Everyone knows what an Irish Stew is. It's a combination of practically anything which is cookable and worth eating. The Irish Salad is more upmarket than that, but it's the same basic principle. This is suburban survival food. You can use any good food you've got, from tasty leftovers from the Westinghouse oven to things looking like they're going to be wasted sitting in the fridge.


Photo: U-g-g-B-o-y

Irish Salad basics

To make an Irish Salad you need a supply of edibles, and some nice fresh green leafy vegetables.

The typical basic ingredients are:

• A few good crisp lettuce leaves rough chopped
• Mediterranean parsley, about half a cupful fine chopped
• Good tasty cheese (soy cheese for those with milk issues)
• Egg tomatoes
• Carrots
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• A good, non-sweet mayonnaise or favorite salad dressing
• Pre cooked cold rice, potatoes or pasta to the preferred volume
• Herbs to taste if desired.
• Almonds, walnuts or cashews

As you can see, these are all good solid food. The digestive value of this combination provides a lot of trace elements, proteins and low cholesterol oils.

Creating the salad

1. Mix the lettuce and parsley first, into a roughly homogenous mixture.
2. Add the sea salt, about ½ teaspoon per 3 serves
3. Dice the cheese into cubes, and add
4. Add egg tomatoes, without cutting them. (The salad keeps longer if the acids from the tomatoes don't mix with the cheese. If you add cut tomatoes, eat within 24 hours.)
5. Add carrots- Julienne or fine sliced
6. Add olive oil, being a bit conservative until you're sure you've got the quantity right.
7. Add pepper
8. Add cold cooked rice, pasta or potatoes
9. Add nuts to taste

10. Season lightly with thyme, basil, oregano, or other salad herbs.

11. Add mayonnaise or salad dressing to taste. (This step can be omitted during preparation, and people can add their own at meals, if preferred.)

12. Mix gently until the mixture looks consistent

Stage 2- Adding meat, sausages fish/seafood and poultry

A word of caution: Look out for fats when adding these foods to your Irish Salad.

• Do not add fatty meats or poultry to the salad , particularly if the tomatoes have been chopped. Their acids will start dissolving the fat. Remove fats as far as possible.
• Cured sausages with fatty areas like salami should be eaten immediately, not kept in the salad for any lengthy of time.
• Poultry fat is highly reactive, and can go off, tainting the salad. Use meat only.
• Any indication of fish or seafood getting old means keep it away from fresh food, which it can contaminate.

Slice the meat/fish/seafoods into slightly small bite sized chunks. With poultry, strips may be preferred. The idea is that the pieces allow for extra food on the fork.

Mix gently to consistency.

The whole thing takes about 20 minutes, and you can feed an army, if you've got the quantities to work with. You can now settle down to a great, healthy meal, give the faithful Westinghouse oven a break, and enjoy.