One of my (Kate) favorite things to buy for lunch is the Mediterranean Salad at Salt Lake City’s Oasis Café . When I need to entertain a visiting scholar for lunch, I almost always bring them there because I want to give them something that is not only tasty, but also leaves them feeling well. The Oasis Cafe has many delicious dishes, but I love this salad particularly well, and I knew we had to recreate it at home.
You get to decide how simple or complicated to make the preparation. You could buy roasted-garlic dressing, pre-washed lettuce, and frozen roasted potatoes that you only need to heat and add to the salad. Serve the onion slices raw (soak them in water for twenty minutes to tone them down), add the peppers, feta, hummus, and olives, and the recipe will be an experience of assembling rather than cooking. On the other hand, you can make your own dressing (recipe below), roast whole potatoes and an onion yourself, and make your own hummus, none of which is difficult and all of which might invite you into a more meditative state. Whichever path you choose, you’ll find these ingredients make a delectable combination.
Preparing to roast the vegetables at our family cabin.
Salad with Roasted Potatoes and Hummus
1 head lettuce (romaine if you’re in the mood for crisp)
1 package plain hummus (or homemade—see recipe here)
Several banana peppers or pepperoncini
1 red onion
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes or 3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, halved if small or sliced into 1-inch chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
2 ounces Feta, crumbled
10 olives
1 tomato, chopped (optional)
Place a sheet pan into a cold oven and heat the oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with olive oil, salt, and optional rosemary. Slice the onion into 6 slices. Spread the potatoes, skin side down, onto the hot pan, then put them into the oven and roast for twenty minutes. (This is also the time to put your foil-wrapped head of garlic into the oven, if you’re making the dressing.)
Remove the potatoes from the oven, flip them, add sliced onion to the pan, then return the pan to the oven for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. (For the dressing: Around 25 minutes, check the garlic. When it’s really soft, it’s ready to exit the oven and cool.) To avoid breaking the golden crust that holds the potatoes to the pan, use a metal spatula to gently remove them. Their total baking time is 35 to 40 minutes.
Alternatively, grill the potatoes and onions. Heat a gas grill for 10 minutes, then grill the potatoes over medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, flipping carefully once or twice during cooking. For the grill, consider slicing the onion into three slices only, so they’re less likely to slip between the grates. You can also grill them on top of an oiled piece of tinfoil.
While the vegetables are roasting, make the dressing, wash and chop the lettuce, and pull the feta, olives, and banana peppers out of the refrigerator.
When the potatoes and onions are ready, assemble the salad. Mix the lettuce with the dressing. Put a generous scoop of hummus in the center of the salad. Arrange olives and peppers along the exterior of the salad bowl. Arrange the onion and potato alongside the hummus, and sprinkle the salad with feta and freshly-ground pepper.
Roasted Garlic Dressing
1 head garlic, carefully peel off the paper outside, but don’t peel the cloves themselves and make sure to leave them stuck together. Cut off the top of every clove and drizzle the head with 2 teaspoons of oil. (optional—you could also just smash one large clove of fresh garlic and call it fresh garlic dressing)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons cider or sherry vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
In a jelly jar with a lid, mix the vinegar, salt, and mustard for the salad dressing. Add the oil and shake it together well. Let the mixture sit. When garlic has roasted and cooled (425 degrees for 25 minutes), squeeze the bottom of each clove to expel the tender cooked inside into the jar, then shake it all together until your arm says it’s tired.