Seasonal Salad with Cottage Cheese and Plum Vinaigrette

I love this time of year! In late summer, there is so much produce available in my garden and the farmer’s market, the ideas for fresh dishes are endless. So far I have harvested peppers to ferment and pickle, and tomatoes for making sauce.

I am also getting ready to make a portion of pesto since my herbs have done well this year. The variety available really gets my creativity flowing.

When putting dishes together, I like to think about how to combine sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, and spicy in one bite. The perfect vehicle is a salad.

This salad has no lettuce, but simple, local, in-season ingredients that can be changed up as the year moves on. This Seasonal Produce Guide can help you find produce when it tastes the best and is the most nutritious.

Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, Umami, and Spicy

Sweet

As I was looking for which ingredients to include in the Seasons Best Salad for a sweet taste, I went to fresh peaches and plums. In the fall, I will move to apples and pears, and in the winter I will explore citrus. The combination of oranges and grapefruit satisfy the sweet and sour taste buds. If fresh fruits are hard to find, adding dried fruit to the salad is a tasty option.

Salty

Cheese is a great way to add a salty component to the dish. Hard cheeses such as gruyere, parmesan, gouda, and Romano give a much different flavor profile than blue cheeses such as gorgonzola, roquefort and stilton.

Are you wanting to add a sharp, tangy flavor to your dish? Include a blue cheese variety. On the other hand, the hard cheeses provide rich umami flavors that may even add some nutty notes. Each type of cheese will give your dish a different complexity. \

Sprinkling some flaky salt such as Maldon or Jacobsen sea salt, not only satisfies that desire for salt, but also adds a delightful crunch to your dish.

Sour

I love to pair sweet and sour together for a unique taste experience. Adding vinegar or lemon or lime juice to your vinaigrette is a good way to add a sour component to the dish. There are many vinegars to choose from, depending on whether you want a bold and bright flavor, or a mild, clean flavor.

If you are using a creamy dressing, the addition of buttermilk can also add a sour note to the dish. Adding a blue cheese to the creamy dressing may add a funky flavor you might expect from a fermented food.

Bitter

There are a number of ways to add bitter flavors to your dish. Add some cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale or radishes. Better yet, add cruciferous sprouts, which contain more nutrients than the adult plants. Bitter greens are also popular such as arugula, radicchio, endive, and dandelion greens. Remember, when it comes to bitter, a little goes a long way.

I have a memory of being at a fancy restaurant and was served a salad of arugula with a very sour vinaigrette. It was my least enjoyed salad I have ever had. I’ve thought a lot about that salad, and how easy it would have been to balance the flavors. Adding some fruit and topping it with nuts would have been enough to bring it into balance.

Umami

Umami brings a very satisfying feeling. Tomatoes add umami flavor, especially if they are sun-dried. I often roast or sauté mushrooms in bulk and add them to all kinds of dishes, including salads. I usually heat them up, rather than serving them cold.

Adding some aged cheese such as parmesan, pecorino or gouda is an easy way to add some rich umami tones. Adding soy sauce, miso paste, or fish sauce to dressings are some creative ways to add umami flavors. I also like to use my leftover meat in salads. This Marinated Steak would be a delicious addition to any salad.

Spicy

If you want to add a spicy addition to your dish, remember a little goes a long way. There are numerous chili peppers for growing at all levels of heat. I like to add them thinly sliced to add a splash of color. I also like to blend chipotle peppers in adobo sauce into a creamy dressing for some added heat. How about radishes, radish sprouts or minced ginger, each adding some spice along with other flavor profiles.

Seasonal Produce and Perfect Pairings

Whether the produce is coming out of my garden, or the farmer’s market, I love to experiment when the produce is at its best.

When I made the Seasons Best Salad the first time, peaches were easy to find, and I found a delicious recipe for peach vinaigrette. I had never matched an ingredient in a salad with a vinaigrette, but the result was very flavorful, drawing out the subtle flavors of the peaches.

When it was time to write this blog, I could no longer find peaches, so I substituted plums in their place. Still a beautiful salad, but this time I used a plum vinaigrette.

To my surprise, as I was thinking about the different fruit I could use throughout the year such as pears, apples, oranges, and grapefruit, it was easy to find a recipe for a matching vinaigrette. 

Cottage Cheese in a Salad: A Surprisingly Delicious Addition

Another wonderful ingredient I added to the Seasons Best Salad is the cottage cheese. It’s not uncommon to add feta or parmesan to a salad, but I rarely see cottage cheese as an ingredient. Not only does it add protein to the salad, but also a richness that mellows the sweet flavors from the fruit and the vinaigrette.

In the past, people have eaten cottage cheese when they wanted to lose weight, but there are many more reasons to include cottage cheese in your diet. According to UCLA Health, not only is it a good source of protein with 11 grams per ½ cup serving, but also beneficial bacteria if you purchase cottage cheese with live cultures. The fermentation process for making cottage cheese pre-digests the nutrients, making them easier to digest and absorb. Some of those nutrients include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin D, which support bone health, the respiratory system, the nervous system and the cardiovascular system.

Next time you make a salad, add a spoonful of cottage cheese and discover how delicious something nutritious can be.

Season’s Best Salad with Cottage Cheese and Plum Vinaigrette

Serves 4

For the Salad

1 ½ pounds fresh tomatoes, sliced into wedges

1 ½ pounds fresh plums, cut into wedges

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves

1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves

2 fresh peppers, heat depending on your taste

½ cup radish sprouts

2 cups cottage cheese

Zest of one lemon

Freshly ground pepper

Flaky salt to taste

Instructions:

On 4 plates, place ½ cup of cottage cheese in the center topped with lemon zest and freshly ground pepper. Arrange tomatoes and plums around the cottage cheese and top with chives, mint and basil leaves, sliced peppers, and radish sprouts. Add flaky salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Drizzle with plum vinaigrette, recipe follows.

Plum Vinaigrette

1 black, red or white plum, pit removed but skin still intact

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 small clove garlic, peeled

¼ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

½ teaspoon raw honey

¼ teaspoon sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Blend together until smooth. Adjust vinegar, honey and salt to taste.

Salad adapted from Pizza Night, by Alexandra Stafford

Vinaigrette adapted from Black Plum Vinaigrette by Hilah Johnson

More Recipe Blogs from Lisa Schumacher

Carrots with Salsa Verde and Seared Squid

Undeniably Delicious Sprout Wraps

Beautiful Bowls

Beef Tongue Tacos

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Yogurt & Savory Sesame Topping

About the Author: Lisa Schumacher is a graduate of NTI’s Certified Natural Food Chef program, a Registered Nurse and Holistic Practitioner. She is the owner of Lisa’s Vibrant Kitchen.  She is passionate about helping people learn how to nourish themselves. Whether it’s one-on-one, in a class setting, in person, or over Zoom, inspiring and teaching others how to create delicious, nutritious food is her happy place. She loves to introduce people to foods they never expected to eat. To find out more about Lisa, please send questions to Li*****************@***il.com or find her on Facebook.