5-minute summer snacking salad
part of my new realistic meals series
Do I wish I could eat handmade pasta and homemade pelmeni for every meal? Probably. Do I actually do this? Hardly. When I’m not bankrupting myself by ordering sushi for lunch every day, I’m usually hovering over my kitchen counter inhaling ham, cornichon and Kewpie mayo roll-ups or housing large mixing bowls of furikake popcorn. However, when I have some time, I have a rolodex of healthy-ish* quickie meals I make for myself. Up to this point, most of my un-aspirational/basic/random AF meal content has lived on my stories (the real ones know) but I’ve decided to start sharing more of what I *actually* eat at home. I hope it’s inspiring in its own way and I hope I can share some ideas to make your busy lives easier, healthier, and more delicious.
We’re gonna kick off “random healthy sh*t I eat at home when I’m not doing it for the gram” (title could use some workshopping) with one of my OG favorites: the summer snacking salad. Are you ready for a hot take? Non-lettuce salads > lettuce salads, the only exception being Caesar salad, the reigning salad king. I’m not interested in your dark bitter greens and inedible weeds, okay??? I am here for sweet and crunchy summer vegetables, savory herbs and bright, tangy dressings. What’s more, non-lettuce salads are an Eastern European specialty. I grew up eating things like radish & cucumber salad with a light sour cream dressing or salat olivier which is essentially boiled and chopped root vegetables with mayo dressing (dairy-based dressings are a common theme). But the salad we ate most often at home was our breakfast salad: fresh cucumbers and tomatoes that usually came from my Dedushka’s garden, radish and onion topped with herbs like dill or green onion and dressed super simply with salt and good olive oil. Salad as a main meal was never a thing - instead, it was a side/accompaniment for things like boiled redskin potatoes with garlic and dill, pickled herring and onions, and sometimes savory french toast (grenki).
Today’s salad isn’t an exact replica of the breakfast salad I grew up with but it does employ a lot of the same basic principles: chopped summer vegetables sans lettuce, fresh herbs, olive oil dressing. It can easily be turned into a main event with some protein (I like to add tuna salad or turkey meatballs as well as a 7-minute egg or two) but a lot of the time I eat it as a snack or a side. I’d also recommend having some good bread on the side to mop up the salad juices because everyone knows that’s the best part. Plus, as my Babushka Lola would always says, if you don’t eat bread with your meal, you’ll still be hungry when you finish.
*I low-key hate the word “healthy” because it means something different to everybody. I recently met someone who eats literal pounds of ground beef and rice for every single meal - for him, that’s healthy and keeps him feeling good. Some people feel best when they’re not eating meat at all, and some people feel best when their diet revolves around carbs! We’re all different and within reason, “healthy” is more of a mindset/feeling than it is a prescription. When I use the term, I’m referring to my definition of the word which is more about ~balance~ and wholesome ingredients rather than excluding any single category.
Summer Snacking Salad
WHAT YOU NEED
Handful of radishes, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (aim for, let’s say, 1/3-1/2 cup)
1/2 avocado, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (again, about 1/3-1/2 cup)
1/2 ear of sweet corn cut from the cob, RAW (please don’t boil it, raw sweet corn is *chef’s kiss*)
Goat or feta cheese (I love crumbling up Cypress Grove purple haze)
Handful of slivered almonds or nuts of your choice
Olive oil + salt to taste
Handful of dill
Handful of chopped scallions or chives
WHAT YOU DO
Do I have to elaborate? Slice, dice, drizzle and dress. Enjoy!