“All the while the courses came and went.  A thick soup of barley and venison.  Salads of sweetgrass, spinach, and plums, sprinkled with crushed nuts.” (I: 251)  

Medieval-ish Salad

Our Thoughts:

This was a tasty, tasty salad.  All the elements of it work beautifully with one another both texturally and aesthetically.  Pack this for a lunch, or have as a light afternoon meal, and you won’t be disappointed.

Salat. Take persel, sawge, grene garlec, chibolles, letys, leek, spinoches, borage, myntes, prymos, violettes, porrettes, fenel, and toun cressis, rosemarye, purslarye; laue and waishe hem clene. Pike hem. Pluk hem small wiþ þyn honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oile; lay on vyneger and salt, and serue it forth. -Forme of Curye, 14th Century.

Cook’s Notes:  For our version of this salad, we used baby spinach, lemon grass, some mint leaves, diced plums, and candied walnuts.  We sprinkled the whole thing with raspberry vinaigrette (a personal favorite).  We then garnished with violets (high in vitamin C!), as suggested in the original recipe.

Feel free to make your version as the directions specify, or use any variation of these ingredients to come up with your own personal “salat.” Toss with vinegar, oil, and a pinch of salt, and you’re ready to serve!  The primroses and violets can be mixed in with the salad, or used as a garnish on top.

Original Ingredients:

• parsley
• sage
• green garlic
• scallions
• lettuce
• leek
• spinach
• borage
• mints
• primroses
• violets
• “porrettes” (green onions, scallions, & young leeks)
• fenneland garden cress
• rosemary
• purslane