The inspiration for the lunch time salad was some fresh looking katuray or katuday (flowers of a corkwood tree) from my Ilocano suki. I decided to make a “KKKK Salad” which we haven’t enjoyed for many months, so I purchased katuday, kangkong, kamatis and kalabasa flowers. I also got several bunches of fiddlehead ferns or pako from the same vendor. When we got home, I realized that neither the katuday or the ripe little grape tomatoes made it into our baskets… There must have been a bit of confusion at the market and well, we didn’t get the produce. Bummer. No worries on the cost, I am sure she will make it up to me the next time around, but now I was craving a salad for which I didn’t have all of the ingredients… So while this first photo above is probably making most of your salivary glands go into overdrive, the rest of the salad makes it quite healthy really… :)
Simply clean up your leafy veggies, and choose the tender tips of the pako and ends of the kangkong or water spinach and blanche them in salted simmering water for a minute or so and remove and plunge them in an ice bath. Dry these on paper towels and place them in the fridge to chill. Clean up the kalabasa flowers, removing the pistil or is it the stamen in the middle, and blanche, dry and chill as well. When nearly ready to serve lunch or dinner, assemble the greens and flowers on a serving platter, add some sliced tomatoes and dress the salad with some freshly squeezed dayap (lime) and a little fish sauce or patis. Go lightly on the patis if you also have ginisang bagoong or shrimp paste and pork cracklings on hand, like we did. :)
The result is a cooked yet chilled salad, with a noticeable tang from the lime and the salty hit from patis and or bagoong. It is a perfect side salad to grilled fish or meats. We have served this salad to locals and foreigners alike and they are almost always surprised that this is “filipino food”…
You can either mix up all the greens or serve them separately, allowing guests to take as much or as little of whatever suits their fancy.
Don’t forget to chill for at least an hour so that the salad seems even more refreshing. And while kalamansi would certainly substitute for dayap or lime, the fragrance and taste of the lime brings this up a notch. Enjoy!
30 Responses
LOL…for awhile, I thought the bagoong was corned beef!!!…hahahaha
I like your presentation…very simple.
this salad (i would add thinly sliced lasona) ,ginisang monggo with ampalaya ,paksiw na bangus and lots of rice. this combination makes me want to go home right now. dessert would be the fragrant lakatan from baguio. actually, i’m drooling just looking at your salad.
OMG so simple yet so yummy.
you were so right about the first picture, MM!
Yum! Bagoong on pinoy veggies is the best! Plus a side dish of pork tinuno (the ilocano equivalent for barbeque). Now that does sound like a south beach diet meal, pinoy style! ;-)
looks yummy! will try this out soon
Thank you for the sharing, MarketMan! Ideas like these make for friends to go “wow! I should have thought of these before!”…of course, I’ll give credit where credit is due :-D! Have given your webpage to several friends na because of this!
Omg, this looks so good. Never thought of this. This passed summer my squash plant just kept having flowers and did not know what to do with them. I did try to deep fry but found it too heavy. This is just lovely, MM. Hmm, have to try this when I get some greens from Canada. I see the kangkong and bitter melon leaves there too. Thanks for a great idea and a very healthy one.
Bagnet plus kkkk salad with shrimp paste—- delicious!
sarap naman!!!
MM, maybe you meant “Ilocano suki” on your first sentence. :)
it looks very yummy and colorful. you gave me an idea on what to serve
for lunch with friends. thanks.
There is nothing in this dish that I’m not absolutely crazy for. Add steamed rice, and it’s a meal. As my mom would put it, “Pamatay-kanin!” Sarap!
Hi MM! Somewhat off-topic, have you seen the Emmy-award winning TV series of Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin restaurant in NY? The show is called Avec Eric. I just caught an episode of it on public TV yesterday and I am an instant fan! You can see the episodes online if you go on the website: https://aveceric.com/wp/. The episode featured a chef who grow his own animals and vegetables on a self-sustained farm in upstate NY to be able to maximize the flavors when the food is prepared and served….a wonderful concept! I think it will be interesting to a lot of your other readers too.
Sandy, yes, I have seen the show… In a previous life, I had the opportunity to eat at Le Bernardin several times and I have to say it is the best seafood restaurant I have ever been to… jack, thanks, typo has been corrected.
Fards, I too had so much flowers in or squash plant, and i waited for it to have “the squash” but only few came out. And I said to myself, that those flowers just were a waste. When I found out that these blossoms are edible and could be fried, I tried them and wow, they were tasteful, but the season was ending and my plant stopped blossoming. I also planted some kangkong and cilantro and grape tomatoes. Next planting season, I will follow MM’s recipe and enjoy this salad.
Ebba…what you have so much of are probably the male flowers. If you find that you don’t have enough pollinators lurking in your garden, hand pollinate the female flowers…the ones with the baby squash attached to it. As the season ends and you find that the baby ones will not mature in time, you can cook the golf ball size squashes and add them to pakbets or stirfries. The tender SQUASH SHOOTS , you can also cook. it has a bit of a nutty taste. …remove the fuzzy thingeys along the stem using the dull side of a knife if you want….lots of garlic, the squash shoots, and some crab fat or aligue …better yet, xo sauce if you have it!….makanin din!
Fards, do yu plant chayote? If you do, pick the chayote shoots…use it in place of pako or the kangkong. If you also plant zucchinis, pick the really baby zucchinis with the blosssom still attached and use it in place of the squash flowers…more eye appealoing if you have yellow baby zucchinis. Those in Victoria or Vancouver Island…there is an abundance of sea asparagus sometime in June. If I can get my hands on them, I will use that in place of the pako.
Oh, have you tried planting RED CELERY, Ebba? There is a red celery variety called Ruby something…just google it. The stalk is deep red at the base and light green at the tip where the leaves are….much like the color of a rhubarb stalk.
wow sarap naman, pampagana.
Manang’s version: blanched “tinangkong” leaves, sliced tomatoes, a little bit of salt, kalamansi juice and sinamak. simple, pero mapapakain ka ng maraming kanin, specially if served chilled.
Simple and easy to make. A perfect side dish to barbeque or lechon. Yum!
gagayahin ko ‘to!!!! with crispy tilapia! :D~~
Oh how I miss pako…it is ridiculously expensive here and I just don’t have the heart to spend that much when it can be found in my ancestral home in Pampanga for $0.
Yummy!! I miss yong katuday and thanks for sharing Mr MM.
This is the type of salad I would like to eat with fried fish and to make it more exciting – kailangang “magkamay” to be more passionate about the eating experience. Too bad I don’t think I can replicate the salad here in Northern California.
hi MM! I was looking for live christmas trees i can purchase for the holidays (consulting lord google of course) and found your site.. i never did get the tree but i can’t help coming back and checking to see what you have up your sleeve. btw, your post on winning the lotto caused me to stain my new white blouse with hot coffee.. yes, the coffee shot through my nose because of your antics. now, i don’t drink ANYTHING while visiting your site!
my husband loves grilled meats and i’ve been looking for a salad to serve for the holidays that doesn’t involve mayonnaise or your typical leafy greens. finding this recipe takes 1 item off my noche buena list. now for my new year’s menu, i am hoping you can help me come up with a vegetable/soup dish i can pair with steamed seafood. i’m planning on getting some prawns, clams, mussels, crabs and squid, dump them in a big deep aluminum tray then sprinkle some salt, pepper, snip some fresh parsley, lemon juice and zest, roasted garlic, a couple of cubes of butter plus some olive oil. cover the whole thing with foil and let it sit on the grill to cook. i need something i can whip up in less than an hour and easily feed 30. i need to have some fresh flavors at the table because i’m sure we’ll be stuck with tons of cured ham, saucy dishes and sweets for the holidays.
Instead of your foil grill, why not start with a hearty cioppino, similar ingredients, a tad more work, but superb for large groups of people. Then have some garlic bread on the side. And maybe an avocado, tomato and mozzarella salad as a side dish.
Hi MM,
What brand of ginisang bagoong do you use?
Could you share with us where your Ilocano suki sells her veggies? I have been desperately looking for Ilocano veggies whenever I go to the Philippines and I can’t find any. I would love to have some Ilocano veggies that I have been longing for for such a long time and I would be so grateful to find it. Thank you so much!
Jane, I shop at the FTI Taguig Saturday Market and near the plant section is a lady that sells Ilocano produce… tiny eggplants, shorter sitaw, tiny ampalayas, squash flowers, seaweed on occasion, fish bagoong, etc.
I know that place where you bought Katuday flowers. It is a weekend market (Saturday and Sunday) that organize by AANI. They are similar to the Legaspi weekend market in Makati. When I was living in Signal Village, we always bought there. They have different kind of items that you cannot find on a typical wet market.