Fridge Raid Salad with Herb Stalk Dressing

Every fridge has them. The floppy celery, the carrot that has gone a bit dry, half an apple, the last sad wedge of cabbage. None of it is bad, all of it is on the way out, and together it makes a properly good salad. The dressing is made from the herb stalks you were about to bin. Let's raid the fridge!

Why This Fridge Raid Salad Works

Herb stalks carry more flavour than the leaves. We all buy a bunch, use the pretty bit and leave the stalks to go yellow in the door. Coriander stalks especially are intensely fragrant, and blitzed into a dressing they give you far more than the leaves would.

Tired veg is not bad veg. A carrot that has lost a bit of moisture and a cabbage that has gone floppy still taste like themselves. Slice them thinly and dress them well and nobody at the table will know.

Capers and lemon do the heavy lifting. Acidity and salt are what make a raid feel deliberate rather than desperate. Two storecupboard things turn a bowl of odds and ends into a dressing worth making on purpose.

There is no cooking at all. Fifteen minutes, one bowl, one blender jug, and a side dish that cost you nothing you had not already bought.

It changes every time you make it. This is a method more than a recipe, which is exactly why it is worth learning.

Recipe Details

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: No cooking
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Serves: 2, as a side
• Difficulty: Easy
• Special Equipment: A blender or stick blender for the dressing

The thing I would change about how most people shop is the salad aisle. Bagged leaves are the fastest thing in the shop to turn to slime, and once they go you have nothing. Buy the robust stuff instead. Celery, carrot and a whole cabbage will sit in the fridge for a fortnight and still make a salad at the end of it, and that means there is always something to fall back on. The celery in this one had been in there a week and a half and it was completely fine. The coriander was closer to two weeks and going yellow at the tips, and it still made the best part of the dish. New Zealand households throw away around 80 kilos of food a year, worth about $1,364, and vegetables are the single biggest category of it at 57 percent. Almost none of that is because the food went bad. It is because nobody had a plan for it.

Ingredients

For the salad

• 1 to 2 sticks of celery, sliced, leaves kept
• 1/2 carrot, sliced or diced
• 1/2 apple, sliced or diced
• A wedge of cabbage, shredded

For the herb stalk dressing

• The stalks from a bunch of coriander, whatever you have left
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp capers
• 1 garlic clove
• A splash of oil
• Pinch of ground cumin
• Salt, to taste

How to Make Fridge Raid Salad with Herb Stalk Dressing

1. Sort your veg. Anything floppy, dry or a bit tired is fine. Anything slimy, mouldy or smelling off goes in the bin, not the bowl. That is the only rule.
2. Slice everything thinly. Celery, carrot, apple and cabbage, all cut fine. Thin slices are what make tired veg eat like fresh veg, because you get less of that dry, woody bite.
3. Keep the celery leaves. Chop them and put them through the salad. They taste like parsley and most people throw them away without ever trying them.
4. Mix the salad. Everything into a bowl and toss together.
5. Make the dressing. Coriander stalks, lemon juice, capers, garlic, oil, cumin and salt into a blender. Blitz until smooth and green.
6. Taste it. This is the step that matters. It should be sharp and salty. If it is flat, more lemon. If it is fierce, more oil.
7. Dress and serve. Toss the dressing through just before it goes on the table, or serve it alongside so nothing goes soft.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• It costs nothing extra: Every bit of it was already in your fridge
• The stalks finally get used: All that flavour stops going in the bin
• No cooking: Fifteen minutes start to finish
• Genuinely fresh: Tired veg, sliced thin and dressed sharply, eats brilliantly
• Different every time: A method you can run with whatever you have

Chef's Tips for Fridge Raid Salad with Herb Stalk Dressing

Do not save this trick for coriander. Parsley and basil stalks blitz into a dressing just as well. Coriander is the most fragrant of the three, but the principle holds for any soft herb.

Slice thinner than you think. This is the whole difference between a raid salad and a sad one. Tired veg has lost moisture, so thick pieces eat dry and woody. Thin slices eat crisp.

Buy the robust stuff. Bagged leaves go over in days. Celery, carrot and cabbage last a fortnight, so you always have the makings of a salad even at the end of the week.

Taste and adjust the dressing before it touches the salad. Blitzed stalks vary enormously in strength depending on how old the bunch is. There is no fixed quantity that always works.

Dress it at the last minute. Salt and acid start drawing water out of the veg immediately, and a salad dressed early goes limp in the bowl.

A splash of yoghurt turns it into a different dressing entirely. Creamier, milder, and a good way to use up the end of a pot.

Substitutions & Variations

• No capers? Chopped gherkin, olives, or a splash of pickle brine will give you the same salty sharpness
• Any soft herb stalk: Parsley, basil, mint, or a mixture of whatever is going yellow
• Add yoghurt for a creamier dressing, and a good use for the end of a pot
• Beetroot, fennel, radish or kohlrabi all work in place of the carrot, sliced thin
• Make it a meal with leftover rice or a tin of chickpeas stirred through
• Toasted seeds or nuts on top if you want crunch

Storage

Best eaten fresh: Dressed, this wants eating within the hour.

Fridge: The dressing keeps three days in a jar. The undressed salad keeps a day. Together they do not.

Freezer: Not applicable.

Avoid: Dressing it in advance. Salt and lemon pull the water out of the veg and you end up with a puddle.

Frequently Asked Questions

My veg has gone floppy, is it still safe to eat? Floppy is fine. Floppy means it has lost water, not that it has spoiled, and slicing it thin and dressing it hides that completely. Slimy, mouldy or smelling sour is a different thing, and that goes in the bin.

Are coriander stalks actually edible? Yes, and they are the most flavourful part of the plant. They are more fibrous than the leaves, which is why they go into a dressing to be blitzed rather than being scattered on top whole.

Can I use parsley or basil stalks instead? Absolutely. Parsley stalks are excellent and slightly grassier, basil stalks are softer and sweeter. A mixture of whatever is left over works fine.

Do I need a blender? A stick blender is easiest. Without one, chop the stalks, garlic and capers as finely as you possibly can and whisk them into the lemon and oil. It will be a rougher, more rustic dressing and still lovely.

Can I make the dressing ahead? Yes, three days in a jar in the fridge. It may separate, so shake it before you use it. The colour dulls a little after the first day, which does not affect the taste.

What else can I do with the celery leaves? Treat them as a herb, because that is what they are. Chopped through a tabbouleh with leftover rice is my favourite, and they are good in soup, stock or a potato salad.

What veg works best in this? Anything sturdy that slices. Celery, carrot, cabbage, fennel, radish, apple and pear are all reliable. Soft leaves and anything watery like tomato or cucumber will not hold up.

How do I stop buying salad that goes off? Stop buying bagged leaves as your default. They have the shortest life of anything in the shop. Whole, robust vegetables give you a week or more of options instead of three days.

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Have a look in the drawer at the bottom of your fridge before you next buy a bag of salad. There is almost certainly a side dish sitting in there already, and the bit you were going to throw out is the bit that makes it taste good.

Enjoy!

Del x

A fresh side salad made from tired fridge veg, dressed with a punchy dressing blitzed from herb stalks you would otherwise bin.