Pickle Salad
Have you ever thought about the classic burger “periodic table”? You know: your burger, your bun, your pickles, tomatoes, cheese, mustard, lettuce, and ketchup. If you deconstruct the ingredients, you wind up with the Holy Burger Trinity of tomatoes, cheese, and pickles. (Ketchup and tomatoes are redundant, especially if you have juicy, fresh tomatoes, and while mustard is a classic condiment in its own right, there’s generally mustard seed in the pickle brine. Lettuce makes for a nice crunch, but again, pickles are crunchy…and have far more flavor.)
Aside from the burger itself, then — which can range from tasteless cardboard (a 99-cent special “value”) to lush, real patties (i.e., made of 100% grass-fed beef) — what we really cherish are the tomatoes, cheese, and pickles. Huh. In that essential spirit, then, why not just make a Pickle Salad? Sure, you could top a burger with it, but you could just as easily eat it all by its delicious lonesome. And if you strongly believe that the Holy Trinity ought to be a Holy Quadruplet, feel free to dress your Pickle Salad with a hint of Dijon mustard.
Pickle Salad
Dice and toss juicy tomatoes with an equal amount of crunchy pickle spears. Cut a wedge of flavorful, creamy cheese such as Gouda or Cheddar into small cubes and toss again. (I used goat Gouda; it was the perfect balance of independent creaminess and supportive mellowness.) The tomato juice and pickle brine will provide plenty of dressing, but as I said earlier, a hint of Dijon certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Serve salad alone or atop burgers, steaks, chicken, or anything else you’d like to flavor with a true all-American relish.
Enjoy!
Print This Post
Tags: american, cheese, hamburgers, pickles, salad, tomatoes
