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The city of Bridgeport inspired a new salad called Under the Big Top that was created by Wiley Mullins, owner of Uncle Wiley's specialty food business in Fairfield. The salad contains lettuce, yellow and orange peppers, blueberries, apples, pomegranate seeds, slices of poached chicken, raspberries, a homemade dressing, and it is finished with a biscuit to represent the big top.
Wiley Mullins can eat salad morning, noon and night. Whether it's his Tallulah Bankhead Salad, a classic Southern salad of watermelon, raspberries and feta cheese, or his hearty Santa Fe Salad filled with pork tenderloin, spinach, cucumbers and Granny Smith apples, Mullins never gets tired of eating his favorite dish.

Salad, according to Mullins, aka The Salad Man, is "any combination of fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, seeds, grains and protein that is served either raw, roasted, wilted, braised, stir-fried, sauted or grilled.

"Salads can be served hot, cold, or any temperature in between," writes Mullins in his new book, "Salad Makes the Meal" (Rodale, $17.95).

"Salads don't have to be lettuce, tomato and Miracle Whip," said Mullins, 49, in a phone interview from his Fairfield office. The CEO and founder of Uncle Wiley's, Inc., a specialty food business that produces and markets Healthy Southern Classics seasonings and spices, said he started the company 15 years ago and named it after his grandfather, who everyone called Uncle Wiley. The seasonings, available online and at Stop & Shop, add no fat or calories to fruit or vegetable dishes, he said. For example, the Corn Boil, which is added to the cooking water, adds the flavor of butter to the corn, but is fat-free and cholesterol-free, he said.

A self-taught cook whose loving grandparents gave him an appreciation of fresh, home-grown produce, Mullins was in marketing for Procter & Gamble when he first came

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up with the idea for the seasonings. His inspiration, said the Alabama native, was "living in the South and knowing people suffering with health problems related to diet." Mullins said he had a weight problem most of his life and lost more than 60 pounds three years ago when he stopped eating fast food and started eating salads every day for lunch. "It took about 10 months [to lose the weight]. I created the salad recipes when I was trying to find more ways to eat a broader variety of more fresh produce," he said, raving about the health benefits of eating your fruits and vegetables. "Parsley is loaded with vitamin C. I always put it on top of a salad.

"So many of our vegetables are loaded with nutrients that fight cancer," he continued, adding that apricots are one of nature's "jewels," rich in fiber, vitamin C and aid in heart health, fight cancer and boost our immunity, but "most people don't eat even one a year." The first salad he remembers creating is a catfish salad celebrating the presidential victory of two Southerners — Bill Clinton and Al Gore. His Southern roots are evident in many of his recipes that always pleased his guests, he said.

"I'd serve salad as the entre and people would always rave," he said. "They're easy, healthy, flavorful and taste good."

The Salad Man also spreads his gospel of healthy eating through his "Faith & Food" presentations at African-American churches across the country, looking at how the Bible deals with food, he said. His most recent one was at a church in Queens where, after the discussion, members began planning a church supper.

"They were going to have fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, but had salads instead," said Mullins, who helped create the menu and attended the dinner. "They could not believe what you could do with salads.

"In the book, there's a recipe for oven-fried chicken and it's really great. You can still have the taste of fried chicken without the fat," he said. "All this suffering from hypertension and heart disease it's uncalled for it's from making poor choices."

With summer just beginning, the choices for tasty salads seem endless. Mullins advises looking for domestic fruits and veggies, what's fresh and, this is key, for what is really in season. "Watermelon and corn from Florida are in season now. In a few weeks, Carolina melons [will be out] and Georgia peaches," he said, suggesting, "Make a salad at least once a day at lunch time. It's light and you don't go back to work sluggish."

And don't load it down with high-calorie dressings. Mullins likes making his own vinaigrettes using two parts vinegar to one part olive oil or canola oil. Then make them flavorful by the type of vinegar you use — such as balsamic, champagne, or apple cider vinegar — and add some fruit juice or raspberry or strawberry jam.

While the book has recipes for starter salads, of course, Mullins also recommends serving a salad at the end of a meal, too. "Great fruit and vegetables are loaded with lots of nutrition, but they're also sweet and flavorful," he said, ticking off his Pear and Raspberry Salad with Cheddar Cheese and Banana Pudding Salad as two examples of satisfying desserts.

The book contains 150 salad recipes, but ideas for new salads are always spinning in his head. Using a theme based on location, Mullins created a peach salad for Georgia, which he said, the mayor of Atlanta is going to adopt for the city, and a state salad for Mississippi. And the Easton resident isn't overlooking Connecticut. In honor of Bridgeport, Mullins has whipped up the PT Barnum Salad. It should be a three-ring delight.

"Salad Makes the Meal" is available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Borders Books and on Mullins' Web site www.unclewiley.com.