It’s time to start eating more seasonally appropriate cuisine, now that spring has allegedly come – even if it still snows in springtime in Pullman.

Ignoring the snow, this is the time of year when food gets better – eating seasonally is easier, and ingredients become more interesting. Salads are more flavorful, vegetables brighter, herbs better defined, fruits sweeter, and everything lifted as we shed away our winter coats.

Although it’s a cliché, we should eat as seasonal as we can. Even though it’s true that being this far north and during the winter that would mean a diet akin to a political prisoner sent to the gulags of cabbage, and potatoes.

Thankfully that’s not the case and anyway winter is over (weather, please take note).

Going forward into warmer days where we spend more time outdoors in the sun, I want to focus on making a proper salad. They’re generally quick to prepare, have endless variations, and are perfect for a light meal after spending the day cycling or basking in our neighborhood star.

Some fundamentals to making a great salad are to not overdress the salad and understanding the contrasting effects of fat, acidity and sugar. Of course, fresh produce is also best.

Think of vegetables that bring some bitterness and heat – thinly sliced radishes or fennel (use the frilly fronds for garnish), peppery and bitter rocket (or arugula) and salad mixes that contain delicious dense radicchio.

The “spring mix” boxes or bags that you can find everywhere are much better these days than they were two months ago, for one because it’s a far more accurate descriptor, and also because the leaves are more varied and are able to develop greater depth in the warmer growing weather.  

I have an aversion to iceberg and romaine. Yes, they are fine in a burger and Caesar perhaps, but more often than not they’re just poor excuses of a water vehicle with little flavor and victim to cloying gummy dressings.

To address the dressing, you really only need a few ingredients for an all-purpose mixture that really works across a wide spectrum – in ratio 4 parts oil (extra virgin olive oil), 1 part acid (vinegar or some kind of citrus), and ½ part Dijon mustard.

Season to taste, adjusting as you go the amount of salt, pepper and sugar. Whisk everything together vigorously to create as best of an emulsion as you can, and it’ll sit happily in the fridge for a few weeks.

Get creative here – play with the oil, perhaps a drop of sesame for added nuttiness. Maybe you want something with an accentuated citrus flavor so substitute part of your acid for orange juice or a particular vinegar. Finely mince a clove of garlic for an added pep or use a different mustard you like. Add minced herbs or spices for a more complex product.

Most crucially, keep tasting what you’re making and adjust as you go along – the ratios are just a rough guideline for you to start with.

Sugar and fat can also be added in multiple forms. A great pairing that I’ve found recently is goat cheese and grapes. Crumble on a generous spoonful of goat cheese with its sharp, rich, funky saltiness and with that some sliced sweet juicy table grapes, which help cut through the cheese and provides contrast.

With cheese, generally strong flavored ones (blue, goat) gives a salad better definition than for say mild boring cheddar.

Other forms of fat that go well include adding some kind of cured meat. Thick cut bacon works great when rendered out and crispy (fantastic with juicy pears) or even cubes of salami treated similarly.

With your sugar, don’t be afraid of adding fresh fruit particularly those that lean to the sweeter side. I’m not a fan of adding acidic strawberries, which I find give a strange almost floral like note, but apples, all forms of citrus and pomegranates work really well over most other ingredients as long as they can punctuate to their contrasting attributes.

To add substance to your salads, try legumes such as lentils or garbanzo beans. If you’re cooking them as opposed to using canned, season right after straining off the water and slick it with a coat of olive oil.

Cooking other vegetables such as roasting zucchini or eggplants and making a slightly warm salad is also encouraged, though that of course will take extra time but is easy. Cut into desired size, oil, salt, and cook at 400 F for 15 -30 minutes depending on how big you cut them and the vegetable you’re cooking – I shouldn’t have to tell you what a roast zucchini looks like, just try a piece!

Go easy on the dressing. In general I’ve found a couple of teaspoons per serving is generally about right. Over-dressing a salad makes everything limp and that pool of liquid at the bottom is really gross, plus, you can always add more as you go along.

Now, about this rain we’re expecting Saturday…