We embarked on a road trip through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada to California’s Eastern Sierra last week. I had a lot of delicious wild greens on hand that I’d collected in Denver immediately prior, and I wanted to eat fresh salad for the duration of our journey through the deserts, so this is what I came up with.
The cabbage was a lazy last minute choice as a base to temper the somewhat bitter and pungent wild greens, as we had no store-bought lettuce in the house and I didn’t feel like going out to buy some. I packaged it all up in a big bag, and the dressing in a recycled bottle, and served it nearly every day of the trip.
Surprisingly Gregg—who is not much of a salad eater—asked for it every time, and touted my culinary prowess. Score!
The salad:
Prickly lettuce rosettes (Lactuca serriola)
Dandelion greens
Musk mustard (Chorispora tenella)
Green cabbage
Raw corn
Broccoli bits
Chop the wild ingredients into coarse bits. Slice the green cabbage and cut slices in half. Cut corn off the cob and add raw to salad. Chop broccoli bits including stem pieces. Toss together and package up for your road trip.
The dressing:
Wild onions (Allium sp.) or store-bought green onions
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Oil of choice
Pickled ginger & juice
Brown sugar, molasses, sugar, or other sweetener
Chop wild onions fine and mix together with other ingredients to taste, then store in a recycled bottle to use atop your on-the-go wild salad.
Updated 3.26.21
Good call on the cabbage. This looks fantastic, and I’ll agree with Gregg.