Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” Vegetable Salad

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Judy Garland passed away 50 years ago at the age of 47. The movie “Judy” will be released this week. Based on Judy’s life in 1969, she arrives in London for a run of sell-out concerts at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Renée Zellweger stars as Judy and sings in the film.

I always like to research a bit about movie characters before I see them on screen and my curiosity led me to find out about Judy’s favorite foods. Her favorite food was steak and kidney pie and she had a fondness for mashed potatoes and gravy and an ice cold Coca-Cola. She also enjoyed her mom’s vegetable salad and it’s easy to see why. The salad dressing is a light and delicious French dressing and includes watercress which nicely peppers up the salad. I’ve taken the liberty of naming this salad “Over the Rainbow” salad since it has many of the colors of the rainbow.

Here’s Judy’s description of the salad: “I like a nice, crispy vegetable salad. But I didn’t always like it. Then one day my mother discovered just the right combination, just the right dressing and now it is my favorite type of food. It is so easy to make that, if mother doesn’t happen to be around, I go out in the kitchen and whip it up by myself.

Oh, I almost forget something important. That is to mix the salad and the dressing together with your hands. It makes a big difference because when you use a wooden fork and spoon for mixing you just can’t feel where the dressing misses touching some of the salad, and that is very important. When your hands are nice and clean, it doesn’t make any difference anyway. Here it is. Now be sure to try it, especially if you think you don’t care for vegetable salads. This one is different, honest!" 

Salad Ingredients

  • 2 hearts of romaine, chopped
  • 1 endive sliced (I used Belgian endive)
  • 1 cup chopped watercress leaves (arugula may be substituted)
  • 3 carrots peeled and grated (I grated some of the carrots and used a vegetable peeler to create some pretty carrot ribbons)
  • 2 celery stalks diced
  • 2 tomatoes cored and diced (I used tiny cherry tomatoes)
  • 1/2 cup olives pitted and quartered
  • 1/2 cup frozen baby peas, steamed and chilled

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vinegar (white wine vinegar is a good choice)
  • 1 tsp salt (I used only ½ teaspoon salt. You may want to start with ½ teaspoon salt and add more to your taste)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp paprika (I like Spanish paprika)
  • 1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic

Place all salad ingredients in a mason jar. Cover jar with tight fitting lid and shake to combine the ingredients. Chill until ready to serve.

About the Writer:

Following her career in healthcare dining and nutrition management, Becky Ellis followed her passion to create Bubblybee, a champagne and food blog. Her motto is "Don't wait to celebrate! Pop the cork now!" She loves to share tips for entertaining with bubbly. Find her creative recipes and champagne tasting notes at bubblybee.net and Instagram @bubblybeeboop.