Sprout Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette, Mint Gremolata, and Sesame Seeds

Peter’s Spring Cleanse

Watch Peter chop salad in a 1980s McDonald’s commercial

 

  • Peter’s Spring Cleanse
  • Peter’s Spring Cleanse
  • Peter’s Spring Cleanse

NOTES

We added wild growing Chickweed to this salad. This can be foraged in any clean park or woodsy area. Look it up! 

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large bowl, add the pea shoots, mung bean sprouts, lettuce, chickweed, carrot, radishes, red cabbage, and green cabbage. Toss gently to combine.

 In a separate bowl, add the vinegar, honey, oil, , soy sauce, and ginger and whisk together well. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss lightly to coat.

To make the gremolata, in a small bowl, mix together the parsley, sesame seeds, garlic, and lemon zest.

Mound the salad onto individual plates. Sprinkle with gremolata and serve.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

EASY

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SERVES

6

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PREP TIME

15 MINS

Ingredients

  • 2 
    cups 
    snow pea shoots
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    chickweed (optional)
  • 2 
    cups 
    mung bean sprouts
  • 1 
    cup 
    shredded Romaine lettuce
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    clover sprouts
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    coarsely grated carrot
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    coarsely grated red radishes
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    shredded red cabbage
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    shredded green cabbage

Dressing

  • 2 
    tbs 
    rice vinegar
  • 1 
    tbs 
    honey
  • 2 
    tbs 
    extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 
    tbs 
    naturally brewed soy sauce
  • 2 
    tsp 
    peeled and freshly grated ginger
  • 1/4 
    cup 
    finely chopped mint
  • 2 
    tbs 
    lightly toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 
    clove 
    garlic, finely chopped
  •  
     
    Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large bowl, add the pea shoots, mung bean sprouts, lettuce, chickweed, carrot, radishes, red cabbage, and green cabbage. Toss gently to combine.

 In a separate bowl, add the vinegar, honey, oil, , soy sauce, and ginger and whisk together well. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss lightly to coat.

To make the gremolata, in a small bowl, mix together the parsley, sesame seeds, garlic, and lemon zest.

Mound the salad onto individual plates. Sprinkle with gremolata and serve.

Peter Berley is a private chef and the man behind The North Fork Kitchen and Garden. I recently visited him for a day-long, marathon Matzoh-making lesson, and I was luckily invited back for his “Spring Cleanse” weekend intensive. Peter is the author of three cookbooks and the former head chef at the famed Angelica Kitchen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Angelica Kitchen was promoting organic, vegan cooking before that was en vogue, and although Peter is not a vegan himself, he teaches people how to eat a plant-based diet with a focus on fermentation and living foods. This is his passion; it is deeply reassuring to meet a man who feels so strongly about the color and texture of his bread dough.

A weekend at Peter’s guarantees a group of conscientious and curious chefs, shared meals around a rustic wooden table, the beautiful backdrop of Jamesport NY, and a whole lot of enlightenment about the food on your table.

Peter in His Own Words

Julia: You and salad have a sordid past. Tell me about your stint as a salad model for Mickey D’s?

Peter: Back in 1985, I had an opportunity to become a partner in a restaurant in Maine, but didn’t have the money to move. I saw a casting call for a chef who could cut vegetables in time to music for a television commercial. I thought, well, if anyone could do that, it would be me. So I went to the audition and found another hundred or so vying for the gig. I did not know it was for McDonald’s until I got the gig, but I figured, hey maybe McDonald’s could make up for some of the evil they were spreading by helping me get to Maine. It was a great shoot — I cut vegetables for 8 hours a day for 5 days and got paid more than enough to get me my way.

Julia: How did you become the chef at Angelica Kitchen?

Peter: I had known the Leslie, the owner, from my year driving a delivery truck for a small Brooklyn based Natural Foods Co. I used to bring Angelica Kitchen their grains, miso, beans, stuff like that. After I returned from Maine in 1990 to run the Chef’s Training Program and The Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC, I got a call from Leslie. I asked if I could come down and cook for her. It went beautifully and I stayed there until 1999.

Julia: You are a master bread baker. Spending the day with you almost convinced me that I should eat more bread. Can you tell me why contrary to popular dieting trends, your bread is actually nutritious?

Peter: Natural bread baking utilizes the microbial and enzymatic action of sourdough to leaven delicious bread that your body loves. I have never found anyone who doesn’t respond positively to my bread!

Julia: You are a natural-born teacher. Have you always assumed the role of the educator?

Peter: Yes I began teaching music when I was 15 and have been involved with sharing my experience and passion for cooking and baking since my twenties.

Julia: If you could put an end to one trend or tendency in salad making, what would it be?

Peter: Greens are meant to grow and be consumed in the spring summer. They are not available the rest of the year so cooks should become more creative.