Cooking from Mandy's Gourmet Salads — July 2025

Our first meetup ran on Mandy’s Gourmet Salads: Recipes for Lettuce and Life, by Mandy and Rebecca Wolfe of the Montreal salad counters. On July 20, 2025, a group of strangers turned up in downtown Toronto, each carrying a dish out of it.

Salads, but the gourmet kind. That’s the Wolfe Salad on the cover of this post, chalkboard name card and all.

Peach and Prosciutto Salad

Peak summer in a bowl. Our test batch never made it as far as dinner.

• 1 cup arugula
• 1 cup shredded frisée lettuce
• 1 cup chopped radicchio
• 1 peach, cut into 6 or 8 segments
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced red onion
• ¼ ball fresh burrata, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons torn basil leaves
• 2 thin slices prosciutto
• ⅓ cup Italian Summer Dressing (also in the book)

Fancy Pants Niçoise Salad

Exactly as fancy as it sounds, and a whole morning of prep.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ cup drained capers, patted dry
• 4 baby potatoes
• 2 cups thin green beans, trimmed
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 lb salmon fillet, skin on
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups frisée lettuce or mâche
• ¼ cup Niçoise olives, pitted
• ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill fronds
• ¼ cup Provençale Vinaigrette Dressing (also in the book)

The method, including what to do with those capers, is in the book.

Paleo Banana Bread

The sleeper hit of a salad cookbook. It is gluten free, and it disappeared well before most of the salads did.

• 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• ¼ cup almond butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips, plus extra for sprinkling
• ½ cup toasted pecans, plus extra for sprinkling
• ½ cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 banana (optional, for the top)

Here’s ours coming together:

Mandy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

The sweets chapter deserves as much attention as the salads.

• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons Maldon salt
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons cultured unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips, chilled

From the day

We announced this one on a Thursday, and it was full by Friday night, which set the pattern for everything that came after.