Bar Salad

Author Notes: This isn’t a complaint and I can’t speak for the other male members of the food52 community but sometimes I notice low levels of testosterone in the food52 neighborhood. I don’t mean this badly and it is not a bad thing. After all I don’t expect high levels of it here and I am fine with it. I actually probably should have given this some time at least a couple of weeks past short ribs since it is a pretty male driven dish. Nevertheless, I created this salad for men. My wife is always on me to eat better, more veggies, less meat and the like. I don’t mind doing it but there are times when it is just not possible for fear of looking like a wuss. Let me just put it this way. Say you are a guy and you have been out playing eighteen holes, or even been out shooting skeet and you step into the club bar for a bite. All the other guys are around and they are all ordering triple burgers with double cut bacon and chili cheese fries. You think for a minute I am going to order a strawberry and spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette. All the guys in the place would look at me like I was wearing a full French cut wedding dress. I would probably have to walk to the car not only with my head down but with a wedgie. Not a chance in hell will that salad wind up at my bar stool. On the other hand if you could just rename most salads. Something as simple as Bar Salad would do. Throw a guy a bone and put just a little meat in it, even two kinds and take anything really green out of it but add lots more crunchy veggies and some cheese even, how about lots of apple. Something that resembles a Cobb Salad, or a Ty Cobb Salad, yeah if a baseball hero of his stature had a salad named after him more men might eat salads. Even lie to us. Tell us it is sort of like buffalo wings. why, with all the celery and some chicken we might just go for it. - thirschfeld

Serves 4

• This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Salad with Apples

Tags: doubles easily, serves a crowd