Don’t hedge on the veg With the right touch, even a salad can win over a tough crowd By: Eva Wasney Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021

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This article was published 26/01/2021 (1332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Bart Simpson might disagree, Emily Butcher is a staunch believer that you can, in fact, win friends with salad.

“I love vegetables,” says Butcher, chef de cuisine at Deer + Almond. “If you cook them well and season them well, they’re the best.”

Her winter panzanella salad — a combination of toasty bread, bright roasted vegetables and feta cheese — is an homage to her favourite food, born out of a pandemic hobby.

Like many people, Butcher did a lot of baking during the first lockdown. She was accustomed to making a loaf of sourdough most weekends, but more time spent at home quickly turned into more loaves than she knew what to do with.

“When I wasn’t working, it was nice to bake bread and do something that takes some time and patience,” she says. “You end up with a lot of extra bread or old, stale bread and one way I like to use that is to make panzanella.”

The dish, which she describes as a “celebratory mish mash” prime for substitutions, has certainly won over her boyfriend, Scott.

“He’s always like, ‘We should eat salad more often,’” she says with a laugh. “And it’s because it’s full of bread and cheese, that’s why (he likes) it.”

Butcher grew up in Maple Ridge, B.C. and got her start cooking part-time at a chain restaurant during university, where she was studying music history and theory. She enjoyed the kitchen atmosphere so much, she enrolled in culinary school post-graduation and found her way into fine dining at Vancouver’s former West Restaurant.

Scott moved to Winnipeg for law school and Butcher decided to join when he landed his first articling job.

“I fell in love with the city and I really like our life here,” she says. “Once I knew the right people who are connected to the music scene and the art scene, that’s when the city really opened up for me; I love how creative people are here.”

She was introduced to chef Mandel Hitzer through a mutual friend and started working at Deer + Almond as a line cook nearly six years ago. Her favourite parts of the job are playing with bold flavours and mentoring young cooks in a positive kitchen environment.

“I just really liked the vibe,” she says. “It’s really good cooking techniques but not quite as pretentious as fine dining.”

While she misses cooking for a full dining room — “it’s a totally different ballgame doing takeout” — Butcher has been relishing the opportunity to slow down and spend more time in the tiny kitchen of her tiny Norwood home.

“There’s sort of a rhythm to it and I think that we eat healthier than we’ve ever eaten,” she says. “Normally, I’d be home at like… midnight and just grab things as I’m cooking at work and then have like toast or cereal or something; chefs are notorious for terrible eating.”

At home, with the luxury of time, Butcher takes a more casual approach to cooking, throwing together dishes with whatever happens to be in the fridge or her overstuffed pantry. She also takes frequent breaks to play with her orange tabby cats, Sophie and Elsie.

Kitchens with a soundtrack are the funnest to work in, according to Butcher. At home, albums by Fleetwood Mac, Jefferson Airplane, Arcade Fire, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck are on heavy rotation and she’s been listening to podcasts by Momofuku chef David Chang and former first lady Michelle Obama when cooking.

While Winnipeg has felt like home for a long time, Butcher’s “shoebox” of a character house has become a sanctuary over the last nine months; free from the dangers of the outside world. Walks along the nearby Red River and tending to a small vegetable garden kept her anxiety at bay over the summer — even though the local rabbits were the only creatures to enjoy the harvest.

When it’s safe to do so, Butcher is looking forward to welcoming friends and family back into her sanctuary.

“I like feeding people, that’s what I love doing,” she says. “And it’s especially nice when it’s in your own home and you actually get to see people eating.”

Hosting a murder mystery dinner party is high on the to-do list.

“It’s incredibly dorky, but it’s a night and you can do a couple of different courses and it’s a lot of fun.”

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney

Emily Butcher’s Winter Panzanella

Preparation
1 litre (4 cups) bread ends, 1” cubes
Olive oil
3 beets
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into rounds
1 red onion, peeled and cut into 1/4” slices
250 g brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
1 small acorn squash, halved and seeded
45 ml (3 tbsp) tahini
1 lemon

Salad Dressing
1 clove garlic, minced
100 ml red wine vinegar
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
5 ml (1 tsp) dried oregano
5 ml (1 tsp) salt
15 ml (1 tbsp) honey

Assembly
1/2 bunch kale, stems removed and rough chopped
1 small head radicchio, large dice
60 ml (1/4 cup) fresh dill, roughly chopped
1/2 green apple, thinly sliced
Dried cranberries
100 g feta cheese
30 ml (2 tbsp) toasted sunflower seeds

Dice bread ends and toss with 2 tbsp olive oil. Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes until dry and golden brown. Turn oven up to 400 F and bake beets, lightly coated in olive oil, for 2 hours. After roasting, peel and dice beets. At the same time, the parsnips and onions can be tossed together with a little olive oil and roasted for 45 minutes. Roast the squash for 30-40 minutes, until soft. The brussels sprouts will be tossed with olive oil and baked for 12 minutes at 400 F followed by 4 minutes on broiler.

While everything is cooking, combine all ingredients for the dressing and whisk together.

When the squash is cooked, scoop the flesh into a blender. Add tahini and the juice of half a lemon and season with salt. Reserve puree for later.

To assemble your salad start with the kale, massaging it with the rest of your lemon juice and a little dressing. This will break down the fibres. Add radicchio, chopped dill, bread, and all your roasted veggies. Toss this with the remaining dressing and season with salt and pepper.

To plate, make a base with your squash puree, place your salad, and garnish with apple, feta, and sunflower seeds. I like to serve this dish with roast chicken or lamb chops. It’s one of those dishes that I will constantly change depending on what I have in the fridge.

Eva Wasney
Arts Reporter

Eva Wasney is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.

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