[1] Bright colors in a winter panzanella. Here’s the recipe from Food 53. [2] With squash and sage from Good Eggs. [3] “Ham on rye” bread salad recipe from Betty Crocker. [4] Winter Panzanella Salad With Squash & Brussels Sprouts from Hot Bread Kitchen. [5] Winter “panzanella crostini” at The Tuck Room | NYC.

Bread salad, like French toast and croutons, is one of those delicious foods invented by necessity: Poor people needed to get another meal from bread that had gone stale.

THE HISTORY OF PANZANELLA SALAD

While some type of bread salad likely cropped up wherever people ate bread, panzanella is a Tuscan-style bread salad made with a loaf of day-old (or older) Italian bread, cubed into large croutons and soaked in vinaigrette to soften it. Chopped salad vegetables are added.

The translation we have found for “panzanella” is “bread in a swamp,” the swamp being the vinaigrette in which it the bread was soaked. When there wasn’t enough oil to spare, the bread was moistened in water.

While today’s recipes are rich in ingredients, the original preparers foraged to pull together vegetables from the garden: cucumber, onion, tomato—and possibly purslane, a salad green that grows wild. Early recipes were heavy on the onions, the cheapest ingredient to pair with the bread.

This peasant dish has become a popular first course in Italy. It doesn’t appear often on menus of U.S.-based Italian restaurants. That’s too bad, because it’s a dish worth knowing; but it’s also a salad that’s easy to make…

Especially when you have a leftover baguette or other loaf, as we often do. (If you stick the leftovers in the freezer for some TBD use, put it to use!)

While crusty Italian loaves were used in the original, you can use any bread from challah to semolina raisin to sourdough.

Bread salad is not a lettuce salad. You should toss in some small greens with a bite—arugula, mustard greens and watercress, along with radishes and red onions. But keep the mesclun mix and romaine for lettuce salads.

RECIPE: DIY WINTER PANZANELLA SALAD

Winter is no time to repurpose summer vegetables like tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini. Instead, look for year-round options and root vegetables. (Here’s a list of winter fruits and vegetables.)

You can add the root vegetables raw or roasted. Carrots are a dual-usage veg, as are beets, celery roots and turnips—the latter ideally halved or cut into very thin slices.

Pick Your Ingredients

 
Garnishes

 
Plan a variety of colors; not just green but red (e.g. beets, bell pepper, grapefruit), orange (e.g. mandarins, oranges, winter squash) and yellow (beets, bell peppers, cherry/grape tomatoes).

Don’t forget to season with salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Vinaigrette

Lastly, you need a good vinaigrette. Pick your favorite or use a the conventional red wine vinegar and EVOO, with or without an added half teaspoon of mushrooms.

The emphasis is on “good”: Red wine vinegar can be stringent. Seek out the good stuff. Good doesn’t mean expensive:

 
The traditional vinaigrette ratio is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar; the recipes above are written as such. But the important thing to keep in mind is that you are the only one who knows exactly how acidic and how viscous you want your dressing to be.

Keep these on tap for warmer weather:

 
________________
*Horseradish and wasabi are also cruciferous.
  

Just toss sliced fish over greens.

Instead of opening a can or searing the fish tataki-style (briefly seared), sashimi salad is an easy alternative.

A decade ago one of our favorite neighborhood sushi bars closed, taking with it one of our favorite foods, “marinated salmon”—was a mesclun salad with onions dressed in vinaigrette and topped with slices of salmon sashimi.

It was deliciousness, low in calories, and had eye appeal: a culinary home run. We had it several times a week.

When the restaurant was replaced by a cupcake parlor, we had to make it at home. Aside from fetching fresh salmon, it couldn’t have been easier.
 
 
1. SELECT YOUR FISH.

Ask for recommendations at the fish counter. The staff can also slice the salmon or tuna loins into sashimi-thickness slices.

The typical sashimi slice is 2 inches by 1/16 inch, but you can have them sliced longer and thicker as you prefer (longer is also better to drape over a mound of salad, as in photo # 2).

You can also consider the kaku-zukuri cut (“square slice”, photo #5) of 3/4-inch cubes (photos #1, #3 and #4).

The sashimi sold in sushi restaurants in North America is flash-frozen, whether it is local or flown in from elsewhere. It is thawed before preparation. You can purchase flash-frozen fish in your supermarket, slowly thaw it overnight in the fridge and eat it the next day.

You may also find live salmon and other varieties at Asian fish markets, where they can filet them for you.

 
2. PICK YOUR GREENS.

Are you in the mood for something more mild, like a mesclun mix; or a peppery arugula and watercress? A mixture is always a good idea.

If you like crunch, consider shredded cabbage (cole slaw mix).

We like onion in our salad. Japanese recipes use green onions (scallions); but you can add your allium of preference (the different types of onions).
 
 
3. ADD OTHER VEGETABLES & FRUITS.

Use whatever you have, or add whatever you like. We personally like:

[1] Mesclun with tuna cubes, at Kabuki Restaurants. [2] Conventional sashimi strips over a mounded salad, garnished with cherry tomatoes and tobacco, at Natsumi | NYC. [3] Double the nutrition: Sashimi salad over quinoa (or your whole grain of choice), at Sushi Samba. [4] Sashimi salad with wasabi & passionfruit dressing. Here’s the recipe from from Delicious | Australia. [5] kaku-zukuri, square-cut sushi; here, toro from Fish For Sushi.

[6] Shichimi Togarashi, a blend of seven Japanese spices (photo courtesy Yahoo). [7] Nori strips, scissor-cut from nori sheets (photo courtesy Food Sharing With Little One).

Rice vinegar and/or lime juice with olive oil (and a splash of sesame oil if you have it) make an excellent basic vinaigrette for sashimi salad.

You can also add salad oil to ponzu sauce.

Here are some more-elaborate favorites:

 
 
5. PICK YOUR GARNISH.

 
 
6. BEVERAGE PAIRINGS

Stuffed portables are so versatile.

 
> Is it portabella, portobello or portabello? See the explanation below.

Plan a celebration: National Stuffed Mushroom Day is February 4th.

> Check out the different types of mushrooms in our Mushroom Glossary.
 
 
MUSHROOM COOKING TIPS

To avoid sogginess:

1. WIPE the mushrooms clean. Don’t wet them or they’ll absorb water. You can use a slightly damp paper towel or a dry mushroom brush, which is softer than other vegetable brushes so it doesn’t bruise the delicate flesh.

2. PRE-BROIL or pre-bake for 3 minutes or so, to release some of the mushroom’s natural water. Then stuff and return to the heat.

3. COOK until the topping is just browned. Overcooking will release any remaining natural mushroom moisture into your filling, as it dries out the mushroom.

> There’s a recipe for Spinach-Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms below.
 
 
DIFFERENT STUFFINGS FOR PORTABELLAS

Appetizers Or First Courses

 
Salads

 
Sides

 
Mains

 
CONSIDER…

 
 
RECIPE: SPINACH-STUFFED PORTABELLA MUSHROOMS

Frozen spinach is a time saver in this easy recipe (photo #6, the bottom photo at right).

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the oven rack in the middle and preheat the broiler on the high setting. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Portabella Starters & Sides

[1] Enjoy a small salad in a portabella cap. You don’t have to cook the cap, but you certainly can. recipeHere’s the recipe (photo © Pom Wonderful).

[2] Try cauliflower purée (or other favorite vegetable purée) in a portabella cap (photo ©The Purple Carrot).

[3] Mushrooms gratin: Fill the caps with shredded Gruyère or other melting cheese. Here’s the original recipe. We turned our version into mock onion soup, filling the cap with caramelized onions and Gruyère croutons (photo © Urban Accents).

[4] Who could turn down mashed potatoes and bacon? Here’s the recipe (photo © Wisconsin Cheese).

[5] This starter or side is filled with goat cheese, roasted tomatoes and lots of chopped herbs. Here’s the recipe. We substituted garlic cloves for the goat cheese, and sprinkled on crumbled cheese when the ‘shrooms came out of the oven (photo © A Food Centric Life).

[6] Easy spinach-stuffed portables. Here’s the recipe (photo © Healthy Recipes Blog).

3. BROIL for 5 minutes on each side, or until just tender. While the mushrooms cook…

4. DEFROST the spinach in the microwave according to package directions; place in a colander to drain. When cool enough to handle, press on the cooked spinach with your hands and extract as much water as possible out of it. Repeat this until you can extract more water (we wring it with our hands).

5. REMOVE the mushrooms from the oven. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat (about 3 minutes). Add the onion and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until golden stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, spinach, the rest of the salt and pepper. Cook, stirring to blend, for 1 to 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat and cool a few minutes; then mix in the Parmesan.

6. FILL the mushroom caps with the stuffing, piled high. Place back under the broiler on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, or until the filling is golden.

[7] Toss together leftovers: here, turkey, broccoli and cheddar (photo © Mushroom Info).

[8] Turn portabellas into mini pizzas. (photo © Picture The Recipe).

[9] Lobster in a cream sherry sauce (photo © Mushroom Council).

IS IT PORTABELLA, PORTABELLO OR PORTOBELLO?
AND THE HISTORY OF PORTABELLA MUSHROOMS
 
How can one mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, have three different spellings? After all, chanterelle is chanterelle, morel is morel, porcini is porcini.

The answer: When Americans began to grow and sell cremini mushrooms in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1960s, it was a very small output. The growers were largely from Italy, and grew the creminis they missed from the old country.

A 1996 article in Nation’s Restaurant News noted that initially there was no market for the creminis. The public wanted pristine white mushrooms. Fortunately, the back-to-earth movement of the 1960s and 1970s opened the door for the growers to make another stab at selling them.

According to Food Timeline, food experts generally agree on these points when it comes to the history of portabellas:

So we put this list together, as a reminder that good-for-you snacks taste good, too.

These are some of our grab-and-go favorites. For the sake of brevity, we’ve left off the most obvious—fresh and dried fruits, crudités, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, lowfat/nonfat plain yogurt, pepitas, pickles, popcorn, sugar-free Jell-O and pudding, tuna pouches, etc.—to present other ideas.

For total convenience, they’re all grab-and-go.

Enjoy them with a low-calorie beverage: flavored water or seltzer, hot or iced coffee or tea, bone broth, etc.

SAVORY SNACKS

*Almonds: 20-24 almonds have about 160 calories and 6 grams of protein.
*Cashews: 16 to 18 cashews have about 160 calories and 5 grams of protein.
*Peanuts: 28 peanuts have about 170 calories and 7 grams of protein.
*Pistachios: 40 to 45 pistachios have about 160 calories and 6 grams of protein.

[1] Edamame, steamed warm or dried, are packed with nutrition (photo courtesy Sensible Foods). [2] Pistachios are the best nut for snacking if you want the shell to slow you down (photo courtesy Wonderful Pistachios). [3] Load up on snack packs of olives—black, green, plain, flavored (photo courtesy Gaea).

[4] Justin’s sweet or savory snack packs combine different flavors of nut butter—almond, hazelnut, peanut—with banana chips or pretzels (photo courtesy Cooking Light). [5] Easy peasy: freeze grapes or banana chunks (photo courtesy Only Gluten Free Recipes).

Just got in for the cold and the rain. Time for a cup of hot tea.

Make that hot spiced tea, chai.

Make that spiked spiced tea: chai with a hit of bourbon or rum. If you want to add more, go ahead: You can make this the tea version of Irish Coffee.

If you don’t have any chai bags or loose leaves, make your own from Recipe #2 below.

RECIPE #1: CHAI WITH SPIRIT (BOURBON, RUM, ETC.)

Ingredients For 3 Tea Cups Or 2 Mugs

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then add the tea, sweetener, vanilla, cinnamon and optional cayenne. Stir and reduce the heat to low, heating for another 2 minutes (keep your eye on the pot). Remove from the heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes.

2. STRAIN into a liquid measuring cup or small pitcher with a lip. Add the bourbon. If the mixture has cooled a bit, stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

3. POUR into cups and serve.

 
RECIPE #2: CHAI TEA BLEND

If you don’t have some of the ingredients, you can make do with what you have.

[1] On a chilly day, pour some spirits into the chai (photo courtesy Charles Chocolates). [2] No chai at home? Mix it up from your spice shelf (photo courtesy Foodie Underground).