes and brings out its main ingredients. I won’t say that mayonnaise ruins a salad. It’s just that in most salads, using mayonnaise is more a nod to tradition and a lack of imagination. Green salad leaves and fresh vegetables taste far better with an olive oil dressing and a bit of natural acid: lemon, other citrus juice, wine vinegar. And think how good summer vegetable salads are with homemade sour cream, even a simple cucumber and tomato salad!!!

I read somewhere that salads in Ancient Rome were made of simple things: chicory, herbs, onion, garlic. Once I tried mixing cilantro, garlic, onion and a little endive, and dressed it with olive oil and lemon. That mix, wrapped in thin lavash, made an excellent snack. Lavash snack with herbs is now something I make at every opportunity.

It’s often unclear why salad ingredients need to be chopped so small. When you use salad leaves, which are rarely cut fine, there’s no reason to dice everything else like for Olivier salad. A salad with coarsely cut ingredients only gains, just like a meat salad.

As an appetizer, a salad is usually eaten before the main course, often with a glass of something strong. It’s said to whet the appetite. The days when appetizers were light and served in small amounts are gone. In fact, the line between an appetizer and a main dish disappeared long ago. Hardly anyone nibbles Astrakhan herring or salted saffron milk caps anymore. Eastern appetizers, served in small portions but in great variety, puzzle many people. Italian antipasti, various salads and cold cuts, can stir the appetite with their looks alone.

You can make very tasty salads from vegetables and herbs with smoked meat, ham or squid salad. Ham is a ready-to-eat meat product: a salted and boiled, or lightly smoked, pork leg, shoulder or other cut. The technology is quite complex and depends heavily on the producer and on national traditions. What’s called chicken ham, turkey ham and so on is, strictly speaking, not ham. Ham is perfect for cold appetizers.

A salad with ham and cheese, herbs, salad leaves and tomatoes is an excellent appetizer. It’s tasty and healthy, whets the appetite and is a great start to a good lunch.