Salads Year-Round by Dennis Greville

With the warm weather well established, these are our salad days! In his planting guide, Dennis explores how our salad days can last the year through.

Regretfully, author of Salads Year-round, Dennis Greville – widely acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s foremost garden designers and plantsmen – passed away earlier this year. The team at Garden-NZ would like to extend our condolences to his friends and family. However, thanks to this (and his many other books) keen gardeners can continue to benefit from his extensive knowledge.

The summer section of this appealing book for cooks and gardeners (among others), holds immediate appeal. However, readers should not expect the tried and true or should I say, the old and ordinary.

Yes, there is an array of tasty, traditional salad vegetables included but readers will find a great deal more – unusual, adventurous salad ingredients to complement those more readily recognised.

For example, in the summer section you’ll find the likes of perilla, galangal and amaranth while in winter expect to learn about mibuna, misome and orach.

Beautifully illustrated the book is, as its name suggests, structured around the four seasons. Plants include herbs, some fruit and natural salad vegetables with notes about their growing requirements and a description of their particular characteristics for use in a salad. Recipes are included at the end of each season.

The author, who is also the photographer (and what fantastic images he has included) was a passionate gardener who created and tended a number of major gardens in New Zealand.

In his intro Dennis Greville tells readers it is his intention to share with them some of his original and tasty ideas that will provide enjoyment of fresh salad ingredients right through the seasons.

“I am an advocate of breaking away from the tired and all too real idea of the salad that I grew up with: a few lettuce leaves, a sliced tomato, chalky, grated cheese and, if aunty was coming to tea, maybe a boiled egg. We should learn to selectively combine salad vegetables, fruits and herbs and learn new tricks for creating delicious taste offerings in a range of dressings.”

And indeed his suggestions should result in a rush to garden centres or ‘aprons on and whisks to the fore’ especially when mouthwatering recipes include persimmon and orange salad, bocconcini with basil and tomato or fig feta and olives.

Useful in the garden or the kitchen, if Salads Year-Round sounds like you, I suggest taking the author’s advice which is – “get out your salad bowls, this time with a feisty new attitude!”

Salads Year-Round
By Dennis Greville
Published by New Holland
Available in all good bookstores
RRP $29.99