Getting Things Done and Eating Salad Along the Way
Weekday work and a tasty, delicious salad to look forward to.
For the rest of my family, it’s a hard task to envision salad a meal — even a hearty, multifaceted and delicious one.
I understand that there are many arguments to be made about unifying 4 people’s tastes so that everyone eats the same thing. But we’re all individuals. I am not into chicken wings at all (to the great disappointment of my husband). My daughter could have unembellished Tonkasu(?) bowls daily without blinking, and my son could have pizza for multiple meals with enthusiasm I don’t think I could match. So if they don’t want excellent salad, to me it’s their loss but I get it.
I started making my own croutons for salad a couple years ago, and they are by far the number one thing that I did to improve my salad game. In this salad, I took some leftover, defrosted but amazing-when-fresh olive sourdough from Neighbor Bakehouse and toasted it with some olive oil, salt and garlic powder to make perfectly amazing bread cubes of character™.
I enjoy dairy in my salads, which can be a cheese or dressing with dairy.
A protein is almost always a necessity for me, usually diced chicken breast, tuna, canned or leftover cooked salmon, or chopped hard-boiled egg.
I need a tiny bit of something sweet, so I tend to use dried fruit (like cranberries, montmorency cherries), a good balsamic vinaigrette or a sweet veggie (like fresh shredded carrots) to balance things out.
Nuts: I usually add sliced almonds, toasted pecans, pine nuts or walnuts in a handful for extra crunch and flavor.
It is VITAL for the lettuce to be super fresh. There aren’t many things to ruin salad but old bitter/sour greens are the worst. I’ve had more than one salad unintentionally ruined by romaine that isn’t the best. It makes sense, but sometimes in our modern world you get the 3-pack discount or bulk greens and think you’ll save money by eating them on time or saving time/gas not running to the store but trust me, those leaves need to be crisp, fresh and damn good. Don’t shortcut this, and if you do make a chopped salad without any greens.
So here’s a recipe… although I have to admit that as an experienced solo salad maker I’ve started to think something like this is more eyeball intuition than scientific measurement!
Chicken Cherry And Gruyere Salad
1/8 cup or small handful Montmorency cherries
A few small slices of rotisserie chicken breast
1/8 cup sliced almonds
Freshly made croutons (below)
An inch block of Gruyère cheese, shredded
A few leaves of fresh Romaine or red-leaf lettuce
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Directions:
Make the croutons Cube up some good crusty bread like a baguette into 1/2 inch cubes. Coat the cubes with a drizzle or two of olive oil until lightly coated. Sprinkle with garlic power, salt and pepper and toss lightly. Put into toaster at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10-15 min or until toasty.
Wash the lettuce, pat dry with paper towels. Hand-rip the leaves into a large bowl or cut into large 1-inch-wide ribbons.
Add the chicken, cherries, almonds, shredded Gruyère and croutons
Drizzle whole salad lightly with balsamic vinegar and oil. Grind some black pepper and a pinch of salt on top.
Gently toss whole salad. Gaze out a window while happily munching!
Books I’m reading:
The Kamagawa Food Detectives
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi
Movies/Shows:
“The Taste of Things”
“3 Body Problem”
Neuroscientist Tara Swaft on Diary of a CEO w/ Steven Bartlett
So I hope you have a wonderful week of lunchtime greatness, and if you have a kitchen available to you during work hours, don’t look at making lunch as a burden, but as a way to eat exactly what you want.